Modeled interactive writing is especially helpful in the early elementary grades. Children learn best with hands-on approaches. They encourages participation and give students the ability to learn from each other as well as the teacher. To help with word recognition, ask the class to compose a simple story with four or five sentences. Using a white board or pin board and words written on cards, ask the students to take turns picking out the correct words and add them to the board in the proper sequence. This exercise could be a daily or weekly activity.
When the students have mastered picking out individual words, it is time to ask the students to create a simple sentence. With a series of words available, ask the students to create a sentence such as "I went to school" or "I rode my bicycle." An added level of challenge is for each student to add a complementary sentence such as "I did my spelling" or "My friends ride bicycles too." The goal is to create a mini story.
When students have learned the concept of putting words together to write a simple sentence, the next step is to put thoughts together to form compound sentences. Starting with simple sentences on a white board or pin board, ask the students to study the sentences and suggest sentences that can be connected with "and," "as" or "but" to make one sentence with two actions or a compound sentence. Allowing students to move the words around will help them form a thought process for building sentences.
Once all the elements are in place, it is time to put it all together to create a story. After the students brainstorm a story, allow each one to take a turn and write a sentence. This can be achieved on a white board with markers. Encourage students to "think aloud" the process and thought they are using to decide word location. Once the story is written, a second exercise is to rearrange the sentences to create a new story.