Writing Supports Reading Instruction

Sarah F. Mahurt
Purdue University
Adapted from Mahurt, S. (2005). Writing is reading. Indiana Reading Journal. 37(1), 19-26.

Writing is Reading
     “Instruction has persistently separated reading from writing in a way which would be insufferable in learning to listen and speak” (Holdaway, 1984, p. 3). When rereading this quote recently, I started thinking: With the emphasis put upon the teaching of reading in the primary grades today, there seems to be a missing link to writing instruction that could improve children’s reading ability.

Figure Caption Figure 1. Reading/writing process

     How are reading and writing linked? There are common elements in the reading and writing processes. Writers develop ideas for text, while readers predict what a text is about. At the point of action, readers read and writers write. Readers search for information on a page of text using their knowledge of letters and letter sounds, syntax, and semantics to understand the text, while writers use that same knowledge to produce meaningful text. Writers use similar information about language and language processes as readers do. Since the writing a writer produces becomes reading, the two acts come together. Readers and writers both reread text to confirm that they are right or to self correct. In writing, this is part of the revision and editing processes and in reading this is part of problem solving and monitoring. (See Figure 1). “In reading we turn print into language and the language into print to confirm. In writing, we turn language into print then print into language to confirm” (Mooney, 2003). The processes are complementary.

     In addition to the processes of reading and writing, there are features of text that are important to comprehending during reading that can be developed through both reading and writing. An understanding of various genres and how text structures work develops as the writer tries them out in his/her writing. Also, the cohesive ties that are present in texts as an aid to understanding must be put into texts being written. The reciprocity of recognizing those ties as a reader and producing them as a writer help with the development of children’s literacy.

     Along with the interaction between reading and writing in composition and text, there are also features of print that can be reinforced through both reading and writing. Marie Clay (1998) states that “the interactive liaison between composing and constructing a written message and reading it back provides opportunities for noticing some of the ways in which language works, while forming letters calls attention to perceptual forms and critical features” (p. 132). The early understandings that children need to learn as part of becoming literate are needed in both reading and writing. Learning that spoken words can be presented in print and that text is related to speech is an important early concept that can be developed both in reading and in writing. Going back to the days of the language experience approach, there has been an emphasis on the value of learning to write while learning to read (Stauffer, 1970). The directional principles of the English language can be taught in both reading and writing. Where do we start on the page as a reader and as a writer?  Any of the conventions of print, such as punctuation and its meaning, use of capital letters, the application of letter/sound knowledge, and visual spelling knowledge all can be learned and practiced both through reading and writing.

     The National Reading Panel (NRP) (2001) reported five areas of literacy instruction that are important in early literacy learning. They are: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction. It is important to realize how writing can contribute to children’s learning in each of these areas.

Phonemic Awareness
     First, phonemic awareness, the awareness of sounds that make up spoken words, can be developed through writing. Writing allows for the slow analysis of sounds and this sound analysis develops phonemic awareness. Children at the early stages of writing say words slowly and hear the sounds in words they are thinking of writing. They repeatedly say the word they want to write and think about the first sound they hear, the next, to the end of the word. This repetition of saying words slowly and thinking about sounds heard is important practice in phonemic awareness. Teachers model this action through different modeled writing activities, such as shared writing or interactive writing, providing specific examples of how to listen for sounds and blend and segment sounds in words.

     In a kindergarten shared-writing lesson I observed, the class was preparing a retelling of The Gingerbread Man after they read several versions of the story. They discussed what they wanted to say and were creating a list of characters to put in their retelling. The first character the class wanted to include was a cat. The teacher modeled saying the word cat slowly and asked the children to repeat the word cat slowly. She then asked what sounds they heard. One student said she heard the /t/ sound. The teacher then modeled phonemic awareness in this way:

Teacher (T): Yes, there is a /t/ sound at the end of the word cat. Let’s say cat again and think what we hear at the beginning of the word.
[Class repeats saying cat.]
T: I hear a /k/ sound at the beginning of the word. Say it again and see if you hear /k/ at the beginning of the word cat.
[Class repeats saying cat and several add /k/, /k/, /k/.]
The teacher then writes the word cat on the chart while saying it slowly.

     Young children, when writing independently, use this process of listening for sounds in words as part of inventing spellings for words they want to write. There is evidence that children who use invented spelling in their writing at the early stages of learning to read develop phonemic awareness and an understanding of the alphabetic principle, important aspects for learning to read (Adams, 1990; Teale & Yokota, 2000).

