Interactive writing is a shared writing experience used to assist emerging readers in learning to read and write. With help from the teacher, students dictate sentences about a shared experience, such as a story, movie, or event.
The teacher verbally "stretches" each word so students can distinguish its sounds and letters through multisensory phonics - as students use chart paper to write the letter while repeating the sound.
After each word is completed, the teacher and students reread it. The completed charts are put up on the wall so students can reread them or rely on them for standard spelling.
This teaching method is used to support the development of phonological skill and will help children who are emerging readers attach meaning to print. Interactive writing creates an environment to practice reading skills while maintaining enthusiasm in the class.
How Interactive Writing Works
Students and teachers talk about what they are going to write. The teacher chooses a topic and facilitates the discussion – guiding, summarizing, confirming and combining ideas. The goal is to get the children’s thoughts on a large poster-sized paper while discussing the topic and the process of writing and dealing with the conventions of grammar, spelling, punctuation, letter formation, and phonics.
Other Interactive Writing Strategies
- Group-brainstorming on a given topic
- Whole class discussion of how a particular text might need adjustment
- Whole class text construction and composing on the blackboard
- Writing workshop or in-class writing
- Group research on a text topic
- Whole class examination of texts produced by other students - with names removed
We learn to speak, read, and write – each skill is interrelated and builds upon the other.
Have you successfully used interactive writing strategies in class to help your emerging readers?