Exploring the Writer in the Reading and the Reader in the Writing.

Exploring the Writer in the Reading and the Reader in the Writing. 

This article gives extensive knowledge about what we as teachers should expect from students who are able can make the connection between reading and writing and writing. The article states that “connections between reading and writing are just as strong as speaking and listening.” This illustrates that two should go hand in hand and function as a whole. The article took us on a journey explaining that if we as teachers must ensure that students can make the reading-writing connection as early as preschool. The article illustrated a number of benefits of teachers showing the interrelatedness of reading and writing with delivering instructions.
Moreover, to further elaborate on the importance of the reading-writing connection the article states that “just as readers construct meaning from text, so writers construct meaning in text.” We understood this statement to mean that when a reader is reading a story he or she gets a sense of what the writer is feeling, or wants his or her readers to walk away with. Likewise, when a writer writes, he or she is relaying some form of information or story that he or she wants their audience to get. Basically, the more you read your vocabulary is expanded as well as your mind, as it is being filled with ideas that can act as a guide when writing.
We found that a statement in the article which says that “students need to read like writers and writers like readers,” sparked a discussion. During our discussion we noted how helpful this would be for us as teachers in the classroom, if we were to instill this motto into our students and children. Just like the article we felt that students would surely become better readers and writers. To accomplish this goal, children must ask themselves two questions when reading and or writing (what does this writer mean? and will my readers now what I mean?).
The discussion of the article led us to the question what do readers and writers do? The article
mentioned a number of characteristics of proficient readers and writers which include; the reader interacts with letters and words to construct meaning and the writer starts with ideas or meaning and represents these in letters and words. Focusing on these two characteristics we were able to see the similarities of the proficient reader and writer. This similarity again signifies the close link between reading and writing.
In addition, the article continued to educate us about how using activities that illustrates the reading and writing link can be beneficial to the students. We realized that as untrained teachers in the system we short changed our students and now understand why students have difficulty writing and reading even as they enter the secondary system. If we were better equipped with the skills and knowledge of the reading and writing connection students’ writing would improve as their reading improve, better writers will produce more syntactically mature writing and these are just a few of the benefits that the reading-writing connection has to offer.
As we concluded our discussion on the article, we realize that even if reading and writing is being taught separately, we still need to note and emphasize on the reciprocity of them both. The article made us more knowledgeable as it gave many suggestions about activities and approaches that can be used in the classroom to demonstrate to students the specific links between reading and writing.  The wealth of information in this article about the importance of the reading-writing connection, the benefits to students, approaches and activities that we as teachers can use has really change our attitudes towards the teaching of language arts. This change in attitude is mainly because based on the article we were short changing our students when it comes to the planning and delivering of instructions.