The Reciprocity of Reading & Writing

Marie Clay believed that, due to processing connections that occur, there are reciprocal gains when students are taught to read and write in tandem.  She considered the following among the most important things learned about writing via this simultaneous methodology: (Clay, 1998, p. 156)

 

· the aspects of print to which they can attend

 

· the visual structure of some letters, clusters, and words

 

· phonological links to letters, clusters, and words

 

· the aspects of oral language that can be related to print

 

· ways to explore detail

 

· ways to detect and correct errors

 

· feedback mechanisms that keep reading and writing on

          track

 

· feed-forward mechanisms (such as anticipation) that keep

          information-processing efficient

.