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Shared Writing
Shared writing is a strategy for teachers and children to work together to write a message. Shared writing is an opportunity for you to show children different reasons for writing and how to record messages on paper. You are showing children how to form letters and how to put letters together to write a message. You are showing children the various reasons we have for writing.
During shared writing, you write on chart paper or another surface which is large enough for all children to see. Model the writing process by thinking aloud while writing.
For example, you could start by saying, “That was so nice of Jill’s mom to send us cupcakes for snack-time today. Let’s write her a thank-you note. Let’s see, a thank you note always starts with ‘dear’. I need to start up here at the top of the page. Hmm.... /d/ /d/ /d/ What letter do I hear at the beginning of ‘dear’? Oh, that’s a 'D'!”
Focus your think-aloud demonstrations on what the “next step” in writing would be for your students. Children observe how to plan, organize, and record their thoughts by watching your writing demonstrations.
During shared writing, children learn:
- that we can write what we can say, and that others can read what we write
- that print is organized from left to right and top to bottom
- that we leave spaces between words
- how letters are formed.
Children begin to make connections between letters and sounds and they may even learn the spellings of some commonly used words (like "Dear"). Interactive Writing
Interactive
writing is similar to shared writing
except that you are
“sharing the pen” with your students.
As you “share the pen,”
you will pause and think aloud and ask students
questions like "What letter should record
that sound?" "How do we spell this
word (cat)?" "What should we
do when we finish a word?" "What
mark should we put at the end of this sentence?"
As you ask these questions, students will tell
you what they think and you will offer them
the pen to write it down.
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