How? Reading every day can improve our communication skills in a few ways. For example, reading can influence your writing and increase your vocabulary.

Even though reading and writing are more important than ever, an unacceptable number of children do not acquire the reading or writing skills needed for educational, social, and occupational success. While we have made considerable progress in identifying effective reading and writing practices, it is important to identify additional practices that can enhance literacy performance if students are to acquire essential reading and writing skills. One purpose of this chapter is to examine whether writing and writing instruction provide a useful means for enhancing how well students read. To answer this question, we drew upon data from recent meta-analyses of true- and quasi-instructional experiments (Graham & Hebert In Harvard Educational Review, pp. 710−744); Graham & Santangelo In Reading & Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 27:1703–1743, 2014); Hebert, Gillespie, & Graham In Reading & Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 26:111–138, 2013). The lens used to examine the evidence from these meta-analyses were three theories of reading and writing relationships (shared knowledge, functional view, and rhetorical relations), as described by Shanahan In Handbook of writing research. Guilford, New York, pp. 171–183, 2006). A second purpose of this chapter is to examine whether reading and reading instruction improve writing performance. The same theoretical lens was applied, but it was necessary to widen our search for evidence to include findings from individual studies as well as meta-analyses, including meta-analyses conducted prior to 2000. The available evidence provided support for all three theoretical models. This was true for the effects of writing on reading and vice versa. We further found that writing, writing instruction, and writing about material read were evidenced-based reading practices. We did not make similar claims about reading-oriented evidenced-based writing practices due to limitations on the evidence reviewed. Keywords Graham, S., Rouse, A., & Harris, K. R. (in press). Scientifically supported writing practices. In A. O’Donnell (Ed.), Oxford handbook of educational psychology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. National Center for Educational Statistics. (2014). A first look: 2013 mathematics and reading. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Think about it this way: reading is like entering a doorway into someone else’s story. Reading like a writer means examining how the doorway was built on the way in. It’s more than the content of what you’re reading that affects your writing – it’s also how the author conveys the story. Are they using lots of description? Short sentences? Long paragraphs? All of these things can influence your own writing style.If you’re wondering how to make sure your reading enriches your writing, or simply how to become a better reader, we’ll cover the basics in this article.

Another study discovered that reading is the best way to reduce stress – compared to taking a walk, having a cup of tea or coffee, and playing video games. The study found that even six minutes of reading can be enough to reduce stress levels by more than two-thirds. And not just a casual reader. Not just a reader of news or science journals or even this blog. You must be a reader of books, literary journals, and essays on writing. Read in different genres: screenplays and poems, novels and lyric essays, and so on. Olinghouse, N., Graham, S., & Gillespie, A. (2015). The relationship of discourse and topic knowledge to writing performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107, 391–406. Could your KS2 pupils do with a bit of extra reading support? If so, our collection of teacher-made English guided reading KS2 activities is a great place to start. Including a vast range of bookmarks, word mats, reading cards and inference activities, you will be able to find the best support for your pupils. When you read, you’re essentially training your brain to think more critically and analytically. This helps improve your writing because you learn how to construct arguments and support your points with evidence. 3. Improves comprehension

It’s important to remember that each student has a unique learning style that will benefit from a flexible and adaptable teaching approach – so it’s important to curate lessons full of variety, with activities that will benefit all learners. Things you should avoid when teaching reading/writing learners All of this new information creates new memories. And every new memory creates synapses or strengthens old ones. All in all, when you read every day, you're more likely to retain your mental abilities and live longer! What Should I Read? 4 Top Book Lists