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Mar. 22, 2006
Reader's Theatre...Whole Language?
This may shock some of you, but I am a strong advocate of the whole language approach to teaching reading. In fact, in many ways, the concept of whole language defines a lot of what we do during the day. Hence the title of my series on reading...Reader's Theater is one of the many effective tools the whole language approach utilizes to aid children in gaining confidence in reading.
Before I completely lose you, let me say that whole language got a lot of bad publicity due to California's perversion of it. Leave it to California to strip the approach of one of its key elements, phonics instruction, and try to teach children with the rest. Without phonics, the approach fails. What most people think of as "whole language" really is only half the story.
Here are the principles of whole language instruction, as I learned them in the summer of 2000 while attending a grueling six-week summer institute. You'll definitely recognize my philosophy in there, if you have read much from my thoughts on teaching reading and writing.
- Acceptance of learners. The needs and interests of learners are utilized to engage them in learning and make learning personally relevant and useful. Children are not directed, but rather led by the teacher.
- Flexibility within structure. Children are taught to take responsibility for their work and their accomplishments. Often, this takes the form of notebooks with written goals and progress. The teacher sets curriculum objectives, but students have choices in regards to exhibiting mastery. Worksheets are largely done away with in favor of contextualized projects. Students largely develop their skills by using models of the skill.
- Supportive classroom community. Students have responsibility for their own behavior. Means of resolving interpersonal conflict are taught so that the teacher (parent) serves only as a mediator and eventually is not needed in disputes. For an excellent example of this, check Spunky's post on this very topic.
- Skills taught in context. Contrary to popular belief, phonics, grammar and spelling are taught. But they are taught in context. Students do not spend a week learning the sound of "a" before moving on to "b" and six months later begin learning how to put these together to make words. And, somewhere down the road, comprehension strategies are taught. Oral language and phonemic awareness are critical for beginning. This is a bit different from how Writing Road to Reading (my "official" book I refer to) lays out reading instruction, but it really is not contradictory. Just remember that there are way more skills involved in reading than merely decoding. My daughter could orally fill out text structure charts and identify the main idea long before she could decode. But many fourth graders who are master decoders still cannot do these tasks vital to reading. In whole language, all of it is taught at the same time, with the child gradually taking over more responsibility for the decoding as he gains skill.
- Teacher support for learning: scaffolding and collaboration. The teacher provides models, such as high interest poetry, big books and other engaging texts. These are read often enough that the children memorize them. Children are encouraged to pretend to read while they recite what they have memorized. This helps build confidence and a sense of success while working on phonics practice. It also gives them the support they need to try out their skills they are learning independently. Students are encouraged to write before learning to spell. This is not a rejection of conventional spelling, but practice in sound-letter recognition. Teachers using this approach look through written work together with the child to develop goals for spelling and grammar, focusing on a few things the child needs to work on. What is chosen should be "doable" for the child's ability level, constantly pushing them a little further. Children often have a personal dictionary (spelling list) gleaned from their own work and these are the spelling words the child is tested on. Usually these are in addition to a master list that everyone is learning. So, for example, I might take the next five words in the Ayers List and two words that I see my daughter writing and misspelling frequently and practice those with her. The goal is to meet the child where he is at and develop a plan to move further toward mastery....as a disclaimer, spelling is the area I have neglected most this year. We have hardly done any spelling at all and that is my next goal to tackle for this semester.
- Contextualized assessment that emphasizes individuals' growth as well as their
accomplishments. Growth and strengths are emphasized during assessments. Studenst are involved in assessing their work in order to increase ownership and responsibility. Children mark areas for improvement and are held responsible for working toward those goals. Portfolio assessment is common (we use notebooks).
whole language, phonics, teaching reading, education, homeschooling, home school, teaching writing, literacy
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Mar. 23, 2006 - Hi
Have a blessed day-
Allison C.
Edited by AmoScribo on Mar. 23, 2006 at 3:19 PM