Guided writing involves a teacher working with a group on a writing task, aiming to support learners in this psychologically and cognitively difficult activity. Which term describes this approach?

• A. Guided writing
• B. Free practice
• C. Global comprehension
• D. Gloss

Answer: (A)

Guided writing centers on providing structured support during the writing process. The teacher works with a group to model strategies, offer prompts, demonstrate sentence structures, and give feedback as students plan, draft, and revise. This scaffolding helps learners handle the cognitive load and emotional effort involved in writing, making the task more manageable and learnable.

Free practice, in contrast, emphasizes writing more independently with little guidance, which doesn’t fit the scenario described. Global comprehension is about understanding meaning in reading, not producing writing. A gloss is a note added to explain or translate a word in a text, not a teaching approach for guiding writing.