Interactive Writing: a powerful teaching strategy.
Mackenzie, Noella M.
Koalas By Kindergarden Green Koalas live [in] Australia [in] special gum trees. Baby koalas [are] called joeys [and] they grow [in] their mother's pouch. Koalas [are] very good at climbing [and] eat all [day] long. If you [go] to wild life park you [can] [see] koalas [in] [the] tops of trees. Sometimes you can [see] koalas dead on [the] road.
1. Drawings: Some teachers assign children to create an illustration for the week's text or to draw something to go with each day's sentence. 2. Publishing: The text can be published by the teacher--for easy reading and to provide a correct model for display. 3. Distribution: In some classes an A3 copy of the published text is displayed in the classroom or corridor and an A4 copy is sent home with children to share with their families. 4. Independent writing: Children need time to draw, talk and write every day.
Process Example Day 1 Kindergarten/Prep in term 1, Monday 1. Determine topic, text type Discussion of koalas--the children had been reading about koalas as part of an inquiry unit. 2. Discussion and suggestions The children determined that it for the first sentence--shaped would be a report--about by teacher koalas--'real stuff' says Jon. Ms X explained that 'real stuff' is factual information. 3. Compose then write the Koalas live in Australia in special sentence as a shared gum trees. (Bold letters/words construction written by individual children, others by teacher.) 4. Some teachers like to use a Keesha was invited to write the 'K' different coloured pen to the like at the start of her name and children (for example, they without any prompting from the may use black and give the teacher she added the 'o'. Ms X children a green pen). showed the children the word Koala' in a book and wrote the rest of the word. They had a short discussion about where they could find 'Koala' next time they wanted to write Koala. 5. After each word is added Sam was good at hearing sounds in the sentence is read by the words so Ms X invited him to write group--in order to remember live'. Everyone said the word what the next word will be. slowly and helped Sam hear the sounds. Ms X added the silent 'e'. 6. Where appropriate spelling The word 'in' was taught as a high strategies are taught on the frequency word and the children run (for example, hearing practised this on their small sounds in words) and high individual white boards several frequency words are taught and times--checking with a friend and added to the word wall. the demonstration provided by Ms X. Jon was then invited to add 'in' to the text on the board. Ms X added 'in ' to the word wall. 7. When complete, the children Stella volunteered to write read the whole sentence while Australia' which she wrote without the teacher points to the difficulty. She said she had been words. writing 'Australia' at home with her older brother. 8. Read again with a child Next Molly wrote 'in' while the pointing to the words. class wrote 'in' a few more times on their little boards. 9. Later in the day, children Ms X invited Anita to write 'gum' have time for independent with help from the class who said writing following a 'draw, gum' slowly with Ms X helping to talk and write' structure accentuate the /u/ in the middle. (Mackenzie, 2011). They work They discussed how sometimes the collaboratively and help each sounds in the middle of words can other. They do not have to be tricky to hear. write about the Interactive Writing topic. This spelling strategy was used again to help Dani write 'trees'. Ms X added the extra 'e' and showed them how there were also two of the letter 'e' side-by-side in the word see' on the word wall. The sentence was read again twice, first with Ms X pointing and a second time with Gill pointing. There was a short discussion about capital letters at the start of sentences, spaces between words and a full stop at the end. Day 2 Tuesday 1. Read previous sentence After reading yesterday's sentence Compose next sentence there was a lively discussion about what the children knew about koalas. Many had discussed the topic at home and a couple had come with books about koalas. 2. Repeat processes from day 1 There was dispute over the name of the special gum tree so Ms X did a quick search on the internet and she and the class were able to check the name of the tree. Then the discussion moved to 'joeys' and pouches' and the following sentence was agreed upon: Baby koalas are called joeys and they grow in their mother's pouch. Ms X taught the word 'are' as a high frequency word and added it to the word wall. She quickly revised in' and 'and'. She showed the children how to add a 'y' to 'the' to write 'they'. Adding s' to make words plural was discussed and saying words slowly to hear sounds was applied (baby, grow). Day 3 Wednesday 1. Repeat previous steps Koalas are very good at climbing and eat all day long. Ms X revised 'are' and explained how the 'y' made a long 'e' sound at the end of 'very' just like at the end of 'baby'. She showed the children how to find 'day' in today' and they did some quick rhyming with 'day'. Day 4 Thursday 1. Repeat previous steps If you go to a wild life park you can see koalas in the tops of trees. Day 5 Friday 1. Repeat previous steps Sometimes you see koalas dead on the road. 2. By Friday many children Continue revising and noticing high know the text by heart and can frequency words and letter patterns read along with confidence. as appropriate to your group of children. Teaching decisions are based on the group's needs.