Shared writing, also referred to as modeled writing, is the instructional practice of writing withstudents. Shared writing is an interactive writing experience in which the teacher and students work together to compose texts such as letters, lists, messages and stories. During a shared writing session, the students provide the ideas while the teacher supports the process as the scribe. The pen, in other words, remains in the hands of the teacher which is the key difference between shared writing and interactive writing.

Specifically the teacher's role in shared writing is to provide full support, modeling and demonstrating the process of putting ideas shared by students into written language. Shared writing is a key component of a balanced literacy curriculum because it allows the teacher to model and demonstrate what a proficient writer does when composing text.

Shared writing pieces are usually recorded on chart paper since it is critical that the text be visible to all students. Each shared writing session has a particular instructional focus selected by the teacher based on the ongoing assessment of the needs of students. Sessions may be used, for example, to teach the conventions of print, grammar, spelling, punctuation or capitalization.

Shared writing is also an effective instructional practice to model genres, stages of the writing process (e.g., rehearsal, revising, editing) as well as craft and elaboration strategies. Before beginning a narrative unit in writing workshop, for example, the teacher and students may compose several shared writing narrative texts. (A shared experience such as a recount of a field trip could be used as the idea for the narrative. Writing about a shared experience is strategic because it allows for all students to have the chance to contribute ideas about the event.) Through these types of experiences, students will become familiar with the structure and features of the genre they will be expected to practice independently during the writing workshop. These texts also serve as excellent mentor texts to use during the writing workshop minilessons.

Finished shared writing pieces often remain on display throughout the room and are often used for future shared reading experiences as well as texts for students to read independently.