: Making thinking visible: Using modelling to build independent writers Why do pupils struggle when scaffolds are removed – even when we have modelled what excellence should look like?
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Making thinking visible: Using modelling to build independent writers
Why do pupils struggle when scaffolds are removed – even when we have modelled what excellence should look like?
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by Gloucestershire Research School at The GLA Trust
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Dr. Julie Smith
Dr. Julie Smith, Vice-Principal Academic, EA (Evidence Advocate) for Gloucestershire Research School and member of The Write Journey content and delivery team, reflects on developing independence through modelling in a secondary English classroom to support disadvantaged pupils.
Why do pupils struggle when scaffolds are removed – even when we have modelled what excellence should look like?
Developing pupil independence in writing depends not just on what we model, but on how we make our thinking visible. The EEF highlights metacognition as a key lever for improving outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged pupils (Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning), so I have refined my use of interactive modelling and metacognitive talk to better support disadvantaged pupils to write independently.
Why modelling isn’t enough: what’s changed in my classroom
Previously in my classroom, I would:
share a model that I would ask the class to deconstruct with me;
compare models in terms of effectiveness, then ask students to plan their own response
The outcome has been modelled for the pupils, but the thought process behind the outcome has not.
Discussion around character development in ‘Macbeth’, generating shared ideas and noting any missing knowledge to be revisited: “What do we remember about Macbeth’s ambition? Where do we see it change?”. This supports pupils to build on their knowledge.
Step 2: Explicit strategy instruction
Outlining structure of essay, focusing on the central idea, coherence and sequencing. This helps make the process clear.
Step 3: Modelling of learned strategy
Using the board to share my thought processes through verbalising why I am making decisions, for example, “I’m choosing this quotation because it reveals Macbeth’s loss of control— the verb ‘yield’ suggests passivity. I want my paragraph to show a clear shift in power.” This makes the process more visible for pupils. I try to build in uncertainty, so pupils understand they don’t need to aim for perfection.
Step 4: Check understanding of strategy
Using questioning and prompts to check pupils understand all the requirements of the question, ensuring pupils are not becoming passive.
Step 5: Guided practice
Facilitation of planning a new paragraph, prompting pupils to add their own ideas: “What could our central idea be here?”
Step 6: Independent practice
Pupils complete their own plan for an alternative question. This ensures that the approach can be transferred.
Step 7: Structured reflection
Pupils consider any changes to be made next time, and whether their strategies were effective. I find it useful to ask, “What would you change next time?”
Why this matters for disadvantaged students
Previously, I didn’t focus on building understanding to support independent thinking, then was surprised when pupils struggled when scaffolding was withdrawn.
There is also an emotional aspect to this process: pupils have differing levels of academic self-concept, or their beliefs about their academic abilities (Smith, 2020). Sharing a “perfect” example of completed work may feel irrelevant and unachievable. Contrastingly, developing metacognitive knowledge supports pupils to be self-regulated learners, so that they can motivate themselves to improve their learning.
Departmental impact
Beyond my own practice, sharing the principles of effective writing has reshaped our English department’s Key Stage 3 planning. Our partnership with The Write Journey has been especially valuable by deepening our understanding of the Key Stage 2 curriculum and strengthening cross‑phase relationships.
As our understanding has developed, we have stripped away unnecessary detail from our units of work, so that we can focus on developing the metacognitive skills that disadvantaged students may not currently have to reduce cognitive overload. The approach has also been embedded in our Key Stage 4 intervention classes and has led to excellent outcomes for our Year 12 English Language resit students.
Where next?
Over the course of the next academic year, we will be developing the teaching of disciplinary writing across the school, so that pupils recognise features, aims and conventions of good writing within each subject to use in their own writing.
If pupils are going to successfully write independently, we must make the invisible visible by explicitly modeling not just what success looks like but how to achieve it.
