One of the biggest arguments in teaching right now is the debate between phonics and whole language way of teaching young kids to read. Phonics is the originally way that schools taught their students how to read (Kaura para. 2). First the kids would learn each letter and then move on to the sounds they make and were eventually able to put words together (Kaura para. 3). This seemed to work well and kids were able to figure words out on their own. Whole language, on the contrary, was teaching students complete words at a time, having them memorize every word intend of the single letters that make up the words (Kaura para. 8).
Both of these methods have their advantages. Phonics allows the kids to learn less and allow them to learn on their own. While whole language learning allows the kids to focus less on sounding out words and more on interpreting entire books or even just sentences.
This argument has lasted very long time and seems to never be settled because both ways have their advantages and disadvantages, so I believe that it would best to just combine these two methods to get the advantages of both and giving the students their best chance to be great readers. I know that I learned from phonics and do have trouble comprehending books and essays. Maybe if I my teacher had combined phonics with whole reading I would be a better reader as well as comprehender.
Source:
Kaura, Rajni. "Phonology vs. Whole Language." ESL Website for Students and Teachers. Michael Buckhoff. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.
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