We read, we write: reconsidering reading–writing relationships in primary school children

Abstract

The extent to which children's reading experiences influence their writing production is not well understood. It is imperative that the connections between these literacy practices are elucidated in order to inform the development of stimulating curricula and to support children's development. This paper presents new data and key findings from a project investigating relationships between children's free choice reading and volitional writing in Key Stage 2 (9–10 years). The data were collected in two primary schools in northern England, using mixed methods. Quantitative data were collected using an online reading survey taken by 170 children, and qualitative data were provided through independent writing journals maintained by 38 participants. Through analysis of the data using a multiliteracies approach, we demonstrate that the writing that children choose to do is influenced by the texts they encounter as readers in terms of content, text type and linguistic style. The child readers in this project encountered texts in different media and created texts in a range of genres. By examining a sample of children's written texts from the data set, we show that children's interactions and transactions with texts as readers and writers are complex and multiple. Children creatively work across media, and in doing so the boundaries of traditional text genres and styles are redeveloped and redesigned. These findings highlight the importance of providing children with opportunities to freely choose and create texts and recognising the wide variety of text experiences that children bring to their classroom learning.

How texts teach what readers learn in a digital age

“…The following example is taken from a research project exploring relationships between children's reading and their writing in primary schools (Taylor 2019). This rich data set was particularly illuminating about the ways that children were learning from the digital texts they encountered.…”

“…A second example from the project (Taylor 2019; provides an illustration of the ways that readers learn about the structure, organisation and stylistic features of texts through their reading. Meek argued that texts provided reading lessons for children because they were able to see "how dialogue appears on a page, the formal ways of making requests, the way that sentences appear on a page" (p16).…”

Children's literacy funds of knowledge in an urban Mexican elementary school: changing the approach

“…In Mexico, multimodal literacy practices that emerge from children's own interest and knowledge are also not visible in primary school curricula, perhaps because, as the same researchers point out, ‘however, there is very little existing literature concerning writing for pleasure in childhood and its possible connections to reading experiences’. (Taylor and Clarke, 2021, p. 14), which could guide and influence designers. The findings presented in this article attempt to contribute to this.…”

“…For example, when writing in a journal about their activities, or a letter of their own choice; through these activities, they make decisions about the type of words and language to use, the way the text should be structured and arranged, as well as the characteristics it should have, for example, whether or not to include images and symbols, as well as words. In this respect, Taylor and Clarke (2021, p. 14) note that the writing that children produce is influenced by the texts they encounter as readers in terms of content, text genre and linguistic style. Children experience all of the above based on real communicative purposes that they are exposed to and engage in at different moments and different spaces of their lives.…”

“…In this respect, some similarities with other countries, such as England, are discernible. In a study that researches the relationship between English children's choice of written texts and the texts they read, Taylor and Clarke (2021) identified that, although many of these texts are multimodal-combining different modes of representation-they are not present in the English 1st and 2nd grade curricula. In Mexico, multimodal literacy practices that emerge from children's own interest and knowledge are also not visible in primary school curricula, perhaps because, as the same researchers point out, 'however, there is very little existing literature concerning writing for pleasure in childhood and its possible connections to reading experiences'.…”