Executive Functions in Becoming Writing Readers and Reading Writers: Note Taking and Report Writing in Third and Fifth Graders

Abstract

Results are reported for a study of 2 separate processes of report writing—taking notes while reading source material and composing a report from those notes—and related individual differences in executive functions involved in integrating reading and writing during these writing activities. Third graders (n = 122) and 5th graders (n = 106; overall, 127 girls and 114 boys) completed two reading–writing tasks—read paragraph (mock science text)–write notes and use notes to generate written report, a reading comprehension test, a written expression test, four tests of executive functions (inhibition, verbal fluency, planning, switching attention), and a working memory test. For the read–take notes task, the same combination of variables was best (explained the most variance and each variable added unique variance) for 3rd graders and 5th graders: Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–Second Edition (WIAT–II) Reading Comprehension, Process Assessment of the Learner Test for Reading and Writing (PAL) Copy Task B, WIAT–II Written Expression, and Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D–KEFS) Inhibition. For the use notes to write report task, the best combinations of variables depended on grade level: For 3rd graders, WIAT–II Reading Comprehension, WIAT–II Written Expression, D–KEFS Verbal Fluency, and Tower of Hanoi; for 5th graders, WIAT–II Reading Comprehension, D–KEFS Verbal Fluency, WIAT–II Written Expression, and PAL Alphabet Task. These results add to prior research findings that executive functions contribute to the writing development of elementary-grade students and additionally support the hypothesis that executive functions play a role in developing reading–writing connections.