Why Innovations Come and Go (And Mostly Go): The Case of Whole Language

Abstract

There are lessons to be learned from the rapid rise and descent of the whole language movement. This paper reviews three aspects of the whole language movement. First, it is unprecedented for a progressive education movement to be as accepted by mainstream educators as whole language was. Second, whole language filled a need for a shift in pedagogy, from word recognition and comprehension to motivation, and from Reading-to-Learn to Reading-to-Enjoy. Third, the whole language movement was political, both in the means used to promote itself and in its notions that whole language instruction can effect societal change.

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