In the context of whole language learning, the teaching of phonics can be approached in two different ways. In one situation, the teacher engages children in composing with a purpose and for an audience, during which time the children become aware of graphophonic relationships through their need to spell words. In the other situation, the teacher engages the children in choral reading and language play that proceeds from a carefully chosen or constructed folk rhyme to sentence investigation, to phonic investigation, and, finally, to mastery of the CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) syllable pattern in single and multisyllabic words. In both situations, the teacher teaches the complex tasks of writing and reading by first engaging children in the task itself and then having them experience differentiating language into its component parts. In the writing task, the differentiation proceeds from the child writing purposefully for an audience to becoming more aware of the graphophonic system through solving the problem of how to spell correctly. In the reading task, the differentiation proceeds from the teacher presenting a chant or folk rhyme chosen or constructed because of its inclusion of words that provide repetition of certain graphophonic patterns. In either situation, the instruction integrates that which is usually taught separately--phonics, spelling, and the study of sentences. This integrated approach is an example of whole language learning and it allows more time to be devoted to purposeful reading, writing, and dialoguing in all subject areas. (HOD)