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Cover of Run, Dog, Run
Story and photos by Melissa Reese Etheridge
Edited by Bruce Larkin

When requiring a project or finished product from students, it is imperative that the teacher shows examples of successful student products--some collected from previous years. If the teacher doesn't show successful student products, then the students have no choice but to guess what the teacher had in mind.

When I give an assignment of any depth to the students, I know that I'm going to have to frontload the information for them. If I don't provide information and examples on what the finished product will look like, then I'm just asking the students to put together a jigsaw puzzle without a picture.

If I'm teaching a lesson on, let's say, writing a good thesis statement, then I will do a "live demonstration" on how I go about the process of creating my thesis statement so that my audience will know what the blog is about.

I need to show my students how I notice and develop questions, how I research a question that I might have, and how I put this new knowledge together and decide how I'm going to share it with others. If I don't model my thinking and researching process, then I'm not really teaching; I'm just assigning.

Melissa Reese Etheridge

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