Whole Language Lives On: the Illusion Of" Balanced" Reading

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AUTHOR Moats, Louisa Cook TITLE Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction. INSTITUTION Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, Washington, DC. PUB DATE 2000-10-00 NOTE 32p. AVAILABLE FROM Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 1627 K St., NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20006. Tel: 888-823-7474; Fax: 202-223-9226. For full text: http://www.edexcellence.net/library/wholelang/moats.html. PUB TYPE Opinion Papers (120) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Position Papers; Primary Education; Public Schools; *Reading Instruction; *Reading Research; *Reading Skills; Student Needs; Theory Practice Relationship; *Whole Language Approach IDENTIFIERS *Balanced Reading Instruction

ABSTRACT This position paper contends that the whole language approach to reading instruction has been disproved by research and evaluation but still pervades textbooks for teachers, instructional materials for classroom use, some states' language-arts standards and other policy documents, teacher licensing requirements and preparation programs, and the professional context in which teachers work. The paper finds that many who pledge allegiance to "balanced reading" continue to misunderstand reading development and to deliver "poorly conceived, ineffective reading instruction." It argues that "rooting out whole language" from reading classrooms calls for effort on eight separate fronts. The paper describes what whole language is, why it is contradicted by scientific studies, how it continues in education, and what should be done to correct the situation. (Contains a glossary and 57 notes.) (NKA)

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION Loafloe Coo-VAI©etto CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to OCTOBER 2000 improve reproduction quality.

Points of view or opinions stated in this -BEST COPY AVAILABLE document do not necessarily represent 2 official OERI position or policy. Dedicated to thememory of

Jeanne Sternlicht Chall 1921-1999

)1 America's foremost authorityon how children learnto read.

She taughtus to look for the evidence.

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) )2 /i ))) Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction

by Louisa Cook Moats

cm.-- THOMAS B. ORDHAM OUNDATION OUTSIDE THE BOX

4 Table of Contents

Foreword iii

Executive Summary vii

Glossary viii

Introduction and Summary 1

What Is Whole Language? 2

A Typical Whole-Language Class 6

What's Wrong with Whole Language? 6

The Consequences of Whole Language for Teachers and Children 8

Whole Language Persists 11

What Next? 14

Notes 17

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instructioni

5 Foreword

Regular readers of this foundation's publications and web site know we believe stronglythat schools should utilize "best practices" that are supported by scientific research andshould eschew classroom methods that do not work. In no domain of education is that contrast morevivid than in teaching young children to read. No domain has been studied more intensely. Nonehas yielded clearer and more definitive findings about what works and what does not. Yet nodomain is more vulnerable to the perpetuation of bad ideas and failed methods.

Three things are clear about early reading:

First, it isn't being handled well in American schools. Four in ten of our fourth-graderslack basic reading skills. Tens of millions of adults are weak readers. Millions of children areneedlessly clas- sified as "disabled" when, in fact, their main problem is that nobody taught them toread when they were five and six years old.

Second, we know what works for nearly all children when it comes to imparting basicreading skills to them. (The scientific consensus is admirably summarized in the pages thatfollow.)

Third, we also know what doesn't work for most children. It's called "whole language."

Yet whole language persists, despite efforts by policymakers and reading experts to rootit out. Today, though, it often disguises itself, not using the term "whole language" but, rather,wearing the fig leaf of "balanced" instruction. A lot of people who have a casual acquaintance with theresearch have persuaded themselves that balanced reading instruction means a little of this, alittle of that. Take a cup of phonics from one cupboard, add a half-pint of whole language from thefridge, and the resulting blend will succeed with children while avoiding the battles andconflicts of the "reading wars." Everyone will be happy, and all will be well.

The problem is that it doesn't work that way. What's going on in many places in the nameof "balance" or "consensus" is that the worst practices of whole language are persisting, continuing to

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instructioniii

6 inflict boundless harm on young children who need to learn to read. How and why that is happen- ingand how and why such practices are misguided and harmfulare what this report is about. In its pages, Louisa Cook Moats describes the whole-language approach; shows why it doesn't work and how it has been disproven by careful research; and explains why it nonetheless persists in practice and what should be done about that.

We don't kid ourselves. Rooting out failed methods of reading instruction from U.S. primaryclass- rooms won't be easy. Those roots run deep, perhaps now deeper than ever, considering theirnew coating of "balance." Yet Dr. Moats persuasively makes thecase that this is a task that must be taken on.

Louisa Moats is currently project director of the National Institute of Child Health andHuman Development (NICHD) Early Interventions Project in Washington, DC,a multiyear study of early reading instruction. She is one of the world's leading voices for the application of readingresearch in teacher preparation and classroom instruction. After receiving her doctorate in readingat Harvard, Dr. Moats worked as a psychologist and consultant with individuals, schools, andeduca- tion agencies. She assisted the California State Board of Education in implementing the California Reading Initiative. Her recent book, Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers (Brookes Publishing, 2000), is the basis for the innovative courses she teaches at the Greenwood Institute in Putney, Vermont, and Simmons College in Boston. Author of several other books andnumerous journal articles, she currently serves as a national board member of the International Dyslexia Association. Readers wishing to contact Dr. Moats directlymay write her at the NICHD Early Interventions Project, 825 North Capitol Street, NE, 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20002,or e-mail her at l.moats @worldnet.att.net.

We are honored to dedicate this report to the memory of Jeanne Sternlicht Chall, who taughtnot only Louisa Moats but also hundreds of other reading experts and teachers. Professor (andprofes- sor emerita) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 1965 until her death in 1999 at the age of 78, Jeanne Chall was, quite simply, the nation's foremost authority on how children learn to read and how to teach them that most basic of basic skills. Her great book, Learningto Read: The Great Debate, first published in 1967, was the first to enunciate clearly the essentialelements of the research synthesis that has since been refined and confirmed by,among others, the National ivLouisa Cook Moats Academy of Sciences, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the recent National Reading Panel. Endlessly curious, astoundinglyprolific, tireless in her pursuit of the truth and her capacity to propagate it through her many students and disciples,passionate in her commitment to the effective education of children (especially disadvantaged youngsters), Jeanne Chall embodied superb research skills and a rare sense of how to turn scholarship into practice. We're deeply grateful for her contributionand we miss her.

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation is a private foundation that supports research, publications, and action projects in elementary/secondary education reform at the national level and in the Dayton area. Further information can be obtained from our web site (www.edexcellence.net) orby writing us at 1627 K Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20006. (We can also be e-mailed through our web site.) This report is available in full on the Foundation's web site, and hardcopies can be obtained by calling 1-888-TBF-7474 (singlecopies are free). The Foundation is not connected to or sponsored by Fordham University.

Chester E. Finn, Jr., President Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Washington, DC October 2000

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instructionv Executive Summary

The whole-language approach to reading instruction continues to be widely used in the primary grades in U.S. schools, despite having been disproven time and again by careful research and evaluation. Whole language still pervades textbooks for teachers, instructional materials for classroom use, some states' language-arts standards and other policy documents, teacher licensing requirements and preparation programs, and the professional context in which teachers work. Yet reading science is clear: young children need instruction in systematic, synthetic phonics in which they are taught sound-symbol correspondences singly, directly, and explicitly. Although most state education agencies, school districts, and federal agencies claim to embrace "balanced" reading instruc- tionimplying that worthy ideas and practices from both whole-language and code-emphasis approaches have been successfully integratedmany who pledge allegiance to balanced reading continue to misunderstand reading development and to deliver poorly conceived, ineffective instruction.

