Which instructional approach provides initial reading instruction using a language experience approach coupled with a structured skill-development program?

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This item tests how reading instruction can combine students' language experience with explicit skill-building. The language experience approach uses the student’s own spoken language—dictated or discussed stories—as the basis for reading material, which makes the content meaningful and engaging while building oral language and comprehension. When this is paired with a structured skill-development program, there is also explicit, systematic instruction in decoding, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and other foundational literacy skills. In practice, a teacher might have a student describe a personal experience, create a readable passage from that story, and then provide guided, sequential practice to develop phonics and word recognition alongside comprehension.

Why the other options don’t fit as well: a phonics-first approach centers on decoding rules before meaningful reading and doesn’t inherently draw on the student’s own language experiences. A whole-language approach emphasizes meaning and authentic texts but may lack the explicit, sequential skill instruction that a structured program provides. Silent reading programs focus on independent reading with limited teacher-guided skill development, which doesn’t pair the rich language experience with systematic skill-building.