I have a confession: I love dark chocolate and peanut butter. They're amazing on their own, but they're even better together. The same goes for reading and writing. When we teach them together, we maximize student learning because reading and writing are interrelated, and combining them can deepen our critical thinking about the texts we read.
Lately, there’s been so much emphasis on the science of reading that the science of writing is sometimes left out of discussions about effective, evidence-based literacy instruction. However, understanding how reading and writing support each other makes a strong case for why they’re better when taught together.
How are reading and writing connected?
Reading and writing have a reciprocal relationship, where writing instruction improves reading, and reading instruction improves writing. As a result, literacy programs that emphasize both reading and writing can significantly enhance students' performance in both areas. These programs lead to observed gains in reading, such as decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension, and in writing, including volume, mechanics, and quality.
According to literacy expert Tim Shanahan, reading and writing are “two buckets drawing water from a common well or two buildings built on a common foundation.” These analogies highlight how reading and writing rely on the same cognitive processes and sources of knowledge, including phonological, orthographic, morphological, and syntactic knowledge. Writers and readers use this shared knowledge to decode (read) and encode (write) words, and they use it to comprehend (read) and construct (write) sentences and larger units of text.
Recent evidence from the science of reading and writing suggests that integrating rather than separating reading and writing instruction can yield the best results.
What is the science of reading and writing?
According to The Reading League, “The science of reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing. This research has been conducted over the last five decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages. The science of reading has culminated in a preponderance of evidence to inform how proficient reading and writing develop; why some have difficulty; and how we can most selectively assess and teach and, therefore, improve student outcomes.”
Reading research since 2000 has continued to validate the “Big 6,” with one important distinction. Informed by research in neuroscience, the field of education now has a deeper understanding of how the brain learns to read. For example, we now know that learning to read is not an innate cognitive process, as oral language is, and it involves forming new connections between different parts of the brain. This means students cannot naturally acquire reading skills through repeated exposure to printed text. Instead, foundational reading skills like phonics are best learned when explicitly and systematically taught. This type of structured literacy instruction benefits all students, but it is essential for students with dyslexia and multilingual learners who have unique needs when compared to their monolingual peers.
Similarly, the science of writing is based on a preponderance of evidence from decades of research, which has revealed six key components of effective writing programs:
- Students write frequently for real and different purposes.
- Students are supported by teachers and peers as they write.
- Students are taught essential writing skills, strategies, and processes.
- Students write using word processors and other 21st-century tools when appropriate.
- Students write in positive and motivating environments.
- Students write and read in a connected way that supports learning.
How can we integrate writing instruction with the science of reading?
Let’s explore each of the “Big 6” from the science of reading to see where writing fits best.
1. Phonemic awareness
Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. To integrate writing:
- Use sound boxes when students are isolating phonemes, blending phonemes to form words, or segmenting words into individual phonemes. First, have students identify the sound (phoneme). Then have students write the letter or letter combination (grapheme) that corresponds to that sound in the sound box.
- Students can also benefit from building word chains, where they change one phoneme (and its corresponding grapheme) at a time to create a new word (e.g., “dog” to “log” to “leg”).
Learning to draw letters physically by hand is an integral part of writing and reading. Self-generating letters by hand activates key brain regions and establishes the orthographic mapping that is needed for later reading development. The same is not true of keyboarding, so prioritize opportunities for students to practice handwriting.
2. Phonics
Phonics instruction teaches the relationship between letters and sounds. These relationships help students decode texts by sounding out words initially and later recognizing them by sight. To integrate writing:
- Have students spell words by handwriting or using manipulatives such as letter tiles or magnetic letters. Focus the activity on converting sounds into letters (encoding). This can be done through rhyming games (e.g., “What rhymes with sun?”) or sound-to-letter matching games (e.g., “What words start with the sound /b/?”, “What letter makes the sound /b/?”).
- Students can also attach newly learned graphemes to corresponding phonemes on a sound wall. This process reinforces the grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and students can later refer to the sound wall for spelling help during writing activities (e.g., the letters “ch” make the sound /k/ in the word “school”).
