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Reading and writing are typically taught separately, and neither is usually taught in the content areas. But the evidence from studies by literacy researchers indicates that if we connect these areas of learning and teach writing explicitly and in a logical sequence, students will become better readers, writers and learners.

When students are acquiring foundational literacy skills, it’s beneficial to teach them how to decode words along with how to encode, or spell, them. That helps children understand the relationship between the sounds in words and the letters that represent those sounds.

What about reading comprehension abilities such as making inferences or finding the main idea of a text? To develop those, it’s important to not only connect reading and writing but also to connect literacy instruction generally to rich content in the curriculum.

If students are reading about a topic they know little or nothing about, it will be difficult or impossible for them to make an inference. And writing coherently about a topic that’s unfamiliar is even harder, especially for inexperienced writers. If, however, students read and write about topics they’ve already learned something about, they’ll have more cognitive capacity for the challenging tasks of reading and writing, and they’ll be deepening knowledge they’ve already acquired.

Freeing Capacity

When introducing new information, it’s best to connect all four aspects of literacy: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In 1984, researchers T.G. Sticht and J. James found students’ listening comprehension exceeds their reading comprehension through about age 13 on average, meaning they can take in more complex concepts and vocabulary through listening than through their own reading.

Why? If nonproficient readers listen to text being read by an expert reader, that expert is shouldering the cognitive work of decoding words and figuring out where to put the emphasis in a sentence. That frees up capacity in the listeners’ working memory to absorb new information. If students engage in class discussion about new concepts they’ve heard about, that helps transfer the new information to long-term memory.

Now, equipped with background knowledge about a topic, students are likely to be able to read about that topic at a higher level than you might expect. If they’re also getting explicit, manageable writing instruction, they’ll be able to write more coherently about the topic. Teachers who have tried this approach are often surprised by what their students are capable of doing.

Eventually, through learning about a series of topics over several years, students will acquire the critical mass of general academic knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to understand complex texts on topics they don’t already know something about and, after acquiring new knowledge through reading, to write coherently about them.

—   Natalie Wexler