Model Assignment or Skill
Overview
By talking through their thinking at each step of a process, teachers can model what learning looks like. Showing students that teachers, too, are learners who struggle and persist through challenging work also models the importance of continuous growth. Observing thought processes and expected behaviors also helps students feel supported in their learning.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch a middle school teacher model her thinking while reading. She shows how she arrived at her questions and how asking questions is important when reading. This same process can be used with a math-based children's book or a math problem.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Videos are an excellent way to provide models that students can revisit, such as this Khan Academy example on number patterns. Products can easily integrate such videos into their instructional roadmap, supporting students' deeper conceptual development.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Teacher Modeling & Support Strategies
Teachers support language development by using and providing vocabulary and syntax that is appropriately leveled (e.g., using simple sentences when introducing complex concepts).
Content that is provided in clear, short chunks can support students' Working Memory.
Building positive and trusting relationships with learners allows them to feel safe; a sense of belonging; and that their academic, cognitive, and social and emotional needs are supported.
Teaching students how to label, identify, and manage Emotion helps them learn Self-regulation skills.
Actively and authentically encouraging all students to seek support, ask questions, and advocate for what they believe in creates a safe space for risk-taking and skill development and supports a Sense of Belonging.
Teachers can help students understand that learning involves effort, mistakes, and reflection by teaching them about their malleable brain and modeling their own learning process.
Attributing results to controllable aspects (strategy and effort) fosters students' beliefs in self.
Teachers sharing math-to-self, math-to-math, and math-to-world connections models this schema building.
Maintaining consistent classroom routines and schedules ensures that students are able to trust and predict what will happen next.
Providing students a voice in their learning is critical for making learning meaningful.
Wait time, or think time, of three or more seconds after posing a question increases how many students volunteer and the length and accuracy of their responses.
