Adapting Interactive Writing for Grades 2-5

In this article in The Reading Teacher, literacy consultants Kate Roth and Joan Dabrowski say that interactive writing, a strategy usually associated with the primary grades, can be refined and used as an effective approach for meeting Common Core literacy standards in grades 2-5, helping students become more proficient at:

• Writing opinions and arguments with text-based evidence;
• Writing informational pieces that consider complex ideas and topics;
• Writing narratives filled with details and well-structured sequences.

“Moreover,” say Roth and Dabrowski, “we believe that the writing demands of the Common Core standards require explicit and efficient teaching guidance, which is at the heart of interactive writing.”

In the primary grades, interactive writing lessons involve the teacher “sharing the pen” as the class composes and writes a short piece, strategically calling on students to come up and do most of the actual writing on an easel sheet. The essential components of interactive writing lessons are: (a) Choosing a shared classroom experience to write about – for example, content from social studies or something that happened on a field trip; (b) Prewriting – thinking about the audience, the overall message, and why it’s important; (c) Composing the message, with the teacher synthesizing the ideas students are suggesting and proposing how to express them, ultimately formulating the actual sentence; (d) Sharing the pen, with students and teacher taking turns writing letters and words on chart paper, taking note of letters, spelling, punctuation, and meaning; (e) Review, with the teacher pointing out examples of principles explicitly taught during the lesson, such as having a student come up and find a word that ends with –ing or saying, “Today we used a question for our lead. It was a good choice because it will immediately get our audience interested in our writing. We also focused on adding –ed to words to show the story already happened,” and finally, (f) Extend, with the class continuing to use the completed piece as an instructional tool – for example, mounting it on the wall to make a class book or mural that students can re-read regularly. 

“Interactive writing helps young children make progress in their own writing by inviting them to participate, with support, in the act of writing,” say Roth and Dabrowski. “Theoretically, this makes sense for older writers as well.” But they believe it needs to be adapted in four ways:

• First, the lesson sequence is more fluid and dynamic. Older students might write several sentences or whole paragraphs in one interactive writing session. “To do this, the class would move back and forth between the composing and constructing phases,” say Roth and Dabrowski. “They would negotiate the precise message sentence by sentence and then share the pen after each sentence is decided. Then they compose and then write again.” 

• Second, elements of share the pen are modified. In the upper grades, the pace is quicker, with students writing several words or an entire phrase and the teacher writing high-frequency words to move things along. Punctuation, spelling, and grammar can be discussed before a sentence is written. “Are there any tricky words to spell?” the teacher might ask, or “What do we need to think about for punctuating this sentence?” or “Is there anything we need to think extra carefully about when writing this sentence?” The passage can also be composed on a keyboard and displayed on a screen, with the teacher sharing the keyboard with students. 

• Third, lessons decrease in frequency while increasing in length. Instead of asking students, “What will we write about in interactive writing today?” upper-grade teachers ask themselves, “What do I need to teach my students about writing today, this week, or within this unit of study, and how will the method of interactive writing help support this writing principle?” Interactive writing lessons typically take 10-15 minutes in the primary grades but might last 20-30 minutes in the upper grades. 

• Fourth, teaching points expand and extend around genres. In grades 2-5, the focus on genre expands and often becomes the central goal of the lesson, say Roth and Dabrowski. Aiming toward mastery of opinion writing, explanatory pieces, and narratives, interactive writing might focus on organizing reasons in third grade; writing with clarity, grouping ideas, and writing conclusions in fourth grade; and strengthening opinion writing in fifth grade with logically grouped ideas and logically ordered reasons supported by facts and details. In interactive writing lessons, students can receive detailed, in-the-moment guidance on all the elements of good writing. 

Roth and Dabrowski suggest these points for getting started with interactive writing in the upper elementary grades:

• Teach routines first, for example, telling students to come up to the easel quickly when it’s their turn and standing to the side so others can see what’s being written.
• Consider the time of day to deliver the lesson, since students need to be highly focused.
• Create a comfortable space near writing resources. “Interactive writing is a community experience with teachers and students working together as a group to produce a written text,” say Roth and Dabrowski. “The physical environment is important for bringing everyone together in supporting the shared nature of the task.” 
• Use highly visible materials – for example, chart paper with lines, appropriate line spacing, and easy-to-read markers.
• Prepare to make thoughtful teaching decisions. Teachers need to come into interactive writing lessons with a clear idea of what students are doing well and where they need support – while keeping in mind the ambitious goals of the Common Core standards. 
• Keep all students engaged. To accomplish this, interactive writing lessons need to be fast-paced and relatively brief and pull all students into the content and process. One idea is to have all students writing on individual dry-erase boards. 
• Be patient with yourself. “It typically takes a class several weeks to find a natural rhythm in interactive writing,” conclude Roth and Dabrowski. “As classroom routines become more secure, teachers are able to home in on their instruction, refining it to better meet the needs of their students.”

“Extending Interactive Writing Into Grades 2-5” by Kate Roth and Joan Dabrowski in The Reading Teacher, September 2014 (Vol. 68, #1, p. 33-44), http://bit.ly/10fZORO; the authors can be reached at kate_roth@post.harvard.edu and joandabrowski@gmail.com.

From the Marshall Memo #554