ABSTRACT
Despite some recent and well-directed qualifying statements, an overwhelming number of elementary school teachers in North America have embraced a ‘whole-language’ approach to the teaching of reading and writing over the past couple of decades. With this approach, children are encouraged to develop their own forms of communicating through speech and text, while immersed in an environment rich in the literature of many genres. The whole-language classroom is a lively one-children write, read, converse, and write some more. By being actively engaged in reading and writing, children become writers and critics of literature.24
