Teaching secondary
aged students

Interactive Writing

What and Why?

Most often, the writing that students do in school is simply for the eyes of the teacher. Interactive writing involves students writing to and with other students. There are a number of reasons why this might be useful. Firstly, writing to other students can give the students a clear sense of purpose and audience for their writing - they can feedback from the reader on how far their message has been understood. Secondly, writing with other students can give the students a clear focus for their work. Interactive writing will involve the students in asking each other about grammar, spelling, vocabulary, phrasing etc. and so give them the chance to learn in a non-threatening atmosphere.

Practical ideas

• While students are working in groups, you can circulate around the class, reading what they have written and helping with any problems.
• Discussion during interactive writing tasks may be in the mother tongue. This may not be a problem since one of the purposes of interactive writing is to enable students to exchange ideas. An `English only' rule may prevent this. The important point is to insist that the writing that they produce in English.
• Writing can be a sensitive area and some students may not want to write with other students or their work to be seen by other students. In this case, students should be entitled to work alone if they wish.