Reading and Writing

Like a lot of people, I remember being taught to read and write using the phonics approach. To me, it makes sense to look at things in pieces like phonics suggest. Letters lead to words that then lead to phrases and clauses that lead to sentences. I also remember both my parents and Sesame Street teaching me how to sound out words, which helped me learned to read. I don’t have my own kids, but it’s been fun watching two of my best friends begin to teach their son to read using these methods.

I’ll be honest, before reading this chapter I never heard of the other method- whole-language. I’m not sure I like the idea of “invented spelling” that this method incorporates. To a point I believe that too much error correction can have a negative effect on learning to read and write, but I don’t believe complete abandonment should be the answer. It might be helpful when they’re beginning to read and write to be able to write out words however they want, but as they progress through school and beyond, that “invented spelling” will become less and less accepted.

But, like every other method we’ve read about so far, I do think the whole language method has its benefits. I think the example Williams brings up about the word “house” is interesting. The word sounds the same in all three instances, but because of the context it is place in, the word has three different meanings. There is more to words than simply the way the sound.

Just like many of the other theories and methods we’ve studied so far, I think maybe a balance of the two methods would be a good idea. Not all kids will learn the same way. What works for one child may be completely ineffective for another. While learning all these different methods and theories may seem overwhelming at times, I believe it will be incredibly helpful for when I actually begin to teach. The more methods you know, the more you can help you students learn.

On a final note, I was surprised by Williams’ statement towards the end of the chapter that “many public school teachers…will not accept student papers that are not written in cursive, and they actually will force students to copy by hand a printed paper.” That strikes me as very odd. I would love to know the source of this information or the demographics of the teachers he is referring to. I think computers and word processors are a great help to writing. The ability to edit instantly and move words or paragraphs around with ease can help students improve their writing and I think that should be encouraged.