I think reading is critical in teaching writing at all levels. I am currently struggling with this in my own courses. CUNY has a system-wide exit examination out of basic writing (math, and also reading). The exit exam from writing is a 90 minute exam writing in response to text--usually a provocative or interesting article on a contemporary topic published in a magazine or newspaper.
This examination is MUCH BETTER than our old examination which required students to essentially make up evidence about a civic or educational topic.
In the new exam, they are reading and using textual evidence as part of their argument.
I'm struggling in particular because I used to theme my course around a particular idea (e.g. "You Are What You Eat," "Imagining America," "The CyberPlanet." In those courses, I chose a highly readable, engaging text (usually a novel) as the center of the course. By the end of the course, students had finished reading the book and had written several essays on the topic. Some of the books I taught were Esmeralda Santiago's When I Was Puerto Rican, Max Berry's Jennifer Government, Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, and Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak. Lately, however, I've found that this approach puts my students at a distinct disadvantage because their reading topic at the end of the semester could be on any topic. So, I've been using essays from the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and other periodicals for students' essay assignments. I find with this approach, that students are much less able to dig deeply into a topic developing real heft and engagement.
With my newer approach, I have students keep a reading log where they diagram articles into parts to determine the main ideas and main evidence used in the article. In addition to this reading log, they have to read outside of class on a topic or topic(s) of their choosing and log those as well. In the begining of the semester, we use these logs as notes for writing essays. Later in the term, most students are able to do this in one session--reading an article and responding to it--during a timed task.
I'm interested to hear how others are working with reading in their classrooms!
Liz