Interactive writing involves a sharing of the pen between teacher and children. The focus of Interactive Writing is on concepts and conventions of print, the sounds in words and how the sounds connect with letters. Children actively plan and construct the text. For the most part, children also control the writing of the text. The teacher guides this process and provides appropriate pacing, assistance and instruction when needed.

Interactive Writing demonstrates early reading strategies and how words work. Children are given the opportunity to plan and construct text. Because students generally control the writing of the text, spelling knowledge increases, as well as the ability to construct words through connecting letters, clusters of letters, and sounds. Text created in an Interactive Writing experience can be used for independent reading in the classroom and thus provides a connection between reading and writing.

As children become more and more able to write independently, displaying knowledge of concepts of print, writing conventions, sound-letter matching, and the spelling of high frequency words, Interactive Writing may no longer be the most effective tool for increasing student literacy.

Teaching Methods

Interactive Writing can be effective in both small groups or whole class. The basic structure of Interactive Writing is as follows:

• Establish the topic. This topic should be one that is meaningful to children. It can include thank you notes, invitations, responses to literature, etc.
• Establish the text. Lists are established one word or phrase at a time. This wording can be a joint effort between teacher and children. Activities such as counting words and put the words on their fingers become important for allowing children to see the separation of words and spacing. The text should be brief (a few words or a single sentence) at early levels.
• Prepare the paper. The area for text needs to be large enough to allow for student-produced work and teacher-guided corrections.
• Write the text. The children write as much as they possibly can, with the teacher modeling, questioning, and focusing attention on concepts of prints and sounds in words. Alphabet charts and classroom name charts can be used to support letter recognition and formation of letters. This time can also be used to help strengthen students' Phonemic Awareness. Children involvement is vital to Interactive Writing. Group responses are encouraged, where students form letters in the air, whisper letters, use silent nonverbal signals, etc.
• Maintain a correct model. There is an expectation of correctness in Interactive Writing. The final text should look like text from a published book. Correction tape becomes an essential supply as children are guided to self-correct mistakes. This provides an important model of the editing and correcting that takes place in real writing.
• Read the text. After each word is written, it is read. Repetition helps reinforce many skills.
• The finished text should be used.

8 STEPS TO INTERACTIVE WRITING

1. Provide active learning experiences.
2. Talk to establish a purpose.
3. Compose the text.
4. Construct the text.
5. Reread, revise, and proofread.
6. Revisit text to support word solving.
7. Summarize the learning.
8. Extend the learning.

Classroom Activities

Vocabulary Splash

1. Draw a circle on the chalkboard to list vocabulary words from the story.
2. Read the vocabulary splash words. Organize the words into categories of your choice.
3. Label each of the categories created.
4. Write 3 sentences prediction some of the facts that may be found in the reading.
5. Read the given text. Compare your predictions with the factual information.

Science activity

1. Provide an opportunity to talk about the purpose of maps. Show different kinds of maps and globes. Rind different places on a globe or map (Utah, where the president lives, where different authors are from, etc.) Go on a gresure hunt around the playground using a map to guide you. Generate discussion about how the shapes on the map help you know where to go.
2. After the treasure hunt talk about how fun it was to follow a map. Ask have you ever made a map before? What could we make a map of?
3. Using interactive or shared writing and list all of the things you could make a class map of. Steer the conversation toward a map of the classroom.
4. During interactive writing begin to list all of the items in the classroom that could to on your map. Eventually, use this list as labels for your classroom map mural.
5. Talk about all the objects that you listed and what shape they are and need to be on your map. Have students draw the different objects for the class map.
6. Collaboratively glue the objects and labels onto a piece of butcher paper to make your map. You could invite another classroom to use this map to find a treasure in your room.

Science activity 2

1. Provide an opportunity to compare various seeds (fruit, vegetables, flowers, etc.) If appropriate, count and graph how many seeds came from each object. Examine each seed with a hand lens and note any features that would boost or limit its mobility. Make predictions about how each seed travels. Record your predictions using interactive writing.
2. Put your predictions to the following tests:
   
   Wind test: Hold each seed 10 cm above and 10 cm in front of a blowing fan. Let go. Record how far it travels. Repeat for each seed.
   
   Animal/hitchhiker test: Press seeds onto different test materials/fur to see if they stick. Record your observations.

   Water Test: Drop seeds one at a time into a tub of water and stir. Record your observations.

3. As a class draw conclusions about your observations and use interactive writing to record them. Use these observations to make a class wall book, big book, graph, inter school correspondence, etc. Make sure to include non-fiction text features in your writing.

Developing a list of key content words

• Choose a short, high interest passage. Copy the passage onto an overhead transparency and give a hard copy to each student. Encourage the students to discuss the reading.
• Tell the students that the objective of this activity is to remove all the unnecessary words so that only the key content words are left.
• Model crossing out the words that the students select as unnecessary on the overhead transparency. Discuss the reasons why some words are not important.
• Ask the students to copy the remaining words on a sheet of paper and construct sentences using the key content words and word wall words.
• Ask the students to share their work. Work together as a class to develop consensus sentences.

Paraphrasing

• Copy the passage onto an overhead transparency and give a hard copy to each student. Encourage the student to discuss the reading.
• Choose a short, high interest passage and read it aloud. Ask the students to read the passage together.
• Model how to go through the text and look at the ideas or units of thought and meaning. Chunk the text into units by circling the sections of the text. Paragraphs work nicely for chunks of text. Determine the key content words in the first chunk of text and write the words on a piece of paper.
• Reconstruct a sentence using the key words from the first chunk of text and word wall words. Say to the students, "I am going to reconstruct this as the first sentence in my rewrite. The goal is to develop a one-sentence paraphrase using the key content words."
• Repeat this same process on the remaining text.
• Ask the students to select one or two important words from each paraphrase and write a summary statement for the entire reading.
• The final task of this activity is to write a new concluding sentence.
• Independent Practice: Ask the students to follow the same procedure on another passage and create a paraphrase of their own.

