This paper describes the whole language approach to literacy education in the context of teaching adults. Information is drawn from literature and from interviews with teachers and literacy students. Topics covered include the following: whole language--a framework, learning language, learning through language, learning about language, what people…

It is argued that if whole language teachers are to use computers in their reading and writing programs, they will need both software and strategies for using computers that are consistent with their beliefs and goals. For whole language teachers, as for other good teachers, it is the teacher's beliefs about curriculum and instruction rather than…

In the 1988-89 school year, a teacher introduced whole language learning to teach reading and writing in her classroom while documenting and then evaluating its effect on a 12-year-old special needs student named Debbie. According to formal testing, Debbie was functioning in the moderately handicapped range of ability, and her speech and language…

This study compared the effects of whole language practices with the effects of a skills-oriented program on the reading achievement of a group of children from an inner-city, low socioeconomic school from the time they entered kindergarten to the end of second grade. Subjects were 22 children, all of a minority race, randomly placed in one of the…

A small-scale collaboration between members of a school of education and a public school district (involving some reading/language arts faculty and students from the University of Texas on the one hand and the curriculum director, volunteer reading teachers, media specialists, and elementary teachers in a school district in San Antonio, Texas on…

Whole language reading education is a constructivist view of learning with particular emphasis on the development of literacy. Constructivism asserts that human beings develop concepts through their own intellectual interactions and actions with the world. In whole language reading classrooms acceptance of learners means that the whole language…

Increasingly, foreign nationals living in Japan are sending their children to Japanese elementary schools. This requires that the children's native language be taught outside of school, most often at home. While teaching oral language is not difficult for parents, teaching reading requires different skills. Some difficulties in this process are…

Making a case for the value of literature-based instruction, this book presents an overview of the extensive knowledge base supporting literature-based approaches to literacy instruction. It notes that literature-based instruction goes beyond simply changing the kinds of texts children read--also required in literature-based instruction are an…

An ethnographic study described a successful educational environment for students from low-income families and examined what it is about those environments that makes them successful. The subject class was a combined fourth and fifth grade class at Taft Elementary School in a predominantly African American working class community two miles from…

An action research project described a program for improving reading readiness and language arts skills through phonemic awareness. The targeted population consisted of kindergarten students in a heterogeneous mix of upper middle class, middle class, working class, and low income families located in central Illinois. Data revealed that students…

This paper is in large part a critique of Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences presented in his 1983 book "Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences," and asserts that the multiple intelligences (MI) concept has been widely misinterpreted. The paper outlines some of the misconceptions of Gardner's theory as identified by…

Describes how, in one Texas fifth-grade classroom, Shared Inquiry book discussions were taught and implemented over a six-month period in connection with the Junior Great Book Series. Discusses solutions to the dilemma of grading these active class discussions, and reports that scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) tests were…

This study evaluated the transfer of decoding skills from a code-emphasis program that used a controlled text to a literature-based basal reading series consistent with the whole language approach. Participants were 11 elementary students with learning disabilities who received reading instruction in a resource program. Results found students…

This article discusses ineffective practices and educational outcomes attributed to the whole language approach which may stem from other educational dynamics, such as failure to provide adequate training or mentoring to teachers, confusing language as a communication process with language arts skills, and failure to apply known principles of…

Two school districts that implemented a whole language curriculum were studied to determine how well students learned traditional reading and writing skills. Analysis of standardized testing, teacher and administrator interviews, and whole language theories indicated students were learning skills as well as they had with a traditional curriculum.…