Shared Writing

I have never seen shared writing done as it was shown in this book. I really liked how the story developed and how all of the class participated.

I think this could have a hugely positive impact on students in how they see a fun, exciting finished product and know they were a part of it. The teacher takes input from the students and puts it all together in a way that is a little above each of them. This allows the scaffolding the students need to raise their own level of writing.

There were several things about how this example was positive. The children were allowed to all list their ideas and then took a tally vote to select the subject. I liked the fact that the story began right away - there was little time for any students to get bored. And I loved the direct quotes of the students. What a great way to model conversation in a writing piece! And what a great moment for those students to see their words in the final piece! I liked the comment 'does someone have another way to say that". This allowed the student who gave the original line to feel their part was being used yet allowed for editing of the line to make it more informational or interesting.

I would be very interesting in trying this with a group of students. I would think it could become a very fun project to work on as a class. Some potential drawbacks I see are how to handle the students who are not participating. And how to deal with students who's ideas are not used or changed - I think the teacher would just need to be really aware and make sure to use pieces from all students. And how to bring things back in if they start to get off on a tangent that I, the teacher, would feel was not appropriate. I liked the idea of the tally vote for the idea and could use this in the middle also to see how the class wants to take the story. I would be interested to try shared writing in my classroom.