- Connecting common spelling and phonics patterns is helpful, too. Have students sound out and then spell words with common chunks (e.g., “it” in “sit” and “kit”) or common prefixes and suffixes (e.g., “dislike,” “biggest”).
- Students can also learn common spelling rules by breaking down multisyllabic words they want to use in their writing into syllables (e.g., “but-ter-fly”).
Research shows that formal spelling instruction not only improves spelling but also enhances reading and writing.
3. Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with proper expression. Fluent readers can focus on understanding the meaning of texts because they automatically recognize many or most of the words in a text. To integrate writing:
- Encourage younger students to write sentences using decodable words they have learned. For early readers, especially, sentence construction positively impacts reading fluency because transcription—the act of forming letters and words—reinforces phonics patterns. Transcription also builds writing fluency alongside reading fluency. Both are crucial because they free up cognitive resources for higher-level tasks like comprehending texts and generating ideas for writing.
- Older students also benefit from fluency practice, though it looks different. Have older students work with the same text over multiple days through repeated reading (e.g., modeled reading, choral reading, partner reading). After each reading, ask students to respond to the text in writing. Focus at least one writing on the “juicy sentence” protocol developed by Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore. This protocol is valuable for reading and writing as it helps students deconstruct and reconstruct sentences with challenging syntax. Older students can reflect on the process, too: What was difficult about interacting with this particular text? Did repeated readings help, and if so, how?
Building strong syntactic awareness enhances reading comprehension and fluency at any age. This awareness helps students decode complex sentences and infer meaning from context, making them more proficient readers and writers
4. Vocabulary
Vocabulary development involves learning the meanings of words and how to use them. A strong breadth and depth of vocabulary can improve reading rate and comprehension. To integrate writing:
- Encourage students to keep journals where they write new words and their meanings, drawing from the texts they read and discuss in class. This process reinforces understanding and usage of new words. Focus vocabulary development on academic words, including those with Greek or Latin roots and affixes, as it efficiently builds students’ breadth of vocabulary.
- Have students write sentences using their new vocabulary. This helps them understand how words are used in context, leading to deeper word knowledge. In turn, this aids reading comprehension as students grasp the specific and nuanced meanings of words in texts. Depth of vocabulary also helps students gain command over the academic language needed for longer and more sophisticated forms of writing.
Facilitate vocabulary learning at any age by pairing spellings with pronunciations and meanings of new words. This activates orthographic mapping, the process that enables us to read and understand words by sight.
5. Comprehension
Comprehension is the ability to understand and interpret what is read, which is the ultimate goal of reading. To integrate writing:
- Ask students to write about what they read. This can take various forms, such as note-taking, summarizing, asking and answering questions, or more formal written products like research reports, projects, presentations, or essays. Explicit instruction, such as how to take good notes or write a good summary, often leads to improved outcomes.
- Have students use graphic organizers to better understand what they read (e.g., story maps, Venn diagrams) and to plan their writing.
- Teach students the writing process, text structures used in writing, and paragraph construction skills that move beyond sentence-level writing. These approaches can also improve reading proficiency.
- Gradually increase the frequency of writing tasks. Increased writing is linked to improved reading comprehension.
Encourage multilingual learners to use translanguaging during both reading and writing instruction to derive meaning from texts and produce their own texts. Translanguaging allows students to collect their thoughts and fully express their understanding of a text or the content they want to write without having to simultaneously translate into English.
6. Motivation to read
Motivation to read involves fostering a love for reading. Motivated readers are more likely to engage with texts and develop strong reading comprehension skills. To integrate writing:
- Allow students to choose topics for reading and have them write about the texts they read. Choice increases student engagement, which is linked to motivation.
Keep in mind that motivation to read varies with text genre and that early reading is a strong predictor of later motivation.
Why are reading and writing better when taught together?
While we know that reading and writing are equally important elements of literacy instruction, giving them equal instructional time is a challenging task for any teacher. Integrating writing with the science of reading makes this goal more achievable and empowers students to make even greater gains in literacy.
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See our science of reading curriculum and science of reading professional development if you or your district need support with implementing science of reading strategies or integrating writing with the science of reading.
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