Almost every premise advanced by whole language about how reading is learned has been contradicted by scientific investigations that have established the following facts:

Learning to read is not a "natural" process. Most children must be taught to read through a structured and protracted process in which they are made aware of sounds and the symbols that represent them, and then learn to apply these skills automatically and attend to meaning. Our alphabetic writing system is not learned simply from exposure to print. Phonological awareness is primarily responsible for the ability to sound words out. The ability to use phonics and to sound words out, in turn, is primarily responsible for the development of context-free word-recognition ability, which in turn is primarily responsible for the development of the ability to read and comprehend connected text. Spoken language and written language are very different; mastery of each requires unique skills. The most important skill in early reading is the ability to read single words completely, accurately, and fluently. Context is not the primary factor in word recognition.

Despite overwhelming evidence, the reading field rushed to embrace unfounded whole-language practices between 1975 and 1995. The effects have been far-reaching, particularly for those students who are most dependent on effective instruction within the classroom.

Whole language persists today for several reasons. A pervasive lack of rigor in university education departments has allowed much nonsense to infect reading-research symposia, courses for teachers, and journals. Many reading programs have come to covertly embody whole-language principles. Additionally, many state standards and curricular frameworks still reflect whole-language ideas.

Rooting out whole language from reading classrooms calls for effort on eight separate fronts:

1.Every state should have language-arts content standards and curricular frameworks for each

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instructionvii

9 grade from kindergarten through third grade that are explicitly based on solid readingresearch findings. 2.State assessments should be calibrated to show the effects of reading instruction as delineated in well-written state standards. 3.State accountability systems should emphasize the attainment of grade-appropriate reading, spelling, and writing skills by third grade. 4.States should adopt rigorous licensing exams for new and veteran teachers alike. 5.Alternative teacher-preparation programs should be encouraged. 6.Traditional teacher-preparation programs of education should focus on training and reten- tion of effective teachers. 7.State-guided textbook adoptions should focus on the alignment of the material with research evidence about what works best, and publishers should be required to show for whom their product works and under what conditions. 8.Journalists and policymakers need to examine closely instructional programs and packages offered in the name of "balanced" reading.

Glossary

code-emphasis: An approach to reading instruction in which lessons are organized around the systematic teaching of letter-sound correspondences and patterns, and children are taught to sound out words using phonic knowledge. graphophonic: A whole-language term that refers to the written spellings for individual speech sounds, more properly termed sound-symbol or phoneme-grapheme associations.

holism: The philosophy of teaching reading that values preservation of the whole word overseg- mentation of the word or other language entities into parts or synthesis of the whole from the parts. morphemes: The smallest meaningful units in language, such as the prefix, root, and suffix in ob-serv-ance. orthography: The writing system for a language. English is an alphabetic, phonemic, and mor- phemic orthography; Chinese characters are a logographic orthography. phonemes: The smallest sound units (consonants and vowels) that combine to make the word of a language, for example /sh/, /e/, /1/ in "shell." phonological: Having to do with the speech sound system of a language, including the production and interpretation of the sound patterns of language.

viiiLouisa Cook Moats 10 Introduction and Summary

In policy circles, the storm over reading Here is what reading science actually tells instruction would seem to have calmed. State us about effective literacy instruction: agencies, large school districts, and the U.S. Department of Education all claim to All children need explicit, systematic embrace balanced reading instruction. The instruction in phonics and exposure to concept of balance implies, in turn, that wor- rich literature, both fiction and nonfic- thy ideas and practices from both whole-lan- tion. guage and code-emphasis approaches to read- Although children need instruction in ing have been successfully integrated into an phonics in early reading development, eclectic mix that should go down easily with even then, attention to meaning, com- teachers and kids. Educators who wish to prehension strategies, language devel- take no stand in the reading wars may safely opment, and writing are essential. embrace a little of each perspective and claim At all times, developing children's that what they are doing is both based on "the interest and pleasure in reading must latest research" and grounded in a philosophi- be as much a focus as developing cal synthesis between two previously warring their reading skills.' positions. Appearances can be deceiving, however, Well-done studies of reading instruction and painless solutions are often wrong. support systematic, synthetic phonics in Unfortunately, many who pledge allegiance which children are taught sound-symbol cor- to balanced reading continue respondences singly, directly, to misunderstand reading Unfortunately, many and explicitly.' Further, such development and to deliver studies show that children poorly conceived, ineffective who pledge allegiance should be taught directly how instruction. In fact, despite to "balanced" reading to blend those sound- numerous claims by people in continue to mis- spellings (such as the /ch/, the field, the deep division and /ck/ in "chick") until between reading science and understand reading they can decode almost any whole-language ideology' has development and to unknown word. This instruc- not been bridged. Probably it tion should be part of, and cannot and should not be. In deliver poorly linked to, a complete instruc- my view, a marriage of these conceived, ineffective tional program that includes perspectives is neither possi- instruction. phoneme awareness, plentiful ble nor desirable. It is too reading to build fluency, easy for practitioners, while vocabulary development, and endorsing "balance," to continue teaching guided oral reading to build comprehension. whole language without ever understanding Note, though, that this prescription is not the most important research findings about equivalent to an eclectic combination of reading or incorporating those findings into whole language and phonics. Whole-language their classroom practice. Wrong-headed ideas approaches by definition minimize or omit about reading continue to characterize text- direct, systematic teaching of language struc- books, reading course syllabi, classroom ture (phoneme awareness, spelling patterns instructional materials, state language-arts and rules, grammar, and so forth) in the name standards, and policy documents. of preserving an unbroken focus on reading

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction I

11 for meaning. To the onlooker, these points then fail to practice or teach them systemati- may sound trivial; in the classroom, however, cally.' Still others confirm that phonological such distinctions have profound conse- skills are important for learning to read, even quences. as they caution teachers that phonemic True, reading policy and practice have awareness and phonics instruction can be been righted to some extent since the mid- dangerous, boring, ineffective, or irrelevant, 1990s when California's panic over low read- and shouldn't be overdone. Such a tone ing achievement propelled radical alterations echoes even through Teaching Children to of that state's standards, assessments, curricu- Read, the recent report of the National lum, and criteria for adopting instructional Reading Panel.' Where sound policy is ahead materials and licensing teachers. California's of practice, whole language may appear to be policies on early reading are now more dying. Inside the classroom, however, it's not explicit and more compatible with reading dead at all. science than perhaps any state but Texas. Yet The mission of this paper is to describe resistance to the California reading initiative what whole language is, why it is contradict- has been fierce, especially in the state univer- ed by scientific studies,' how it continues in sities whose faculties have denounced the education, and what should be done to correct legislative changes and continue to promote that situation. So long as whole-language ideas and programs that are saturated with ideas influence classroom practice to any whole-language ideology, now disguised great extent, students who are most depen- under other names. Some whole-language dent on effective instruction inside the class- defenders claim that they have always advo- room stand to lose. Recognizing and con- cated teaching both phonics and comprehen- fronting bankrupt ideas and practices, even sion, and thus revision of their understand- though they are masquerading under benign ings about reading is not necessary.' Others terms such as balanced reading, continues to insist that they understand the importance of be an important mission for education leaders phonological skills in early reading, but they and policymakers. What Is Whole Language?

