Reading in the Public Schools

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There are competing schools of thought on how to teach reading in the public schools today. Before the beginning of the 20th century, reading was taught using a phonics approach. During this century, other approaches have been tried and have failed to teach a significant portion of the students enrolled in public school to read easily and fluently with comprehension. The popular whole language curricula is contrasted with Distar, a reading program developed in the 60s, which is gaining new acceptance in the educational community. Distar is also known as Direct Instruction. It has been shown to be the most effective method of teaching reading to all children (Benjamin, 1981, p. 71). It meets the criteria for a phonics based, explicit, and systematic curriculum. It is easy for teachers to use including scripted lesson plans to ensure effective teaching. Success is guaranteed as a student does not progress until he has gained mastery.

The preeminence of America in the world is at risk. The risk stems from an inability of the public education system to teach its students to read effectively. Individual students who are unable to read at grade level suffer defeat and frustration in all subjects. The frustration and lowered self-esteem these children experience put them at added risk to leave school before they graduate from high school. It also decreases the probability of the student continuing his education at either college level or in trade school (

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habetic language. There is no argument." (Palmaffy, 1997, p. 2). Discussion Whole language instruction for reading began in the 1960's. Ken Goodman, professor at the University of Arizona, and Frank Smith, a cognitive psychologist, developed the pedagogy. They believed that if people attuned to every word and letter within a word that fluent reading would not result--reading would be too cumbersome (Collins, 1997, p. 2). The theory of whole language learning was adapted from the theories on the acquisition of oral language. There is no research to document that literacy is comparable to oral language. If this were indeed true, in a literate society, there would be no need for any instruction in reading. All children would acquire the knowledge of reading at home, just as young children acquire the ability to speak. In the 1970s, the public school establishment embraced the whole language philosophy and began implementing the theory. The students, who had difficulty with "look-say" reading curricula, were now subjected to learning the rules of reading by inference. The whole language adherents believe in a system of education which does a disservice to their students. Whole language curricula belong in the categor
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Direct Instruction, Educational Progress, Frank Smith, Eldredge Baird, Can't Read, Haddox Bruner, NICHD Distar, California Texas, , Teaching Johnny, palmaffy 1997, learn read, reading instruction, teaching reading, marlow 1996, grade level, reading program, collins 1997, teach reading, 1997 1, on-line available httphwwilsonwebcom/cgi-bin/webspirscgi, distar reading program, palmaffy 1997 5, collins 1997 1, children learn read,
Approximate Word count = 2748
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

Reading in the Public Schools

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