Improving Writing Skills Through Interactive Writing Jamie Stief

Area of Focus 0 Will the use of interactive writing during cooperative learning groups improve writing skills? 0 Student achievement has been declining, especially in the area of English Language Arts. Writing seems to be the weakest area in my district. 0 A group of boys in the sixth grade have been identified as struggling writers. Their paragraphs are lacking complete sentences, correct spelling, correct conventions, and grade level vocabulary. These students are failing.

What is Interactive Writing? 0 Small groups of students work with the teacher to produce one writing sample. Groups are based on the needs of the students (Fountas & Pinnell, 2001). 0 This instructional practice significantly increases engagement and touches all ability levels (Patterson, Schaller, & Clemens, 2008). 0 Teachers assemble writing lessons based on the students’ needs which result in an increase in participation and application during whole group writing sessions (Wall, 2008). 0 It also is a way to meet the needs of diverse learners (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012).

Outcomes 0 Students 0 Increase scores on paragraph writing assignments. 0 Increase scores on benchmark assessments.

Procedures 0 Identify writing skills for mini lessons. 0 Develop writing prompts related to units of study in the curriculum. 0 Meet once a week for 20 to 30 minutes with a small group for an interactive writing activity. 0 Continue small group writing lessons for 6 weeks. 0 Take anecdotal records during writing activities for assessment and lesson planning. 0 Evaluate paragraphs written independently with regular classroom teacher using the rubric. 0 Graph scores with the students.

Research Based Strategies According to Cole (2008), these strategies are supported by interactive writing and this project. 0 Teach reading and writing together. 0 Establish productive writing habits. 0 Use cooperative learning. 0 Use rubrics as a tool for formative assessment. 0 Involve students in the evaluation process.

Progress Monitoring

Work Sample Writing prompt for this paragraph: television is no more.

References 0 Cole, R. W. (2008). Educating everybody's children diverse teaching strategies for diverse learners (Rev. and expanded 2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 0 Dean, C. B., Hubbell, E., Pitler, H., & Stone, B.J. (2012). Cooperative Learning. Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement (2nd ed., pp ). Alexandria, VA.: ASCD. 0 Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2001). Guiding readers and writers, grades 3-6: teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 0 Patterson, E., Schaller, M., & Clemens, J. (2008). A closer look at interactive writing. Reading Teacher, 61(6), Wall, H. (2008). Interactive writing beyond the primary grades. Reading Teacher, 62(2),