Even at its most popular, whole language written word without recoding it letter by let- defied definition by those who attempted to ter or sound by sound, and claiming that chil- study it objectively.' Among the publications dren should learn to read as naturally as they of whole-language advocates, one finds learn to speak, Smith asserted that the decom- agreement that it is primarily a system of position of words into sounds was pointless; beliefs and intentions.' It embraces a set of that attention to letters was unnecessary and practices in teaching reading and writing that meaningless; that letter-sound correspon- are derived from a more general philosophy dences were "jabberwocky" to be avoided; of teaching and learning. Relying on theory and that skill development was largely bor- derived largely from introspection into their ing, repetitive, nonsensical, and unrelated to own mental processes, Ken Goodman and developing real readers." Smith, Goodman, Frank Smith in the late 1960s advanced the and their disciples pushed ideas that were notion that meaning and purpose should be eagerly and readily embraced by progressive the salient goals in early reading instruction.'° educators turned off by drab basal readers,' Observing that adults appear to process the mechanistic drills, and the knowledge that the

2Louisa Cook Moats 12 basal readers in use had not solved all of their Although this traditional practice may be instructional challenges. Teachers were per- worthwhile, "shared reading" in whole lan- suaded that the cause of most reading failure guage has replaced instruction in how to read was insufficient emphasis on reading real the words sound by sound. Children are books for real purposes. By the mid-1980s, expected to figure out for themselves the con- schools were ready to throw out basal read- nection between the letters and the sounds of ers, phonics workbooks, spelling programs, the words as the adult points to them. There and other "canned" material so that teachers is no further explication of how the letters could create individualized reading instruc- represent words. The assumption that chil- tion with "authentic" children's literature. dren learn like adults also translates into stu- The International Reading Association dent choice of reading material, a focus on (IRA) and the National Council for Teachers advanced reading comprehension strategies of English vigorously promoted the philoso- for young children, avoidance of reading phy and practices of whole groups or sequential oral language. Publishing houses, reading, and ample time in university reading depart- Whole-language advo- school for independent silent ments, state education agen- reading in the company of cies, and professional devel- cates believe that teach- others (Drop Everything and opment providers jumped on ers who teach compo- Read!). These activities are the instructional core of a the bandwagon. The ideas nent skills and who were disseminated through whole-language curriculum, Internet connections, teacher make reading a con- not ancillary components. journals that do not require scious process may Spelling, like reading, is articles to meet standards of meant to happen by having scientific accuracy, courses spoil the reading expe- children imitate the stages and textbooks used in schools rience for children. and characteristics of adult of education, and instruction- writing. Debbie Powell and al manuals for teachers. David Hornsby, in a best- Recently published books and selling handbook for teach- articles' continue to characterize the ortho- ers, state, "We feel that there are no stages of doxy of whole language as follows: development in terms of the strategies Children and adults use similar strategies spellers use because the strategies beginning to read and spell. Whole-language believers spellers use are the same as those of mature assert that children process print and compre- spellers." hend it like adults. Children will learn from Learning to read and spell is just like imitating adult reading. The teacher is a learning to talk. All language is naturally model of adult literacy, and modeling is a acquired, according to whole-language devo- method for teaching children. Thus, the tees. Reading is analogous to listening; chil- teacher is encouraged to sit in front of the dren's brains are focused on meaning as lan- class and to be seen reading silently for a por- guage is processed, not on the structure or tion of each day in which the children are form of language. To focus instead on struc- also to be reading silently or in pairs. The ture and form is unnatural and unnecessary. teacher is also to read aloud, pointing to the Children will extract the structure and form print in a big book, as children follow along. of print if they are exposed to it sufficiently The children may point to the words as the in the context of meaning-making activities, teacher reads them. The passage is read sev- just as they have extracted the rules of eral times this way until it is memorized.' phonology and syntax in oral language with-

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction3 13 out any formal instruction. Thus, the teacher language classroom, but it is not taught first, is instructed to stress the meaning of what is foremost, or formally. The teacher is to being read, to ask always if a word the child observe errors ("miscues") children are mak- misread "makes sense," and to emphasize ing while reading text and is then to provide imitative reading of "whole, authentic texts" "mini-lessons" on the word pattern or sound- even if the child cannot read them indepen- symbol correspondence the children missed dently. The acquisition of the alphabetic code while reading." The children's errors dictate is a minor concern because it will happen if what will be taught. The goal is to read a spe- children have a purpose for learning it. cific text, not to learn skills that may general- Phoneme awareness, phonics, spelling, ize to all texts. punctuation, and other skills of written lan- Too much phonics instruction is harmful guage can be learned "natu- to children, so keep it unob- rally.""Most children will trusive. In whole-language learn to read and write with According to whole- orthodoxy, phonics is seen as no explicit instruction in language approaches, a distraction, an interference phonics and spelling," whole- teaching all the letter- that prevents real reading language experts advise.' from occurring. Phonics and The word "naturally," which sound correspondences, other instruction in compo- connotes a wholesome and and teaching children nent reading skills are neces- spontaneous process the skills to sound out sary evils that divert children unspoiled by human tamper- from reading authentic text ing, means without deliberate an entire word, and thinking creatively about practice. Natural learning is is unnecessary. its content. Teachers are playful, incidental, and easy. warned that if children Phoneme awareness will hap- receive too much phonics pen if children play rhyming games; spelling instruction outside of a meaningful context, will happen if children write; word recogni- they will become "word callers" who do not tion will happen if children follow the print understand the real purposes of reading. Skill as the adult reads; and comprehension will lessons are to be unobtrusive, brief, and, if happen if children's curiosity is piqued. The possible, disguised. Teaching phonics should teacher needn't follow a structure or be a covert operation. sequence; she is to share, guide, and facilitate Children should construct their own as the child discovers how reading works. insights into language. The skilled whole-lan- Powell and Hornsby state, "Proficient readers guage teacher is coach, model, and guide. easily recognize most words and gain mean- Concepts are to be discovered, not presented, ing usually without even attending to all of because discovery, according to the whole- the letters or even all of the words, because language canon, promotes higher-order think- their ability to decode is largely automatic ing. If the goal of the lesson is to have chil- and subconscious."" Whole-language advo- dren read words with /o/ and notice all the cates believe that teachers who teach compo- ways the /o/ sound is spelled, the teacher nent skills and who make reading a conscious does not provide the list of the spellings for process may spoil the reading experience for /o/, examples of each, and planned practice to children. ensure their recognition. Children are to con- Teach phonics and spelling on an "as struct their own knowledge of /o/. The chil- needed" basis, that is, after students make dren may be asked to search a text for all the errors on words while they are reading and words with the /o/ sound and then group writing. Phonics is allowed into the whole- them according to their spellings (ow, oe, oa,

4Louisa Cook Moats 14 o, ough, and so forth). Although active ognize a word, the child should be asked to engagement is a principle of good teaching, guess at the word from context and then the discovery approach to language skills can sound the word out if guessing does not yield be imprecise and unnecessarily time consum- a word that would make sense in the ing. It should not replace direct teaching of sentence. On a third-grade teacher's wall, in a concepts. classroom in Washington, DC, where I con- It is unimportant to teach strategies for duct a research project, is the following reading single words out of context. poster: According to whole-language doctrine, the point of reading is not to read individual words; it is to understand connected text. If a word in a sentence is unfamiliar, This truism has been translated into a prohi- read to the end of the sentence. Skip the bition against teaching or testing the child's word you do not know. After reading the ability to read single words out of context. sentence, use the context to guess the Work on word recognition is minimized in word. If you still do not know the word, favor of literature-related activities, even in do the following: the beginning stages when children cannot yet read. Accuracy in word reading is not val- Think about your letter sounds. ued for its own sake. Children's reading Think about word parts. errors (miscues) are accepted if the error is the same part of speech as the misread word Try to say the word. (Does it make or if it does not change the meaning of the sense?) passage.'9 The teacher is directed away from If you still don't know the word, look the importance of accurate word reading out it up in the glossary or dictionary. of context. Good readers can recognize words on the Ask someone for help. basis of a few sound-symbol correspondences, such as beginning and ending consonants, and don't really need to know the inner Whole language dictates that recognition details, such as vowels. In whole language, of unknown words is a function of three reading is viewed as a process of predicting "cueing systems."'" Semantic, syntactic, and words on the basis of meaning and context. graphophonic processes are depicted as the The good reader samples the print, and enablers of functional reading, although the detailed decoding of all the sounds in words graphophonic cueing system (an invention of is unnecessary. As a consequence, teaching whole language, not of cognitive psychology) all the letter-sound correspondences, and plays a minor, back-up role in whole-lan- teaching children the skills to sound out an guage models of reading. The sense of the entire word, is unnecessary. Thus, many so- passage is supposed to drive word recogni- called phonics activities in whole-language tion. The graphophonic cueing system is to classrooms emphasize the decoding of initial be deployed as a strategy of last resort if con- consonants (and maybe end consonants) and text-based guessing has not yielded the cor- word families (that is, the part of a syllable rect word!' The problem with the model, composed of the vowel and all the conso- however, is that skilled readers do not rely on nants that follow it, such as -ild, -ank, or context to read words. They recognize them odge), but complete knowledge of the sound- out of context by their letter-sound corre- symbol system is not emphasized. spondences. When a child is reading and cannot rec-

