Combining writing with content-areas is a great way to have students practice and sharpen their writing skills as well as learn content-area knowledge through nonfiction texts. Not only do students get to use the information they are learning in nonfiction in a purposeful way, they are also able to see what it is like to "talk like a scientist" and "talk like a historian", etc. When students use their learned knowledge in a practical and real-world way, they begin to see the connections between what they learn in school and what goes on in the world around them. When students are young and still in school, they may seem to forget about the world around them and focus on the immediate: their friends, classmates, school, and home. However, when educators incorporate learned knowledge from nonfiction texts with writing strategies that aim at real-world issues or real things in the world... the knowledge comes alive.
Reading/writing strategies are just as important as the content-area knowledge being taught. It is these strategies that enable students to participate in and actively create their own knowledge. High levels of scaffolding are first needed when students are beginner writers or still struggling with writing. Before students are expected to connect the real-world with learned content-area knowledge, they must use reading and writing strategies with teacher aid. This process of steps ensures that the student understands the procedures of the strategy and utilizes them to translate content-area knowledge into meaningful and purposeful activities.
Interactive and Shared writing are just two strategies that teachers can use with their students to begin to grow competent writers. They both have an element of scaffolding and are great ways to open the doors of writing to young or struggling students.
Shared & Interactive Writing
Shared and interactive writing engages students in the writing process as well as to continue thinking about what it means to think and read as a writer. Students in shared and interactive writing are the writers. The teacher does not write for the students, but rather, she plays the role of "expert" as she writes with the students. In shared and interactive writing, the students practice making decisions and solving problems as writers do with a high level of scaffolding.
The topic of the writing, type of writing, and focus of the piece may be selected by the students, depending on their age and grade level. In most cases, the teacher makes these decision, especially if doing shared and interactive writing for the first time. When scaffolding younger students, all aspects of writing need to be touched upon. Such as: how to hold the pen, concepts of print, conventions of print, how to form letters, how to space, how to sound out words for spelling, and directionality of print.
Shared and interactive writing can be about virtually anything. It can be anything from compiling and writing a grocery list, recipe, letter to the president, letter to the principal, scientific observations, daily journal entry or description of an event. Remember that tying in content-area knowledge is best so that students see the connections between what they are learning about and how it relates to the real world and themselves.
Differences Between Shared & Interactive Writing
The main difference between shared and interactive writing is who is holding the pen. In shared writing, the teacher holds then pen and serves as the scribe. The teacher also serves the roles of: summarizer of ideas, questioner, and prompting for quick decisions on spelling and print concepts. The teacher must be sure to write the student's ideas quickly so that they may stay on task and not lose their ideas. With this out of the student's hands, they are able to focus more time and energy on language, features, and the style of writing that they want to achieve.
In interactive writing, the teacher and the student write together; it is a jointly written piece. The students engage in all the aspects of shared writing but now, additionally, they are the scribe as well. The teacher decides which students will write. Usually, the teacher chooses students that he knows need practice or will benefit from the interactive writing experience as well as students that will teach their peers something. The teacher can write words that he knows the students already know and understand such as "and" or "the", that way energy is focuses on unfamiliar or difficult words or ideas in the text.
Explore shared and interactive writing some more!:
- Shared & Interactive Writing: Lessons, Activities, & Photo Examples
- Shared & Interactive Writing: Steps & Uses
- Shared & Interactive Writing: Lessons by Grade Level
- Shared & Interactive Writing: Youtube Video of Instruction with Shared Writing