Phonics
     Letter/sound knowledge is developed in writing in ways similar to that for phonemic awareness. The teacher’s modeling of how sounds work in words adds the graphic symbols and information about how those symbols work in print. Thus, children are guided to move from hearing sounds in words to writing the letters that represent those sounds, which is an important part of phonics instruction. Writing highlights letter forms, letter sequences, letter clusters and their relationship to letter sounds (Clay, 1998) and provides opportunities to apply phonics principles. Writing provides for close attention to how words work. Writing breaks down text into the smallest features of written language, letters, that are used to build words and sentences. “Writing reveals the taking apart and building up potential of the code to young children” (Clay, 1998, p. 131) who are learning to read and write. This type of word solving is important in both reading and writing. Word analysis can be explicitly taught in phonics lessons, then practiced through guided lessons that include interactive writing and shared writing before moving to independence in writing—or in reading.

            In an interactive-writing lesson, a first-grade teacher started by reviewing a phonics lesson previously taught. She talked about consonant clusters and how, when reading, readers can look for those larger chunks to help decode words. She went on to talk about using consonant clusters when writing words.

The class recently completed shared readings of the book Pumpkin, Pumpkin (Titherington, 1986) as well as other books about plants. They also planted pumpkin seeds to observe their growth. This day they were doing an interactive-writing lesson to describe what they were observing in their plants. After negotiating the text and deciding on what to write, the class chose the sentence: “The seed turns into a sprout.” The lesson continued:

T: [after writing the word the]. As readers we look for parts we know, as writers what can we do?
Student (S1): Write parts we hear.
T: Yes, you can do that. We can listen for parts.
S (2): Seed has see in it. S-E-E-D. [One student writes seed on chart]
[Later in the lesson]
T: Sprout. Sprout has parts you know.
S (several): Out
T: Yes. Out. What about the consonant cluster?
S (several): /spr/, /spr/, S-P-R [One student writes spr on the chart, the teacher adds out].
[More interactive writing takes place to complete the sentence and add another].
T: [At the end of the lesson]. Today, you listened for parts you know. [When you write] think about what you hear and what you know, like the consonant cluster in sprout. You can use what you know when you are writing.

     This lesson shows the application of phonics in writing. The idea of looking for parts (in reading) or hearing parts of words (in writing) adds to children’s knowledge of how words work.

Fluency
     Writing can also contribute to fluency. One aspect of reading fluency is the automatic recognition of words in text. In addition to the benefits of sound/symbol knowledge gained through phonics instruction, fluent readers need to quickly recognize high frequency words in extended text. As is similar in fluent reading, the act of fluent writing requires the ability to quickly scribe words. Writing allows for close attention to how words look and can help build a child’s knowledge of a variety of words and word structures. Those words that can be written quickly and automatically may be more quickly recognized in reading as well. The automatic writing of words allows students to expend their thought energy on composing meaningful texts, while in reading; the automatic recognition of words allows children’s attention to be focused on other processing issues such as monitoring and comprehending.

     I was concerned about my first-grade students using the word wall as a crutch during reading and writing. They were looking up at the word wall for simple words I felt they should know fluently. I began to address this issue by announcing that certain words would be retired from the word wall since they were words everyone knew or should have known. We started by retiring the words: we, me, I, see. These retired words were put in their own pocket on the word wall as well as in a retired word dictionary that we ceremoniously started. It was important that I made the retirement significant so that students understood the value of learning the high-frequency words and learning to write them quickly. Each week we retired at least one word from the word wall. I continued to see the retired words spelled correctly in student writing and saw that they did not need to consult the pocket of retired words or the retired word dictionary. Emphasizing the importance of learning to write frequently-used words quickly helped children become accountable for learning to write those words automatically. It also transferred to faster processing of high frequency words while reading.

Vocabulary
     Writing, especially teacher-modeled writing, can help develop children’s vocabulary. Knowing what words mean is important for comprehending texts and for propelling the reading process. Through the composition and revision processes, writers think about word choice, choosing the “just right” word for the precise meaning. Talking about word choice and why one word would be better than another can develop vocabulary.

     Another aspect of the writing process that can lead to developing vocabulary is through the use of literary language. Expanding writing through the addition of descriptive language, such as idioms, metaphors, and similes, is another way that vocabulary can be developed.

     In a writing workshop minilesson, a second-grade teacher reread some descriptive language from several books she had read aloud to the children. One of the books, Red Dancing Shoes (Patrick, 1993), described the shoes that had gotten dirty as “blotchy and muddy and sticky (n.p.).” The class talked about what “blotchy” meant and how the author made the image of the dirty shoes come alive. The teacher charged the children to use more colorful language in their own writing. This discussion about word meaning not only helped children learn a word but piqued their interest in finding new words in their reading and words they could use in their writing.

