The Practice Page as a Mediational Tool for Interactive Writing Instruction

This paper examines, from the perspective of mediated action (Wertsch, 1991, 1998), the ways in which an experienced, primary‐grade teacher used and continually modified an instructional too—“the practice page”—to mediate specific aspects of interactive writing, an approach to beginning writing instruction. The authors provide a detailed, theoretical account of the teacher's use of this instructional tool and argue that it provided a context for the kinds of explicit instruction and authentic activity that research demonstrates is essential to young children's literacy learning.