Writing to Read: A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Writing and Writing Instruction on Reading

Reading is critical to students' success in and out of school. One potential means for improving students' reading is writing. In this meta-analysis of true and quasi-experiments,Graham and Herbert present evidence that writing about material read improves students' comprehension of it; that teaching students how to write improves their reading comprehension, reading fluency, and word reading; and that increasing how much students write enhances their reading comprehension. These findings provide empirical support for long-standing beliefs about the power of writing to facilitate reading.

Reading Effects of IBM’s “Writing to Read” Program: A Review of Evaluations

This article reviews evaluations of IBM’s Writing to Read program in kindergartens and first grades. In Writing to Read (WTR), students rotate through five learning stations to learn and practice phonics, to write stories, and to listen to recorded books. Two of these stations involve computers. Twenty-one studies of Writing to Read in kindergartens found a median effect size of 0.23, but in many cases this effect may be due to comparisons of WTR with nonacademic programs. Across 13 first-grade studies, the median effect size was .00. Two-year (K-l) implementations and one-year follow-up studies found no consistent achievement effects. The commercial success of WTR is discussed in light of these disappointing findings and of the existence of more effective and far less expensive alternatives