Whole Language
Using the "whole language" approach can be one of the best ways to make learning relevant to the big picture. Not only are all subjects tied together but students are assessed at their own level of knowledge. Whole language evaluation can help to raise the child's self-esteem because it focuses on their individual strengths and builds from there. There is less comparative evaluation by using the whole language approach. This form of evaluation provides constructive feedback about progress and ensures that necessary information will be used to continue progress.
Monitoring and evaluation are the two most important components of teaching and learning.
- Monitoring - Checking and keeping continuous records
- Evaluation - Analyzing the data
Gauge the effectiveness of the program in action. This will help you to plan more effectively for further progress.
First, it is important to find out what the child's capabilities are and then develop a plan for progress. The procedures for starting are setting the objective, preparing the method of delivery, allowing the child to achieve that level that has been targeted and then monitor these procedures that will lead to the next targeted level of achievement.
When accessing reading skills, there are basically three types of readers. The emergent reader describes a child who is beginning to learn that a book tells a story. The early reader means describes the child who is learning to read for meaning. The third type of reader is a fluent reader, a child who reads independently and is confident and exhibits competence in comprehension.
http://www.edu.yorku.ca/~wlu/08894f6.htm
Whole language is a perspective on education, a philosophy of education, a belief system about education. It is an educational theory grounded in research and practice, and practice grounded in theory and research. Whole language is not a program, package, set of materials, method, practice, or technique; rather, it is a perspective on language and learning that leads to the acceptance of certain strategies, methods, materials, and techniques. - Dorothy Watson, 1989
http://tile.net/listserv/tawl.html
If you are looking for a support group to toss around ideas in your application of whole language, this site has some links for getting on listservs or mailing lists to collaborate with others using whole language.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97nov/...
The Reading Wars, written by Nicholas Lemann, discusses the differences in the phonetic approach to reading versus using the whole language approach. Whole language theory holds that learning to read and write English is analogous to learning to speak it - a natural, unconscious process best fostered by unstructured immersion. Terrible reading scores tap into the large reservoir of emotion about the decline of reliable government as the basis of a good society in California. Real fury has been directed at whole language.
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