The Reading Wars By: Anthony Pellegrino

Reading is the most important single indicator of a student’s ability to succeed or fail in school. Yet so many students are not good readers. What is the reason that some of our children cannot read well? What techniques are used in teaching reading?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize individual sounds in words, and phonics is the ability to blend those sounds in the reading of words. It teaches students to sound out words and letters. In teaching phonetics, exercises, drills and tests are an integral part of this technique.

A different approach is wholelanguage teaching. Students read as a “whole” or “look and guess” what the meaning might be on the basis of context. This is the technique in which language learning takes place most effectively when learners are engaged collaboratively in meaningful and purposeful uses of language. Little instruction is given to letter sounds. It assumes that learning to read is an extension of oral language.

The two different approaches must combine the best qualities in each. Teachers are beginning to realize that a combination of phonics and wholelanguage makes for better learning. Ask your child how he is being encouraged to read in his class. Better yet, visit the teacher and discuss her method of teaching reading.

Frankly speaking, if your child is reading well and loves books, it doesn’t matter what technique is being used. However if your child is struggling, demand to know what technique is being used and how your child is being taught reading. The important point is that poor reading achievement increases the chances of serious delinquency persisting over time.

According to Dr. McEwan and other leading authorities on reading instruction, there are three essential components in an effective reading program: 1) giving students direct, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics in kindergarten and first grade while also exposing students to the best in fiction and nonfiction reada loud with comprehension instruction; 2) expecting students to read a great deal of challenging and excellent material as soon as they have acquired independent reading skills; and 3) teaching students to use comprehension strategies to help them to understand and remember what they read.

If there were any one major educational problem that the PSS has to overcome, it is teaching children how to read so that they can succeed in school and in life. It is a sad fact, but the majority of students entering the first grade cannot understand even simple text. Their vocabulary is quite poor and the number of words they possess is way below the average count of 5,000 to 6,000 words they should have at command for their age level.

The PSS tries very hard to bring those students up to the level they should be, but unless they come prepared to read when they enter the first grade, it is exceedingly difficult for them to catch up to the more advanced students. Unfortunately many parents feel that kindergarten is not important. Students who do not attend kindergarten enter the first grade with a reading handicap. Attending kindergarten will do more for the child’s language ability than any other method other than being tutored at home by a parent or relative.

The Council on Exceptional Children states: Research makes clear that children do not learn to read the way they learn to talk. Speech is a natural human capacity, and learning to talk requires little more than exposure and opportunity. In contrast, written language is an artifact, a human invention, and reading is not a skill that can be acquired through immersion alone. (continued).