Reading

The discussion on methods of teaching children to read is heated and, I think, unnecessarily contradictory. Basically there appears to be three main 'camps': the 'Phonics' camp, the 'Whole Word' camp (variously called 'Language Experience', 'Whole Word', 'Real Books' and probably others that I have forgotten. This appears to have culminated in OBE - Outcome Based Education).

The third camp is predictably a combination of the two main camps. I will stick my neck out here and openly declare a general preference for a 'Phonics First' approach.

Students with a background knowledge of phonic skills (the alphabetic code) approach the reading task in such a way that, whilst it is may be slower in the initial stages, it is accurate and supports spelling.

Whole Word readers are not hampered by rules and left-to-right sequencing at the beginning stages; therefore initial reading is much faster. However Whole Word reading is less accurate and does not support spelling as effectively as phonics.

Many factors need to be considered when chosing an approach to the teaching of reading, particularly in those critical initial stages. Personally I am not swayed by 'philosophies of reading'. I am swayed by the cognitive, language and memory limitations inherent in the students. I am also swayed by proven 'data' - not by general airy-fairy 'belief statements'.

For those who have a burning desire to understand the bases of learning to read, I can do no better than refer you to the book titled 'Learning to Read' by Marilyn Jager Adams.

In addition, however, I would also urge you to read about the VAS (Visual Attention Span) factor; I cannot stress the importance of this factor enough. It is absolutely essential to test for VAS prior to even considering a whole word approach to reading. You can test a student's VAS level by going to 'testing' and clicking http://www.theharrisontest.com The test takes a matter of minutes to conduct. You can also read more about VAS on that site as well as testing the student's knowledge of other vital reading sub-skills.