In a very cursory search for web sites that address either phonics or whole language, I located over 2500 sites. I surveyed more than a hundred of these and found a full range of views including everything from thoughtful, reasonable arguments to utterly uninformed and vicious attacks. Viewing these, I could easily understand the confusion and anxiety many parents and members of the general public may feel concerning these issues. Toward a Balanced Approach Most recently, educators have begun speaking of balanced approaches in an effort to join the best elements of all the prior programs and perhaps to transcend the seemingly endless reading wars. Phonics approaches typically include equal concern for comprehension and fluent reading of meaningful texts.
All language arts teachers wish children to love reading and to find their voices as writers.
Fortunately, it is not necessary to chose between these models. Reading and writing require the integration of information from several different levels - it is what cognitive scientists call a parallel processing system. All approaches to reading and writing instruction should attend to all levels of processing since each supports the others. In those instances when it is necessary to isolate concerns for one or two levels, attention to other levels should not be long delayed. Children should be encouraged to use all the resources available to them in their efforts to interpret print or to compose texts.