When I started school in the 1960s, the two first grade classes were part of an experiment. Class A, which I was in, learned to read by the phonics method. Class B was taught by the whole word method, or cuing as its called in this video, but we knew it as the block reading method. When the students talked about what we were learning, I couldn't wrap my head around learning whole words at a time just by looking at them. The two classes were kept separate until the 7th grade. I don't know what the findings were, because I was well out of school before I learned of the experiment. But all the top students in high school were from Class A.
Dr. Erica Brozovsky (previously at Neatorama) looks at both these methods of learning to read, where they came from, how they differ, and how they are turning out all these years later. Which method was used when you were taught to read?