Replies

Both of my children were taught to read through the whole word method. They were taught very young and at the expense of a lot of time by me and my ex. It is a very good learning system but, IMO, it simply can't be taught in public schools because it is so time intensive.
The reward in this is seeing both kids reading at two to three grade levels above their peers throughout their school years and besting me in reading speed and reading comprehension during testing.
In a public school setting the "cookie cutter" method is about the only way to garner any success whatsoever. Teachers simply don't have the time to teach whole word reading on a one on one basis which is what is required. Only highly interested and dedicated parents seem successful in that learning technique. JMO.

I disagree. IMO, that method only works well with children who are very bright or can easily memorize a large number of words. You should read "Why Johnny Can't Read and What You Can Do About It" which was first published in 1955. He later wrote "Why Johnny Still Can't Read" which was published in 1981.

The "whole language" method teaches the child to look at the word and "decode" it any way that they can. It doesn't teach them to read each word from left to right. It doesn't really teach them the sounds the letters make as you would if they were learning a foreign language.

I was born in 1950 and learned to read phonetically. The incidence of dyslexia and other reading difficulties was much less than in the 1980's when my children started to school. Although I read to them when they were small, I trusted the public school to teach them to read. I did not realize until they were in third grade how much the method of reading had changed. That's when I discovered the above mentioned books and used them to help my children learn the sounds that they should have already known. They are twins and are now 27. Both of them love to read - one a little bit too much! Ever since then, I have encouraged my friends to teach their children to read BEFOFE they start school.

The real scandal about the whole language method is that the Schools of Education and the writers of reading textbooks kept pushing that method even though they had a large amount of evidence that it was not working. The whole language advocates had staked their professional reputations on that method and the textbook companies had invested a large amount of money in developing curricula based on the whole language concept. As a result, many children (and adults) were made to suffer for it.

Both of my children were taught to read through the whole word method. They were taught very young and at the expense of a lot of time by me and my ex. It is a very good learning system but, IMO, it simply can't be taught in public schools because it is so time intensive.

The nice thing about whole word is that students can read more fluently, because they don't have to sound each word out. The bad thing about it is that they have to memorize each word, and it's hard to figure out what new words might be, except in context.

Phonics, although a slower method of reading when students are first starting out and don't recognize many words, is good for helping them figure out new words, because they can sound them out, and might know the words verbally even if they don't recognize them yet.

The best reading teachers I know say that students need a combination of the two methods, rather than exclusively one or the other.