Why Your Readers Should Be Writing

By Lauren Sands, M. Ed.

“Ugh why are you making me write if I’m here for reading?” This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a student cry about writing - and it won’t be my last.

“Don’t worry, there’s a method to my madness” I patiently remind my little writers. (They usually end up loving the process - I swear!). Did you know that writing is actually considered a pre-reading skill? Writing can prepare new readers for a lifetime of knowledge. It can also take our students from the lowest level of thinking to the highest level of thinking (don’t worry, I explain below!).

Here are a handful of reasons why your readers should be writing:

1. Writing helps decode our sound-symbol system. When we ask our readers to identify the sounds they hear by writing, we are asking them to segment and blend. Segmenting and blending are two fundamental early reading skills and ideal in any phonics practice.

2. Writing helps reinforce the Alphabetic Principle (words are made of sounds that are written with symbols). In fact, neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene (2010) conducted a study on the brain that linked early writing skills directly to the part of our brain responsible for decoding, activating, and coordinating reading circuitry. How cool is that?!

3. Writing also helps our early readers understand the concept of the printed language, like when we write left to right, the same way we read. Concepts of print also include reading from the top of a page to the bottom of the page. The spaces between words, the spaces between lines, and exploring the relationship between the print and pictures on a page are also examples of concepts of prints. As adults, we sometimes forget that reading is a complex skill and writing can help kiddos master this essential, complex life skill.

4. Writing helps readers comprehend, apply, evaluate, and synthesize information. When we ask our writers to explain what they read in their own words, we are asking them to exhibit a higher-order of thinking. It’s not an easy task to take in information and understand it. When we ask a student to write about this new information, we are now asking them to evaluate new concepts and relate it to concepts they already know, generating their own original thoughts, opinions, and hopefully inferences.

In the end, writing takes our readers from knowing to understanding and understanding to application. Reading and writing will create learners and thinkers. And the entire goal of education is to create learners and thinkers that question and explore, not memorize facts with no inquiry or curiosity. Teach a child how to learn and they will learn for a lifetime.

Dehaene, S. (2010). Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read, Penguin Books, New York,

NY.