Whole Language Movement

1967

When the whole language movement entered the educational realm, it was not to be viewed as the latest program, but rather viewed as a belief system or perspective towards learning. Kenneth Goodman’s development of the whole language theory stems from the belief that students learn when information is presented as a whole rather than into smaller units. Rather than teaching skills in isolation, they should be presented in the context of that the students are experiencing at that moment. The whole language movement comes from the constructivist view of learning, which believes that students develop concepts through their interaction with the environment. Students are more likely to learn how to read when presented with stories that they are able to construct meaning using their background experiences, rather than controlled stories that limit natural language, such as “The fat rat sat.” With the implementation of Common Core State Standards, instructional practices are reverting back to holistic teaching methods.