read (2010) a model for scaffolding writing instruction

8/13/2019 Read (2010) a Model for Scaffolding Writing Instruction

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The Reading Teacher, 64(1), pp. 4752 2010 International Reading AssociationDOI:10.1598/RT.64.1.5 ISSN: 0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online

A Model for Scaffolding WritingInstruction: IMSCI

Sylvia Read

If you were asked to write an insurance adjustors

report following a car accident, could you do it?

How about a legal brief on the subject of interna-

tional adoption? Setting aside the fact that you would

need to research the topic of international adoption,

are you familiar with the legal brief genre? You

may not know what sort of content is expected in a

legal brief nor what form it should take. However, of-

ten students are asked to write about topics they donot know much about and to write in a format with

which they are not familiar.

Just as we know that readers bring their prior

knowledge with them when they read and construct

meaning, writers also need to bring prior knowl-

edge to the act of composing meaning through writ-

ing. Often, though, teachers ask students to write in

genres or modes of composition without building

their prior knowledge of these types of texts.

Genres of writing do not develop in a vacuum;

they are socially constructed to suit the particular

purposes of the writer and the particular needs of an

audience (Martin & Rothery, 1986). Teaching writing

through genres can help students understand and

respond to the expectations of writing situations.

This process demonstrates how and why texts are

structured in certain ways (Hyland, 2004) and helps

students to understand how those structures work to

support the readers understanding of texts. When

students are aware of the features of a genre, they

are better able to organize texts, they understand

the communicative purpose of a genre, and they be-

come more aware of a readers expectations of a text(Swami, 2008).

Teaching writing through a focus on genre also

allows us to support students as they gain familiar-

ity with the expectations and conventions of a genre.

Using a social approach to learning, the teacher can

assist learners to compose texts that they could not

compose independently. Teachers support students

as apprentices in writing through modeling and joint

production of texts. Social learning theory (Bandura,

1977; Vygotsky, 1978) suggests that students learn

best when learning is situated in a context in which

they interact with each other and the teacher in

meaningful, purposeful ways.

BackgroundGenre study has been a popular method for organiz-ing the writing curriculum in Australia, where educa-

tors became concerned that students were not being

taught a range of text types and that factual writing

(Martin, 1989) was being neglected. The instruction-

al framework that developed to address this concern

began with a modeling phase, followed by a joint

negotiation phase, and ended with independent con-

struction of a text type.

Genre study does not have to be rigid and for-

mal in its approach. Rankers (2009) case study of a

first-grade classroom showed how explicit, or overt,instruction can be effectively integrated in situated

practice. Genres can be explored through an inquiry

approach where many examples of a genre are ex-

amined, and teachers and students together analyze

their features to construct a definition that is acces-

sible to students. Once students have experienced ex-

amples of the genre, the teacher can model writing

that genre and engage students in shared writing of

the genre. Then students will more likely be ready

to write independently. If the same genre is encoun-

tered again, less scaffolding will be necessary, but ifa new genre is introduced, then the sequence can be

repeated (Gibbons, 2002).

Based on social learning theory and genre study,

I developed the IMSCI model (described in the next

section) for organizing and scaffolding writing in-

struction that sequences instruction in such a way

that teachers can model both product (the genre of

focus) and process.


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48 The Reading Teacher Vol. 64, No. 1 September 2010

successful writing independently if they have be-

come familiar with the features of the genre during

an inquiry phase, seen the teacher model the genre,

and participated in writing in that genre through

shared or collaborative writing.

In the ClassroomAfter I presented this model to teachers at a local el-

ementary school, two of the teachers decided that the

approach was worth testing out in their classrooms.

Specifically, Mrs. Bagley and Mrs. Olsen wanted to

teach their fourth graders to write historical fiction.

The teachers and I discussed picture books that would

be useful in the inquiry phase, and then they read

aloud to their students a variety of books including

Baseball Saved Usby Ken Mochizuki,Rose Blanche

by Roberto Innocenti,Sarah, Plain and Tallby Patricia

MacLachlan, andA Year Down Yonderby RichardPeck. As they read these books, they discussed the

characteristics of them with the students. The students

noticed that many of the books were written in first

person from one characters point of view, but that the

books were set in the past and that some of the events

or people were grounded in historical fact.

To build background knowledge about local

history, the students took a walking tour of the his-

toric sites of the town. At each location on the tour,

the teachers told stories of historical events that oc-

curred there. Students took notes on a graphic orga-nizer (see Figure 1). When they returned to school,

the teachers provided the students with a booklet

that included photos of the locations and summaries

of the stories that went with each location.

