Interactive writing allows children to use literacy and language. Children develop their competency with oral language, reading and writing as they participate in interesting experiences, express their ideas, and build a shared set of understandings. The process is carefully guided by a teacher who is aware that students are learning in many ways at the same time (McCarrier, Pinnell, Fountas, 2000).

Interactive writing is the instructional practice of writing with students. Interactive writing is a key component of a balanced literacy program because it allows students to attend to print while using their knowledge of oral language as well as affords the teacher the opportunity to model strategies for problem solving as an independent writer.

During interactive writing, the teacher works with the class or small group to create a written text. What distinguishes interactive writing from shared writing, is that during an interactive writing session, the teacher and students "share the pen," both literally and figuratively.

The instructional focus of an interactive writing session reflects the ongoing needs of students. During an interactive writing session, the teacher will demonstrate a specific writing strategy and provide students with the necessary guidance and feedback as they "try-out" the designated strategy. The texts created during interactive writing, just as in shared writing, are ones that model the conventions of our language.

In the primary grades, teachers often use interactive writing to teach the concepts of directionality, one to one match between the spoken and the written word as well as the conventions of capitalization, punctuation, spelling and spacing. An interactive writing session in a primary classroom may be used, for example, to teach students to listen for the beginning and ending sounds of words. The session would begin with the group negotiating and agreeing on what to write (e.g., usually one or two sentences in length). The teacher would repeat the sentence and then proceed word by word, prompting students to articulate the sounds they hear at the beginning and ending of each word and write the corresponding letter. As each word is studied it would be recorded by the teacher on chart paper while the students would write on individual dry erase boards. This lesson could be easily scaffolded to account for varying student needs. One way to scaffold this session, would be to ask students to record only the first and last letter of the word rather than the entire word. Another option, would be rather than having students use their own dry erase boards, have students alternate with the teacher composing the text on the chart paper visible to all students.

Although interactive writing is often thought of as a primary instructional practice research has shown that like shared writing, it is a highly effective practice to use with students in grades 3-5. The purpose of interactive writing sessions for students in the upper grades could include teaching the conventions of grammar, paragraphing, spelling and text structure.

A variety of texts can be created during interactive writing including lists, letters, recipes, poems, retellings of favorite pieces of literature, sets of directions, shared class experiences, projects and class newsletters. Often interactive writing texts are displayed in the classroom and used for future shared reading experiences and as texts for students to read independently.

 

Collom, S. & Tompkins, G. E. (2003). Interactive Writing With Young Children. Upper Saddle River: NJ: Prentice Hall.

Dorn, L., French, C. & Jones, T. (1998). Apprenticeship in Literacy. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Fountas, I. , McCarrier, A., & Pinnell, G.S. (2000). Interactive Writing. Portsmouth , NH: Heinemann.

Swartz, S. (2001). Interactive Writing and Interactive Editing. Carlsbad, CA: Dominie Press.