Explains how a teacher came to develop her own version of the whole language approach through her experimentation with remedial students in the 1970s. Makes a case for student research and inquiry into issues that matter to them personally, in lieu of traditional research of classic writers. (TB)

A teacher describes her initiation into secondary school English literature instruction, adoption of the whole-language approach before it had a name, and development of a curriculum with limited resources and minimal guidance. The author finds many classrooms still struggling with conventional instruction, and argues that the whole-language…