To become competent users of English, one must focus on both productive and receptive skills. Writing and speaking are the productive skills, while listening and reading are the receptive skills

The teacher’s role in interactive writing

In recording the words the students already know, the teacher is challenging the students to attempt words that are currently outside their repertoire. As such, the teacher needs to be ready to make suggestions or offer prompts around ways that a particular word might be approached. 
The teacher might support the students in interactive writing by:

• 
  initiating conversations around what the group will write about encouraging students to express themselves in ways that meaningfully communicate their ideas
  
• 
  prompting students to consider differences between spoken and written language (“How can we write that?”)
  
• 
  modelling, questioning and focussing students on concepts, such as print conventions, sounds and patterns in words, and nuances between words (“Would it be better to say the family was rich or affluent?”)
  
• 
  facilitating students to re-read and suggest revisions to help make meaning clear
  emphasising that good writers are attentive to checking that a text makes sense and sounds right, and that what is meant is being communicated.
  

The students’ role in interactive writing

Students need to be willing and not feel threatened or scared to attempt words that might be unfamiliar to them, especially in terms of spelling. They need to be ready to deploy existing understandings of language, word structure and spelling conventions to apply to new or challenging words.
Additionally, they need to work collaboratively with the teacher and each other to construct a text that would be meaningful to others.

If you have a whiteboard, make sure it is visible to everyone in the class. To make the lesson feel more special, you could make a large space on the floor for the children to sit and place an easel with large writing paper at the front.

Have a good quality marker to hand, especially one that will fit comfortably in smaller hands. Give your lesson fifteen to twenty minutes. This way, you can make sure that everyone who wants to participate has a chance to. This length of time is also ideal for making sure that children don’t get distracted.
Step two
Planning out your lesson is the next key step. Think about what you want your class to get out of the activity. An important element within interactive writing is having the children guide the lesson. They will be doing more of the writing than you. Keep this in mind when deciding on a topic.

For an example on adjectives, you could base a lesson around a shared experience like a school trip. Then, have the class write about the experience together while using at least five adjectives.

Step three
Now, you’re ready to teach! At the beginning of the lesson, explain to the class what they will be focusing on. This way they will have that goal in the back of their mind as they write.
Here are a few great resources that you could use alongside interactive writing to improve children’s spelling and vocabulary.

• 
  These spelling mnemonics make for a great classroom display
  
• 
  This spelling word mat list has a great range of words and letter combinations to focus on for middle primary children
  
• 
  These spelling and grammar word mats can be used before or after an interactive writing task
  

