Improving reading instruction is one of the hottest topics in K-12 education today. It is also one of the most complex, encompassing pedagogy, policy, and politics -- all rooted in a long history of arguments about the best way to teach kids to read. This analysis is a primer on the "Science of Reading" and efforts to implement it across…

US public education faces concerted attack by those bent on corporate control, privatization, regimented reading instruction, and high-stakes testing. One democratic, humanistic, and research-based alternative can be found in the theory and practice of whole language, which empowered teachers and students alike through the 1980s and 1990s -- until…

Criticism of Stephen Karshen's June 2002 "Kappan" article "Whole Language and the Great Plummet of 1987-92: An Urban Legend from California." Argues that Karshen's analysis of the California Achievement Program reading scores is wrong. (PKP)

This article introduces a special section on the whole-language approach. The five articles discuss whole language's roots, whole language in the classroom, two schools that have embraced whole language, and whole-language resources. (SM)

As we strive to help pre-service teachers understand both why and how to teach for social justice, we face the challenge of making whole language teaching less abstract and intangible. Frequently pre-service teachers understand the principles of teaching for social justice but have no sense of how to infuse them into their teaching. They accept…

Responds to Richard Innes's criticism of his June 2002 "Kappan" article. (PKP)

Conservative challenges to materials used in the public schools are no longer limited to isolated attacks against individual books. Recent curriculum challenges are noteworthy for their frequency, new targets (such as the Impressions textbook series), and changed strategies, ranging from litigation and personal persuasion to highly organized…

For centuries societies have understood the importance of art in relationship to other disciplines. Many great artists were also writers and poets. Many artists were well educated in classical literature from which they drew inspiration for paintings and sculptures. The document argues that the obvious meeting place for the two disciplines of art…

At New York City's progressive Bank Street School for Children, teaching is directed to the whole child's social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. The school's reading program focuses on a language-experience approach based on student choice. This article shows how collaboration between teachers and librarians has strengthened the…

The Whole Language Movement may be the most widespread and fastest growing grassroots curriculum trend in U.S. education. Although a few Teachers Applying Whole Language (TAWL) groups are affiliated with school systems, the majority are supported entirely by teachers from different school districts meeting together voluntarily to advance their own…

Presents guidelines designed to help teachers using whole language for the first time. Addresses a variety of concerns, including staff development, the change process, and implementation. (SR)

Until recently, computer technology has been used as a glorified worksheet, word processor, and CD-ROM interactive reader. Now, technology can move well beyond these basic functions into improving literacy skills and strategies, problem solving, and communication. This paper addresses methods in which a balanced literacy program, wherein the…

When educators consciously integrate the arts and education, the benefits are magnified. Kinesthetic learning has wide-ranging applications, such as interpreting a concept through physical means to increase comprehension, exploring literature themes and feelings through creative movement, exploring the universality and particularity of human…

States that in education journal articles it is apparent that "multicultural" is the new buzz word. Argues that while multicultural awareness is important, the surface treatment of the issue of diversity in America may obscure the more serious problems that minority groups face. Concludes that with effort, schools can be transformed into…

This article presents an interview with two experts in whole-language instruction (Patricia Tefft Cousin and Margaret Richeck) and then offers a commentary section that provides another perspective of the whole-language method, concluding that children with learning disabilities need many types of instruction. (JDD)