Professional Semester III- Professional Inquiry Project

Sabrina Kyle
Fall 2019
The Professional Inquiry Project (PIP) provides a collaborative opportunity for interns
and teacher mentors to focus on a question about student learning that is relevant to a specific
teaching context. The question I have chosen to explore for my professional inquiry project is,
“To what extent should writing be a shared experience in the classroom?” Modeling plays an
integral role in the learning process and is the foundation of how we build many life skills as
infants and toddlers. As parents, we model many essential skills for our children such as walking,
language acquisition, and play. My inquiry question will focus on how modeling writing
practices in the classroom can create more bold and confident writers. I would like to explore
how this practice can alleviate some of the stressors that plague and discourage young writers.
This practice can create an atmosphere in which writing is viewed as a shared experience,
allowing students to connect more authentically with the process.

The process of writing was never physically modeled to me throughout my time in high
school. In hindsight, I feel that this process would have been very beneficial. Since a lot of the
writing activities we took part in were being marked, I would concentrate so hard on making
everything perfect the first time that I didn’t get the chance to take risks, try new things, and
improve my writing. I simply assumed that everyone could write a perfect draft the first time
without any pauses or hesitation. I would struggle with generating my ideas, stopping and
starting, and the overall uncertainty of the process.

During my PSI experience, I was placed in a Grade 1-2 classroom. My teacher associate
would supply the students with work sheets or workbooks we would follow along in together. I
projected my own workbook onto the whiteboard and would follow along with students, filling
in answers and drawing pictures. What I wrote was on the board, and the process of it, was out in
the open for students to see. It not only helped students follow along with the activity, but also
helped show them that I am human just like them, and sometimes people fumble and make
mistakes. If I had to erase a mistake, or a poorly written letter, the students could view the
process of me doing it. In conversation with one particular girl after class, she had told me that
she would get upset with herself if she made mistakes in words or letters, so to see that I did as
well made her feel better. This was a really eye opening experience for me.

Writing in itself is not a linear process, it is messy, it’s personal, and encompasses
hesitation and confusion. Modeling this for our students can provide them with a deeper
understanding of the writing process, and will normalize the writing process. However, it can be
extremely beneficial to work alongside students through these processes, using your own writing
as a model. Writing is by no means a linear process, it is messy, thoughtful, and requires
revision. Modeling these steps for students within the classroom is helpful for students, but also
for you as a writer. In order to teach students writing strategies, I think it is very important to
have experienced those steps yourself. Teaching students to write authentically ultimate boils
down to us as educators, and how we choose to model that authentic writing for them.

In order to further explore my chosen professional inquiry question, I will employ a

variety of strategies to gather data. Throughout my time in the classroom, I will regularly
practice modeling writing to my students, and document my work. In conjunction with my
documented writing, I will also include journal reflections from my English class on their
experiences throughout the process. This will include a series of questions such as, “What is your
biggest struggle or worry when it comes to writing?” and “Would having a teacher model writing
practices alleviate some of these stresses?” At the end of the semester, I will have students reflect
back on whether or not writing should be a shared experience in the classroom, and if they feel
they benefitted from me modeling my writing to them. Two of the big resources I will be
utilizing throughout this inquiry project are Kelly Gallagher’s, Teaching Real-world Writing
Through Modeling & Mentor Texts and Kelly Boswell’s Write This Way: How Modeling
Transforms the Writing Classroom. I will present my PIP in the form of a Power Point
presentation, in which I will showcase my real life writing examples, and the evidence I have
collected of my success through student exemplars and journal responses.