Literacy Week 5: Shared Writing

Shared writing is a tool, from what I understand, that enhances student's confidence in their abilities to put their ideas on paper and make those ideas appear in written form as a collaborative group. It is a way to alleviate anxieties around writing. I have witnessed this occur in my second grade placement, without knowing that it had a formal name. In the school, the principal has encouraged the teachers to construct anchor charts with the children - as a way to "own" their classrooms and "own" their learning.

Thus, the teacher has used shared writing for classroom rules and had each student sign this declaration at the beginning of the year. There are so many anchor charts up on the walls- too much I think, it may be hard for students to even find the one they are looking for if they can remember it is up there.

There was one activity of shared writing that I watched: a substitute had the students share in the writing of a fall poem. They got to choose the lines with adjectives that described the leaves with guidance, but it was all their own creativity. At the end, they each got to make their own leaf to tape onto the sheet. I thought it was a great shared experience that the kids really loved.

All other shared writing happens as a group in front of the chart. I think this makes the students feel valued in their thinking, especially when they are just starting their writing experiences. Being so young, I could see that shared writing would build the confidence for kids to just begin to write.