Research School Network: Should I use a Visualiser to Model Writing? A trip through the evidence


Should I use a Visualiser to Model Writing?

A trip through the evidence

by Bradford Research School
on the

Recently, we were asked whether using visualisers to model writing was an effective strategy. The answer took us on a whistle-stop tour of the EEF’s guidance reports. Our first consideration was whether using technology is an effective strategy which took us to…

Using Digital Technology to Improve Learning

Recommendation 2 of the EEF’s Digital Technology guidance report states that Technology can be used to improve the quality of explanations and modelling’. This would suggest that visualisers might be a useful tool, but the report goes on to state that there are few studies looking at simple technology such as visualisers. However, they then say:

…visualisers could improve the quality of explanation and modelling if they enable teachers to show pupils a wider range of high-quality models than they would otherwise be able to, or if teachers use the visualiser to increase the precision with which they explain worked examples, which has consistently been found to increase learning (e.g. in mathematics).

So, visualisers are in and of themselves are not the thing that make the difference. Rather, it is the way that they facilitate particularly effective pedagogies that matter. Bearing this in mind, if we are to get the most out of visualisers we need to look at what makes for effective writing instruction, which takes us to our next guidance report.

Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools

Recommendation 4 of the guidance report is: Break down complex writing tasks. Even relatively simple writing tasks rely on a number of complex processes and mechanisms. For example, should I ask pupils to write a simple narrative, I immediately bring into play several factors that can complicate things:

Composition: the ideas, words and sentences that I have to think of and put together.
Transcription:
Spelling, typing, handwriting and syntax.
Executive function:
Planning, motivation and reviewing.
(Based on The Simple View of Writing,’ developed by Berninger et al.)

The purpose of teacher modelling of writing is to ensure that there is a focus on each of these components, otherwise students can find their writing as a whole suffers. For example, we have written before about sentence combining and how this can be a real factor in improving writing fluency. But there is a difference between knowing that we should model these processes and knowing how to do this. Now, if only there was a guidance report that -

Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning

Recommendation 3 of this report is: Model your own thinking to help pupils develop their metacognitive and cognitive skills. The seven-step model they provide shows a way of teaching metacognitive strategies:

1 Activating prior knowledge
2 Explicit strategy instruction
3 Modelling of learned strategy
4 Memorisation of strategy
5 Guided practice
6 Independent practice
7 Structured reflection

One message form the guidance is that We need to make these largely implicit processes explicit to our novice learners.” A visualiser is an ideal way of supporting the practice of making these things explicit. Not only can you show what you are doing, but you can narrate in real time the thinking processes behind what you are doing. This allows you to make explicit the way that you are choosing between words, or how you are rearranging the word order or why you are taking a new paragraph.

Like we explored in our blog last week, when we don’t have an unequivocal answer on whether something works, we look to see if things are aligned with evidence based strategies. Visualisers seem to check all boxes, but do make sure that you read those guidance reports.

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