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction5 15 A Typical Whole-Language Class"

A first- or second-grade classroom in aloud as she follows the text with her finger. which whole-language ideas predominate is She leads a discussion about the story, elicit- not the traditional class of bygone years. It ing from children their prior knowledge of has clusters of desks, not rows; the space is the content and their questions about the con- not arranged so that children focus on the tent. After the story, she teaches a phonics teacher in front of the class. Learning centers mini-lesson on a family of words with similar and clusters of desks lend themselves to indi- spellings, by listing them and asking the chil- vidualized, self-directed, and small-group dren to read them aloud. The words are cho- learning. A classroom library corner has sen because of their use in the text. many books of different genres and a com- More readings of the text follow on sub- fortable place to read. Little use is made of sequent days. By week's end, children may the chalkboard. Paper charts prevail. There is have read the same text three or four times, a prominent "word wall," on which high-fre- the first few by choral reading and patterning. quency vocabulary is placed in alphabetical When children take turns reading, they are order. Words such as off, on, orange, open, encouraged to refer to the sense of the text to our and oil might all be placed under Oo. figure out unknown words. The teacher gives The varying sounds of those letter correspon- cues such as, "what would make sense there," dences are irrelevant to the presentation. "look at the pictures," "it rhymes with 9/ Children gather on the floor around the or "look at the beginning sound," when a teacher's chair during reading instruction. child is stuck. Assignments often involve The teacher introduces a lesson with a writing or illustrating a personal response to "shared" reading; she previews a selection the text in a reader-response journal. Spelling with the youngsters by taking a "picture instruction is given on those words that the walk" through the book's illustrations. She children misspell, after they have been used introduces new vocabulary meanings needed in writing. During instruction, the children to understand the story, but there is little ref- are asked to invent what they think the likely erence to word structure. The five to ten new spelling of a word might be (Have a go!) words on the vocabulary list are presented as before the teacher gives them the correct if they should be recognized on sight, by their spelling. There are no spelling lists or appearance and context. Vocabulary words spelling workbooks. Children are expected to are selected for their meanings, not for their collaborate as they work on reading and writ- sound-symbol correspondences, so they are ing projects. This is a constructivist environ- not used to reinforce a lesson on sound-sym- ment: knowledge and truth will be discovered bol decoding. The teacher reads the book if teachers put children in the lead. What's Wrong with Whole Language?

Almost every premise advanced by whole practices based on reading science. As language proponents about how reading is Michael Pressley, editor of Educational learned has been contradicted by scientific Psychologist, has remarked, "At best, much investigations. Almost every practice stem- of whole-language thinking...is obsolete, and ming from these premises has been less suc- at worst, much of it never was well informed cessful with groups of both normally devel- about children and their intellectual develop- oping and reading-disabled children than ment...."

6Louisa Cook Moats 16 Not all consequences of whole-language ten symbol systems, and many of those writ- ideology have been detrimental; mistaken ing systems represent whole words, concepts beliefs about early reading acquisition have (morphemes), or syllables. Only some of the also been associated with some worthwhile most recently invented writing systems repre- ideas and sensible strategies such as encour- sent individual speech sounds. Spoken lan- aging student self-assessment, using classic guage may be hard-wired in the human brain, children's literature, reading aloud daily, but written language is an acquired skill that organizing collaborative requires special, unnatural groups, and involving parents insights about the sounds in and students in literacy home- Almost every whole- words. Most children must work." Most educators com- be taught to read through a monly hold such ideas. They language practice has rather protracted process in are not the core ideas on been less successful which they are made aware which whole language was with groups of both of sounds and the symbols constructed, however, and that represent them, and then they are not the intellectual normally developing learn to apply these skills property of whole language. and reading-disabled automatically and attend to Whole-language beliefs about children than practices meaning. the psychology of basic read- The alphabetic principle ing instruction, and the prac- based on reading is not learned simply from tices that have been based on science. exposure to print. Children those beliefs, are misin- can understand our alphabet- formed in theory and ineffec- ic writing system if they have tive in application. acquired a more fundamental understanding The National Reading Panel's Teaching called phonological awareness. That is, in Children to Read reviews once more what is order to read new words written with an known about the psychology of reading and alphabetic system, children need to be able to reading instruction. It does not evaluate map the symbols to the speech sounds that whole language directly, but it does synthe- make up spoken words. Children who lack size evidence on critical components of the required insights often are unable to read teaching reading. It resonates with several or spell well, even if they are reasonably other reputable reviews of research, including intelligent or acquainted with the information Marilyn Adams's Beginning to Read, Jack in books. Phonological awareness is primarily Fletcher and G. Reid Lyon's summary of the responsible for the development of the ability National Institute of Child Health and Human to sound words out. The ability to use phon- Development's studies of reading," and ics and to sound words out, in turn, is primar- Catherine Snow, M. Susan Burns, and Peg ily responsible for the development of con- Griffin's Preventing Reading Difficulties in text-free word-recognition ability. Context- Young Children. The tenets and practices of free word-recognition ability, moreover, is whole language are contradicted by the fol- primarily responsible for the development of lowing facts: the ability to read connected text and compre- Learning to read is not natural." Large hend it." numbers of children fail to learn to read with Spoken language and written language fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. are very different, and mastery of each Alphabetic writing systems are a late cultural requires unique skills and proficiencies. invention for which we are not biologically Many children who are challenged in learn- specialized. Only some languages have writing written language are relatively proficient

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction7 17 in spoken language. Spoken language sys- word reading in turn depends on both phono- tems are learned automatically, without con- logical awareness and the development of scious instruction, when children share expe- rapid associations of speech to print." riences and language with caretakers. Spoken Context is not the primary factor in word language comprises deeply networked rules recognition. Context is valuable for decipher- for sound production and sentence construc- ing the meanings and uses for unfamiliar tion that are devised and words once they have been learned by a community of named or decoded. It also language speakers. Written Most children must be helps to resolve ambiguities languages, in contrast, are taught to read through a that arise from reading words arbitrary systems that use a such as content, which can variety of symbols for words, rather protracted probe a noun or predicate adjec- concepts, syllables, and cess in which they are tive (or verb). Words are rec- sounds. Written English, in ognized, however, from contrast to spoken English, made aware of sounds detailed perceptual data at uses a much wider vocabulary and symbols that repre- the average rate of about five and more complex, formal sent them, and then words per second. We see syntax to convey meaning. what is printed, every letter Reading and writing require learn to apply these of it, and our minds recog- mastery of a special language skills automatically and nize letters, sounds, and with a special skill that attend to meaning. word pieces simultaneously exceeds our natural abilities." and interactively as we The most important skill search for meaning. Good in the beginning stages of reading isthe abil- readers are more aware of the details of lan- ity to read single words completely, accurate- guage structure and more attentive to internal ly, and fluently. Most of the variability in aspects of words than poor readers. They are reading achievement at the end of first grade less likely to use a guessing strategy. In fact, is accounted for by children's ability to guessing from context leads to egregious decode words out of context, using knowl- errors; only 10 to 25 percent of words are edge of phonic correspondences. The most correctly guessed." Recognizing words such common and fundamental characteristic of as scarred and scared, content and context, poor text reading is the inability to read sin- and devoid and devout require precise letter- gle words accurately and fluently. Skill in wise decoding skill. The Consequences of Whole Language for Teachers and Children

Between 1975 and 1995, an entire field favor of reading programs created by individ- rushed to embrace a set of unfounded ideas ual teachers from children's books, publishers and practices without any evidence that chil- swiftly jumped on the bandwagon to produce dren would learn to read better, earlier, or in whole-language materials for schools. The greater numbers than they had with the basal California Language Arts Frameworks of readers in use at the time!' Although whole- 1987 were especially influential in driving language believers shunned basal readers in publishers away from basic-skill instruction."

