Reference no: EM132861100

In module 12 and in the Video - A Tale of Two Schools you learned about "The Reading Wars". The Reading Wars are a debate about the best way to instruct children in reading. Two positions dominate the literature, the whole-language approach and the phonics approach. Some argue that we should use the "Whole-Language Approach", while others think at the crux of literacy is "phonics" or learning how to sound out letters and new words. The "Whole-Language Approach" focuses on helping children to make meaning of what they read and to express meaning in what they write for real purposes. Teachers who use this approach do not place an emphasis on spelling or grammar and typically do not correct children's spelling or grammatical errors. Proponents of the Whole-Language Approach believe that language should not be broken down into letters or decoded into sounds - rather that children view language as a complete system of making meaning in context. The phonics approach, on the other hand, explicitly teaches sound-letter correspondences.