Answer:
A theory is an educated guess regarding an answer to something. Therefore, a reading theory would then be any of many different methods for teaching someone how to read. There are many ways to teach reading (each of which is a theory), however, our goal as educators should be to answer the question -Which method of instruction results in the greatest amount of progress in the least amount of time? Since the anatomical structure of the human brain varies greatly from one person to the next, a reading method used for one person may result in great success, while in another child, the results may be unsuccessful. This reality should modify our question somewhat to be - Which method of reading instruction results in the greatest amount of progress among the greatest number of students? Research conducted by various universities and funded by the No Child Left Behind project has concluded that a reading instruction method that incorporates higher amounts of phonics, vocabulary and fluency building is the most successful for the greatest number of students. Even with all the research out to date showing otherwise, some school districts still retain the reading theory known as "whole-language" which assumes learning occurs best by immersing oneself in literature and attempting to "figure-out" words by methods other than phonics (such as context clues). While whole-language instruction does perform well with some higher functioning students, it is not effective for the majority of elementary age students and can dramatically reduce reading progress among children with various learning disabilities.