I can only speak from my experience. I didn't mean to upset anyone. When my boys were in elementary school, whole language became "the thing." They are now 21 and 23. The schools around us taught NO PHONICS. We ended up with a huge group of kids that were in 3rd and 4th grade, had received little or no phonics instruction, and couldn't read. It was considered a model school system. People came from all over to tour the school. I was staying at home with my kids and subbing in the different schools. I also subbed in middle school, as I said before, and there was a distinct difference in the kids there. The ones with no phonics background had no word attack skills for unfamiliar words. Apparently, those of you on this board still included phonics instruction. That's wonderful, but that isn't how it was done where we were. We made a point to move into a school system that included phonics instruction. I use a balanced literacy approach that includes a strong component of direct phonics instruction and have had great success. I will now bow out of this discussion. Cindy _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
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