Good Question: A Tale Told Backwards By Sue Whiting And Annie White

In this paper, we will explain and apply the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, GRR, with the assistance of our chosen book “Good Question: A Tale Told Backwards” by Sue Whiting and Annie White, in teaching reading and writing . This will be supported with relevant curriculum and academic resources, including examples from our lesson plans. Developed by Pearson and Gallagher, the GRR model, also known as scaffolding, is a teaching tool that assists and supports students in jumping to the next difficulty level in their academics. The GRR model consists of the teacher modeling, sharing, guiding and then encouraging independence in both reading and writing among their students (Hill, 2021). The teacher would model the reading or writing

Before students get to demonstrate the new skills they’ve learned, the teacher will showcase another example from the chosen text. This is evident in the lesson plans we created below. Then, children will actively carry out their guided task in groups, individually, or as a whole to practice what has been modelled (Hills, 2021).An example of a guided task can be interactive activities for children to apply their new knowledge. For instance, the use of whiteboards and papers in our planned interactive play could gauge children’s understanding better and allow them to interact with the learning material. Additionally, engaging children in discussion during the guided stage promotes the critical thinking and active involvement of children, as stated by Thomas and Thomas (2022). For example, comparing, posing questions, as well as relating learning content to daily lives could help students internalise and utilise the new knowledge in future speaking and writing. This is illustarted in our lesson plans, where the teacher prompts the children to give examples of proper nouns in their everyday environment. To sum up, throughout the guided stage, the teacher can model how to identify the focused aspect, offer support when needed, and reinforce children’s understanding through discussions and interactive

An example of this can be seen in the third lesson plan where the children learn about double vowel digraphs. After modeling and guiding them through the task of identifying double vowel digraphs, the students are then given a worksheet to do in groups of threes. In their groups, they are instructed to isolate and sound out the given words in order to find the double vowel digraphs. For example, among many words on the page, they are also provided with the words ‘silly’ and ‘goose’. The learners have learnt to isolate the words and grouping the double letters together; silly becomes s/i/ll/y and goose becomes g/oo/s/e. From here, they are able to use their prior knowledge to identify which double digraphs are vowels. By providing this independent learning, learners are able to consolidate their learning through the ability to make errors and self-correct (Thomas & Thomas, 2022). Before the end of the class, the children will be asked to share with the class some words they have found with double vowel digraphs, this is to ensure the children understand their learnings and have achieved the learning