Essay about Phonics and Whole Language

Moat argues that learning to read is in fact not a natural process and students need explicit phonics instruction. Furthermore, the English alphabetic writing system cannot be learned simply from print exposure: students need to be taught how to develop phonological awareness to sound words out to help them learn how to read and without the support of context-based word recognition. Whole language’s legacy is still embedded in educational practices despite being disproven by scholars, thus Moat advocates for updating state language-arts standards, assessments, and textbooks to reflect direct, explicit phonics-based instruction as the best approach in teaching literacy. She also notes that teacher licensing requirements and preparation programs also need to be informed of effective literacy instructions that is supported by

Comprehension is also an important factor when speaking of literacy. Students should be taught the many strategies that will help them with comprehension and word recognition. In my experience in a first grade classroom I used many of these strategies. Within my lessons I included the activation of prior knowledge to construct meaning, the use of context clues in a sentence, pictures clues, predicting, and drawing inferences about ideas or characters in the text. I always made sure that I modeled the strategy for the student before they set of to do it.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand the importance of a supplemental phonics program, such as Fundations by Wilson Language, to ensure that students are making noticeable and trackable changes in reading and understanding. Phonemic awareness is the key skill needed for students to better understand how letters and sounds correlate. Some basal reading programs do not have an

In order to narrow the achievement gap there is a big focus of phonics knowledge and learning that reading should be a pleasurable thing to do and not a punishment. Too many pupils

Phonics will start to be taught in nursery or reception and a child will not be able to learn to read without proper understanding of phonics.

DfEE (1999, p4) defined phonics as; phonics consists of the skills of segmentation and blending, knowledge of the alphabetic code and an understanding of the principles which underpin how the code is used in reading and

Phonics advocates have been arguing that in order for children to learn to read, they need to have an explicit instruction in the rules of printed text in order to read properly. The phonics approach has been described as “bottom up” as it teaches the children to decode text and then the meaning and understanding will follow while the whole word approach is described as “top down,” as the children depend on the pictures within the book, form hypothesis and make predictions of the words with the text of the book being read (Wren, 2003).

As the standards of education change a consistent factor remains the focus on reading. Early childhood educators must provide an atmosphere that is both developmentally stimulating to the student while also meeting the standards of education. The methods used to help recognize phonics and begin the transition into emergent readers vary from student to student. Without the foundation of phonics research shows that a child will not learn to read. All children must know the alphabet in order to communicate effectively. Phonics cannot be drilled into the child. This will only produce memorization. Instead, educators must understand a child’s individual needs as well as balance. There is no true need to teach phonics as a separate subject. Most children will develop a sense of curiosity from their own knowledge, ideas, and interest. There will of course be a select few that may benefit from a more formal instruction. When children

For this assignment, I will first briefly discuss the value of early reading pre-school and the stages of reading. After that I will critically evaluate the history of introducing synthetic phonics reading in primary schools in England. Furthermore, I will investigate the developments and issues which have been brought about the different teaching strategies used in schools and using teaching synthetic phonics in early years to teach first reading.

Phonics is described as “understanding letter-sound relationships, as well as larger letter pattern/sound pattern relationships” (Ruddell, 2009). Though in my opinion there is a lot more to phonics than this. There are several aspects to phonics, different types of phonics, negatives to the idea, and several ways to teach it. In this paper I will address all of these based on research I found, the discussion I had with my peers, and my own opinion.

What rules should be taught? What are the best ways to teach phonics? The first recorded known phonics instruction was when Noah Webster wrote the famous Blue Back Spellers (Webster, 1798). Included in this text was a list of letters, how to spell syllables, and then passages to be memorized, and content that had been used since the early 1600s. In the mid 1800s, the word method was used to learn to read, and memorize entire words rather than analyze words according to their sounds. According to Smith (1965), Since the introduction of the word method controversy phonetic approach or a whole-word approach to early reading instruction. In this article was stated, The Great Debate (Chall,1967) and “The First Grade Studies” (Bond & Dystra,1967) phonics knowledge is essential but children must be taught to read for purpose and meaning. Furthermore, the whole language versus phonics approach taught in the context of reading and writing activities and not be isolated. Materials such as worksheets and flashcards are considered inappropriate. The Argument that children need some direct systematic sound-symbol instruction to learn to read (Adams, 1990; Stahl, Suttles, & Pagnucco, 1993). Using an approach of combining phonics instruction and teaching with in-context systematic instruction. A research project was conducted in the classrooms of several different socioeconomic (SES) levels and racially diverse communities. In this study data was collected and teachers were interviewed regarding how they taught phonics, and the importance placed on literacy instruction. The data revealed that explicit instruction is systematic, sequential presentation of phonics skills using isolated direct instructional practices. Teachers taught that letters

There have been many debates over which literacy instruction produces the most favorable outcomes in terms of test scores. During the 1960’s, teachers favored the phonics approach in helping students become literate because they believed that it made the most

How did you learn to read? Most of us do not put much thought into this question, but learning to read is a difficult task. According to Cervetti and Hiebert, the National Reading Panel identified five essential components that a teacher should use during reading instruction, which gives the student the highest chance of being an effective reader (2015, p. 548). These five essential components are also called five pillars of reading instruction. They are Phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. This paper will describe each of the five pillars, how they are related, the benefits, as well as give some effective methods of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness. It will continue by addressing the relationship between reading assessment and instruction and end by identifying ways to address the needs and different learning styles of a student. This paper will start by looking at a definition of phonics and phonemic awareness, then move onto the role that each play in learning to read, how they are related, the benefits and effective methods of teaching both.

In this regard, there was a focus on the part of researchers about how teachers could use proper actions and behaviors, as well as proper rewards and punishments to encourage and motivate children to read. As part of this view that reading was a conditioned or even programmed behavior in children, phonics became the primary way in which reading instruction occurred in schools. Researchers believed that teaching phonics provided a way in which children would learn the basic components of language, and would be able to improve reading skills in a logical manner. Phonics made it possible for children to first learn letter sounds, then put those sounds together to learn words, and then put words together for entire phrases (Alexander & Fox,

Those who oppose phonics also feel that the drills and texts used to teach phonics bore students which just increases to their lack of comprehension. At a certain age, students need to focus more on reading for meaning and enjoyment, but the method of phonics does not focus on incorporating these two areas.