Reading and writing relationships: knowledge and processes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between early reading and writing processes of children in the first six months of school in New Zealand. Most previous studies have focussed on relationships between knowledge only and not looked at the cognitive processes children use while reading and writing. Thus, this study examined relationships in terms of the knowledge that children develop in reading and writing and how this changes over time and also analysed the strategies used by children as they engage in reading and writing and the changes over time. High, middle and low progress groups were established in order to further explore both the patterns of knowledge built up and the processes developed. Development was viewed as being a product of an active constructive child learning in a particular context. Learning may be guided, directed and constrained by the environment in which it occurs. Thus in order to better understand the relationships between reading and writing processes it was also important to understand the context in which the learning was taking place. As a part of the study the classroom context, teacher expectations, programme emphases and teacher prompts in relation to reading and writing were described. It was found that teachers provide opportunities for children to build relationships between reading and writing but do not explicitly teach for relationships. Teachers do however teach for strategies in similar ways in both reading and writing. There was evidence in this study that not only the knowledge acquired but also the processes children engage in while reading and writing are related.