Teacher Directed Dictated & Interactive Writing

Dictated Writing

• Child tells story & teacher writes down exactly what is said
• Child has freedom to create elaborate stories without writing
• Child is in zone of proximal development with teacher support
• Develops sight vocabulary and phonemic awareness
• Builds speech to print matching skills

Picture-based dictations

• Teacher provides a picture or drawing
• Single picture with few details or sequence of pictures
• Picture can depict a character, or a sequence of events
• Children build a story around the pictures

Experience-based dictations

• Collaborative group story
• Teacher gives simple prompt or question
• Based on shared experience
• Can be a field trip, class activity, etc.
• Students take turns building story

Interactive Writing

• Higher level of student participation
• Direct instruction focuses on language concepts
• Teacher asks questions about sounds in words
• Students sound out and spell words
• Effective for whole group or individual instruction

Dictated Writing Video

Interactive Writing Video

Pragmatic Knowledge

• Children tell personal stories
• Relate to experiences or events
• Telling stories to peers vs. adults
• Sentence structure, intonation, pacing.

Phonological Knowledge

• Letter to sound connections
• Alphabetic knowledge
• Sight Words
• Receptive and Expressive language

Morphemic Knowledge

• Learn word structure through visual representation
• Practice verb tenses
• Practice comparatives and superlatives

Syntactic Knowledge

Semantic Knowledge

Annie Ape

Dictated and interactive writing develops receptive and expressive language skills and helps children become independent writers!

References
Behymer, A. (2003). Kindergarten writing workshop. The Reading Teacher, 57 (1), 85-88. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20205324
Leneway, K. & Tratt, A. (2014). Haiku Deck (beta) [presentation software]. Available from: www.haikudeck.com
Kindergarten interactive writing day two [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtc2dDX3h8A

Letter-by-letter dictation raises learning to incredible heights. (n.d.). Annie Ape. Retrieved from: http://www.annieape.com/page/dictation.html
Otto, B. (2014). Language development in early childhood education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Writer’s Workshop [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI2LBpCwyOE