Learning to Write With Interactive Writing Instruction Cheri Williams What do you do to help students who say “I don’t know how to write” or “I can’t think of anything to write about”? Carolyn (all names except Diane are pseudonyms), an experienced kindergarten teacher, posed this question during a discussion of writers’ workshop in a graduate-level course I taught several years ago. Writers’ workshop is the most common approach to writing instruction in the primary grades and the inservice teachers were discussing their use of this process-oriented approach. Carolyn and several other teachers expressed concern about the lack of explicit how-to instruction in the workshop approach. Our discussion led us to explore other process-oriented approaches, specifically interactive writing,which research has found to support early literacy development.Several of the teachers decided to try interactive writing in their early writing program and document the impact of the approach on their students’ learning .In this article, I share the results of one teacher’s use of interactive writing in first grade. Her story highlights the ways in which interactive writing can support the learning-to-write process, particularly for young students who “don’t know how.” Learning to Write Young students must learn a range of composing and encoding processes, strategies, and orthographic knowledge to be able to write, which can pose considerable cognitive challenges.Beginning writers must make decisions about what to write and hold that text in short-term memory while using their knowledge of letter sounds and letter formation to get that message into print. They need to learn the conventions of written language, as well as a repertoire of cognitive strategies to be used flexibly during the composing process all the while maintaining interest in and motivation for the writing task. Learning to write also involves recognizing and participating in valued ways of “doing writing” in particular classrooms. Young students’ success at coordinating these complexities can have a profound impact on learning to write, as well as their sense of agency and identity as writers.The good news is that teachers can support the learning-to-write process through explicit instruction, modeling, and guided practice key components of interactive writing. Interactive Writing Interactive writing is grounded in cognitive and sociocultural theories of learning.The cognitive processes are situated and developed within a writing activity that is socioculturally constructed by teacher and students. The purpose of interactive writing is to mediate students’ understanding of what it means to write. Lessons are how-to oriented; teachers model what students are expected to do during independent writing. The lesson begins with the teacher and students collaboratively planning the text they will write, often revising the oral message several times. Then, the teacher and students “share the pen” to write the oral message on a large writing tablet, word by word. When the teacher writes, she thinks aloud to give students a window into her composing process
Iteracyworldwide org of silly? We can change it if we want to because authors often revise as they write”), as well as her encoding 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 capitalization 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., vowelconsonant-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 access 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.At first, students may participate only minimally, by observing what others say and do; however, over time and with their teacher’s support, their participation increases in engagement and complexity.As students gain confidence and competence, the teacher gradually reduces her support; she writes less and they write more.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.They transition from observation to minimal participation to full participation in the writing activity.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. Each lesson provides students an apprenticeship in learning to write, and over time, students acquire both cognitive and sociocultural understandings of print literacy. Background of the Study Diane, an experienced primary-grade teacher with Reading Recovery training, taught first grade in an urban Appalachian school district near the large Midwestern U.S. university where I teach; 70% of students there received free or reduced-price lunch. There were students in Diane’s class: Caucasians and two African Americans. Across one academic year, with the help of two graduate research assistants, I used field notes, photographs, and videotapes to document the instructional content of 44 interactive writing lessons and the ways students used that instruction during journal writing. I also photocopied students’ writing at each observation. I analyzed the data inductively using constant comparison.The goal of the analysis was to determine whether and how interactive writing supported the learning-to-write process. What “Good Writers” Do Diane framed interactive writing instruction as the thinking and behaviors of a “good writer.” She talked frequently about what “good writers” do, making statements such as these:
“Good writers think about the sentence before they start writing.” “Good writers do a lot of reading.” “Good writers show how the characters are feeling.” Instead of the minilessons characteristic of writers’ workshop, each interactive writing lesson engaged students in the recursive processes of planning, drafting, revising, and editing a group text. Each lesson provided students opportunities to acquire a range of strategies and to examine the nature of English orthography and was characterized by explicit instruction, modeling, and guided practice.
PAUSE AND PONDER
When students are unsure about how to get started during writers’ workshop, what how-to strategies can you recommend? How can you help students identify meaningful writing topics within your curriculum? How can you integrate explicit spelling instruction into group writing activities? The content of Diane’s lessons reflected six themes that supported the learning-to-write process and students’ growth as writers: resources for topics, characteristics of genre, monitoring meaning and sustaining composing, understanding the orthography, word solving, and linking instruction to independent writing. I discuss each theme in the following sections. Resources for Topics Diane positioned books as a primary resource for identifying writing topics, explaining that “good writers write about the things they’ve read about.” To model this strategy, one third of the group texts that she and the students composed during interactive writing lessons grew out of a book that she had read aloud or a Big Book that they had read chorally. When a student said, “I don’t know what to write,” Diane responded, “What books have you been reading?” Students’ knowledge and experiences (e.g., birthday parties, sports) were also legitimate writing topics. Diane modeled this strategy by using interactive writing to capture the highlights of a field trip: “We can write about what we saw and learned.” Later, they used interactive writing to create an extended list of “all the things we know a lot about,” and Diane encouraged the students to write about those topics during journal writing. She explained, “Good writers write about things they know about.” Diane also positioned storytelling as an appropriate resource for writing. To model this strategy, the group used interactive writing across an entire week to compose an elaborate fantasy, which became one of their favorite stories to reread. Characteristics of Genre Writing in response to reading supports students’ comprehension and learning.Diane used interactive writing to respond to the variety of genres the students were reading. Early in the year, they wrote aesthetic responses to picture books. Later, they synthesized content from informational texts and wrote main ideas and summaries. They also composed realistic 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 important knowledge about the characteristics of the genre they were reading and writing, which supported greater writing competence. Monitoring Meaning and Sustaining Composing Creating a comprehensible text was of utmost importance 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 distinguish between revising macrostructural aspects and editing surface features of the text. Diane modeled several strategies writers employ 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 writers of the next word to be written. As their oral sentences grew in grammatical complexity, Diane modeled writing in meaningful phrases. For example, after a shared reading of Mrs. Wishy-Washy by Joy Cowley, 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 remember what they’d planned to write.” Explicitly teaching and providing guided practice in using sustaining strategies can result in higher quality writing.Understanding the Orthography Becoming a good writer also meant learning a host of principles underlying the written system. In every lesson, Diane taught specific characteristics of English orthography. Early on, she focused on concepts about print and four inflectional endings (-ing, -ed, -s, and -es). She frequently talked about “tricky” letters, explaining that some words have “silent letters you can’t hear” or letters that can represent more than one sound, “like the tricky y in candy.” She illustrated how “some rhyming words have the same letters” (e.g., train, rain), but others do not (e.g., cane). Diane said, “Some words are so tricky, you just have to know them. Like the word are, it’s a word you just have to know.” She used literate terms (e.g., vowel, proper noun, verb) to give students a vocabulary for talking about written language. All of Diane’s orthographic instruction applied directly to the text the group was writing, which provided a meaningful context for teaching fundamental Vowels taught Number observed Consonants taught Number observed bump, about, water, another, around, was practice, cousin, candy play, game special practice decided went, them, children, peck kiss, think, fish, animals can make the same sound mostly, told, old school mud, us, was, things candy, happy water see, street, tree wall eagle, teacher around Word Solving Diane took a problem-solving approach to spelling, and she created a practice part on the large writing tablet to make this cognitive work explicit. At the start of each lesson, she drew a line across the large writing tablet, about nine inches from the top. Pointing to the area she had just created, she explained, “This will be the practice part, and the bottom part will be where we write.” Diane handed the pen to a student and said, “Try it on the practice part.” Then, she scaffolded the student’s attempts to spell the word, as illustrated in the following data excerpt solving strategies:
1. Try it on the practice part.
2. Clap the syllables you hear.
3. Say the word before you write it.
4. Say the word slowly and listen for the sounds you hear; stretch it out.
5. Say the word slowly and listen for parts you know (e.g., or in story).
6. Use a word you know (e.g., “If you know the word all, you can spell tall”).
7. Use what you know about one another’s names.
8. Use a word that rhymes with the word you want to spell.
9. Check the word to see if it looks right.
10. Use a resource (e.g., dictionary, word wall). Diane explained that “a strategy is something you do to help yourself,” and she privileged “trying” words on the practice part above all other strategies. She said, “When you are writing, you should try it first on your practice part. Think about the sounds you hear, then check in a book or look around the room.” When a student suggested that asking for help was a good strategy, Diane replied, “After you’ve tried it on the practice part and used your strategies, then you can ask for help.” Diane repeatedly prompted students to use those strategies as they tried words on the practice part, as illustrated in this conversation: Diane: What’s the next word in our sentence? Students: Turkey. Diane: Let’s clap it. Yes, two syllables. Andrew, will you try turkey for us? She also prompted students to use the letter sounds and writing conventions that she had taught. Frequent prompting and guided practice supported the students’ appropriation of these cognitive tools.