We continue in this fashion throughout the story. My intent is to have the children use the supportive illustrations, along with the repetitive story language to construct a sense of the story. By slowly unmasking the hidden words, they can check their ideas with the visual information and see if they are right. There has to be a purpose for the writing and it can be a response to a read-aloud, a letter, a list, a group story, a topic on a current unit of study, etc. The children take turns writing the text, with support from the teacher.
Interactive writing demonstrates the connection or reciprocity between reading and writing.
As a result of reading Moo, Moo Brown Cow and Animal Babies , the children become interested in learning the names of adult animals and the corresponding baby animal names. We begin a list a few days earlier and are adding to the list today. Before we begin writing, we reread what we had written so far. Another child adds. Another component in this program is guided reading.