The title of this blog should make my thoughts on interactive writing quite clear. The more I have read, and the more that has been shared by my 6004 classmates, the more I am beginning to see the NECESSITY (not just benefits) of social interaction in writing. So, it should come as no surprise that I was enthralled by Heather Wall's article Interactive Writing Beyond the Primary Grades (2008).
As I read, I put a big star next to the paragraph where Wall described using various grammatical concepts with her third grade class in their interactive writing. "What a great idea," I thought, "to use interactive writing to illustrate a concept you are working on." Then it hit me: I have DONE this before!
After I gave myself a pat on the back, I went searching for the interactive writing lesson I taught while teaching in a first grade classroom. The lesson's objective was to reinforce the use of verbs, as the class had been engaged in a verb study that week. I projected a picture of a boy jumping in an open field. Together, the students and I shared the pen to write a story all about the jumping boy. Verbs were written in a different color and students edited the piece as we went along (Wall writes, "The intent is for the end product to be free of spelling and grammatical errors, which requires that time be spent on discussion of phonics, grammar rules, and spelling patterns." p. 149). At the end, we added a title and read our story as a class. You can bet that those action verbs were read with vigor and every sentence ending in an exclamation point was not lacking one bit of expression!
Reflecting on this lesson has made me realize that my knowledge of social writing has always been present, even if there was not much research to back it up. Now, I am confident that I am teaching using best practices. Even more so, I am giving my students the opportunities to engage in meaningful discussions about writing so that their writing may continue to develop and blossom. What a gift to us all!
What a great connection to a lesson you had already taught! You are SO write about your focus on the social aspect of writing AND reading. Literacy does not ever exist in a vaccuum even though MANY of us read and write in situation without others around us. Rather, it is through sharing and interacting with others who read our work or share in our discussion that texts come to life and our literacy learning reaches a hight level.
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