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18.2.2: Learning to Read

  • Page ID
    225553
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    Learning Objectives
    1. Describe the phonics-based and whole-language approaches to reading instruction.

    A huge milestone in middle childhood is learning to read and write. While the foundations of this were laid in infancy and early childhood, formal instruction on this process usually happens during the school-age years. There isn’t always complete agreement on how children are best taught to read. The following approaches to teaching reading are distinguished by their methodology; however, today's models of reading strive for a balance between the two types of reading methods, as both are recognized as essential for learning to read.

    • A phonics-based approach teaches reading by making sure children can understand letter-sound correspondences (how letters sound), automatically recognize familiar words, and decode unfamiliar words. This ability to break the code of reading allows children to read words they have never heard spoken before.
    • The whole-language approach aims to teach reading naturally and intuitively. As the sounds of words don’t have meaning, the focus is on reading words and sentences in context (such as real books), rather than learning the sounds and phonemes that make up words.60

    References, Contributors and Attributions

    60. Cognition and Instruction/Learning to Read by Wikibooks is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0


    This page titled 18.2.2: Learning to Read is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Heather Carter.