8 Louisa Cook Moats 18 Basal programs were marketed and sold, but teaching became love of reading, not the abil- now without emphasis (or even any lessons) ity to read. The effects of whole-language on direct teaching of phonemic awareness, methods on student achievement were thus spelling, phonics, grammar, handwriting, or impossible to determine. other language skills. Predictable or repetitive Teachers were easily persuaded that the text that children could memorize was pre- science of behavioral measurement had little ferred to stories that required children to to offer them. The schools of education did sound words out based on what they had not require their own students to understand been taught. Beyond classroom reading concepts such as behavioral sampling, corre- instruction itself, however, whole language lation, prediction, reliability, validity, and has had far-reachingit is not too much to normative standards. Teachers were seldom say corruptingeffects: obliged to inform instruction with samples of Rejection of reliable, valid measures of critical component reading skills: phoneme achievement. In order to justify its love affair blending and segmentation, sound-symbol with whole language in the face of little or no association knowledge, decoding and spelling evidence for its positive results, the field of of regular spelling patterns, text-reading flu- reading education began to disavow scientific ency, or vocabulary knowledge. Instead, methodology and objective measurement." teachers were and are taught to use forms of Between 1989, when Steven Stahl and P.D. reading assessment that have little reliability Miller conducted their first major review of or correspondence to research-validated out- the evidence, and 1994, when they updated come measures. The goal in whole language their analysis, twenty of is to measure the process of forty-five studies that pur- reading, not the product of portedly evaluated the effec- In order to justify its instructiona difficult mis- tiveness of whole language love affair with whole sion to accomplish even declined to use or report any language in the face of when the reading process is standardized measure of read- well conceived. ing achievement. Instead of little or no evidence for Miscue analysis and "run- acknowledging that objective its positive results, the ning records" have been and assessments were proving field of reading educa- continue to be widely pro- them wrong, many reading- moted whole-language education researchers rejected tion began to disavow tools." Even within the past objectivity itself. Those scientific methodology year (1999), Connecticut was invested in defending whole teaching the value of running language criticized traditional and objective measure- records and miscue analysis achievement tests as unau- ment. in state advisories on reading. thentic and replaced them A running record measures with measures of motivation, fluency and accuracy in oral enjoyment, or self-esteem. Attitude, not reading of a "leveled" book (not a norm-ref- achievement, became the outcome of concern erenced passage) and asks the teacher to clas- in the reading education research community. sify a child's errors according to which cue- A positive attitude toward reading was ing system produced each of them. Although expected to lead children automatically into oral-passage reading rate and accuracy are more and better reading. Many reading-edu- good measures of overall reading ability cation researchers replaced standardized, reli- because they measure word-recognition speed able, validated assessments with alternative and accuracy, the classification of "miscues" assessments that probed attitudes. The goal of is unreliable, invalid, and a waste of the

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction9 19 teacher's time." Practically speaking, one well-taught whole-language lessons. A recent teacher is not likely to classify the errors in article in the IRA journal, The Reading the same way as the next teacher, students are Teacher," describes an exemplary whole-lan- not likely to have similar miscue patterns guage teacher at work. She is helping a child from one day to the next, and the relationship sound out the word happy." The teacher between miscue patterns, reading achieve- informs the child that the sounds are /h/ /a/ ment levels, and response to reading instruc- /p/ /p/ /y/. This information, however, is inac- tion has never been demonstrated." When curate: the doubled letter in happy is a teachers are not able to measure valid con- spelling convention. There is only one /p/ structs with reliable tools, they cannot use sound in happy. The letter is doubled because classroom assessments to direct their teach- of the juncture of two syllables, the first of ing. which has a short vowel. This student has Error analysis has value when based on a been misinformed by the teacher's explana- defensible understanding of reading and tion, but the teacher (and The Reading spelling processes. It is worthwhile if it helps Teacher's editors) remains in the dark as well. us determine what kind of problem a child The same teacher goes on to help another has, what kind of information that child child decode nose. She asks him what letters needs, and what kind of instructional activi- the word begins and ends with (n and e). ties are likely to work well. Miscues and run- Then, the teacher asks the child what the let- ning records do not meet these criteria. ter e stands for, and the child says /e/. Next, Minimizing the importance of language the teacher says that the e is silent and points structure for teachers and students. In the to the other vowel, o. She tells the child that whole-language context, neither students nor the o will be long and will say its name. teachers need to know specific concepts Finally, she instructs the child to look at the about the structure of spoken or written lan- picture and guess what word starts with an n. guage. Speech sounds, syllables, spelling cor- The child doesn't respond. The teacher says it respondences, sentence parts, grammatical starts with /n/ and points to the picture; the categories, and cohesive devices are mini- child finally gets nose. The aversion to direct mized together. If holism and contextual teaching of language, based on accurate learning are valued, then language parts analyses of phonology and orthography, per- become unimportant. If students are to learn sists. reading and spelling through imprinting, Knowing the speech sounds in apple or modeling, and discovery, then teachers need happy and the syllable conventions that not know explicit linguistic analysis. If con- underlie such spellings is uncommon among cepts can be taught minimally in mini- recently trained reading teachers." Knowing lessons, then they do not need to be defined how to teach a language concept so that chil- with precision, understood in relation to one dren are led systematically to grasp it is even another, or taught methodically. Pre-deter- less common. These gaps in professional con- mined sequences, selection of component tent knowledge adversely affect the children. skills, and planned lessons in which skills are In interchanges such as those just cited, the systematically developed are unnecessary. students have been short-changed; the infor- Teachers can get by knowing very little about mation provided to them is incomplete, inac- their language; their own knowledge gaps curate linguistically, and ineffectively taught. will not be exposed during a whole-language The students' propensity to guess from partial lesson. understanding is reinforced because they Cursory treatment of linguistic concepts have not been taught systematically how the continues to be applauded indescriptions of spelling patterns work or practiced the associ-

10Louisa Cook Moats 20 ations so that they can be used successfully at recognize and respect the effort that the next encounter. They have been encour- goes into acquiring competence.4° aged to guess from context because they do not have the skill to read the new words inde- Competence, he explains, is more than the pendently. Of greatest concern, the leading sum of its parts: it depends on deployment journal for teachers of reading portrays such of the right information for the right pur- instruction as exemplary because it mini- pose at the right time. Having at one's dis- mizes the teaching of word analysis and posal a large storehouse of organized and focuses the child on meaning. defined information is prerequisite for Misunderstanding of the role of skills in complex applications of facts, concepts, competent performance. A most unfortunate and skills!" legacy of whole language has been the deni- Equation of teacher empowerment with gration of skill building and skill instruction freedom from structured curricula. in the name of holism. The word skills has Professions are generally defined by the been repeatedly associated with pejorative knowledge and skill that their members share. terms such as boring, isolated, meaningless, The public interest depends on such defini- and dreadful in whole-language rhetoric. tion and the ability of the professional com- Skill building is never described as necessary, munity to regulate itself accordingly. Whole engaging, satisfying, or enjoyable, or identi- language, however, promotes the ideas of fied as the essential base on which expert per- teacher independence and self-sufficiency. formance is constructed. Out on this limb, the Instead of encouraging the development or field of reading education has rejected major dissemination of better instructional pro- premises of cognitive psychology. John grams, or encouraging teachers to apply best Anderson, a cognitive psychologist at practices validated by others, whole-language Carnegie Mellon University who won an educators encouraged teachers to invent their achievement award from the American own individual curricula and to rely primarily Psychological Association in 1995, comment- on their own experience to make instructional ed in his acceptance address: decisions. Even now, reading education pro- fessors in the U.S. continue to rail against The theory [of knowledge acquisi- education policies that impose constraints or tion] implies that acquiring competen- directives ("mandates") about curriculum or ce is very much a labor-intensive busi- methods, complaining that the loss of control ness in which one must acquire one-by- by classroom teachers over what they do in one all the knowledge components. their classes is a threat to both democracy and This flies very much in the face of cur- professionalism." In the climate perpetuated rent educational fashion, but...this edu- by such rhetoric', teachers' incentives to col- cational fashion is having a very delete- laborate, to replicate best practices, or to rious effect on education. We need to study research are diminished. Whole Language Persists

The stubborn persistence of unsupported field continues to value philosophy over evi- ideas and practices in reading education dence that certain practices benefit children (indeed, all of education) puzzles and dis- more than others, we must ask why this is the mays many people outside the field. When a case.

