The down side to Whole Language

[ginawirth]

I have been teaching for many years. Most of my experience is at the early el. ed. level(K,Gr.1 & 2). I also have many years teaching special ed. experience. I have used many reading programs, text series, etc. Many years ago the school where I was working employed a Whole Language reading series. The program was lacking any meaningful phonic practice and I found that the students (especially those who struggled) had the ability to memorize the text rather than actually read the text using decoding skills and phonic stratagies. The students who relied on the Whole Language approch without adding supplimental phonic and decoding skills struggled the following school year. It is my experience that Whole Language should be used with caution and the shortcomings of that program should be addressed while using with ESL students.