Learning to Write With Interactive Writing Instruction

Learning to Write
Young students must learn a range of composing and 
encoding processes, strategies, and orthographic 
knowledge to be able to write, which can pose consid-
erable cognitive challenges (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 
1986). Beginning writers must make decisions about 
what to write and hold that text in short- term mem-
ory while using their knowledge of letter sounds and 
letter formation to get that message into print. They 
need to learn the conventions of written language, as 
well as a repertoire of cognitive strategies to be used 
flexibly during the composing process—all the while 
maintaining interest in and motivation for the writ-
ing task. Learning to write also involves recognizing 
and participating in valued ways of “doing writing” 
in particular classrooms. Young students’ success at 
coordinating these complexities can have a profound 
impact on learning to write, as well as their sense 
of agency and identity as writers (Ball & Ellis, 2008). 
The good news is that teachers can support the 
learning- to- write process through explicit instruc-
tion, modeling, and guided practice (Harris, Graham, 
Friedlander, & Laud, 2013)—key components of inter-
active writing.
Interactive Writing
Interactive writing is grounded in cognitive and so-
ciocultural theories of learning (Clay, 2001; Lave & 
Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1998). The 
cognitive processes are situated and developed 
within a writing activity that is socioculturally 
constructed by teacher and students. The purpose 
of interactive writing is to mediate students’ un-
derstanding of what it means to write. Lessons are 
how- to oriented; teachers model what students are 
expected to do during independent writing. The les-
son begins with the teacher and students collabora-
tively planning the text they will write, often revising 
the oral message several times. Then, the teacher 
and students “share the pen” (McCarrier et al., 2000, 
p. xvii) to write the oral message on a large writing 
tablet, word by word. When the teacher writes, she 
thinks aloud to give students a window into her com-
posing process (e.g., “Should we use 
ridiculous
instead 
FEATURE ARTICLE
The Reading Teacher Vol. 71 No. 5 pp. 523–532 
doi:10.1002/trtr.1643 © 2017 International Literacy Association
Cheri Williams 
is a professor of literacy and second- 
language studies in the School of Education at the 
University of Cincinnati, OH, USA; e-mail cheri.williams@
uc.edu.

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