Jeanne, Good teachers have a philosophy that guides their teaching so that, as you said somewhere else in your post, no program will distract them from giving their kids appropriate instruction. This is where "those textbooks" always go wrong. They assume that teachers don't know what they're doing and once we buy into that way of thinking we are doomed. We believe what they tell us rather than what we know to be true. The whole language movement de-emphasized decontextualized phonics instruction thereby emphasizing its opposite. Elisa
Elisa Waingort Grade 2 Spanish Bilingual Dalhousie Elementary Calgary, Canada The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart. —Helen Keller Visit my blog, A Teacher's Ruminations, and post a message. http://waingortgrade2spanishbilingual.blogspot.com/ Good teachers are flexible and adaptive to give their students the best instruction they can which includes a combination of "whole language" and "phonics" strategies (for those of us that still sense the division because of the way it was introduced to us) into a balanced literacy program that truly meets the needs of their students. Jeanne Garringer
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