Why Executive Function Matters for Readers and Writers

Though not a new term by any means, we’re hearing “executive function” a whole lot lately.  More to the point, we’re hearing it in the context of today’s learners.  Learners who, more and more, have trouble regulating their emotions, staying focused, and initiating or completing tasks.  Sound familiar?  Executive function plays a role in every part of the day–and heavily in literacy.  It’s a crucial part of becoming a competent, confident reader and writer.  

What is executive functioning?  And why does it matter in literacy?  

Executive function skills really boil down to managing emotions, solving problems, and making plans, according to the definition from The Cleveland Clinic.

All especially important skills for reading and writing.

“Students who demonstrate the best working memory, cognitive flexibility, self-control, and so on tend to be the best readers.”

Tim Shanahan, 1/15/22 blog post

Joan Sedita, author of The Writing Rope, further defines executive function skills as “the mental processes that students and adults use to manage tasks and achieve goals. These include goal setting, organization, cognitive flexibility, working memory, self-monitoring, attention, and inhibition.”  

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When it comes to both reading and writing, students must actively self-regulate.  They need to be aware of when they get tripped up–and be willing to admit it. They then have to know which strategy to draw upon from the repertoire  strategies they’ve learned.  Then of course, they need to use the strategy and then go on to confirm or disconfirm that it worked.  

As students read, this means they self-monitor at different levels.  At the word level, they must monitor that what they say matches the print.  This is the “v” in “msv.”  At the sentence level, they must ensure that what they say sounds grammatically correct–the “s” in “msv.”  And they need to constantly make sure that everything makes sense–the “m” in “msv”.  It’s a lot!

And it needs to happen over and over, on a constant loop, until they’re through.

But that’s just the beginning.  

Students also need to remain focused and get back on track if they become distracted.  This again means being aware that it’s happening, drawing upon strategies they know how to use to fix it, and put that strategy into action.  

“EF is so important to reading that there is reason to believe that for some students, limited EF skills are the primary cause of reading difficulty.”

Duke & Cartwright, RRQ, 2021

There’s more.  Readers must also actively work toward goals.  

This could mean different things.  It could mean focusing on a goal the teacher has set (or that has been co-constructed with the teacher). Or it could mean understanding how and where to look in a text to answer a specific question, if that’s the goal.   This is tightly related to planning, another key aspect of executive function skills.

It’s the same for writing, of course, as reading and writing are reciprocal.  From start to finish, the writing process is nothing but executive function at play.  A plan must be formulated, whether using formulaic writing, like responding to a prompt calls for, or a more authentic approach in which students generate and plan their own ideas.  Either way, the plan needs to consider audience, organizational structure, and word choice.  And because writing never comes out perfectly on the first try, revisions and edits must be made.  If that kind of work doesn’t require perseverance through problem-solving, I don’t know what does.  

And then we have the aspects of executive function that are less easy to see but that are of equal importance.

Things like not giving up.  Knowing which strategies to draw from and when.  

There’s a level of stick-with-it-ness that all of this requires.  Reading and (especially) writing can be hard.  Which makes it all too easy to take the easy way out or even give up unless a strong set of executive function skills is in place.

Pretty important stuff, right?

Yet it’s rarely addressed in the more common literacy models we so often see.  It’s definitely not mentioned in the Simple View of Reading.  It wasn’t touched in Scarborough’s Rope.  (This was later amended in the literature).  It is, however, a key tenet of what I think is the best model we have today, The Active View of Reading.  As well in her writing rope model, Sedita addresses it too, although it’s implicitly stated and is very easy to miss.  

So what do we do about it?  

We strengthen development of executive function skills within our everyday teaching practices.  

1. Ensure routine, deliberate practice.  

Small skills, like decoding and transcription, are developed with frequent (daily!), practice and feedback.  This goes a long way in helping students become readers and writers who self-monitor. Who aren’t afraid of big words or a new genre. Readers who summarize as they read as well as writers who know how to plan, organize, and write according to task and audience.  This all comes with regular and deliberate practice, not every-once-in-a-while practice.  

