A study examined the relationship between reading instruction and the development of decoding and spelling skills and the writing fluency of children with varying levels of phonemic awareness. First grade children from two classrooms in a rural Florida school district who began school high and low in phonemic awareness received either whole language or traditional basal instruction. The whole language curriculum included the shared book experience and extensive writing activities; the traditional basal curriculum included explicit phonics instruction, but very little writing. Results show that high phonemic awareness children outperformed low phonemic awareness children; there was no significant difference between instructional approach in the performance of children on any of the measures. Effect sizes indicated that children who started school high in phonemic awareness were at an advantage in the whole language classroom. Children who started school low in phonemic awareness were given an advantage by being placed in the traditional classroom, although the magnitude of that advantage was not as strong as was the advantage to high phonemic awareness children of being in the whole language classroom. Children in the whole language classroom became more fluent writers; children in the traditional classroom became more accurate spellers in their compositions. (Six tables of data and one figure are included; 24 references are attached.) (Author/PRA)