From: seanna@bnr.ca (Seanna Watson)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: "Whole Language" teaching concept
Date: 13 Apr 92 20:28:51 GMT
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada

In article <elambert.702940171@qualcom> elambert@qualcom.qualcomm.com (Eber Lambert) writes:
>scottb@col.hp.com (Scott Brunton) writes:
>
>>	Has anyone had any experiences or encounters with the teaching
>>concept known as "whole language?"  I'm going to be attending a short
>>course on the subject and would be interested in the opinions of others.
>
>>	The two textbooks for the course (sorry, no publisher and dates) are:
>
>>	Towards a Reading/Writing Classroom
>>		by A.Butler and J.Turnbill
>
>>	Basal Readers
>>		by B.Swaby
>
>I'd (and probabluy others) would sure be interested in hearing what you find
>out. My ignorant understanding of it is essentially that it replaces 
>phonics with the concept that children learn to sight read words. This is
>stupid. (big uproar at our school over this but I've been hanging around
>the edges picking up 2nd and 3rd hand info). 
>
>IMO nothing is better  than having a kid be able to sound out a word
>until s/he figures out what it is...this is also fun to watch.
>Also this technique helps them in spelling so when
>they get older they wont be harassment targets on the Net...
>
>el
>-- 

In the implementations I've seen, whole language and phonics are
*not* mutually exclusive.  I have read some material, and my husband
has been on a 1/2 day course which he took before volunteering in my
son's grade two class.  I have seen whole language in use for teach-
ing both English, and French immersion.  The basic idea is that
written language should be acquired in much the same way as spoken
language is.  Rather than being taught to read, and then learning to
write, reading and writing proceed together.  Sight reading of words
is encouraged, but phonics is also useful for words that are unknown.
Similarly, spelling is considered to be of secondary importance--the 
idea is to communicate.

Here is what happened in my son's English class:  
Trevyn is in a French immersion program (EFI), which means that in 
kindergarten and grade 1 he received 95% of his instruction in 
French.  Children in this EFI program are taught to read French in
grade 1; English is not introduced as a subject until grade 2.
(Trevyn seems to have taught himself to read English in grade 1,
but the majority of the kids start grade 2 not knowing how to read
English.)  On the first day, they start by writing a journal.  They
are encouraged to write a sentence or two of whatever they can think
of.  If they don't know how to spell the word, they are encouraged
to put down the way they think it should be; even if they only know
the first letter.  They are then encouraged to read what the have
written, and the teacher/assistant will correct the spelling.
Meantime, they are learning some rules of English phonetics and
grammar.  Soon they are ready for writing assignments.  In these,
there is a rough and final draft.  Fluency is encouraged for the
first draft; spelling is fixed later, using a word list (or
dictionary).  Meantime, the children are encouraged to read out
loud, and silently.  They are supposed to read aloud to their
parent(s) 15 minutes every day.  They are given books at their
level to to this; when the books are completed, they read them to
the teacher/assistant at school, and s/he monitors their progress.
I have seen children learn to read with this program, and I have
also seen that children who are already advanced readers are still
challenged.  (My husband volunteered in the classroom for several
months, and I took his place once or twice, so I have been able to
see the children's progress.)

Trevyn's teacher seems to be particularly skilled in teaching
this program.  She specializes in teaching English to EFI students.
I think the success of this method requires commitment from the
parents to read with the kids, and also volunteer classroom assistance.
I can see how it might fall down if some of these things are not
available.  On the other hand, this goes for most other educational
programs as well.  


-- 
Seanna Watson   Bell-Northern Research, 
                Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Opinions, what opinions?  Oh *these* opinions. | It's hard to seize the
No, they're not BNR's, they're mine.           | day when you must first
I knew I'd left them somewhere.                | grapple with the morning.

 
Xref: sparky misc.kids:12420 alt.satanism:1264 talk.religion.misc:6265