Interactive Writing

I started the year very hesitant and overwhelmed to attempt Interactive Writing in our first grade classroom. I didn't understand it and it made me nervous. What do we write about? How do we keep it authentic? We attempted to tie it into our work with our author study of Kevin Henkes and his books. Our class especially enjoyed his books about his mice characters: Lily, Chester, and Wendell. We decided to discuss their character traits by providing evidence from the texts. We made a list of their traits around their illustrations (yes, I have been teaching myself to draw this year, too!) and we noticed similarities and differences amongst these different characters. Here are some pictures to show where we started this journey of interactive writing: 

What do you think?

More to share later :)