To date there has been no research done on teacher education programs that use whole language as a vehicle for instilling reflective forms of pedagogy. This study is an initial effort to develop a research base in this area. The study examined the socialization process of teachers who adopted the teaching perspectives of the whole language…

This book aims to help teachers who are committed to whole language principles explain the philosophy to their students' parents. It addresses the concerns of parents who most likely grew up in a traditional, teacher-centered educational system, and who therefore might be unfamiliar with a whole language approach to language arts. Drawing on work…

Describes the development and implementation of a whole language program in Quebec (Canada), a unilingual French province. Focuses on the meaning of educational change at various levels of Quebec's educational system. Presents perspectives and competing ideologies on whole language. (Author/BB)

Searches for some precision in the discourse of whole language with respect to the role of the teacher as expressed in words such as empowerment, control, predictability, and authenticity. Observes and interprets the practice of two successful whole language teachers to refine understandings of these concepts as they are enacted in classrooms. (MG)

Identifies factors, both helpful and obstructive, influencing teachers' transition from basal to a whole-language curriculum. Observations from two first-grade classrooms and interviews with school principals and two classroom teachers (one whole-language veteran and the other in transition into whole language) are evaluated. (GLR)

A study investigated how schools and teachers attempt to meet the needs of language minority students and to utilize literature as a means to teach English language reading to students while building their English language capacities. Language arts and reading instruction was observed in 12 third- through fifth-grade classrooms in three elementary…

Children from rural backgrounds often struggle with the unfamiliar language and settings in basal reader selections, but the rich knowledge and experience that a rural child brings to the classroom is rarely reflected there. These papers describe a literature based program developed in the Washington Court House City Schools (Ohio) to teach…

Asserts that the whole-language approach is a philosophy of language learning that integrates four modes of communication--listening, speaking, reading, and writing--with a focus on content comprehension. Discusses how the approach is used as a primary component of the Florida K-5 Program of Study. (CFR)

Focusing on students who are often referred to as "at risk," this book discusses the theory supporting whole language learning for all students and describes, in detail, the practical strategies used to help these students become readers and writers. The book, through its explanation of theory as well as presentation of individual…

Intended to help create an environment where poetry flourishes, this book offers elementary school teachers a formula for integrating poetry into all areas of study by exploiting their interconnections. Each chapter in the book is broken into sections dealing with basic principles and concepts. Each subsection presents and discusses poems that…

Providing introduction to the whole language philosophy, this book aims to demonstrate that whole language is indeed good education. It outlines what kinds of research support whole language education, how a whole language philosophy may be carried out in practice, and how to go about implementing a whole language philosophy in a school or a…

Discusses ways in which library media specialists can help teachers who are using the whole language approach. Topics addressed include reading aloud to children; wordless picture books; decoding; writing; core literature selections; automaticity in reading; independent reading; re-reading; reading across the curriculum; literature as content; and…

Offers primary school teachers, supervisors, in-service specialists, and administrators guides for improving language instruction using a model that values teachers' professional judgment and encourages change in small, comfortable steps. These guidelines are used in the Tennessee State Department of Education Whole Language Pilot Project designed…

Presents two kindergarten teachers' accounts of the use of the whole language approach to children's learning in class. Describes the reading of a children's book to a public kindergarten class and the subsequent literacy-related activities. (BB)

A study determined the effects of Whole Language Immersion, a pedagogy rooted in Whole Language and English as a Second Language on two sections of eleventh-grade students in Sumter County, Alabama, defined as at-risk by the Alabama Exit Examination. For 10 weeks, the control group was taught grammar while the experimental group underwent language…