The Reading Wars: The Fight for Literacy
Krista Conway
The reading wars refer to a long-standing debate in education about the best way to teach reading. Whole language and balanced literacy approaches emphasize the importance of meaning and context in reading instruction, while structured literacy emphasizes the importance of phonics and decoding. Whole language and balanced literacy approaches aim to teach reading through exposure to meaningful texts and focus on comprehension, while structured literacy approaches focus on systematically teaching phonics, phonemic awareness, and decoding skills. Ultimately, the most effective approach may depend on the needs of individual learners and the goals of the reading instruction.