Fun Interactive Writing Activities

Based on Great Books "As children compose messages, stories, and other texts in interactive writing, they explore the relationship between reading and writing. As they bring their background knowledge to the process, they learn to write with the reader in mind. They use reading in important ways to evaluate and reflect on what they have written, learning that reading serves specific and very important functions within the process of writing." Andrea McCarries, Gay Su Pinnell, & Irene C. Fountas

1. A Drop Around the World by Barbara Shaw (water cycle).
2. Patrick's Dinosaur by Carol Carrick. Make a chart with 3 columns. The headings are Dinosaurs, Fantasy, Reality. List the dinosaurs in the story and the things they do that could never really happen or could really happen.
3. Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stasen. Make a chart with 4 columns. The headings are Fruits or Vegetable, Top, Middle, or Bottom. Have students write what part of the plant the fruit or vegetable comes from.
4. Humphrey the Lost Whale: A True Story by Wendy Tokuda and Richard Hall. Draw a big black whale on butcher paper. Add a squiggly eye and a rectangle or white paper to write on. Write sentences answering the Who, What, When, Where. Why questions of the story.
5. No More Water in the Tub by Tedd Arnold. Make a list of things that float and things that sink.
6. Kirby Kelving and the Not-Laughing Lessons by Ivan Cecil. Make a prescription bottle pattern from butcher paper. Add white chart paper to write on. Write a list of prescriptions to make you laugh. Don't forget the Rx.
7. Pig, Pigger, Piggest by Rick Walton; and Things That are Most in the World by Judi Barrett. Make a chart with 3 columns. The headings are; Base Word, Comparative, Superlative. Then list those words such as hot, hotter, hottest; wiggly wigglier, wiggliest; etc.
8. Ox Cart Man by Donald Hall. Make a large circle out of butcher paper. Divide the circle into 4 equal parts. List each part as Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall. Make a list of the things the Ox Cart Man's Family did all year. Repeat the same activity buy list the things that we do in each season. (Life Cycles)
9. Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert. Cut a big pot out of construction paper. List the ingredients to make soup, or accordion fold a large piece of white butcher paper into 4 sections. The first section list the title of the story. In the remaining sections summarize and illustrate the steps for making soup.
10. Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant. "Neighbors" Chapter. Help students understand the parallel between Poppleton's release of built-up water pressure from the garden hose and release of his built-up frustrations. Write appropriate ways (on a pattern of a garden hose) children can express themselves when something is bothering them. Label it: "Don't Let the pressure Build Up".
11. Stellaluna by Janet Cannon. Make a Venn Diagram and compare the similarities and differences of birds and bats.
12. Bunnicula by James Howe. Make large black bat patterns on construction paper. Glue 2 wiggly eyes on each bat. On the left wing list a myth we have about bats. On the right wing list a bat fact.
13. Onomatopoeia Titles: Barnyard Song by Rhoda Gowler Greene. Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. Bam Bam Bam by Eve Merriam, Welcome to the Green House by Jane Yolen. Brainstorm settings and what happens there (zoo, city street, grocery store). Now write sentences with onomatopoeias: "Ca-ching! The cash register rings up a sale."
14. Alphabet Alliteration Titles: Animalia by Graeme Base, Away From Home by Anita Lobel, Dinorella by Pamela Duncan Edwards, Six Sick Sheep" 101 Tongue Twisters by Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson. Use dictionaries to find 4 fabulous words that begin with the same letter (two nouns, one verb, one adjective). For example: "The pink pig pilfered a pie."
15. Dem Bones by Bob Barner. Make a skeleton and label the different bones in the body.
16. Get Out of Bed by Robert Munsch. Make a pillow pattern book out of white butcher paper. Make a list of things you do to get ready for bed. (Healthy Habits)
17. Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Make a list of "Owling Rules". Glue in on the left side of a piece of dark blue butcher paper. Use white tempra paint to paint a snowy scene. Sprinkle with light blue, silver, or clear glitter.
18. Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel. Draw a house on white butcher paper. Have children list what they play with their friends. If the activity is done inside the house, write it in the house. If the activity is done outside, write it outside the house.
19. Dear Mr. Blueberry by Simon James. Write a class letter to the principal or another class.
20. Non-fiction animal books: Winter Whale by Michael Rothman. White Bear, Ice Bear by Michael Rothman. Make a chart with 6 columns. Label each column: Animal, Sees, Hears, Feels, Tastes, Smells. As you read non-fiction books, fill in the charts.

• Recount a group experience
• Write letters or notes
• Write lists, messages, daily news
• Label pictures, items, etc.
• Retell stories
• Write directions
• Write captions on bulletin boards
• Summarize a story, folk tale, fairy tale etc.
• Color chart (blue and yellow make green)
• Compare George Washington and Abraham Linclon. This can be done in an interactive writing format or in a venn diagram.
• Develop with your students and interactive writing piece entitled, "What Drives Us Crazy About Writing". This becomes an instructional tool for editing student writing. Submitted by Kathleen Day, Riverside Elementary.

Resources

Interactive Writing Materials

ePoems from weRead.com. From this site, click on the ePoem link. Students can read brief descriptions of how to create poems as well as read examples of Ballads, Cinquains, Couplets, Haikus.

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