The Best Of Both Worlds

Jack sits at his desk and ponders the work sheet his 1st grade teacher has handed out. He is supposed to circle all the words on the page that contain the "at" sound. After 20 minutes, his teacher collects the work sheets and passes out a new set with a similar task. When that work is completed, the class moves on to a science lesson.

In Jill's classroom, the children sit on the floor around their teacher as she reads aloud to them. Upon finishing the story, Jill's teacher instructs the students to return to their desks and spend 20 minutes writing about a topic of their choice.

The goal of both teachers is the same: to teach students to read. But their methods are markedly different. The first is teaching her students to "decode" words using systematic phonics. Within a highly structured curriculum, her students first will master individual letter sounds and blends and eventually go on to read whole words and text. The second teacher's instruction is rooted in the whole language philosophy, which stresses the use of whole, uncontrived texts in reading instruction and encourages children to use language in ways that relate to their...