Learning to Write With Interactive Writing Instruction

Characteristics of Genre
Writing in response to reading supports students’ 
comprehension and learning (Graham, Harris, & 
Santangelo, 2015). Diane used interactive writing to 
respond to the variety of genres the students were 
reading. Early in the year, they wrote aesthetic re-
sponses to picture books. Later, they synthesized 
content from informational texts and wrote main 
ideas and summaries. They also composed realis-
tic fiction and fantasies, and Diane introduced story 
grammar and sequencing of events. She explained, 
“A story has a beginning, middle, and end, and good 
writers tell what happened in each part.” She taught 
characterization, setting, and problem/solution. She 
showed students how “good writers use describing 
words and action verbs so readers can paint a picture 
in their minds.” These lessons provided students im-
portant knowledge about the characteristics of the 
genre they were reading and writing, which support-
ed greater writing competence (Graham & Harris, 
2016).
Monitoring Meaning 
and Sustaining Composing
Creating a comprehensible text was of utmost im-
portance to being a good writer. Diane continually 
asked students to reread the group text, explaining 
that “good writers make sure it makes sense,” and 
she showed them how to revise or edit “if it doesn’t.” 
She explained that writers also revise to “add more 
information” or “make the story more interesting.” 
These kinds of comments helped students distin-
guish between revising macrostructural aspects and 
editing surface features of the text.
Diane modeled several strategies writers em-
ploy to sustain their composing efforts. She asked 
students to repeat the oral text several times 
to hold it in short- term memory, and they often 
counted the number of words to be written. She 
demonstrated how rereading could remind writ-
ers of the next word to be written. As their oral 
sentences grew in grammatical complexity, Diane 
modeled writing in meaningful phrases. For ex-
ample, after a shared reading of 
Mrs. Wishy-Washy
by Joy Cowley (1999), the group decided to write 
“They got stuck in the mud, and Mrs. Wishy-Washy 
pulled them out.” Diane said, “Let’s begin with the 
first part, ‘They got stuck…in the mud.’” Later in 
the year, when they were writing lengthy texts that 
extended over several days, Diane demonstrated 
how “good writers jot their ideas on a list” and then 
refer to that list in each writing session “to remem-
ber what they’d planned to write.” Explicitly teach-
ing and providing guided practice in using sustain-
ing strategies can result in higher quality writing 
(Helsel & Greenberg, 2007; Tracy, Reid, & Graham, 
2009).