 What does a balanced approach to teaching reading mean? 1. Although there are multiple meaning to “balanced approach” there should be a focus on what kinds of reading knowledge is important and why.  Instructors need to compare what reading knowledge they believe is important within their classroom and what are the main types of reading knowledge is important as a whole.  There are three broad categories of children’s knowledge about reading: 1. Local Knowledge: phonics, word identification, pronunciation

1. Global knowledge: understanding and interpreting reading, analyzing. 2. Affective knowledge: motivational reading, desire to read.  Since there are diverse sources of knowledge. Since what you learn is associated with how you learn it there is no one best way associated with each kind of reading knowledge.  Thus a balanced approach is taught through:

1. Having s philosophical perspective on what children should know about reading (while comparing different types of knowledge) 2. Understanding who has the knowledge 3. And how the different kinds of knowledge can be learned.

 How Should Reading Be Taught?  Studies have shown that children’s facility with reading in the first grade usually provides a good indication of what their 11 th -grade reading proficiency will turn out to be. Reading requires practice, and those wo excel end up practicing the most.  There are two competing strategies to teaching reading. ◦ The first strategy is Phonics or the understanding of how letters relate to the component sounds of words. ◦ The second is the whole-language strategy which teaches students whole words instead of how they sound out. Many adopted the whole-language approach because of its intuitive appeal. ◦ While Phonics has been proven to be more effective in the long run, a combination of the two strategies is the most powerful strategy for teaching reading.

 While most students will learn reading strategies at early levels of education, it is up to secondary school teachers to keep students interest in reading. Excelling at reading requires practice and the best way to make students practice is to catch their interest with reading and writing assignments.  Success at reading is essential for students if they are to excel in their education. Learning to read depends more on what the student does and how much they practice reading. Reading needs to be fun and interesting for the student.

 Which reading strategy is most effective, the whole-language approach or Phonics? ◦ A. While research has consistently proven that phonics is better in the long run, it has been proven that a combination of phonics and whole-language approaches is the best solution. Phonics helps students sound out the words, but the whole- language strategy has helped put meaning to words and makes learning to read interesting for students.

 What are the three equally important kinds of knowledge about reading that children should attain?  Local knowledge: being able to read words at sight and word meanings, using strategies to figure out words.  Global knowledge: understanding, interpreting and responding to reading.  Love of Reading: being motivated to read and desire to understand what is being read reading.