Learning to Write With Interactive Writing Instruction

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FEATURE ARTICLE
The Reading Teacher Vol. 71 No. 5 March/April 2018 literacyworldwide.org
of 
silly
? We can change it if we want to because au-
thors often revise as they write”), as well as her en-
coding process (e.g., “I’m putting spaces between the 
words so everyone can read what we’ve written”). 
The teacher shares the pen with individual students 
and asks them to write letters or words or to add cap-
italization or punctuation in order to draw students’ 
attention to specific aspects of the 
writing process.
Throughout the lesson, the 
teacher discusses concepts about 
print (e.g., left- 
to- 
right direction, 
return sweep). She teaches letter 
sounds and patterns (e.g., vowel- 
consonant- 
e
) and shows students 
how to form those letters. She 
demonstrates how to use a range 
of strategies to spell the words 
they are writing. Her instruction is 
explicit and applies directly to the 
group text. She frequently prompts 
students to reread the text to ac-
cess the next word to be written, to 
monitor the comprehensibility of their message, or 
to revise and edit. She scaffolds the students’ ability 
to use these conceptual tools as they share the pen 
and participate in the writing event (Rogoff, 1990).
At first, students may participate only minimally, 
by observing what others say and do; however, over 
time and with their teacher’s support, their par-
ticipation increases in engagement and complexity 
(Lave & Wenger, 1991). As students gain confidence 
and competence, the teacher gradually reduces 
her support; she writes less and they write more 
(Rogoff, 1990). Eventually, the teacher gives students 
their own tablets and pens to increase engagement 
and shift responsibility. Students learn to use oral 
language and both cognitive and cultural tools to 
mediate their thinking and participation (Vygotsky, 
1978; Wertsch, 1998). They transition from observa-
tion to minimal participation to full participation in 
the writing activity (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
At the end of the lesson, the teacher reminds 
students that when they are writing independently, 
they can use the writing processes and strategies 
she has taught. This final component of the lesson 
supports students’ appropriation of her instruction. 
In fact, the teacher’s dialogue throughout the lesson 
is a critical pedagogical tool for supporting students’ 
learning (Alexander, 2006; Boyd & Markarian, 2011). 
Each lesson provides students an apprenticeship 
in learning to write (Dennen, 2004), and over time, 
students acquire both cognitive and sociocultur-
al understandings of print literacy (Purcell- Gates, 
Jacobson, & Degener, 2004).