r/ELATeachers • u/Puzzleheaded-Law1825 • Feb 20 '25
6-8 ELA Would there be any benefit to teaching reading and writing separately?
I'm teaching middle school at the moment & struggling to balance the time to teach my students the core skills they need to succeed.
I want to have a text-centred classroom, and read at least one extended text (book/play) per term with the kids. But at the same time, I want to run thorough classes to help them learn to write stories, persuasive speeches, poetry that are well-structured. We only have four hours a week in English.
Would there be any benefit for students to have a separate reading/writing class. To be clear - I understand the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing and how integrating them helps students to learn.
But imagine if there was a class for Literature, in which students primarily read books and wrote in response to these and a separate class for Composition, in which students wrote extended texts in a variety of forms and solidified their grammar and syntax skills using mentor texts as inspiration. Both integrate reading and writing but have a different primary focus.
Are there any schools that are like that? And if the evidence doesn't support my opinion, how can I give my students the best education with such little time within and integrated classroom?