Reading, Writing, and Understanding

Abstract

This article focuses on ways in which school-age children “make meaning” when they are involved in reading and writing activities. An Analysis of Meaning Construction procedure was developed to describe the knowledge sources, specific strategies, and monitoring behaviors of 67 third-, sixth-, and ninth-grade children when they read and wrote stories and reports. Each student participated in either a think-aloud or retrospective self-report activity during (or after) reading and writing four story and report passages. The resulting transcripts were segmented into communication units and analyzed using the meaning analysis system. Comparisons were made between genres (story and report), domains (reading and writing), and ages (grades 3, 6, and 9). Findings indicate that meaning-making behaviors (1) are complex and varied, (2) change with age and difficulty, and (3) vary consistently between reading and writing. Although reading and writing are related language activities in that they tap similar underlying processes, it is inaccurate to conceptualize them as predominantly similar; reading and writing are also quite different in that the processes they invoke follow markedly different patterns.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1986-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088386003002005
Open Access
Closed

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Written Communication
  2. Written Communication

Cites in this index (3)

  1. Written Communication
  2. Research in the Teaching of English
  3. Research in the Teaching of English
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  10. 10.1016/S0022-5371(79)90200-7
  11. 10.2307/356588
  12. 10.1016/S0022-5371(76)90039-6
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