Exploration is equally important for learning to read and write.

The knowing that of reading and writing is knowing the properties of written language, knowing that letters represent sounds, that the letter a represents a specific sound in one context and a different sound in other contexts (fat versus fate), that changing the context in which a vowel resides change its sound, or that the word rock has different meanings in different contexts, that sign and insignificant have a common root.

Knowing the properties of language is more like understanding how the record player works than like knowing the capital of Texas. Teaching these properties as facts has always resulted in learning that is inert and rarely applied by children. But how can learning to read and write be more like science?

Consider how children learn spoken language: They play with the sounds of the language, experimenting with the properties of speech and sound; they move from babbling to experimentation with words. As babies babble and begin to explore the connections between sounds and meanings, they get responses, including imitation and correction, from their parents. The learning of language is a great example of exploration -- optimum experimentation in a relaxed field -- and children are nearly universally successful in learning language.

Teachers have used various kinds of literacy groups to encourage a more interactive and playful atmosphere for reading and writing. However, short of a one-to-one situation, it is difficult to support children's experiments with written language because there is no response capacity in the medium of print. New electronic media, with the capacity to read aloud whatever text children type, provide an ideal environment for exploring the properties of written language and its relationship to spoken language. By using the computer to speak aloud each letter and word he or she writes (something that paper and pencil cannot do), a child can experiment directly and playfully with the properties of sound/symbol correspondence and ask the computer for an immediate response. They can try a letter sequence and hear how it sounds when read by the computer. Such activity provides opportunities to play and experiment with the building blocks of literacy.

Finally, children need the opportunity to demonstrate their growing literacy skills in meaningful contexts. Reading aloud in small groups or writing papers for the teacher are not enough. Projects -- like creating a play and producing it, or generating a plan for a business -- are best when involving children in real communication, in the fruits of literacy.

Children have many ways of knowing. Knowing how and knowing that are only two -- but they are two important ones. When we want children to acquire a broad range of literacies, our methods must be at least as robust and supportive as the methods my dad used to teach me to ride a bike and at least as rich as those provided by my old record player.