Lessons · Teaching · modelling by thinking aloud
Thinking aloud is the part they cannot see
Modelling is not showing the steps; it is saying the decisions out loud, including the ones that turn out wrong, because the choosing is invisible and the choosing is the skill.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
You worked the example perfectly on the board, they copied it perfectly, and they could not do the next one. You had shown them what to write. What they needed was what was going on between the lines: why that step and not the other one, and what you did when the first idea did not work.
How to think about it
Narrate in the first person, in the present tense, with the doubts left in. I notice, so I am going to, no that will not work because. If the model contains no move that fails, it is a performance rather than a model.
Worked example
'I notice the denominators are not the same, so I cannot add yet.'The decision said out loud, before the step that follows from it.
'I need a number that both 4 and 8 go into. I will try 8.'A choice being made, not a rule being recited.
'I will check: does 4 go into 8? Yes.'The self-check modelled, because almost nobody does this unless they have heard somebody do it.
'If that had not worked I would have tried 4 times 8.'The move that fails, named. This is the line that is almost always missing.
Your turn
Write the line that names what a model has to contain if it is not to be a performance.
A model with no end in it is a performance.
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Narrating the steps instead of the thinking. 'Now I multiply' is a caption. 'I am multiplying because I need the same denominator' is a model.