Is Teaching Writing As Important As Teaching Reading?

 

When educators think of literacy¹ -- the ability to read and write -- they often place more importance on students’ abilities to read and fully² understand a piece of writing.

But experts say critical and creative writing skills are equally important. And, they say, they are too often overlooked³ in the classroom.

Compared to reading, writing is more active. It helps students be independent thinkers, take ownership of their stories and ideas and communicate them clearly to others, says Elyse Eidman-Aadahl. She heads the National Writing Project, which offers help for teachers who want to push students to write more.

Eidman-Aadahl said, “Unless we want an education system just focused on making people consumers and not focused on helping⁴ them be producers, this emphasis on reading only -- which does happen in so many places -- is very short-sighted.”

She said students’ writing work now usually centers on examining a text, instead of presenting a new idea. Writing, she said, should be “the central thing you’re learning. Not writing on a test, not writing to demonstrate you’re learning what someone has taught you....”

Writing improves reading skill

Teaching reading together with writing improves both skills, says Rebecca Wallace-Segall, who heads a New York City writing center, Writopia Lab.

She said writing affects a person’s ability to read. More than 90 percent of young people in the Writopia program do not trust their writing abilities when they start, Wallace-Segall said.

But she said they learn to enjoy the writing process and become more effective readers, too.

Eidman-Aadahl said employers today seek workers “all the time” who can write well. Digital tools increasingly mean that people are “interacting with the internet through writing,” she said.

Young people are already writing all the time -- through text messages, emails and on social media.

Eidman-Aadahl said every young person today is a writer if they are connected to the internet. So, she added, “we have to help them do it in the best, most responsible, critical, prosocial way.”

Working through problems by writing

Supporters of writing-centered teaching add that writing empowers young people.

“When students own their voices and tell their stories, they become not only stronger and more confident writers, but also stronger and more confident individuals,” says Ali Haider. He is director of the Austin Bat Cave, a creative writing center in Austin, Texas.

Wallace-Segall said that writing also helps students work through difficulties they face in life. Writing lets them work through their problems “subconsciously⁵,” she said.

“They’re not writing a story about a difficult father or directly about a bully⁶ in class, but they are creating a fictional⁷ scenario⁸ that might feel distant enough for them to go deep into it.”

Teaching students to write well can have an effect on the larger world, notes Dara Dukes. She leads Deep Center, an organization in Savannah, Georgia that works with young writers to share their stories with policymakers, judges, politicians and police officers.

Dukes said, “...Those adults can see that the stories they’re telling themselves about those young people are often wrong and doing a lot of harm in the world.”

I’m Ashley Thompson.

Words in This Story

focused – adj. giving attention and effort to a specific task or goal

emphasis – n. special importance or attention given to something

short-sighted – adj. made or done without thinking about what will happen in the future

confident – adj. having a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something: having confidence

subconsciously – adv. operating from the part of the mind that a person is not aware of

bully – n. someone who frightens, hurts, or threatens smaller or weaker people

fictional scenario – n. a story of the imagination

1 literacy   

n.识字，有文化，读写能力

参考例句：

• I can't believe that he failed the literacy test.我无法相信他识字测试不及格。
• The literacy rate there is the highest in Central America.那里的识字率居中美洲之首。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 overlooked   

v.忽视( overlook的过去式和过去分词 )；监督；俯视；（对不良现象等）不予理会

参考例句：

• He seems to have overlooked one important fact. 他好像忽略了一个重要的事实。
• This is a minor point, but it must not be overlooked. 此事虽小，然亦不可忽视。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 subconsciously   

ad.下意识地，潜意识地

参考例句：

• In choosing a partner we are subconsciously assessing their evolutionary fitness to be a mother of children or father provider and protector. 在选择伴侣的时候，我们会在潜意识里衡量对方将来是否会是称职的母亲或者父亲，是否会是合格的一家之主。
• Lao Yang thought as he subconsciously tightened his grasp on the rifle. 他下意识地攥紧枪把想。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

6 bully   

n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮

参考例句：

• A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。

7 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

8 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。