Learning to Read Like a Writer

Abstract

This paper will examine some of the main influences which reading can have on the development of children's writing in the primary and middle years. Recent research and publications on children's writing have tended to concentrate on process, purposes and personal development in writing. Relatively little research has been directed at the dynamic influences on the growth of children's competence as writers, particularly the influence of their experience as readers. In many ways, this is surprising because reading provides unique insights into the integral workings and possibilities of text creation and its many modes and registers. Any resulting increase in ‘discourse knowledge’ is likely to be manifested in the ability to create texts in the light of a growing awareness of organisation and style in written language. This knowledge could well be especially important in the kinds of non‐narrative writing with which children are often less familiar and yet which form a major element in the later years of schooling and in the ‘real world’ beyond school. In this light, major questions can be asked about the teaching approaches and curriculum context which best encourage children in ‘learning to read like a writer’.