Max and Ash from Monash University have been completing their teaching experience in PD. Today they did a wonderful PrepD Student Led Interactive Writing session. They followed the lesson plan consisting of shared teacher – student writing with an emphasis on strategies. The groups were allocated well ensuring success. The students were engaged and collaborated wonderfully. Amazing for this stage of the year. This post is to recognise their effort and success. It was great to sit back and see this teaching strategy in action.
The brainstormed sentence for today was: We always sit still and listen.
Congratulations Ash and Max – Great Work!
Cheers Nina
Nina Davis: Teaching & Learning in Australia 
Hi Lisa,
I had a P-2 Multi-age grade for many years, so I understand. Yes, I do manipulate the groups for various reasons. Sometimes to take a group for Teacher Led Interactive Writing while the others are doing student led. For teacher led I have a specific focus for the group of children. Sometimes the groups are mixed ability, and sometimes structured to extend children. Every now and again groups are randomly selected. I try to mix it up!
The student led version of Interactive Writing is something I’ve been perfecting for three years and developed because I could see the children wanting to run my teacher led groups. They were taking over.
You’ll also notice you’re students reading rapidly improves. My preps are amazing me already! Make sure they’re using their strategies well, and understand the difference between prompting and telling. This takes a while.
Thanks for the comment. By the end of the year I also have some groups running their own guided reading groups.
Cheers Nina
Nina,
Earlier this year I was alerted to your blog through twitter. I’ve also since discovered several of my PLN on twitter are using or investigating student led interactive writing.
After searching everything you have posted about student led interactive writing, I have initiated it into my classroom once per week.
Like you, I ‘m impressed with the progress and writing abilities of the students. We now start with one given sentence and the groups add their own with most adding 2 or more sentences.
Teaching a very small P-1-2 class has thrown up a few challenges with the way the groups are set up. Up until this week, I have been choosing the groups/partners so that students with like abilities/needs could support one another. I didn’t want one student dominating the writing.
Yesterday, the students again wanted me to choose the groupings for them. This time we ‘drew from a hat’ which the students were very satisfied with. The groups worked very well except for one group where the ‘leader’ was overshadowed by another member in their group.
Do you have any suggestions for me? Do you ‘manipulate’ the groupings or are they made by student choice?
Looking forward to reading what else your class has achieved in student led interactive writing.
Lisa