What
comes first: Reading or writing?
In the article “Write First: Putting writing
before reading is an effective approach to teaching and learning”, Peter Elbow describes
the connection between writing and reading. Actually it is a very difficult
task to choose that whether reading is the foundation of writing or writing is
of reading? I think reading and writing both goes hand in hand. They both work
simultaneously to enhance the learning capabilities of a student.
As Elbow explains in case of
first graders, that how they write stories about the pictures they draw,
regardless of their weak positioned for reading. They can write all the words
they can say. Writing allows them to understand the written language and
control letters provides an understanding that they need for reading. Writing
before reading gives them the sense of creativity, their own thinking and
ideas. It gives them the control and ownership of the topic. In order to
provoke their inner ideas and ability of creativity, writing assignments and
workshops should be promoted.
However on the other hand,
reading plays a vital role in flawless creative writing. If someone does not
know how to read, how can he be able to use the words effectively in his writing?
In order to achieve flawless writing, one has to read others’ work to see how
they have written their master pieces, free of syntax and semantics error.
It is not necessary that reading puts other
people ideas in your mind and changes your point of view. But I think sometimes
it gives you more understanding towards your point of view. It broadens your
vision and exploration of your understanding towards a certain topic. For
instance, if someone likes fiction books and wrote about the characteristics of
fiction books. By reading his point of view doesn’t mean that it will change
your passion about nonfiction books. But sometimes it gives you a new aspect to
see why you choose that particular type? I believe it gives you deep
understanding towards your point of view.
Peter Elbow doesn’t agree on
this aspect either that writing should come first or reading? As he explains in
the article,” I’m not arguing that reading is less important than writing.” I
agree with him as well. In some cases students should be asked to write about
the topic and their thoughts first before they read it while in some cases,
they should read the article first and write their response about it. It helps
to promote their ability to counter argue as well.
I think my reading is the mixture of ‘reflection of the input’ and ‘output’ as well. Since in the reading, I took some of the points from the article that shows the reflection of the reading but I am also writing what my point of view on that particular concept. So it’s basically comparing two aspects side by side. Output involves reading a particular concept and draw analysis on the input to produce better outcomes. I think I talk about the outputs by pointing out the reasons why reading and writing both goes hand in hand. I gave my personal opinion in it that shows that my reading was not merely consumption. But it also helps me to look at both aspects along with their advantages and disadvantages, so it broadens my vision .It were not only the consumption but some sort of production as well.
ReplyDeleteIn order to become an active write, I think we have to change our way of thinking in our educational system. Usually Literacy means reading more than writing in our system. It is unfortunate in a way that all the students are tested on their reading levels and writing is considered to be a secondary priority in our elementary education. It is believed that one, who cannot read, is unable to write. We need to enhance the students’ writing abilities at the early ages to build a strong foundation for college level. In order to produce active writer we have to remove those boundaries that keeping them in a limited circle. We need to flourish the creative thinking and ideas.
As I was doing the observation in a second grade and all their writing is about the reading response. Basically we are telling them to reproduce instead of producing new ideas. We are limiting their writing capabilities. Students are judged according to their reading levels. What level of books can they read and since the writing assignment is the reading response to it creates an edge and put it in the boundary.
I'm not necessarily sure that reading plays a vital role in creative writing. I think the point of creative writing is for your own spontaneity and creativity to surface. Granted, reading can spark some thoughts, but reading alone won't make you better at creative writing. You will only get better at creative writing the more your thoughts practice dipping into your creativity pool. I do agree with the fact that reading does expose us to examples of good and 'bad' writing. I don't like to use the word bad to describe writing I would much rather use dull or unclear. Frequent exposure to 'good' writing is a way to see how words are used in a multitude of ways: introduce new vocabulary, play on words, grammar clarification, sentence structure etc. This is not to say that reading is less important that writing. They are both essential to academic and life success.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment, Mariel. I totally agree with the fact that reading and writing goes hand on hand. Yes, definitely in order to enhance the creativity of writing, we have to help and encourage the young students to explore their ideas, imaginations and thinking. Reading should be just an example of a better usage of sentence structure and grammatical correction, but not the foundation of any creative and innovative writing. Being a future teacher, it is our responsibility to make a difference in their lives. Since we are going along with the students to a journey that leads them to the new learning destination, it is our duty to overcome their weaknesses at early ages and provide them the path that leads to success in their lives. The students nowadays are smart; they are dealing with all this media and technology which has instilled a great amount of knowledge in them. Investigation and Inquiry based techniques used in the class rooms has broaden their horizon of learning. During the math workshop in my 5th grade observation, I was so amazed to see how far and deep the whole learning went while solving a simple mathematical problem. The happiness and the confidence level of the student reach to its peak when he has given a chance to share their calculations and strategies.
DeleteI am in total agreement with your article, but I am just going to comment on one point here as I also express a similar sentiment in my article. Reading really helps to broaden ones view and that is exactly what I meant in my article about building background for writers. This background really helps writers to make connection; the example in your article about fiction books is just a perfect example. Fiction books are written differently from nonfiction, so by reading different books, fiction and nonfiction writers will be able to know how to write for different purpose. Reading should definitely not be seen as putting peoples’ idea in the mind but as a means of learning how to express the creative energy that is in ones’ mind as everyone has some amount of knowledge in their schema.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment,Michelle. Definetely, I also see reading as a source to see other's point of view and to broaden the horizon of learning and not to put other peoples' ideas in your mind. Reading and writing are both like a joint to the hip. We cannot prefer one over the other. They both are interconnected and linked. In order to read something it has to be written first and writing is also done for the readers else if there is no reader, there is no point to write. They are just a source of communication and learning for each other.
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