Video: Shared Pen: Jointly Constructed Writing - Group 1

In this video, a Foundation-Year 1 teacher is jointly constructing a group writing lesson. The learning area is Science. The lesson follows on from previous lessons about how humans can help pollinators. The class has planted flowers, made bee hotels and prepared water bowls for pollinators in the school kitchen garden. (See the video How humans can help pollinators, From principles to practice: planting flowers and From principles to practice: making drinking bowls for pollinators.) 

This writing strategy is known as ‘Shared Pen’. Everyone in the group has a turn at writing something, with the teacher assisting, referring back to the class notes on display, and thinking out loud as a writer, and a speller. The teacher is modelling many aspects of writing. This is very focused work, and in a Junior Primary classroom, 15 minutes per group seems often to be about the right timing. (See the video Shared Pen: jointly constructed writing Group 2 to see how the teacher continues writing the same text with the next group.) 

This lesson is followed by chorus and individual reading of the text that was constructed bit by bit by small groups.  

Key Takeaways

• Notice that this is a negotiated text: the teacher leads off, and the students contribute all the bits they know from previous lessons. The teacher doesn’t leave it as a free for all. 
• Notice how the teacher talk switches from composing (what shall we say?) to counting words (one-to-one correspondence), to finger spaces, to syllabification, to onset-rime, to digraphs and letters, and letter formation. This thinking aloud means that it’s not only the turn-taking student who is engaged in this thinking, but all students in the group. 
• Notice how the teacher models ‘doing a run-up’: re-reading what they’ve already written so that no words are missed out.