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction 11 21 Ideology is valued over evidence. One graph in 1998 entitled Perspectives in straightforward explanation for the nonsense Reading Instruction. Rather than taking a that infects reading education must be a per- stand about which points of view were vasive lack of rigor in academic education grounded in evidence and which were with- departments. In reading, anyone who publish- out foundation, the ASCD published a dia- es in any form is customarily referred to as a tribe by Ken Goodman against National "researcher" in conference programs. Institutes of Health research and a marketing Reading associations' "research symposia" piece by Marie Carbo (a proponent of routinely include speakers whose work bears Learning Styles, another misinformed no relation to objective methods of inquiry. approach without scientific underpinnings)." Reading conferences most often attended by These coexist in one slim volume with essays teachers are primarily marketing conventions by more credible writers, all prefaced with for publishers, trainers, and others with prod- the comment that "multiple voices...must be ucts and services to promote. heard.'46 In October 1999, Educational Reading-research journals publish articles Leadership included an article entitled that defy any reasonable standard of accept- "Whole Language Works: Sixty Years of able methodology. For example, a recent Research," by three authors who caricature issue of The Reading Teacher (spring 2000) code-emphasis instruction ("`Decodable text' includes an article in which is the new trend in "researchers" visited eight Unfortunately, lack of reading""); make statements preselected whole-language that contradict every authori- classrooms to document what rigor and disrespect for tative research summary on the teachers were doing. Only evidence in reading reading ("[C]ontemporary teachers who used methods instruction are rein- research on early reading consistent with whole-lan- strongly endorses a holistic guage theory were included forced by the passivity approach""); and misrepre- in the study." The a priori of education leaders sent the views of authors assumption communicated to who are referenced, such as readers was that good teach- who feel that any idea Carol Chomsky.49 The field ers are whole-language teach- that can muster a vigor- would be better served by ers. The number of citations ous advocate is legiti- editorial policies that result on reading screened by the in the reader's enlightenment, National Reading Panel mate and deserves to be rather than policies that con- (100,000) is many times larg- aired. tribute to the reader's confu- er than the few dozen studies sion. that ultimately informed the Whole-language incarna- panel's conclusions." The number of scientif- tions, such as Reading Recovery, covertly ically credible studies of reading instruction embody whole-language ideas. The success is relatively small in comparison to the vol- and persistence of Reading Recovery (RR) ume of work that is done. exemplifies the power of ideology over evi- Unfortunately, lack of rigor and disrespect dence. RR is an expensive, first grade, one- for evidence in reading education are rein- on-one tutorial intervention approach that is forced by the passivity of education leaders compatible with whole-language ideas. It is who feel that any idea that can muster a vig- promoted by a parent institute in Ohio that orous advocate is legitimate and deserves to was founded to disseminate the ideas of be aired. The Association for Supervision and Marie Clay, a New Zealand educator. Within Curriculum Development published a mono- a structured lesson format, RR embraces

12 Louisa Cook Moats 22 many whole-language premises.5° The leaders reading was about one year below age-appro- of RR in the United States, Irene Fountas and priate levels, even though they had pro- Gay Su Pinnell, are popular proponents of gressed through the sequence of books used "guided reading" approaches and other class- in the RR program. Children who had not room extensions of RR. In a 1999 newsletter progressed well showed declines in reading from their institute, they describe a typical self-concept after RR, more negative percep- lesson, claiming that it is designed to build tions of their reading and spelling ability, and the competencies endorsed by the National problems with academic self-concept a year Research Council's 1998 report on preventing later. They also had more classroom behavior reading difficulties in young children.' In the problems. In conjunction with previous stud- same piece, Fountas and Pinnell endorse run- ies, Tunmer's group concluded that RR may ning records, predictable texts, incidental be more effective if greater emphasis is phonics instruction, teaching children to placed on development and use of word-level guess at words from context and initial letter, skills and strategies involving phonological the importance of cueing systems, and decod- information. Tunmer has reported several ing by analogy. They argue that there should times that direct, systematic instruction in be no predetermined sequence for decoding sound-symbol decoding is more effective instruction; decoding should be taught as stu- than the incidental instruction used by RR. In dents compose their own sentences and sto- one study, the RR approach was 37 percent ries. less efficient than the direct, systematic New Zealand Professor William Tunmer approach because letter-to-phoneme knowl- and his colleagues have been carefully criti- edge is primarily responsible for driving the cal of RR for a decade, producing one study development of word-recognition skills. " after another that illuminates the flaws of the Have these reports caused RR's promot- Reading Recovery approach. Tunmer's group ers or consumers to change their rationale, most recently conducted research commis- methodology, student-assessment practices, sioned by the New Zealand Ministry of or requirements for teacher training? Education and presented at the American Evidently not. Although individuals and Educational Research Association." They training sites may differ, the official line from asked basic questions that have never been RR leaders remains virtually the same as it systematically investigated by the promoters has been for two decades. The institute con- who profit from the program: Who succeeds tinues to teach a flawed conception of read- with RR? Who does not? Are there short- ing psychology and a methodology that term or long-term benefits? Will other would be significantly improved if it were approaches be more effective? Is the expense aligned with the results of research. justified? What happens to the students who Regrettably, this has not happened. The resis- do not succeed? tance to change is difficult to understand, but Their findings, obtained under controlled it may simply reflect the expectation by RR and well-designed conditions of scientific leaders that consumers will not care about the investigation, were consistent with previous research. So far, they have been right. studies. Success in RR was a function of stu- State standards and frameworks continue dents' entering phonological abilities. to reflect whole-language ideas. States' acad- Participation in the program did not eliminate emic standards commonly reflect prevailing or reduce phonological deficiencies. Students educational philosophies. Once established, with phonological difficulties did poorly. The they change slowly. Meanwhile, they influ- program did not produce accelerated reading ence practice. performance. One year later, the children's New Jersey's Language Arts Literacy

