Within my school district, whole-language was brought into the
classrooms by the reading and writing specialists, and they had gotten it
from administrative direction. In fact, the focus of the reading teacher
was changed from pulling out small groups of students to modeling lessons
within the classroom as a way of bringing along the classroom teacher.
This was a fairly successful strategy, by the way. And the school which
I teach in labels itself as a 'whole-language' school.
An other venue in which I have seen classroom teachers become
whole language teachers has been as a result of the schools of education
within various universities. In fact, some teachers have complained
about a hegemony of whole language within education department.
Didn't the California State Department of Education 'mandate'
whole language education, and has now deemed it a 'failure'?
In my experience, whole language has become a series of
instructional strategies, and hence, because it has been co-opted by the
system at large, has demonstrated little in the area of reform.
However, when I write out the word reform, I realize that I have
not yet come across a concensus of the meaning of 'school reform'. What
does it mean to you?
Phillip
Cotton Creek Elementary
Westminster, CO
pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu