D. Elkonin's thesis that thinking is much more closely related to writing than to oral speech formed the basis of our three-year formative experiment at the elementary school level. In order to test this idea, second-graders through fourth-graders were given a few assignments in which they were asked to exchange thoughts in writing with their teacher. The integrative nature of written assignments used in the study was necessary when translating from the language of models into the language of verbal definitions and back again. All assignments were based on concepts already learned by the children during class discussions when solving learning tasks. Concepts from courses in mathematics, natural science, and Russian language were used. The authors avoided focusing on any particular academic subject. The final analysis of fourth-graders showed that the way written forms of educational communication were organized in elementary school contributes to the creation of metasubject abilities in elementary school children. This primarily relates to reading literacy, which is relevant to understanding superfluous, vague, or contradictory content in verbal and graphic texts. [This article was translated by Kenneth Cargill.]