Phonics vs. Whole Language

I learned language through whole language. I remember reading short picture books that included site words. There was also always a word wall on the wall of my classroom. Though I grew up during the age of "Hooked on Phonics" I never remember learning language through phonics. However, I believe that schools today are starting to focus a bit more on balanced literacy. At the daycare that I work at implement a program called "Zoo Phonics." Zoo Phonics teaches children the sounds of letters using zoo animals. Along with phonics, all the classrooms have labels placed around the room indicating various toys and center locations. I understand that a daycare is not the same as what is implemented in the public schools systems but they are still building foundations for learning language through phonics and whole language.

I believe that my past learning experiences have impacted me both as a student learner and as a future teacher. As a student learner I have always struggled with the sounds of long and short vowels. I feel this is something that I might be more confident in if I had a stronger background in phonics. Also, based from my experience I see how both whole language and phonics play an important role in the learning of language. Since I can now see this, I believe that I will make a greater effort to have a balanced literacy program in my future classroom.

The Six Language Arts

The six language arts are: reading, writing, listening, talking, viewing, and visually representing. Out of these six topics the two that surprised me the most were talking and viewing. When I was in school talking seemed to be looked down upon. Talking in class was considered inappropriate. Even when we were working on other language arts activities such as writing and acting out a skit, I always assumed that the emphasis was on the plot and details of the story not talking. Viewing was a surprise to me because even though I remember watching the movie to a book that we had recently read, it was always conveyed to us students that watching this movie was a privilege and that the privilege could easily be taken away.

I believe that viewing and visually representing should be included on the list of language arts. Even though these two topics may not have jumped out to me as language arts I see now how they are important. Viewing is something tht everyone does all day every day. Viewing includes: billboards, commercials, reading on the internet, and watching films. However, if we are going to include viewing in the list of lanugage arts then I think it is important for teachers to convey the importance of viewing to their students. For example, instead of just telling students that they are going to watch a film on the book they had just read they need to also be informed of the importance of viewing through films, commercials, etc. in the language arts.

Visually representing is an important aspect of the language arts because it allows students to create meaning through writing, illustrations, etc. I believe that lerning has a bigger impact when students can create their own meaning. By drawing an illustration of a scene in a book they are are able to make sense of what they have just read. Through this illustration the students have created their own interpreations and meaning of the reading.

I have always associated language arts with mostly reading and writing. From what I do remember of my language arts classes, the majority of it consisted of reading and writing. We read book after book and wrote papers on each. I believe that some teachers may focus on one or two of the language arts more than the others, but I do not believe that this means that some are more academically important than the others. All the language arts are important for functioning in daily life. I would say that my preferences for the language arts have not changed all that much over the years. I now appreciate some of the language arts more so than I did in the past, but it does not mean that I now prefer them.

Learning to appreciate the process

I actually have a love-hate relationship with blogging. I have recently returned from a semester abroad in Italy where my first experiences with blogging took place. Blogging is something I enjoy after it's done. I have learned that I am notorious for making sure that I don't find time to blog about my experiences. I am not a fan of sitting down to reflect on and share my experiences with others but an glad that I did so after the fact. I have a feeling that this opportunity to continue blogging will remind me to try to enjoy the blogging process.