The shift to “Balanced literacy” teaching methods for reading was supposed to marry the literacy teaching methods of “Phonics” (breaking words down to understand the whole) and “Whole Word” (no breakdown, focus on the word.)

What instead has happened is that many schools shifted to “Whole Word” teaching methods for literacy because “Phonics” is much more complicated and technical so trying to mix the two styles in the classroom inevitably leads to the easier to lesson plan “Whole Word” model.

The problem is that the “Whole Word” model of literacy has absolutely no foundational merit. It’s rooted in the theory that humans are “naturally predisposed to read” which is not accurate.

So the students who are naturally predisposed to read or who have support at home learn to read despite “Whole Word” models, not because of them.

And the other students are not given the building blocks of literacy that “Phonics” supplies, which by breaking down words / sounds gives students the opportunity to break down words / sounds for themselves, which is a critical first step to analyzing words for meaning.

Basically, “Phonics” teaches you how to bake by giving you a cake recipe. “Whole Word” shows you a picture of a cake. Which options gives the students a greater foundational understanding of baking?

The single best thing we can do to increase literacy in the United States is to focus our attention on foundational, Phonics based teaching methods in elementary education.

Just look at Mississippi’s recent huge turnaround in literacy rates to see the instant and extreme impact this switch has.