For decades, a debate has simmered in the educational community over the best way to teach children how to read. Proponents of phonics, the “whole language and meaning” approach and other teaching methods long have battled for dominance, each insisting that theirs is the superior strategy…

… Connor’s paper shows that lots of individualized instruction, combined with the use of diagnostic tools that help teachers match each child with the amounts and types of reading instruction that are most effective for him or her, is vastly preferable to the standard “one size fits all” approach to reading education that is prevalent in many American elementary schools…

The researchers found that “the efficacy of any particular instructional practice may depend on the skill level of the student. Instructional strategies that help one student may be ineffective when applied to another student with different skills.” The trick, then, is to more precisely determine the reading skill level of each child and then find a way to cater the curriculum to each student’s individual needs.

“Instead of viewing the class as an organism, we’re trying to get teachers to view the students as individuals,” Connor said.

Source: ScienceDaily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070125173154.htm