Responding to a message by Dan, to Charles on ...
DT>Action Reading is a program that one can purchase for use in the home.  
DT>It is marketed on TV's ubiquitous commercials.  They are a phonics based 
DT>program and they are in the business of selling a product (which they 
DT>believe in) and making some money.  I would hardly consider them a 
DT>reliable source for information regarding Whole Language.
I've not seen their ads.  Perhaps this is a regional program?
But, two follow-ups: 1)Only a small part of what I quoted came from 
them, and only the extent to which it supported other information I 
posted,  2) the fact that an organization has a stake in the issue makes 
what they say suspect, but does not make it incorrect.
John Saxxon produces a math textbook series for schools and has, nearly 
single-handedly, taken on the NCTM and their new standards.  Although he 
has a very strong stake in the dispute, more and more schools are 
adopting his traditional drill-and-kill programs, as the results are
remarkable.
DT>The American Federation of Teacher, which is on record of opposing WL, 
DT>is a smaller? teacher's union.  I don't believe that the NEA holds to 
DT>the same positions regarding WL.  Why would one be so impressed with 
DT>what they have to say (The AFT)?
This is a topic which I could spout off on for hours.  I use a lot of 
AFT information because I am a member and a local president within that 
organization.  But you are right - they are a smaller organization than 
the NEA, only about 600,000 members.  Does that disqualify them?
About 10 years ago, in the face of reports such as "A Nation at Risk" 
that criticized American schools for falling behind the schools of other 
nations, the AFT formed the first educational research department of any 
significance, outside of the department of education.  The research arm 
of the organization has been collecting, recording and evaluating 
educational research for quite some time now, and every other year they 
sponsor a Quest conference for members to instruct them in the 
newest techniques supported by research.
The NEA has just this year changed its focus and opened its own research 
center for education, so they are a bit behind but should be up to speed 
very soon.  I'm not sure if you are aware of it, but the AFT and the NEA 
have been holding serious merger talks - wouldn't be a surprise if the 
merger occured within a year or two.  But that's beside the point.
If you're unaware or unimpressed with the prestige of the research 
branch of the AFT, nothing I can say will change your mind.
DT>Marvel away....you need to get away from the idea that WL is a process.  
DT>It is not and never has been.
Semantics.  Any group of lessons taught utilizing the "philosophy" 
automatically assigns a process to it.
DT>You must have more faith in the opinions of a relatively obscure 
DT>teacher's union than you do in what whole-language theorists have to say 
DT>on the matter.  What makes their claims more credible then the WL 
DT>theorists themselves?  
Cheap shot at the AFT, which I'll ignore.  As for the claims of the 
theorists, read back a message or two to see what I quoted about Goodman.
DT>According to whom??  Kenneth Goodman's research studied the process of 
DT>reading from a psycholinguistic perspective.
I understand, and also previously posted the following...
     "Whole language's emphasis on context was also undermined when
     the "Journal of Educational Psychology" published a study
     challenging the oft-cited 1965 experiment conducted by Ken
     Goodman. In the original experiment, he had found that
     children made 60 to 80 percent more errors when reading
     words out of context than when reading them in context.
     However, those who repeated the experiment determined that
     Goodman had failed to distinguish properly between good and
     poor readers. It was only the younger and poorer readers who
     made significantly more errors reading words out of context.
     Good readers were able to read words well whether in or out
     of context.  Goodman had used only poor readers in his
     experiment and had no control group."
The AFT research department did not claim there wasn't any research to 
support whole language, they said that there wasn't any research that 
was well constructed.
DT>He was interested in the relationship between thought and language 
DT>(psyche and linguistics) as it applies to reading.  He described 
DT>reading not as a letter by letter, word by word decoding process, but 
DT>rather a "psycholinguistic guessing game (Goodman 1982 p33) whereby 
DT>the reader uses graphophonic, syntatic, and semantic clues 
DT>simultaneously to construct meaning from print.
I agree that is what he stated and have quoted passages stating much the 
me.
DT>Other educators and psycholinguists conducted their own studies of the 
DT>reading process, and these not only verified but expanded on Goodman's 
DT>initial research (Clay, 1972; Ferreiro, 1986; Y. Goodman, 1986; Harste, 
DT>Woodward, & Burke, 1984; Taylor, 1983)
Ah, you've got me there.  I've no idea what these refer to nor any way 
to get to a library where I might find them.  I'll make a bit of an 
effort to track these through our school library, though we start school 
next week with no librarian.  Our librarian retired in June and the 
first one they hired has quit already. 
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* UniQWK #5290* Do people rap on your head and say "Hello? Anybody home?"
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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