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Another way to engage students in content-area writing is through writing stations. One great way to support students through the writing process and help them develop content-area writing skills is to engage them in center-style activities that can support their writing without tasking them to formally write. Meyer (2018) describes writing stations she has used in her fourth grade classroom during science units. The picture above is an example of a reading and writing station that her students completed during a unit on the three types of rock - students engaged with materials such as books and videos then sorted rocks into the three types (Meyer, 2018). This could be differentiated by students working independently or in a partnership or small group depending on ability levels and goals needing to be met by the task. This could be designed for any science or social studies topic, or even some math concepts. This is something that could be done with younger students and the words students need to sort could include visuals on the pieces that will be cut and glued, and could still work for older students. Having students complete these activities in an interactive science notebook then make the resource available to students when they need to move forward into more formal writing. Work from writing stations can be used to allow students to write in an 'open-notes' style writing workshop where students can engage with the activities they have completed throughout the unit. To support emergent writers, this could be paired with sentence starters or a model (possibly completed through a shared or interactive writing session).

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Interactive Writing Explanation and Example

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Interactive Writing Explanation and Example

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In the video, EL Education (2018) exemplifies interactive writing during the writing block, but the strategy could be used during content area lessons or cross-curricular lessons.

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Bates, C. C. (2021). What is interactive writing & how can I really make it work? https://www.weareteachers.com/interactive-writing.
EL Education. (2018, February 16). K-2 skills block: Interactive writing [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf8nUq169jQ.
Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (n.d.). A range of writing across the content areas. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/writing/articles/range-writing-across-content-areas.
Meyer, J. (2018). How to Integrate Writing Across Content Areas. https://theliteracyloft.com/2018/07/how-to-integrate-writing-across-content-areas.
Richardson, A. (2019). Shared writing. https://www.mrsrichardsonsclass.com/shared-writing.

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Shared Writing versus Interactive Writing

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Shared Writing versus Interactive Writing

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Two strategies for supporting struggling writers include shared writing and interactive writing. Modeling is very supportive of increasing writing skills especially in young students, and shared and interactive writing take modeling further to include the student more.

What is shared writing?
Shared writing is the practice of the teacher modeling the writing process for students while students contribute the topics, ideas, or information that will be included in the writing piece. Fisher & Frey define shared writing as when teachers "transcribe natural student language into the printed word so that students can begin to learn that print carries a message" and explain that "grammatical errors may be left intact because they are early attempts by students to formulate messages." Richardson (2019) explains that "shared writing is an opportunity to scaffold learning to help build strong and confident writers. It also creates a mentor text that students get to participate in writing that they can also refer back to if needed." Mentor texts are important for students as it provides them with a model of what their own writing may look like. Mentor texts are also used to exemplify specific skills, writing strategies/styles, etc. Mentor texts could be a book, passage, magazine article, or other published form of writing, but students may connect with the mentor text more when they had a role in creating it and watched the writing process occur.
Richardson (2019) explains that shared writing is accessible for all students, even those who are not yet able to produce any writing of their own. Opposed to scribing an individual student's writing that they vocalize, they get to collaborate with peers and witness the writing process and specific skills be modeled by the teacher or potentially other students. Richardson (2019) also explains that shared writing makes the writing process more accessible to ELL students as they may experience difficulties writing their ideas in English.
Shared writing is often used during the writing block in the elementary classroom, but shared writing can be used in any content area. For example, if students are learning how to write about their thinking in math, before students are expected to do this independently (or with a scaffolded level of support), the teacher may do a shared writing piece with the class where they discuss their thinking and the teacher models how to write it in the mathematical thinking style. Additionally, if students are working on procedural writing in science, for example, how a plant grows, the class could participate in a shared writing experience where they share their knowledge verbally and collaborate to the piece the teacher writes as a model for the class.

What is Interactive Writing?
Interactive writing takes shared writing one step further and makes the student a participant in the physical act of writing. Fisher and Frey explain that interactive writing "differs in that the students are the ones writing, and the accuracy of the message is deliberated and refined before it is written." Bates (2021) states "interactive writing (IW) has decades of research behind it, yet many teachers may not recognize the power it has to develop children’s writing and reading skills." Some examples include fill-in-the-blanks in class pieces of reading such as a morning message that the students help the teacher complete, or having students be part of the process in creating anchor charts (Bates, 2021). The teacher may choose to focus on a specific skill when having students participate in interactive writing pieces and may intentionally choose students to help write when they have such close teacher (and peer) support. Initially it was thought that interactive would be most supportive for emergent writers, but research has shown that interactive writing supports students with more advanced writing skills as well (Fisher & Frey). Like shared writing, interactive writing can be used beyond the writing block and can be a part of any instructional block.

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Challenges for 2nd Grade Writers in Content-Area Activities

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Challenges for 2nd Grade Writers in Content-Area Activities

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In second grade, many students are still working on the craft of writing. They are still learning how to use appropriate grammar, sentence structure, and spelling, and they are still building writing stamina. This can make content-area writing (writing what they know about a certain topic) even more difficult.
In second grade, many students still struggle with reading. Reading and writing skills often complement each other, and reading is often used to find information to support ideas in writing. This means, many times, students will need support with both during reading and writing lessons and in content-area lessons that include one or both.