The Reading & Writing Connection

Reading and Writing are reciprocal communication processes. When children develop word identification and comprehension skills for reading they are also strengthening their understanding of spelling skills and writing techniques. It is important that parents and educators encourage the development of this synergistic relationship.

As children develop their reading comprehension they learn to question why an author writes in a certain way or uses specific words, so they begin thinking like a writer. As children develop their writing skills they learn to revise and edit their own writing for clarity, so they start thinking like a reader. Similarly, as children develop phonics skills to decode unfamiliar words they are also learning letter patterns that will allow them to become better spellers. As you can see, Reading and Writing are definitely connected!

Whether your child is writing sentences in kindergarten, paragraphs in elementary school, essays in middle school or a research paper in high school, their work will be evaluated with a focus on the same traits of good writing. You can help strengthen your child’s understanding of these writing traits with the fun activities listed below. Don’t forget that when you improve your child’s writing skills his reading skills will improve too!

• Ideas: To help your child learn how to come up with original ideas for writing, play the “What If . . .” game. Take turns coming up with possibilities like What if that statue comes alive? What if I become invisible? What if Canada invades New York State? What if the stock market crashes? What if I mix these 2 products/colors/chemicals?

• Organization: Work together to organize and categorize things in your home. Model a variety of ways to arrange books on a shelf or stock and organize a pantry or storage room. Work together to plan a party or vegetable garden or teach your child to set a table or pack a suitcase or back pack.

• Word Choice: Help your child build an extensive oral vocabulary. Play Synonym games by matching words that have similar meanings such as big/large/giant, worried/distraught/troubled or dogmatic/inflexible/stubborn. Play Antonym games by matching words with opposite meanings like gaunt/plump, tiny/colossal or generous/stingy. Have fun describing colorful pictures on menus or in magazines by using your 5 senses (see, hear, smell, taste, touch) to generate lists of Adjectives such as beautiful, shrill, putrid, sour and rough.

• Sentence Fluency: Help your child learn how to write interesting sentences. Take turns saying short sentences and revising them into longer sentences. For example, State: “The man walked down the road. He was tired. He was old.” Revision: “The tired old man walked down the road.” For older children, combine Word Choice with Sentence Fluency “The elderly, exhausted man stumbled down the meandering road.”

• Voice: Read aloud sentences/passages from a book by authors who have a very distinct style like Dr. Seuss or Robert Munsch. Have your child guess the author without looking at the cover or title page. You can also use tone and speech patterns to identify recorded voices of cartoon characters, family members, sports figures, actors, political candidates or activists.

• Conventions: Conventions are agreements of how writers will use punctuation, capitalization and grammar to help us understand text. To demonstrate the value of conventions/rules, stress how conventions also promote understanding and clarity in the real world. Discuss how Driving Conventions keep traffic flowing safely on our roads or how staying to the right helps people avoid bumping into each other when they are walking down a hallway or climbing a staircase.

• Presentation: Show your child how things that are clean and neat are more appealing and maintain their value. Work together to discover the value of a crumpled baseball card vs the value of the same baseball card that is in pristine condition or estimate the value of a rusty bike vs a clean and shiny bike.

Don’t forget to have fun while helping your child become a Successful Reader and Writer!