Literacy Journal - Week 5

Writing Essentials Chapter 5: What is shared writing, how is it used, and for what purposes? How does shared writing fit into the optimal learning model? Deconstruct one of Routman's shared writing lesson examples (starting pp. 99 or 105). What does she do that makes it "shared" writing? What is the potential impact on students? How does this lesson compare to writing instruction in your field experiences or past schooling?

I was quite intrigued by this idea of "shared writing" set forth in Chapter 5 of Routman. Put succinctly, it is a collaborative teaching process whereby the teacher and children write a text together. The teacher acts primarily as the scribe, with the children writing the parts that they know while the teacher fills in the unknown. Usually the teacher uses chart paper or a white board, markers, and post-it tape. As I understand it, the purpose of Shared Writing is to demonstrate exactly HOW writing works by showing children that their ideas can be captured (on a board or paper) and how they can then participate in the "writing" process. It also provides opportunities for children to develop concepts about print (directional movement, return sweep, one to one matching, etc.), and to get to know what it feels to create something out of words. It assists students in learning how to communicate for different purposes through writing, develop an understanding that letters make words and words make sentences,
develop an understanding of use of punctuation, as well as get them in the habit of reviewing for clarity and comprehension.

According to Routman, Shared Writing fits into the optimal learning model by having the teacher hold the pen and guiding the actual writing while also acting as an expert for the student learners. Eventually, this will lead students to gain the skills and confidence to write on their own, with guidance.

One example of Shared Writing provided by Routman is the creation of a fictional story, in which every child needs to participate in generating story ideas, learning the specific aspects of a fiction story, including dialogue, and emphasizing the importance of review and revision. While there are different strategic approaches to Shared Writing, Routman seems to favor doing it over the course of a few (three) days, but the procedure should generally follow a logical course of story conferencing between teacher and student, having students vote on the best ideas, and brainstorming those ideas. In order to seize the kids' attention, it is probably best to give a title to the story (for grounding purposes) and to activate their imaginations and creativity. Routman remain cognizant of the importance of not losing the children's attention, so moving quickly and efficiently becomes most important. For dialogue, having the kids call out what they would say in a given situation, and adding appropriate punctuation keeps them actively engaged and participating in the process. But it seems that part of the strategy is not to do TOO much in one day or session, in order to circumvent boredom or chaos, as well as leaving them something to look forward to the next time. Also, by breaking up the sessions, it allows for a new and fresh look at the story each time the process begins anew, allowing for reflection, rereading and revision. While the teacher is obviously guiding the process, making sure it doesn't derail or get too unwieldy, the trick is to do it seamlessly, and always allow the children to believe that they are the ones doing the writing, and that the teacher is only acting as a scribe. In reality, the teacher is facilitator, editor and guiding hand, as well as making sure that the story is coherent and "readable." It would be important to make sure that the contributions come from as many different students as possible, to avoid being seen as the work of a few, which may mean actually rejecting some superior suggestions from some students in order to have the writing process be more inclusive and the story more representative of the class as a whole. I can only assume that the impact on the students is phenomenal (especially if the teacher walks the extra mile and has the story printed and photocopied, giving each student his or her own copy, perhaps with all of the names attached as author). The combination of pride of creation, seeing one's name as a contributing author and seeing a finished product that can be kept and shown off, must surely be one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment a young student could feel.

To the best of my recollection, I have never actually encountered Shared Writing, either as a student or in the field (probably the closest I ever came to the notion was when I did Mad-Libs as a child, where you take a preprinted story with key words left out, and you have to supply the appropriate grammatical word (e.g., noun, adjective, verb, etc.), although it is hardly the same, since you would supply the words without knowing what the story was until after the insertions were made, usually to great comic effect and high hilarity (well, at least to a 10-year old). I think it is a fabulous idea, especially in kindergarten and 1st grade, although I could see using it in even higher grades if there are struggling writers.