Reading and Writing Instruction: Toward a Theory of Teaching and Learning

Reading and writing development are individual processes which reflect the evolving skills of the individual language learner. Instruction, on the other hand, is a social process, rooted in the interaction between teacher and student. Through the intersection of development and instruction, individual learners gain the power to use language to understand their world and to act within it. Reflecting the split between individual and social, most research in the field of reading and writing has concerned itself either with charting the course of individual development, or with delineating the characteristics of effective instruction. Although both traditions have been valuable, we will argue here that they should be integrated through a more general theory that systematically relates individual development to the social processes that surround it. From such a theory, we will emerge with more effective principles for instruction, as well as with a better explanation for the patterns of development that have been described in previous studies. In doing so, we will also clarify our understanding of the deeply related but functionally different activities of reading, writing, and speaking. The need for a more encompassing theory is evident whether we start independently with either development or instruction. If we start with development, it is quite clear that the skills that individuals learn are constrained (or fostered) by the particular cultural and educational contexts within which the individuals grow up (Au, 1980; Heath, 1983; McDermott, 1977; Scribner