The next step was to model for the students the

prewriting phase of the writing process. The model-

ing was done with an overhead projector so that the

students could observe and par ticipate. The shared

writing element of the IMSCI model was included in

this step as well. Students want to participate, and the

teachers found that the students were more engaged

when they were allowed to make suggest ions thatthe teachers incorporated into their prewriting plans.

Mrs. Bagleys prewriting is shown in Figure 2.

The prewriting organizer was designed to help

students integrate the history they learned into a fic-

tional plot. Iran decided to use the courthouse story

as the basis for his historical fiction. Irans prewriting

is shown in Figure 3. As often happens with historical

fiction, some details are invented to suit the purposes

IMSCI as a Model forScaffolding Writing InstructionIMSCI is an acronym for a series of steps, based on

the concept of scaffolding.Istands for inquiry. As a

classroom teacher in the first and second grades, I

integrated reading and writing instruction. Duringread-aloud, I focused on a particular genre for a

week or two and engaged my students in an inquiry

into the features of that genre. I followed up this in-

quiry into a genre with writing instruction focused

on that genre.

TheMin IMSCI stands for modeling. After devel-

oping their understanding of texts that fit into the

target genre, I modeled for my students how to write

a text in that genre. I modeled how to brainstorm top-

ics, prewrite using graphic organizers, draft, revise,

and edit. The modeling was applied to every phase

of the writing process so that students could see (andhear me think aloud about) how to accomplish the

task at hand.

Modeling was followed (or sometimes replaced)

bysharedwr itingtheSin the IMSCI model. In ad-

dition to modeling, the students and I cowrote a text

in the target genre. When my students participated

in the writing, they engaged in making decisions

about topic, sentence structure, organization, and

the likeall the decisions they will make when they

write independently.

The Cin IMSCI stands for collaborativewriting.As I gradually released responsibility to my students,

an interim step between modeled or shared writing

and independent writing is collaborative writing

where two students work together to produce writ-

ing. Sometimes they produced one text, with each

student taking turns being scribe; other times my stu-

dents wrote parallel texts that were similar but not

the same. Decisions about this must be driven by

your students personalities and abilities and your in-

structional goals. Collaborative writing is especially

helpful for English-language learners, who benefit

from oral rehearsal of ideas and sentences beforecomposing (Gibbons, 2002).

Independentwriting is the finalI in IMSCI. I gradu-

ally released responsibility to my first and second

graders; due to the previous scaffolding, they were

ready to write independently. When teachers merely

assign writing topics without teaching, they are es-

sentially throwing non-swimmers into the pool and

shouting Swim! from poolside. Students are more


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A Model for Scaffolding Writing Instruction: IMSCI

of the story. In Irans story, he decided that the mur-

derer should escape rather than be hung.

Before students began writing the first draft of

their historical fiction piece, Mrs. Bagley also mod-

eled drafting (see Figure 4). While modeling her

rough draft, she integrated a minilesson on charac-

ter development that focused on showing characters

in action and providing physical description of the

characters. Mrs. Bagley underlined action verbs,

such as brushed off and stepped out. She also un-

derlined examples of physical description, such as

freshly ironed suit. The students spent several days

drafting their stories, and Mrs. Bagley conferenced

with students. During her conferencing she decided

she needed to teach two more minilessons: She mod-eled how to use dialogue to show character develop-

ment and how to add a description of the setting. As

part of these lessons, Mrs. Bagley showed them how

to use sticky notes as a strategy for adding text to a

rough draft.

The students met in peer revision groups to read

their stories and get feedback. They made revisions

in the margins, in the spaces between lines, and on

Figure 1Historic Main Street Graphic Organizer

Figure 2Mrs. Bagleys Prewriting

Figure 3Irans Prewriting


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sticky notes (see Figure 5). The final stage of the writ-

ing process was also modeled by the teacher with stu-

dent participation. The students used an editing kit,

with colored pens and an editing checklist to guide

their work (see Figure 6). They used the editing kit

with a par tner and then worked with an adult. They

recopied their final draft on special paper. Figure 7shows the first page of Anas final draft.

Figure 4Mrs. Bagleys Model of Rough Draft

Figure 5Irans Rough Draft, Showing Additions and Editing

Figure 6Editing Checklist

Figure 7Anas Final Draft, Page 1


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A Model for Scaffolding Writing Instruction: IMSCI

or with them as a shared writing task. Then, each

step in the process was completed with a partner or

alone.

We repeated this set of steps with memoir, non-

fiction, and persuasive writing. Each time, we began

with an inquiry phase where we examined exem-

plars of the genre and discussed their features beforeI began modeling. The writing process was modeled,

keeping true to its recursive nature. Prewriting led to

drafting, and drafting led to revising, but I returned

to our prewriting or to drafting when the need arose.