How?

Make it a normal part of the routine to stop to reflect on reading. Include this sort of think aloud work in your interactive read alouds and shared reading to help show students that this is just something readers do.  As well, normalize stopping to reread writing.  Too often, teachers think kids don’t know how to write a sentence, when in reality, we just haven’t helped students build the habit by regularly weaving in time to check on what was written.

Small, frequent doses of deliberate practice is also econsiderate of students’ limited working memory capacity.  Both reading and writing require a multitude of interwoven skills, which can very much tax working memory.  

2. Create a positive, nurturing environment that encourages cognitive flexibility.

Allowing students to try things outside of the confines of lock-stop, one size fits all instruction goes a long way.  Know that your curriculum is a guide, and nothing more.  Some students will be ready to be nudged forward, some will need more scaffolding and support.  Some may thrive using a specific graphic organizer, whereas it will stifle or confuse others.  Exercising flexibility to meet students where they are is important.

This means that while whole group instruction is efficient, it won’t serve everyone.  Small group strategy instruction and one-one-one conferring are crucial for really understanding where students are and helping them learn to be flexible in their strategy use.  This is where you can really help students set goals as well as help them develop positive self-talk, a core tenet of the SRSD approach to writing that transfers well to reading.

3. Build focus and stamina

In reading, this can mean goal-setting, specific small group lessons, and avoiding the common pitfalls we so often inadvertently fall into that negatively impact students’ ability to focus.  It can mean revisiting a text for different purposes to show the value of slowing down and thinking deeply about it.  

Or it might mean empowering students to access complex texts through providing more ways to help them access it.  Rather than lowering the level of text complexity, we empower kids when we keep the complexity high but provide support to help students read with success.  Tim Shanahan is a big advocate of this.  He says that “it’s better to more planfully confront students with potential barriers so they can learn to surmount them.”  Because, after all, reading grade level text is a major goal for all students.  

In writing, we can push them to think more reflectively about their work.  We can show them how to consider word choice, grammar, and organization more carefully. We can make it a regular practice to revisit their writing to strengthen it rather than get through it quickly. 

This means we have to release the reins at various points, and really step back to see what they can do and what they’re truly holding onto from our teaching.  Otherwise, as writing instruction expert Melissa Morrison says, teachers can easily fall prey to “making decisions based on what they THINK students will do or what they BELIEVE they won’t be able to do.”  

And of course, one of the most important things we can do?  Cheer them on, every step of the way!

When students know we believe in them, they start believing in themselves. And that belief is the springboard for the rest— the focus, the flexibility, the willingness to try again. Executive function is all about the ability to keep going when the work gets tough.

“A strong teacher-student relationship creates a safe space for students to express themselves in writing. When students know you care about them as people and as writers, they will realize they are not writing to be judged by their work, but to grow as writers. They will feel comfortable enough to take risks and share their ideas.”

Melissa Morrison, Teaching to Transform

That’s why it matters so much in literacy. It’s not just a buzz word!  Reading and writing are full of challenges — words that don’t make sense, sentences that don’t come out right, ideas that take more than a few tries to get right. 

When we weave it into our everyday teaching — through reflection, goal-setting, feedback, and a whole lot of encouragement — we help grow readers and writers who can self-monitor, stay flexible, and keep going when things get tough.

Wondering how all of this fits into your current literacy instruction? You’re not alone! This is exactly the kind of work I help teachers think through — how to balance the science and the art of teaching so kids can thrive. If you’d like to take a closer look at where executive function skills can become stronger in your classroom routines, I’m here! Simply email me at michelle@coachfromthecouch.com or reach out for a coaching call. 

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Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle Ruhe, a 25+ year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can.  Because no one can do this work alone. I’m available to you, too, through virtual coaching calls!  

And, be sure to join my Facebook community–a safe, supportive environment  where you can safely ask questions, gain ideas, and share your thoughts among other literacy-loving educators!