Our Methodology

Step One: Introduce and Define the Skill

We help you identify the skill you're teaching with the use of literature and published examples through the exploration and notation of age-appropriate written work. These reading sources can include novels, short stories, magazine articles, and non-fiction books.

Let's look at what authors do. If we're focusing on elaborative detail, we can find great published examples to share with students, and examine how the author used the skill to bring detail to the piece.

Step Two: Model

Modeling involves the teacher stepping into the role of author, verbalizing the thought and the questioning processes. Modeling is the best way to build robust vocabulary by asking specific productive questions, eliciting verbal and nonverbal responses from students, and incorporating these responses into powerful writing. Over time, if we ask enough detail-generating questions, students will internalize the questions and apply them independently to their own writing.

We take general or weak student responses and assign robust vocabulary to express their ideas better – translating weak responses into robust responses, giving students credit for their ideas.

We believe that student writers always know more than they can articulate. Their experiences and feelings often exceed their ability to express them. Modeling a lesson in this way empowers and affirms students and gives them the tools to show what is inside of them.

Step Three: Guided Practice

We provide students with the opportunity to practice the skill they've observed in published pieces, and have experienced through modeling. We include plenty of teacher direction, circulating, reiterating detail generating questions while offering feedback and encouragement. We stay focused on the specific, discrete skill, rather than on an entire piece of writing, which can be overwhelming.

Step Four: Application

Eventually, students emulate the process and apply what they've learned, independently.

This methodology addresses the issues teachers have with management and breaks the writing process into manageable pieces for student writers so they can concentrate on particular skills. In this way, students are not overwhelmed at the prospect of writing.

Students internalize and apply acquired writing skills with independent projects that demonstrate confidence and technical mastery.