Sunday September 28 1997 20:14, Dan Triplett waxed eloquently to 
All.......everybody!:
 DT> Hey....it's too quiet in here!   Help, I am going through
 DT> withdrawal!
Don't be insulted or take personally what follows.  I am reacting to an 
documentary I saw last week.
 DT> Lets get a good topic going.  Hmmmmmm  any ideas?
 DT>
 DT> Whole Language (again?)
Is this a worn out subject or is it that teachers don't fully understand it?
 DT> Invented Spelling?
An important part of the writing process in a truly whole language programme. 
Most teachers I know who stuff this up haven't understood how or where 
teacher intervention fits in the process.
Down under, here in New Zealand, we have a publishing company called Wendy 
Pye Limited.  Wendy's books are published with the Sunshine label and used 
extensively in this country and overseas to teach reading.
Last week on New Zealand Television there was a documentary in which a 
critique was made of the Wendy Pye readers.  The opponents of her books were 
American and Australian teachers. It seems to me that the criticism was that 
the books were not sequenced in such a way as to enable a teacher to teach 
using a phonics method.
I was amazed that no New Zealand teachers were interviewed.  Furthermore I 
was astounded by the fact that the teachers interviewed wanted a prescriptive 
phonics curriculum which told them to use which book when.
Why not use a whole language approach???
Surely we are not the only teachers in the world who use a child centred and 
needs based approaches to teaching.
The Wendy Pye readers are leveled from an emergent level through early 
reading to fluency across some 7 or 8 levels.  The vocabulary in the emergent 
texts use a basic high frequency words such as;
I, am, and, the, come, look, for, here, is, me, he, she, you, are, in, went, 
school, go, on, up.
(These words will be those first use in their own writing)
The pictures provide cues for the interest words.  As students are exposed to 
print and the conventions of print; ie that print carries a message and that 
the message is consistent, concepts about directionality, learning to look at 
print and use letter cues, the student will begin to learn to read.
It should also be noted that the classroom programme including oral and 
written language needs to have a lot of alphabet work where students are 
exposed, immersed  and engage in recognising the letter sounds that 
correspond to the hierglyphics that we decipher as letters which form words.
The teacher needs to know the respective texts and should be skilled enough 
and discerning enough to identify the appropriate texts for the needs of the 
student to facilitate the process. Phonics while important is only part of 
the decoding of text.
As students gain control of language, learn to read for meaning, to self 
correct to use cross checking strategies including the visual features and 
sounds of words and the list goes on, they become confident and learn to 
read. IMHO it takes about 3 years for the average student to become a fluent 
reader. Beyond that the biggest thing is the development of the students 
knowledge and experience of the world so that they are able to comprehend 
what is contained in the print they read.
It would naive of me to try and explain all that is involved in the reading 
process to educators many of whom will have considerably more experience than 
me but it is also astounding that there are teachers who don't have a clue 
about the process.  The fact that their students learn to read is more good 
luck than good management.
Well Dan, if this doesn't stir some debate then it will be time to check if 
we are still alive.
Cheers
Chris
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