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction 13 2 ° Curriculum Framework, passed in the fall of language structure at several levels, and to 1998, is reminiscent of California's 1987 read a broad sampling of worthwhile litera- framework. In the entire document, there is ture. The early literacy portion of the docu- no directive for the systematic instruction of ment, however, includes a sample lesson that sound-symbol decoding or knowledge of could be taken from a whole-language hand- other language structures. The reading objec- book." In this literature-focused lesson, there tives address only comprehension and higher- is no instruction in sound-symbol relation- level text interpretation, with the exception of ships beyond initial consonant decoding, no "Use print concepts in developmentally instruction in left-to-right sound blending, appropriate ways." " and no control over the Suggested activities to teach sound-symbol patterns reading include pointing to States' academic taught. It is not explained text, reading it aloud, and standards and frame- how the children should learn establishing "one-to-one works commonly to read other than guessing matching." Cutting up the from context and an initial words of the sentences and reflect prevailing consonant. Commendable sequencing them is advised. educational though the Bay State's new Phonemic awareness is to be philosophies, including language arts framework taught by finding rhyming generally is, issues in early words in a familiar text. whole-language ideas. reading need clearer explica- Phoneme identity, spelling tion lest they sow confusion correspondences, syllables, in the primary classroom. and meaningful parts of words (morphemes) Indiana is another state whose standards are not to be the content of instruction at all, are now admirable except for some specifics according to this document. Children in New of early reading. The Hoosier State's revised Jersey apparently are expected to read by English Language-Arts Standards expect only imprinting and osmosis. Similar expectations that kindergarten children will "recognize characterize the standards of Vermont, Ohio, consonant sounds that are the same or differ- and North Dakota, among others. ent at the beginning of spoken words and Even states with generally praiseworthy identify the consonants that make different standards for language arts can sometimes sounds at the beginning of spoken words slip when it comes to essentials of early read- (Which word begins with the letter b? fish, ing instruction. Massachusetts' new stan- ball, cat.)." Indiana is to be commended for dards, for example, are excellent for third addressing the domain of phonological learn- grade and up, as judged by several reviews ing, but sound blending, segmenting, and the by Achieve, Inc. and the Thomas B. Fordham association of sounds with symbols should be Foundation." Students are expected to know included in their standards, too. What Next?

Advocates for education reform and digested, and converted into policy. Class- improvement may be surprised that we have room practice and academic education, how- not slain the monster of misinformed reading ever, are not changing fast enough for us to instruction. After all, a half dozen major con- claim that evidence-based teaching will pre- sensus documents on the research evidence dominate in our schools at any time soon. about reading have been widely distributed, Whole language may have been dis-

14Louisa Cook Moats 24 proven by scholars, but it still lurks in many 2.State assessments of reading and lan- corners of education practice: in textbooks guage arts should be calibrated to for teachers, instructional materials for class- show the effects of reading instruction room use, teacher-licensing requirements, as delineated in well-written state courses and standards for teacher education, standards. and the professional context in which teachers work. As a consequence, too many chil- 3.State accountability systems should dren are not doing as well as they could be, emphasize the attainment of grade- and others are falling by the appropriate reading, spelling, wayside in beginning read- and writing skills by third ing, never to get on track, Minority, low-income, grade, so that actions can be even though this failure is immigrant, and inner- taken quickly to (a) provide largely preventable. Not all meaningful and effective children are adversely affect- city children are the remediation to the students ed, to be sure; many children pupils most likely to be who have fallen by the way- learn to read in spite of how harmed by persistent side; and (b) reorganize or we teach them, and many disband failing schools or teachers are teaching reading whole-language provide parents with alterna- well. Nevertheless, it is those ideology and its tive placements for their chil- children who depend the manifestations in dren. To this end, the efforts most on valid and effective of states such as Texas and instruction in school, includ- practice. Virginia to develop a valid ing minority, low-income, screening tool for reading in immigrant, and inner-city grades K-2 are laudable. children, who are most likely to be harmed by persistent whole-language ideology and its 4.States should adopt rigorous licensing manifestations in practice." examinations for new teachers and Confronting and changing the legacy of veteran teachers alike. States must be whole language is a mission yet to be accom- clear and specific in their delineation plished. Righting reading instruction calls for of research-based practice, so that lit- continuing effort on eight separate fronts. tle incentive remains for the perpetuation of unsupported ideas such as 1.Every state should have language-arts those of whole language. Knowledge content standards and curricular of reading development, language frameworks for each grade from structure, reading pedagogy, and kindergarten through third grade. assessments would seem minimally These should be explicitly based on necessary for effective, informed research findings on phonemic aware- instruction. Licensing exams should ness, alphabetic skills, reading fluen- probe actual mastery of specific com- cy, beginning and advanced decoding ponents of reading instruction. skills, vocabulary, and comprehen- Classroom practices at the school sion. California and Texas have done level should be based on best practice especially well in this regard and and be open to independent review by should be emulatedbut even they others who are knowledgeable about need to ensure that practice follows the issues. policy.

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction 15 25 5.Because state university reading show for whom their product works departments have been the slowest to and under what conditions. change and the most tenaciously loyal to whole-language ideology, alterna- 8.Journalists and policymakers need to tive teacher-preparation programs untie the string and closely examine should be encouraged and supported. the innards of instructional programs If disillusioned consumers are able to and packages that are offered in the look elsewhere for teachers who can name of "balanced" reading. pass a licensing exam and demon- strate their competence with students, What children bring to the printed page, entrenched academic departments and to the task of writing, is knowledge of may feel more pressure to improve. spoken language. What must be learned is knowledge of the written symbols that repre- 6.Traditional schools and programs of sent speech, and the ability to use those pro- education should be organized differ- ductively. Knowing the difference between ently. Professional preparation of sacks and sax, past and passed, or their and effective teachers should be their there, or knowing that antique says "anteek," focus. Faculty tenure would be abol- requires language awareness and attention to ished. Faculty would maintain posi- detail. Students who are not taught properly tions if they could successfully collab- are less able to sound out a new word when it orate with a team in the preparation of is encountered, slower and less accurate at competent teachers. Professional reading whole words, less able to spell, less schools for teaching would be part- able to interpret punctuation and sentence ners with departments of core disci- meaning, and less able to learn new vocabu- plines including linguistics and psy- lary words from reading them in context. chology. Faculty members would be Students deserve to have sufficient under- eligible for their role if they them- standing of the language they speak, read, selves had been successful practition- and write so that they can use it to communi- ers in K-12 classrooms. cate well. Ironically, whole language has stood in the way of this accomplishment for 7.State-guided textbook adoptions many years. Today, its influence is still with should be regulated according to the us. If sufficient attention is promptly given to alignment of the material with changes such as those outlined above, tomor- research evidence for what works row may yet be a different story. best. Publishers should be required to

16 Louisa Cook Moats 26 Notes

' See Marilyn J. Adams, "The Progress of the Whole-Language Debate," Educational Psychologist 29, no. 4 (1994): 217-222; and Michael Pressley, "State of the Science Primary-Grades Reading Instruction or Whole Language?" Educational Psychologist 29, no. 4 (1994): 211-215.

2 See Learning First Alliance, "Every Child Reading," American Educator 22, no. 1-2 (1998): 61.

See National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction (Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000): 9-11.

See Penny A. Freppon and Karin L. Dahl, "Balanced Instruction: Insights and Considerations," Reading Research Quarterly 33, no. 2 (1998): 240-251.

See Ellen McIntyre and Michael Pressley, eds., Balanced Instruction: Strategies and Skills in Whole Language (Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon, 1996).

6 The National Reading Panel's report Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction, issued in April of 2000, provides a credible screening, analysis, and interpretation of the highest quality research on reading interventions.

' See Marilyn Adams, Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990); Michael Pressley, Reading Instruction that Works: The Case for Balanced Teaching (New York: Guilford Press, 1998); and Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns, and Peg Griffin, eds., Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1998).

8 See Steven A. Stahl and P.D. Miller, "Whole Language and Language Experience Approaches for Beginning Reading: A Quantitative Research Synthesis," Review of Educational Research 59, no.1 (1989): 87-116.

9 See Karin L. Dahl and Patricia L. Scharer, "Phonics Teaching and Learning in Whole Language Classrooms: New Evidence from Research," The Reading Teacher 53 (2000): 584-594; Harvey Daniels, Steve Zemelman, and Marilyn Bizar, "Whole Language Works: Sixty Years of Research," Educational Leadership 57, no. 2 (2000): 32-37; Kenneth S. Goodman, Phonics Phacts (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1993); Kenneth S. Goodman, What's Whole in Whole Language? (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1986); Margaret Moustafa, Beyond Traditional Phonics (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1997); and Constance Weaver, "On Research and the Teaching of Phonics," in Creating Support for Effective Literacy Education, ed. Constance Weaver, Lorraine Fillmeister-Krause, and Grace Vento-Zogby (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996), xv-xvii.

