Describe the two most common approaches to teaching beginning reading. What does research suggest is the best way to teach beginning reading?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: The two most common approaches to teaching beginning reading are the whole-language approach and the phonics approach. The whole-language approach involves exposing children to test in its complete form—stories, poems, letters, posters, and lists—from the beginning, so they can appreciate the communicative function of written language. The phonics approach stresses teaching children the basic rules for translating symbols into sounds. Only after mastering these skills should they get complex reading material.
Many studies show that children learn best with a mixture of both approaches. In kindergarten, first, and second grades, teaching that includes phonics boosts reading scores, especially for children who lag behind in reading progress. And when teachers combine real reading and writing with teaching of phonics and engage in other excellent teaching practices—encouraging children to tackle reading challenges and integrating reading into all school subjects—first graders show far greater literacy progress. Research suggests that combining phonics with whole language works best because learning the relationship between letters and sounds enables children to decode, or decipher, words they have never seen before. Children who enter school low in phonological awareness make far better reading progress when given training in phonics. Soon they detect new letter–sound relations while reading on their own, and as their fluency in decoding words increases, they are freer to attend to text meaning. Without early phonics training, such children (many of whom come from poverty-stricken families) are substantially behind their agemates in text comprehension skills by third grade.