Comprehension
     The link between writing and comprehension may not be as clear as it is with the four other elements of early reading, but I believe there are compelling links. One link is through the continual monitoring of text that takes place when a person is writing. Teaching children to reread their written work with a reader in mind to check for meaning teaches children the importance of meaning in text. Another aspect of comprehension that can be developed through writing is the understanding of text structures (Clay, 2004). Once children have written their own texts, attending to sequence or plot structure, they may attend to those when they read (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

     Writing slows down thought processes and allows for categorizing and structuring thoughts. Developing a text requires linkages to background knowledge and the organization of thoughts and experiences in a way that cannot be done through talking about a text or reading it. Asking children to respond to reading through writing also develops the ability to more thoughtfully synthesize text through the slowed down process of writing.
     There are comprehension strategies that can be developed through writing. Writers need to think about their overarching idea or theme and what important details to include. Readers need to determine main idea and theme and identify important details as they read (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997). When teaching the craft of writing, primary teachers often focus on descriptive language. Teaching children to write using description ties directly to their ability to develop mental images, a comprehension strategy (Zimmerman & Hutchins, 2003).

     Looking at the five elements of early reading instruction (NRP, 2001) and instructional contexts in writing, we can see a close connection between what children learn as readers and what children learn as writers. Clay (1998) states:
Writing allows a slow analysis of detail in print; both reading and writing draw on
the same sources of knowledge about letters, sounds, chunks, clusters, words,
syntax (or grammar and sentence construction), the rules of discourse, and
narrative structures and genre differences; . . . dipping into a large pool of both
reading and writing may help those with limited knowledge of the language, and
may have cognitive advantages.” (p. 139)

     There are connections between learning to read and write that can be useful to beginning readers (Langer & Flihan, 2000; Teale & Yokota, 2000). These connections help children link written language processes which makes learning to both read and write more successful. I am not advocating that we use writing in service of learning to read. I am advocating that we not neglect writing in the push for improving reading. Learning to write has importance in its own, but the two processes of both reading and writing can better be developed together.

References

Adams, M. J. (1990).

Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001).

Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.

Clay, M. M. (1998).

By different paths to common outcomes. York, ME: Stenhouse.

Clay, M. M. (2004, Spring).

Talking, reading, writing. Journal of Reading Recovery, pp. 1-14.

Holdaway, D. (1984).

Stability and change in literacy learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Keene, E. O., & Zimmerman, S. (1997).

Mosaic of thought. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Langer, J. A., & Flihan, S. (2000).

Writing and reading relationships: Constructive tasks. In R. Indrisano & J. R. Squires (Eds.), Perspectives in writing research, theory, and practice (pp. 112-139). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Mooney, M. (2003).

Reading with the pen and writing in the head. Paper presented at the National Reading Recovery and Descubriendo la Lectura Conference, Columbus, OH.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NRP). (2001).

Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. Reports of the Subgroups. Washington, DC: National Institutes of Health.

Patrick, D. L. (1993).

Red dancing shoes. New York: Harper Trophy.

Stauffer, R. (1970).

The language experience approach. New York: Harper & Row.

Teale, W. H., & Yokota, J. (2000).

Beginning reading and writing: Perspectives on instruction. In D. Strickland & L. M. Morrow (Eds.), Beginning reading and writing (pp. 3-21). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Titherington, J. (1986).

Pumpkin, pumpkin. New York: Harper Collins.

Zimmerman, S. & Hutchins, C. (2003).

Seven keys to comprehension. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Sarah Mahurt

Sarah F. Mahurt is the director of the Purdue Literacy Collaborative and associate professor of Literacy and Language Education at Purdue. Through her leadership, the Purdue Literacy Collaborative has trained more than 80 literacy coordinators to be literacy leaders and coaches in their schools. Dr. Mahurt's recent publications include an article on the integration of reading and writing and an upcoming book on the transition between the primary and intermediate grades. She has also made numerous presentations on children's literature, literacy teaching and learning in elementary schools, and school reform in literacy education. She has consulted with schools and districts focusing on improving student achievement in reading and writing. She recently chaired a committee to develop a state-wide network of educators in Indiana who are focused on improving writing instruction. In more than 25 years as an educator, Dr. Mahurt has worked as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and university professor and has received numerous awards for her work.

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