Students’ reading skills benefit from instruction in writing, according to a research review in the winter issue of the Harvard Education Review.
Researchers Steve Graham and Michael Hebert of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., systematically reviewed 95 studies. They found that all of the studies indicated that writing-skills lessons and the amount students wrote strengthened their reading skills; 94 percent showed that writing about material increased students’ comprehension of that content. Both middle school and high school students experienced positive effects, but the effects were stronger when they were specifically taught how to write.
The study was funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which also supports coverage of district and high school reform in Education Week.
