The two opposing reading instruction philosophies are analyzed and placed in historical perspective. The author shows the importance of clarifying the debate and distinguishing between manifest and actual issues. (MD)

The voice of the government via the Reading Excellence Act gives the message that direct systematic intense phonics instruction will solve the reading problem, end debate, lead to student success in life beyond school, and provide teachers with the prestige of successful reading instruction. This paper takes a close look at systematic direct…

This report contains 11 recommendations and a call to action designed to ensure that every child in Idaho is able to read at the appropriate level by the end of third grade. It was requested by the 1997 Idaho Legislature, which acknowledged that reading is fundamental to a student's ability to achieve his or her full potential. The research…

Controversy rages over whole-language/phonics approaches to reading instruction, giving critics great school-bashing opportunities. Districts that have successfully incorporated whole language generally have planned for change, involved parents, proceeded slowly, built in ongoing professional development, provided adequate resources, reassured…

Although converging evidence favors fostering phonemic segmentation and phonic decoding knowledge in the primary grades, there is little agreement on best ways to accomplish these goals. The well-documented importance of teacher expertise is often ignored. Administrators evaluating reading programs should exercise considerable skepticism and…

Enlarges the phonics/whole language debate by focusing on the classroom teacher's evolving role. Whole language instruction involves a fundamental change in a teacher's belief system concerning classroom culture. A complex paradigm shift is needed from teachers' transmission of knowledge to students' transaction or engagement with constructing…

Unless educators can learn from past extremes, the current emphasis on literature and whole language instruction may undermine phonics and other necessary principles. Fortunately, a reborn emphasis on writing will assist the development of accurate decoding and stress the phonemic structure of language. Educators must embrace "best" trends and…

Teachers using the whole-language approach to reading instruction (instead of phonics readers and worksheets) claim this practice is child centered, allows student reading choices, develops the whole child, makes learning relevant, and promotes a lifelong love of learning. Whole-language teachers should adopt a transactional pedagogy and link…

The National Reading Panel admits its evaluation report on phonics is seriously flawed as to organization, methodology, appropriateness of research base, generalizability of results, reliability, validity, and accuracy of data reported. However, an influential public-relations machine is promoting the study's favorable results as unvarnished…

This study investigated the effects of highly decodable text and coordinated phonics instruction on first graders' word recognition strategies. The quantitative study sought to examine the validity of a major claim about highly decodable text--that it enables readers to apply phonics instruction to a greater extent than less decodable text. All…

The struggles of children when faced with reading books written in either a second language or unrelated matter, is described through an example of a eight year old girl, Kelly, who previously loved books but later came to dislike it. The tool ethnography is used to critically examine her behavior and struggles in reading.

This study examined the effects of Making and Writing Words (MWW), a variation of the Making Words word study activity by Cunningham and Cunningham (1992), on second-grade students word learning. MWW was implemented daily with a group of second-grade students' over a five-month period. Results indicated that students who received the MWW treatment…

This pilot study investigated the efficacy of "Phonics Alive 2: The Sound Blender", a computer-based phonological skills training program, delivered with both at-home and at-school components over a 10-week period, as a potential treatment of phonological dyslexia. Participants were 20 dyslexic primary students with an average delay of…

The "Visual Phonics" system, which uses 43 hand cues and corresponding written symbols to help deaf students improve their speech and reading skills, was evaluated with six deaf upper elementary grade students in a speech therapy program. Pre- and posttesting indicated substantially improved articulation both with and without hand cues.…

The change in teachers' attitudes to the teaching of phonics has been one of the significant gains brought about by the National Literacy Strategy. Nevertheless, while phonics is now taught in a high percentage of lessons, there is still much further to go before the quality of the teaching is good enough to have the impact which is needed on…