Modeling was always followed by or occurred

simultaneously with shared writing. Having students

participate keeps them engaged, but modeling ac-

companied by think-aloud helps them to see that the

teacher, too, struggles with word choice, syntax, and

the like. The words dont just appearshazam!on

the page. And rough drafts are rough!Collaborative writing or independent writing al-

ways follows. Collaboration can precede indepen-

dent writing for struggling writers, offering them a

sheltered context in which to try out their new un-

derstanding of how writing happens. Publication

can be achieved through a variety of means from the

simpleststudents reading aloud their work at

Application of IMSCIWith Any Genre, Any GradeThe IMSCI model can be used to guide the teaching

of any genre in almost any grade level. For example,

I used the IMSCI model to teach poetry writing with

a group of inservice teachers. For the inquiry phase,I read aloud examples of free verse poetry. We dis-

cussed what these poems had in common and wrote

our own definition of poetry. I then modeled for them

a way to generate topics for poetry using a listing ap-

proach. The teachers contributed to this list as well,

which meant that this phase included both modeling

and shared writing (both of which should occur for

prewriting, as well as drafting and revising). Then,

as a group, we decided on a topic we could all re-

late to and wrote a very rough draft of a poem us-

ing a shared writing approach. The teachers offered

up phrases and words, and I served both as scr ibeand coauthor of the poem, providing my opinions on

how to shape the poem. The teachers theneither

working with a partner or alonechose a topic and

drafted their own free verse poem.

We worked to revise our group-authored poem

before I asked them to revise their own poems. Each

step in the process was modeled either by me alone

Take ACTION!Begin by identifying a genre, mode,

or form of writing that would benefit

your students. For example, if your

students are engaging in science

inquiry and need to keep a science

notebook, that would be an ideal

form of writing to focus on.

1.Gather examples of thegenre, mode, or form of writing.

For example, there are student-generated examples of science

notebook entries at www.science

notebooks.org. Other useful

books for showing students what

science notebooks look like are

Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of

Leonardo Da Vinciwritten and

illustrated by Gene Barretta and

Leonardos Machine: Da Vincis

Inventions Revealedby Domenico

Laurenza and Mario Taddei.

2.Engage students in an inquiryabout the genre, mode, or form

of writing of focus. Ask students

to notice features of the writing in

question. What kind of language

is used? What organizational

features are present? What doesthe writing look like on the page?

What topics are covered?

3.Model for students how to writein the genre, mode, or form. Actively

modeling and thinking aloud in

front of students allows them to

understand the complexity of the

writing process. Also, writing in draft

mode allows students to see that

spelling and punctuation are not as

important as getting ideas down.

4.From modeling, segue intoshared writing, during which

students make suggestions for what

to write next and how to compose

phrases and sentences. This keeps

them engaged and brings them into

the process so that they can more

easily imagine themselves writing.

5.Allow students to writecollaboratively.

6.Encourage students to writeindependently in the genre,

mode, or form. Continue to

provide support as needed.


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various stages of progressto more elaborate typing

and displaying student work.

Supporting Genre WritingThrough inquiry, we can build students background

knowledge of genres. Then, through modeling,shared writing, and collaborative writing, we support

students as they approximate the expectations and

conventions of the chosen genre. By following the

instructional model described here, we make our ex-

pectations more explicit and overt, which increases

the likelihood that students will feel successful as

writers of many genres.

ReferencesBandura, A. (1977).Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice-Hall.

Gibbons, P. (2002).Scaf folding language, scaffolding learning:Teaching second language learners in the mainstream class-

room. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Hyland, K. (2004). Genre and second language writers. Ann

Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Martin, J.R. (1989).Factual writing: Exploring and challenging so-

cial reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Martin, J.R., & Rothery, J. (1986). What a functional approach to

the writing task can show teachers about good writing. In

B. Couture (Ed.),Functional approaches to writing: Research

perspectives(pp. 241265). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Ranker, J. (2009). Learning nonfiction in an ESL class: The inter-

action of situated practice and teacher scaffolding in a genre

study. The Reading Teacher, 62(7), 580 589. doi:10.1598/

RT.62.7.4

Swami, J.A. (2008). Sensitizing ESL learners to genre. TESL-EJ,12(3), 113.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978).Mind in society: The development of higher

psychological processes(M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner,

& E. Souberman, Eds. & Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Har vard

University Press.

Read teaches at Utah State University, Logan,

USA; e-mail [email protected].

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