Interactive Writing Across Grades

Interactive writing is a dynamic, unscripted instructional method in which the teacher and students work together to construct a meaningful text while simultaneously discussing the details of the writing process. Together they plan, compose, and review text in a variety of genres. The “interactive” piece involves group collaboration in planning and composing the writing through guided conversation and a unique “sharing the pen” technique where students do the actual writing.

Interactive writing harnesses the natural interactions teachers have with their students as they compose a writing piece. It allows for real-time differentiation and tailored scaffolding. Interactive writing fits within any writing curriculum and can be adapted to your classroom’s technology levels.

Interactive Writing Across Grades: A Small Practice with Big Results, Pre-K–5 is your how-to guide, unpacking this powerful method step by step—and grade by grade. The authors help you figure out where and how interactive writing fits within your literacy framework, regardless of the grade you teach. In these pages, you’ll find the following:

• An overview of the interactive writing method and how it fits into your balanced literacy program
• Concrete ways to launch interactive writing in your classroom to support both process and craft instruction
• Step-by-step guidance to implement the method with students of all ages
• Real classroom writing from every grade that shows what to expect at each phase of the process
• “Listen in on a Lesson” vignettes that demonstrate the type of scaffolding you can offer during interactive writing lessons

Discover what makes interactive writing a particularly effective teaching practice that can support both emergent and fluent writers. Interactive Writing Across Grades can help you put this method to work in your classroom immediately.

Co-published with the International Literacy Association (ILA)