Considers different responses of two third-grade bilingual students to an English whole-language literacy curriculum. Examines how the students resisted, appropriated, and/or internalized a whole-language curriculum. Discusses the relationship between student curricular interactions and their literacy development. (SC)

First graders (n=5), preschoolers (n=5), special education first-graders (n=5), and adults (n=8) in Brazil received a reading program in which they learned to match printed to dictated words and to construct (copy) printed words. The students not only learned to match the training words but also learned to read them. (Contains references.)…

A first-grade teacher explains how she uses the whole-part-whole reading model with 15 youngsters. Rereading allows students to practice recently learned skills and strategies, while developing fluency and comprehension. Other exercises include reading aloud in pairs, deciphering the daily schedule, discussions of syllable and sound similarities,…

Criticisms of the whole-language approach (WL) to English-as-a-Second-language teaching are addressed, focusing on concerns about reading and grammar instruction. Criticism of grammar instruction is refuted, arguing that WL does not view grammatical knowledge as prerequisite to language use. A modification of the WL approach to reading instruction…

Reviews four professional books: (1) "Changing Teaching, Changing Schools. Bringing Early Childhood Practice into Public Education: Case Studies from the Kindergarten" (O'Connell); (2) "Whole Language Plus: Essays on Literacy in the United States and New Zealand" (Cazden); (3) "Audacious Kids: Coming of Age in America's…

Shows how two teacher educators and two teachers, combining their energies, worked through the difficult transition from basal readers to literature-based curriculums. Contains specific sections in which the elementary school teachers talk about their experience. (TB)

Finds four major unresolved issues, according to state legislators: (1) assessment of students' reading progress; (2) whole language versus basal approaches; (3) use of tradebooks in place of basals; and (4) whether at-risk readers should spend increased time reading or practicing isolated reading skills. Suggests that legislators lack sufficient…

Describes an early childhood educator's experience in using the Orff-Schulwerk approach in a preschool environment. Discusses the combination of whole language and Orff-Schulwerk approaches. Provides information on how to build a repertoire of music and words and create the reading/writing connection. Provides a list of sources for Orff-Schulwerk…

Describes a whole language learning unit based on group investigation. The task is an authentic task and includes a problem that requires solving as well as step-by-step guidelines for collecting, organizing, and presenting data. The sample unit is developed around the topic of animals. (Author/VWL)

Presents a speech delivered at the 2001 Whole Language Umbrella Conference in Chicago, Illinois. Considers the situation behind the call for an education rights movement. Discusses how privatizing, corporatizing, and standardizing are happening in many public spheres. Suggests that schools are being manipulated by corporations. Calls for an…

Nine elementary students with mild to moderate mental retardation were taught to use a balanced, multimethod, multilevel language arts framework that blended phonics and basal instruction with holistic and contextualized approaches. Children made gains in word identification and reading comprehension strategies, metalinguistics, written language,…

Explores literacy development over a three-year period of a child in a whole language, multiage classroom who also receives special education services. Contrasts the classroom teacher's holistic-constructivist views with the special education teacher's mechanistic, reductionist views; discusses implications of each; and calls for new, positive…

Examines use of the term "whole language" by the mass media, scholarly journals, and interested parties in a college town. Argues disputes about "whole language" have as much to do with cultural, political, and economic issues confronting the United States, and in particular the Southwest, as they do with any conversation about the "best way" to…

A meta-analysis used Glassian techniques to compare the effectiveness of the whole-language approach to the direct-skills approach. A total of 21 studies included sufficient information to calculate effect sizes and included whole language approach as the independent variables with dependent variables relating to reading improvement. Results…

An ongoing investigation on the nature of literature-based instruction in schools that serve large numbers of economically disadvantaged children is in the process of describing various aspects of literacy teaching and learning in four schools, two rural, one urban, and one semi-urban. The investigation is qualitative in nature, longitudinal, and…