Learning to Write With Interactive Writing Instruction

Word- solving strategy
Number
observed
Say the word before you write it.
52
Say the word slowly and listen for the 
sounds you hear.
156
Say the word slowly and listen for parts 
you know.
3
Use a word you know.
1
Use what you know about one another’s 
names.
1
Use a word that rhymes with the word 
you want to spell.
3
Check the word to see if it looks right.
12
Use a resource.
101
■
Book/dictionary
41
■
Print around the room
31
■
Word wall
13
■
Text you’ve written
11
■
Names chart
5
Use a practice part.
18
Ask for help.
30
Note
. Each numeral indicates the number of times we observed 
students using the strategy.
Table 2 
Word- Solving Strategies Observed During Journal 
Writing

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FEATURE ARTICLE
The Reading Teacher Vol. 71 No. 5 March/April 2018 literacyworldwide.org
Finally, a key strength of Diane’s pedagogical ap-
proach was pairing interactive writing with journal 
writing. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that 
students become better writers by writing, when cou-
pled with exemplary instruction (Graham et al., 2015; 
Graham & Harris, 2016; Graham, McKeown, Kiuhara, 
& Harris, 2012; Moats, Foorman, & Taylor, 2006). Daily 
journal writing, immediately following the interac-
tive writing lesson, provided students authentic op-
portunities to use the concepts, conventions, and 
strategies that they had learned and to make those 
new writing tools their own (Wertsch, 1998).
However, Diane was more explicit about encod-
ing than composing. Although she demonstrated 
how to plan, draft, revise, and edit in every lesson, 
she talked less about those composing processes. 
Most of her instructional talk focused on the or-
thography and strategies for spelling words. This 
is significant because beginning writers are influ-
enced by the concepts their teachers emphasize; 
what teachers say, and how they say it, shapes the 
learning opportunities that are possible (Bradley, 
2001; Johnston; 2004). An overemphasis on encod-
ing skills may hinder students’ acquisition of com-
posing processes. Talking more explicitly about the 
recursive processes of composing may help appren-
tice writers focus attention on how a writer thinks 
and what a writer does in each recursive phase. 
Explicitly teaching the recursive phases of the com-
posing process helps alleviate students’ confusions 
about writing (Graham, Harris, Fink- 
Chorzempa, 
& MacArthur, 2003). Future research will need to 
examine the impact of an approach to interactive 
writing that balances instruction on composing pro-
cesses and encoding skills. For now, the results of 
this study, coupled with previous research findings, 
demonstrate that interactive writing can support 
the learning- to- write process and young students’ 
continued growth as writers.