Building Mental Models of Writers: Writing Aloud in Writing Instruction

Abstract

The act of writing involves decision-making that can be challenging for elementary students as they choose ideas, organization structures, and audiences for whom to share their messages. Teachers can support students in their decision-making through providing explicit explanation of the metacognitive decision-making that occurs at each stage of the writing process, using various strategies and skills that writers employ in their craft. To help teachers facilitate these processes, we present the DECIDE Framework to support teachers in demystifying writers' decision-making through strategically planning write-aloud lessons that include metacognitive elements and gradual release of responsibility. This framework supports teachers in making decision-making concrete for students through the use of scripting, scaffolding, and reflecting tools.