The Reading-Writing Connection

The Reading-Writing Connection

I think that many persons consider these two language arts as the most important ones-reading and writing.  I also think that it is for this reason, more emphasis is now placed on connecting these two language arts, although I already believe that they go hand in hand.

The booklet I was required to read for this entry explores the connection of reading and writing, mainly in the teaching of poetry. As we all know, poetry is an integral element of the language arts curriculum, and also one of the topics that students tend to be most afraid of or shy away from. When reading and interacting with the information, all I could have remembered was my English lecturer telling us how important it is for students to firstly enjoy a poem before they analyze it. When I first heard him say that, I thought that, that statement goes against everything I was supposedly ‘taught’ at school. However, my experience during this course and this new information has taught me that it is important that students firstly interact with the poem as a whole, before breaking it down.  It is important that students be introduced to a poem in a way that will encourage them to want to really study it.

Let me jump a few sections….

During my readings, one thing that fascinated me (after confusing me) was that the research had shown that students are naturally more developmentally ready to write than to read and that also teachers should  introduce students to reading by writing. 

I have lived most of my life, believing and practicing that children learn to write through reading, and of course, this has implicated my teaching. However, it is never too late to learn. But upon reading and understanding the document, I have come to realize that it makes some sense, because thinking about my 3 yr old cousin, who scribbles anything and everything and then comes to explain to you what she has‘written’. To us, what she has makes no sense, but to her, it does, to the point where she can explain to someone what she has written because her ideas are clear and concrete and comprehensible to her. For this reason, maybe it will work to the advantage of the students if they are exposed to writing before reading…..but…how will you know what you can write or what to right…if you do not know the words to use or …. how to read???? Unless you are a 3 year old with a wild imagination…You feel me??

Anyway…I guess I am still a novice English teacher, I anticipate that as I grow and develop in teaching English Language, all these concepts and theories will eventually become clearer to me. 

Another interesting part of my reading that I had already mentioned was the concept of Holism, which basically is firstly considering {a poem} as a whole, before breaking in down and analyzing it. Since the readings was focused on poetry, I understand that when Holism is applied in poetry in the classroom,  the teacher reads the entire poem to the students, emphasizing background information which would foster a keener interest in reading the poem. I also expect that holism would involve presenting the poem in a way to students that they would enjoy and be excited about. By using this concept to introduce poetry, students will be provided with adequate information that will enable them to approach the poem more critically…when the time for that comes.

From my readings and from my teacher training thus far, I have been told that writing should always be student centered and not teacher centered.  But how do you make you lesson students-centered, specifically writing lessons? I think this is the point where the integration of the two arts comes to the forefront. I believe that in order for teachers to FACILITATE good writing in students, teachers should provide many opportunities for students to read, however, this goes against my first point where reading should be taught through writing, but I guess this is just reflective of the fact that both arts are indeed integrated. I believe that good readers become good writers and good writers are good readers.

From my discussion, I anticipate that you would already know that one of the obstacles that I would face is probably teaching writing before reading. But to overcome this, I plan on getting strategies that will allow me to marry the two concepts even further. I also have to be careful that I do not influence students’ writing in such a way that it no longer reflects their own. I think that by making lessons more student-centered, students will also begin to develop and strengthen their critical thinking, analytical and creative skills.

One recommendation that I would make to teachers, especially myself, about implementing these procedures is to get proper training and resources that will allow and help you to implement the strategies in the most effective way possible.