Reading and Writing - Cornerstones of education

How and when did you learn to read and write? What do you think is the best way to teach reading and writing? Should we focus mainly on skills, or on meanings in context, or is there another method?

Learning to read and write was a momentous moment of my life… I think. I don’t actually remember it, it was so long ago and so far away. From what I remember of learning to write, it was repetition, repetition, repetition… The teacher would write the letter, you’d write the letter and on and on it went. Eventually you’d get there and then you’d learn to cursive and before you knew it you were all grown up with your pen licence and white out!

Reading on the other hand was different, whilst repetition was part of it, it was practice, practice, practice that the schools really pushed. I hated reading and because I hated it, I just couldn’t do it. After talking to my fellow classmates I discovered that reading, unlike writing and spelling, doesn’t come from just having to do it. We’d all found that unless we wanted to read the book, magazine or comic, it just wasn’t going to happen. But as soon as we found something we were interested in, it was as if someone had opened a skylight in our brains and suddenly we would do anything in our power to read.

I know there are many ways to teach reading and writing but I think finding your own creative way that works with the students that you are teaching at that time in the best you can do. Students need to know what it is they’re reading, so you can’t leave it un-contextualised, but you must focus on the word and the meaning together, just like the word and the meaning go together.