“Interactive writing is a teaching method in which children and teachers negotiate what they are going to write and then share the pen to accurately write a message” (Swartz 2001).
This is cooperation in which text is shared, composed, and written. The teacher uses the interactive writing sessions mainly to encourage reading and writing strategies. This strategy is used in primary grades teaching Phonics, spelling principles, and writing conversations.
In this method, the student and teachers write together by means of text, dialogue, journals on a message board. The teacher becomes a scribe for the student: writing down the responses to questions about their prior experiences to allow them to see their words in written text.
The teacher responds not by correcting spelling, grammar, or vocabulary but through modeling more appropriate forms of writing. In seeing the text in action, the student can build connection about how verbs, objects and subjects come together to form sentences as they come together
The aim is to make students relax and be more comfortable in the writing process, as the teacher draws from past experiences which can be an opportunity to incorporate other subject areas like science and social studies which is useful, meaningful and enjoyable.
Finally, I recommend other instructors use the interactive writing strategy since it enhances the corporation between teachers and students which encourages active participation in the classroom.
By Eugenia Davis
ReplyDeleteInteractive writing is a useful strategy that a teacher can utilize to develop writing skills in their students. Indeed, it does help students get acquainted with writing in a meaningful way as the teacher uses a subject to write on that they would have experienced as a writing prompt. This can be supplemented with pictures to trigger the thought process. The teacher and student walk through the writing process as the student is asked questions about the subject and the responses are written down by the teacher. The student will be able to build connections with text as they are written in their own words. This is done with the intention to encourage the writing process as there are no corrections taking place by the teacher. The goal is to build correlations between thought and writing which now act in unison in this strategy. Inadvertently the student is witnessing writing as more than a product and more like a means of expressing and gathering thought.
I agree with the statement which describes interactive writing as a method of the teacher sharing the Pen with the students of the classroom as it captures the essence of exactly what the term interactive writing truly is. The teacher and student collaborate together creating an end product that does not only comprise of the teacher's ideas but the student's as well. Good Job!
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