interactive writing

A Teacher’s Guide to Interactive Writing: A Book Review and a Giveaway

Leah Koch

Estimated Reading Time: 2 1/2 minutes (499 words)

Target Audience: PreK-2 Classroom Teachers

Interactive writing is the missing link to engaging writing instruction that’s both effective and incredibly fun. Matt Halpern’s new book, A Teacher’s Guide to Interactive Writing, explores what it is, why it’s important, and how to get started.

"Interactive writing is a fluid, flexible, engaging teaching tool used to model reading and writing skills and strategies while sharing the pen with students."

On each brightly-colored page, Matt’s friendly voice guides you through interactive writing and inspires you with new ideas you’ll want to try right away. The exclamation point on this resource is the the inclusion of twenty videos, available as a digital resource, which feature Matt expertly applying the strategies outlined in the book.

In today’s post, I share five important insights about interactive writing from this new resource.

1. Teach ANY Skill: Interactive writing provides an opportunity to explicitly model and practice a myriad of skills that are important for young writers:

  • Handwriting
  • Finger spaces
  • Concepts about print
  • Punctuation
  • Using phonics skills to spell a word
  • Using resources in the classroom to spell a word
  • Idea generation
  • And MORE! Be responsive. Teach “whatever strategies and skills your students need” (Halpern, 2023).

2. Set Students Up To Take Risks: Interactive writing is the perfect time to prompt students to attempt something they haven’t tried independently yet. Through trial and error in a scaffolded environment, students have the opportunity to practice. Hopefully, they’ll carry that practice into their independent writing.

"When our students know they are cared for and safe, they are more willing to trust us with challenges presented, and make no mistake about it, writing can feel like quite a challenge to a beginner."

3. Differentiate and Scaffold: Teachers who are skilled at interactive writing know their students as writers and use that knowledge to tailor the lesson to both the group and individuals. This book contains several progressions for how teachers could scaffold different skills.

For example: Here’s how Matt differentiates adding spaces between words using a range of scaffolding, from high to low:

  • High: Teacher draws lines for words
  • Medium: Student uses finger after each word to create a space
  • Low: Student slides or jumps hand after each word.

4. Engage Every Kid: Matt explains how to skillfully involve every student in interactive writing (even if only one student is holding the official pen), through practices like:

  • 👆 Tracing their finger on the carpet
  • 💨 Writing in the air
  • 🎒 Writing on the back of the child in front of them
  • 📋 Writing on a whiteboard or clipboard
  • 💬 Orally segmenting a word as a group while the student with the pen writes

5. Opportunities Are Everywhere: In the final section, Matt shares how interactive writing looks, feels, sounds, and evolves over the course of a school year and provides visuals of pieces he’s created with students. Examples include:

  • 3D shapes chart
  • Encouraging classroom signs (Matt shared some about empathy and self-talk)
  • Library bin labels
  • Character chart based on a class read-aloud
  • Morning messages
  • Class routines and expectations
"Interactive writing provides the perfect canvas for student-created writing, tools, charts, and yes, even decorations."

The Bottom Line: Interactive writing helps teachers coach students through some of the trickiest writing skills in a scaffolded environment. Use A Teacher’s Guide to Interactive Writing to take your instruction to the next level.

Go Deeper: Look for my follow-up post on May 15th. I’ll share an interactive writing lesson from my Kindergarten classroom trying out Matt’s tips, and announce the winner of the giveaway!

To read more about interactive writing from Two Writing Teachers, check out:

Comment below for your chance to win A Teacher’s Guide to Interactive Writing, by Matt Halpern!

The cover of Matt Halpern's book.

You can win a copy of  A Teacher’s Guide to Interactive Writing by Matt Halpern, donated by Heinemann. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment about this post by Sunday, May 14 at 6:00 p.m. EDT. The winner will be randomly selected by Leah Koch and announced in a follow-up post on May 15th. You must have a U.S. mailing address and provide a valid e-mail address when you post your comment. If you win, Leah will email you for your mailing address. You must respond within five days, or a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!

Published by Leah Koch

Leah is a second grade teacher who is passionate about honoring student voice and identity through writing. She believes that in order for children to see themselves as writers, they deserve trust and autonomy to learn more about themselves and their writing process. If students identify as authors, the motivation, skills, and craft will follow! You can find Leah on Twitter and Threads @LeahKoch_. Leah slices at leahkochtwt.wordpress.com

29 thoughts on “A Teacher’s Guide to Interactive Writing: A Book Review and a Giveaway”

  1. I would love to win this book! I think it would be great to use with my primary teacher’s during our PD time next school year!

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  10. Our district is currently discussing ways to strengthen interactive writing and writing about reading in order to deepen reading comprehension. This sounds like an awesome text. I love the Classroom Essentials books!

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  11. I am so pleased to see that there are others out there who still believe in the power of this instructional approach. This book sounds like an excellent resource!

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  12. Our literacy team has been focusing on reading instruction, and I think interactive writing would be the perfect place to go next. I would love to have a copy of Matt Halpern’s new book. The detail of how to implement these ideas is awesome.

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  14. I’m currently our K-5 literacy coordinator and enjoyed this post’s practical ideas on interactive writing. WE DO such an important coaching move for any skill being taught. Would love to win a copy of this book and see how it might support our current writing practices.

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  15. As a principal at an elementary Title 1 school in Nevada making connections with students is at our focal point. Writing allows every learner an outlet for expression that is needed every day. I love that this book focuses on the why and then the how for teachers. So often we know what they need but not how to provide authentic instruction. This allows educators an intentional guide for interactive writing in a classroom.

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  16. I appreciate resources that help me strengthen my skills to meet all learners’ needs in writing. My students enjoy interactive writing. It is great to have additional strategies and tips to use with my kindergarteners.

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  18. When I was a primary classroom teacher, read aloud and interactive writing were the favorite parts of my day! Now, as an interventionist/coach, I would love to read and share this book with the primary teachers that I work with at my elementary building.

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  20. I absolutely LOVE interactive writing and am so excited to read this new book! I would love to win this book!!

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  21. Hello Happy Teacher’s Appreciation Week! I am an Instructional Coach that spent a year doing empeded Writing Professional Development for the 2021-2022 school year. I would love a chance to win this and share with my teams. Thank you again! Best regards, Gina Dell’Aringa-K-5 Instructional Coach-Washington School at East Maine School District 63 in Des Plaines, IL

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  22. Though the book is geared toward TK-2, I think interactive writing will be hugely beneficial for my third graders next year, since they have limited exposure to writing.

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  23. IW can appear as a simple procedure. However it requires a lot of thought to gain the most results. Love the Classroom Essentials series.

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  24. I have so many teachers that are asking for help with interactive writing. This is so key. Thank you for sharing this and I would love to win this book!!!

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  25. The Classroom Essentials Series is phenomenal. I can’t wait to read the newest addition to the series on interactive writing.

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  26. Eager to share Matt’s ideas with the school coach! The teachers are looking for growth edges in teaching writing for themselves as well as their children. The school is a cultural center in the district working with many EL students and interactive writing at all grades would be so helpful! Yes, videos!

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  28. Right now, we are revising the launch of reading and writing workshop in Kindergarten. We want our first two units to focus on storytelling in reading and writing. We are wanting these first two units to be more play based. Lots of language and exposure to emergent story books Great reminder about the power of interactive writing as we begin to dig deep into print.

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  29. I bought this book and started to dive in already. This would be a great book to read and discuss with a colleague. It’s user friendly with lots of student examples and videos.

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