Importance of Direct Instruction


Sep 13 2006

Importance of Direct Instruction

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Since conventions can vary widely among rhetorical communities, students (novice members of, or temporary visitors to, these communities) benefit from direct instruction in writing for varied audiences and purposes. They frequently struggle with reading model texts that employ unfamiliar writing styles, so as instructors, we need to incorporate support beyond simply providing sample texts.

Even as more advanced writers who are used to tackling academic discourse, when we encounter texts from another discipline, we often have to revise our reading strategies and slow our reading pace as we adjust to a different writing style. Yet our reading strategies (and struggles) often are invisible to our students.

To support students’ development as writers, if we give them samples of “good” writing, we also should give them strategies for reading these often varied texts. In addition, we can implement several direct instruction techniques to support developing writers.

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