Letters to the Editor: Readers applaud the return of phonics, but teaching reading shouldn’t stop there

To the editor: In 1970, I was a student teacher and then a second-grade teacher in New York. I later became a learning and reading specialist and taught the teachers.

Throughout my training, I learned (and subsequently taught) that the most effective way to teach both children and adults to read English is a combination of phonics and whole word recognition instruction ( “Could phonics solve California’s reading crisis? Inside the push for sweeping changes,” June 2). Roughly 85% of English spelling follows one of multiple recognizable phonics patterns. The remaining 15% of written English words simply have to be memorized or discerned from context.

Sadly, at that time, as New York state adopted a balanced language approach to teaching reading, California politicians chose to buy int