What reading programs are used to teach elementary schoolers nowadays?

Balanced Literacy. This consists of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.. This is taught through whole group (initial instruction, reading aloud, modeled writing), small group (small group instruction, guided reading, literature circles and guided writing) and independent (centers, reading buddy, independent reading and writing, seatwork).

Actually Balanced Literacy is nothing new….it is whole language and phonics combined. Students have different learning styles and combining these is much more effective than teaching either in isolation.

There is a huge difference between what “they” tell and what is going on. (I speak about IL)

A lot of School Districts tell that they teach phonics with some elements of whole language approach. So, back to phonics. No one mentions BASAL reading, however.

In reality, as I was told by a highly experienced English teacher, most of the professors who teaches teachers had never been taught phonics. Most of the teachers did not study phonics as well. How can someone teach something that he does not know?

More reality. This year I run Math enrichment program in a reach suburban area. Most of my 4-5th graders have difficulties with reading new words due to poor understanding of phonics. And I deal mostly with “gifted”.

Now about “novelties” in teaching phonics…

See: “Words their way” D.R.Bear, M.Invernizzi,. …2004. These guys teach phonics by patterns. I think that their approach is good for teaching phonemic awareness only. For the later phases, I afraid, it might develop wrong patterns.

The good programs use a balanced literacy approach. This combines the best parts of phonics and whole language and encourages the use of real literature. It also allows teachers to look at the way individual children learn and provides for a lot of individual instruction.

Hi,
As parents, you’re the most important first step in your children’s journey into the wonderful world of reading. It is up to you to create the most supportive environment that turns your child on to reading – such as reading aloud to them often during the day and before bedtime, and placing age appropriate books for children around the house, so that the child will have access to plenty of books. Reading often to your child will help develop their interest in books and stories, and soon they will want to read stories on their own.

For a simple, step-by-step program that can help your child learn to read visit this site: http://readingprogram.toptips.org

Good Bye

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