Tag Archives: PrepD Student Led Interactive Writing Strategy developed by Nina Davis

What makes PrepD Student Led Interactive Writing a powerful strategy?

The key is students  working collaboratively, sharing their learning, prompting each other and using skills and language generally used by teachers. One comment I received recently described this as ‘lending our cognition’, and I really liked this description. All students are engaged in the activity, each student committed to contributing with the support of their peers if needed. Groups can be structured to support children, or to extend groups of children. The teacher is able to run a teacher led group concurrently, which I do regularly but not at this stage of the year. The children need to be confident and have experience with the process before I can withdraw.

Each child is identified by a  color which they select, and all are given the opportunity to lead a group. Teaching leadership skills concurrently is essential. The children are given poster sized sheets to write on and textas. The role of the group leader is to ensure their team record their name on the side, that all resources are ready (alphabet tool cards and writing spacers) and that each child contributes in name order.  I use PrepD Student Led Interactive Writing to assess and plan my weekly writing foci for individuals and the whole class. The color used identifies the writer.

It’s interesting to note that my student’s independent writing improves rapidly. I’m looking for the transfer of my teaching into my student’s Independent and Interactive Writing.  Modelled Writing and Shared Writing are also planned into a weekly program from week one. We get going quickly. Language Experience and Inquiry are my ‘holy grail’.  

By the middle of the year my students are able to identify their learning needs and will suggest the foci for writing sessions. That is powerful! Some children, and they are 5 or 6 years old, will teach the writing focus or make suggestions for me to use. Groups share their writing with the class, with little books made using their Interactive Writing texts used for reading. This strategy extends highly able students, develops students working at the standard expected and supports less able students. I believe it accelerates the writing ability of all students.

Please read my previous posts in this blog. I have written about this strategy many times and have provided numerous pictures and descriptions of my student’s writing development. I’d also recommend reading my posts on general Independent Writing development as I have provided many examples of student writing in these posts as well. I think once you’ve seen the development of my student’s writing you’ll be as excited as I am about this approach, and keen to develop this approach in your own classroom.  It’s called the PrepD Student Led Interactive Writing Approach to recognise my student’s committment and success. They have a passion for writing, and many in previous years have taken exercise books home for the holidays to keep a journal. Many of my parents tell me that their children write at home because they love it. Now that’s special! I can only hope that their enthusiasm continues as they grow.

The pictures provided are of this weeks use of this strategy. My students are in Week 6 of their first year of formal schooling, take out Wednesdays… and I’m amazed. They were able to ‘get going’ quickly, the chosen leaders knew their role,and the resources were out and used. The process is developing, but they’re giving ‘it a great go’. The conversations and ‘thinking aloud’ is happening, although ‘prompting’ takes time, but they are collaborating and being inclusive. This is a skill in itself!

 Our Language Experience sentence for this writing experience is: We eat lunch at school.  At this stage of the year each group constructs the same sentence. Before they start writing, I ensure that all groups can chant our sentence.

Cheers Nina

It’s the beginning of 2^nd semester and my preps are half way through their first year of formal schooling in Australia. I’ve written many posts about Interactive Writing. The Early Years Program outlines Interactive Writing as a teacher directed writing strategy. However, I have developed this strategy into a student led whole grade activity.

To make this writing strategy really special, I allow the children to write using textas on large sheets of paper. Children select a colour to write with and use this colour to write their name down the side and their contributions. While the children are writing I’m listening to their conversations and observing the strategies they have learnt in action. Leaders are selected to help organise this activity with all children being given an opportunity to lead at some stage.

It’s my belief that this strategy accelerates writing development and supports less confident writers. Teaching children to prompt, support but ‘not do for others’ allows children to help others in a productive way which flows through to other learning situations. Self editing becomes a natural extension of the process as children read back and fix up known errors. Groups share their writing and discuss ways they could improve their writing next time. This reinforces taught concepts.

At the beginning of the year the students brainstormed a sentence about a shared experience that all groups wrote. Now each group negotiates their own two sentences to write and share with others when completed. I’m looking at how children transfer what they have learnt into their writing e.g. simple punctuation (full stops, capital letters and exclamation marks), space between words, sentence structure and handwriting, specifically letter formation.

Photos – Interactive Writing July.

To add to this activity, I sometimes immediately type and print their writing using ‘dotted tracing script’ which the children trace over.

If interested, please read my previous posts about Interactive Writing. You can use the search bar in this blog to find previous entries.

Cheers Nina

‘Interactive writing involves the teacher and small groups of students jointly composing a large print text on a subject of interest to the students and sharing responsibility for the recording at various points in the writing. Teachers quickly record the words that students know how to write, and engage students in problem solving and recording the words that provide challenges and opportunities for new learning. This eases the transition to independent writing by: · making explicit how written language works · constructing words using orthographic and phonological knowledge · producing a text that can be read again.’ Sofweb

Language Experience: This week we had a snowman visit our grade, we observed, measured, wondered and recorded our snowman’s visit. Our shared experience became the topic for our Interactive Writing session for this week.  Group leaders were selected and total control was handed over to the children. They had to negotiate and form their own sentence/s for the first time. I am thrilled by their development as writers. My role was to observe, listen and stay in the backgound. The childen were the teachers, learners and leaders.

Cheers Nina

It’s wonderful to see Prep students (first year of formal education in Australia) work cooperatively in groups to produce a piece of writing within the first few weeks of school. They may not know all their sounds, but with an alphabet chart/pictures for reference and whatever prior knowledge they bring, writing skills are quickly developed and extended. This is a powerful teaching strategy.

Each child has their own colored texta and writes their name down the side of the sheet making it easy to see a child’s progress. Generally, I have groups of 4/5 students selected randomly. At the beginning of the year the sentence is provided after class discussion and is related to a shared experience e.g. I am at school. Teaching children to prompt each other without giving the answer is taught during Interactive Writing. By the end of Term 1 the compilation of a writing piece is totally formulated by the group.

I’m Excited!

Our sentence today is: I am going to the fair. These students have been at school for a total of 18 days and look what they can do!

It’s wonderful to see young children confidently being ‘risk takers’ with their learning. Listening to their group discussions was fantastic. Young children are naturally supportive of each other. They are in a win-win situation, nothing to loose but all to gain! …or something like that.

Cheers Nina