[NLA] Re: Reading Instruction and Policy Advocacy

[AWilder106@aol.com]

Eileen,

I haven't a clue about that, and I will do the research at some point, thanks 
for pointing the way.

Off the top of my head, I can give you 2 studies that I know about, because I 
know the people.  There are other linked studies, check the bibliographies.

There is the NCSALL study with V.Purcell-Gates as Principal Investigator.  It 
is written up in an issue of "Focus on Basics."  She is very soundly in the 
whole language camp, with phonics as a subheading in the learning theory she 
espouses.  One of her students (I believe) is Robin Waterman;  the two women 
wrote "Now We Read, We See, We Speak," about Robin's years of teaching in 
rural El Salvador.  Purcell-Gates is now at Michigan State University.  

It really is necessary, I believe, to have credentialed teachers trained in 
the techniques Purcell-Gates used (I saw it at first hand in her classroom, 
she taught graduate students when I was with her) AND phonics and phonology.

Members of the LD list serv stress the Wilson method of teaching phonics--it 
displays the main graphophonic patterns in English.  It's only a method.  The 
difficulty is when these two teaching/learning emphases are yanked apart and 
presented as instructional and conceptual poles, they aren't.  

You could also check the archives for the ESL list serv over the past 2 weeks 
or so for an excellent informed discussion.  Teachers really need training, 
what I have described is not going to be obvious to people in the field 
without this education (for it is more than training, actually).

The model the Goodmans used for whole language can probably be reconciled 
with ones used for justifying teaching phonics--see Maryann Wolf.  In fact, 
they should be, both approaches come out of linguistics.

However, this is almost all beside the point.  I really do believe in 
educating and credentialling.  The field is grossly underfunded.  Communities 
do the best they can with what they've got, and derive strength from the 
resources they have, community volunteers, for example.  Fortunately we have 
ProLiteracy to attempt to take up this slack.

Andrea
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