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Frequently Asked Questionsabout Reading |
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Reading Room HomeParents
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Asking the question of phonics vs whole language in reading is like asking a baseball coach if he teaches batting or baseball. Batting is crucial to the game of baseball just as phonics is crucial to reading. But there is much more to reading than phonics, just as there is more to baseball than batting. Learning phonics for its own sake is a waste of time; learning phonics in order to be better able to comprehend text is essential. Good readers rely not only on phonics, but also on automatic recall of sight words, on meaning, and on syntax when reading and understanding text. overriding all that are a student's life experiences and his willingness to take a risk for and ownership of his learning. We at University School teach students to orchestrate all three systems in a balanced and independent way. Occasionally skill teaching is removed from context, but as soon as possible it is incorporated into authentic reading for practice and application. A good reader is one who can apply various reading skills independently and flexibly in a variety of reading situations, not one who simply demonstrates mastery of those skills. The expression whole language has been tossed around, argued, and politicized in such a way that it now means different things to different people. To some people it means the absence of phonics in a reading program; to others it means a whole word, or sight word approach; to still others it means reading by memorizing text. Nowadays most schools that embrace the Whole Language philosophy teach phonics as part of a reading program which seeks to help children learn to read and write meaningful texts that have some relevance to their own lives. In our program we teach children, not programs, and seek to help each child become a balanced reader. Answers to the FAQs about Reading have been prepared by Dozie Herbruck, former Learning Specialist at University School. |
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Do you teach reading with a phonics or whole language approach?