1° Kenneth S. Goodman, "Reading: A Psycholinguistic Guessing Game," Journal of the Reading Specialist 6 (1967): 126-135; and Frank Smith, "Making Sense of ReadingAnd of Reading

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction 17 27 Instruction," Harvard Educational Review 47 (1977): 386-395.

" Frank Smith, Understanding Reading: A Psycho linguistic Analysis of Reading and Learning to Read, 2d ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1978).

12 A basal reader is a classroom reading textbook. It usually includes stories of graded difficulty, some control over the vocabulary that is introduced, and supportive lessons in various skills necessary for learning to read. Classrooms often have the same text for every student, even though students are grouped according to their reading levels for smaller group instruction.

13 See Daniels, Zemelman, and Bizar, "Whole Language Works"; and Debbie Powell and David Hornsby, Learning Phonics and Spelling in a Whole Language Classroom (New York: Scholastic Professional Books, 1993).

14 Idaho public television in April 2000 aired a program for kindergarten teachers that demonstrated this technique.

'Powell and Hornsby, Learning Phonics and Spelling, 23.

16 Ibid., 43.

" 7 Ibid., 21.

18 The "mini-lesson" approach is pervasive in the products of major classroom basal reading programs.

See Kerry Hempenstall, "Miscue Analysis: A Critique," Effective School Practices 17, no. 3 (1999): 87-93.

20 Marilyn J. Adams, "The Three-Cueing System," in Literacy for All: Issues in Teaching and Learning, ed. Jean Osborn and Fran Lehr (New York: Guilford Press, 1998): 73-99.

21 In the California Reading Language Arts Framework, which was written under Bill Honig's term as state superintendent of public instruction in 1987, and which was in effect until 1997, teachers were advised to cover up parts of words that children misread in order to encourage guessing from context. Sounding out was characterized as the strategy of last resort.

22 A whole-language lesson and contrasting methods are portrayed in Snow, Burns, and Griffin, Preventing Reading Difficulties, 200-203.

23 Pressley, "State-of-the-Science," 213.

24 See Daniels, Zemelman, and Bizar, "Whole Language Works," 32-37.

25 Jack M. Fletcher and G. Reid Lyon, "Reading: A Research-Based Approach," in What's Gone Wrong in America's Classrooms?, ed. Williamson M. Evers (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1998), 40-90.

18 Louisa Cook Moats 28 " See Alvin M. Liberman, "The Reading Researcher and the Reading Teacher Needthe Right Theory of Speech," Scientific Studies of Reading 3 (1999): 95-111.

27 See Linnea Ehri, "Phases of Development in Learning to Read Words by Sight,"Journal of Research in Reading 18, no. 2 (1995): 116-125; Tom Nicholson, "Do Children ReadWords Better in Context or in Lists? A Classic Study Revisited," Journal of Educational Psychology83, no. 4 (1991) 444-450; and William E. Tunmer and Wesley A. Hoover, "PhonologicalDecoding Skill and Beginning Reading," Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 5 (1993):161-179.

28 See Liberman, "The Reading Researcher."

29 See Fletcher and Lyon, "Reading: A Research-Based Approach."

3° See Phil Gough, "The Beginning of Decoding," Reading and Writing: AnInterdisciplinary Journal 5 (1993): 181-192.

3' See Steven Stahl, M.C. McKenna, and J.R. Pagnucco, "The Effects of WholeLanguage Instruction: An Update and Reappraisal," Educational Psychologist 29,no. 4 (1994): 175-185; and Steven Stahl and P.D. Miller, "Whole Language and Language Experience Approaches."

32 Bill Honig, who was superintendent of public instruction in Californiaat the time, has since acknowledged the errors of this document, disavowed the philosophyon which it was based, and extensively revised his position on early reading instruction.

" E.D. Hirsch, in The Schools We Need: Why We Don't Have Them (NewYork: Doubleday, 1996), p. 176, calls this "shooting the messenger" in his chapter on test evasion.

" See Marie M. Clay, The Early Detection of Reading Difficulties: A DiagnosticSurvey and Reading Recovery Procedures (Auckland: Heinemann Educational Books, 1985);and Kenneth S. Goodman, Miscue Analysis: Applications to Reading Instruction (Urbana, IL: NationalCouncil of Teachers of English, 1973).

" See Hempenstall, "Miscue Analysis," 87-93.

36 See James W. Chapman, William E. Tunmer, and Jane E. Prochnow,Success in Reading Recovery Depends on the Development of Phonological Processing Skills,report to the Ministry of Education of New Zealand, August 1999 (revised research report for phase three ofcontract ER35/299/5; presented to the American Educational Research Association, SanDiego, April, 1998).

" Dahl and Scharer, "Phonics Teaching and Learning," 588.

38 Formany years, The Reading Teacher contained almost no articles with any positive referenceto phonics, vocabulary, or word analysis; at least the topic isonce again permissible, but it is limited to discussion of the exemplary whole-language classroom.

" See Louisa C. Moats, "The Missing Foundation in Teacher Education,"American Educator 19,

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction19 29 no. 9 (1995): 43-51.

4° John R. Anderson, "ACT: A Simple Theory of Complex Cognition,"American Psychologist 51, no. 4 (1996): 359.

41 Ibid., 355-365.

42 See James Hoffman, "The De-democratization of Schools and Literacy in America," The Reading Teacher 53 (2000): 616-623; and Cathy Roller, "The International Reading Association Responds to a Highly Charged Policy Environment," The Reading Teacher 53 (2000): 626-636. Hoffman decries the efforts of policymakers to "control" reading education because "mandates" about reading education threaten democracy by taking power away from classroom teachers. u Dahl and Scharer, "Phonics Teaching and Learning," 584-94.

" See National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read, 1, 7, 9, 12, 13.

45 For a critique of Marie Carbo's "learning styles" theory, see Steven Stahl, "Different Strokes for Different Folks? A Critique of Learning Styles," American Educator 23, no. 3 (1999): 27-31.

" Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Perspectives on Reading Instruction (Alexandria,VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1998).

47 Harvey Daniels, Steve Zeinelman, and Marilyn Bizar, "Whole Language Works: Sixty Years of Research, Educational Leadership 57, no. 2 (2000): 32.

48 Ibid., 36.

49 Ibid., 35-36.

" See Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, "How and Why Children Learn About Sounds, Letters, and Words in Reading Recovery Lessons," The Running Record: A Review of Theory and Practice for Reading Recovery Teachers 12, no. 1 (1999): 1-14.

51 Ibid.

52 See Chapman, Tunmer, and Prochnow, "Success in Reading Recovery."

" William E. Tunmer and W.A. Hoover, "Phonological Skill and Beginning Reading."

54 New Jersey State Department of Education, New Jersey Language Arts Literacy Curriculum Framework (Trenton, NJ: New Jersey State Department of Education, 1998), 254.

55 Lynn Olson, "Rating the Standards," Education Week 18, no. 17 (1999): 107-09. See also Chester E. Finn Jr. and Michael J. Petri lli, eds., The State of State Standards 2000 (Washington, DC: The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 2000), 68; and Sandra Stotsky, State English Standards: An Appraisal of English Language-Arts/Reading Standards in 28 States (Complete Edition) (Washington, DC: The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 1997), 19, 88-90.

20Louisa Cook Moats 30 56 Massachusetts Department of Education, Massachusetts English Language ArtsCurriculum Framework (Boston: Massachusetts Department of Education, 1997), 17.

"Barbara R. Foorman, David J. Francis, /Jack M. Fletcher, Chris Schatschneider, and P. Mehta, "The Role Of Instruction in Learning to Read: Preventing Reading Failure in At-Risk Children," Journal of Educational Psychology 90 (1998): 1-15.

Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction21

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