1. Smith’s American Reading Instruction- Stahl’s Epilogue and Pearson’s Article
Judy Sheehan

2. Epilogue by Norman A. Stahl
Stahl asks:
Is Smith’s book still important in the 21st century?
American Reading Instruction is:
“a touchstone of the past” (p. 413) and
“can be a comfort while bringing wisdom to the reading profession in this time of political and pedagogical unrest” (p. 413).
Stahl’s Epilogue

3. Stahl’s Epilogue Continued
The book’s staying power
-breadth and depth without the benefit of technological research
- deserving of a dissertation award
-shows doctoral students the importance of historical research.
-has become THE source on the history of reading instruction of the masses (pp ).
Stahl’s Epilogue

4. Stahl’s Epilogue Continued
Stahl asks: what can be gained by multiple reading of Smith’s text?
1. History teaches us first and best.
2. Pendulum swing continues and is predictable.
Children will survive the swinging and still learn to read.
3. Reading is now really a profession now.
4. Literacy professionals have had more success than failure. (pp )
Stahl’s Epilogue

5. P. David Pearson : “Setting the Scene for Reading in the 1960s”
Carry-over Developments Up to 1935 and Cont. 1965
-Readiness program- learning with a slow, easy beginning
-Look-say method spread over years
-Vocabulary set up in order of decreasing frequency of usage
-skills lessons/practice
-reading of stories
-silent reading in areas of children’s interest and experiences
-importance of meaning
-small group instruction
-teacher as mediator, students as recipients
-reading as a perceptual process
-translation of written to oral
Setting the Scene

6. Setting the Scene: 1960s Reading continued
Look-say approach
-- revised and extended in the middle third of the century
-- 90% of students learned via this method
-consisted of: high frequency sight words, practiced in formulated stories, teach phonics based on known words
Setting the
Scene

7. Setting the Scene: “Conventional Wisdom of the 1960s”
Elaborations from
-controlled text difficulty continued in the 1960s
-more involved skills practice
-domination of the frequency principle paralleled whole-word or look-say approach (pp )
Influence of Jeanne Chall’s (1967) seminal work, Learning to Read: The Great Debate
Chall’s New Principles:
- grade 1 goals of comprehension, interpretation, and contextualization of phonics instruction
- Skills not mentioned but still had a role.
Setting the
Scene

8. Pearson’s “The Legacy of Scholarship of the 1960s”
Debate- What is the best way to teach beginning reading?
“First Grade Studies”- Empirical Research, Gov’t funded study
-studies involved comparison of different teaching methods
-findings: any alternative to traditional basals resulted in equal or greater performance; researchers could now focus on the importance of the teacher
Gov’t programs resources:
-Title I
-Federal Right to Read Program
OVERALL FINDING- END OF THE TRADITIONAL LOOK-SAY BASALS; HOWEVER, ALTERED BASALS DOMINATED THE MARKET IN 1970s- 1980s
Legacy

9. Legacy of Scholarship Continued
Chall’s work
- used critical review to investigate empirical research, basal readers’ content, and excellent classroom teaching practices
-Findings: importance of early attention to code in early reading instruction
Recommendations: change in method, reexamine prevalent ideas about content, reevaluate grade levels, new test development, improve reading research
Legacy

10. Legacy of Scholarship Continued
CHANGES:
analytic phonics moved to beginning of grade 1
change in content- adaptations of children’s literature
single-component testing
criterion-referenced tests
curriculum-embedded assessments
skills management systems
basals comprised of two parallel systems: reading/embedded skills
teacher manuals= student text surrounded by teacher’s guide- suggestions/questions
SHIFT IN THE EARLY 1970s: more difficult texts, more phonics, and a new skills development program
NO CHANGE: teacher still as mediator with students as recipients; reading still a perceptual process of translation (pp ) `
Legacy

11. Pearson’s “Developments in the Last Third of the Century”
Why was reading suddenly a main topic of inquiry for scholars in various disciplines?
POSSIBILITIES:
-Reading was central to success in many areas in and out of school. or
-Scholars outside of education felt that “educationists had it all wrong” (p. 429) – sounds familiar.
Developments

12. Developments Continued
-fundamental shifts in perspectives of reading and writing occurred in the 1970s
-conceptual revolutions in cognition, sociolinguists, and philosophy deeply affected reading curriculum and instruction of the 1980s-1990s
Developments

13. OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS
LINGUISTICS- shift in the 1960s-1970s from conventional structural perspective to transformative generative grammars
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS-children = language participants and invented their own rules about oral language
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY- paradigm shift in psychology in the 1970s- 1980s from behaviorist to intellectual, cognitive
-SCHEMA THEORY considers prior knowledge, interpretation differences due to various or limited background knowledge
SOCIOLINGUISTICS- Need to accommodate children’s use of dialect in reading/writing learning; expansion of literary contexts to include all settings, not just school
Developments

14. Linguistics/Psycholinguistics Research
-Charles Fries’ research- not everything needs explicit teaching- acquired from oral language
-Chomsky- humans are born with the ability to acquire community language
Psycholinguistics:
-Brown & Goodman-found that children learn actively, infer rules, and test them
-Goodman & Smith- oral reading errors=view of reading comprehension processes
Developments

15. Psycholinguistics: Smith’s Influential Text
Smith’s Understanding Reading (1971)
Reading is learned as a member of literate society.
not taught- shift from focus on teacher to student.
a constructive process with decision-making & predictions based on previous knowledge
Developments

16. PSYCHOLINGUISTS’ INFLUENCE
ON CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION:
meaning-making literacy experiences
devalue skills
the value of natural language patterns/ texts for beginning readers- using own knowledge and prediction strategies
errors as a way to understand reading process/strategies
rethinking of what needed to be taught
Developments

17. Cognitive Psychology: 70s-80s
-enabled psychology to expand constructs such as intention, motivation, etc. to include other phenomena: perception, attention, comprehension, learning, memory, executive control of all cognitive processes
Prominent studies in reading:
-basic processes such as text comprehension, story grammars, expository texts (text-analysis tradition)
STUDIES: FOCUSED ONLY ON STRUCTURE, NOT READERS’ KNOWLEDGE
Developments

18. Schema theory: Influences
Related to Piaget’s developmental theories and types of learning: assimilation and accommodation
Frederic Bartlett- cultural schemata theory predated constructivist cognition and learning models by 60 years=readers actively construct meaning, rather than receiving it
Developments

19. Sociolinguistics Labov, Baratz, Shuy =major contributors
Issues: Dialect (its own developed linguistic system) and reading (requires accommodating use of dialect)
Contributions: expanding the meaning of context to include all literacy experiences, knowledge and language as socially and culturally constructed, expansion of our view of language and behavior
Developments

20. SOCIOLINGUISTIC INFLUENCE on Reading Instruction
Holding off until oral language was standardized
recognition that children can translate a standard English text into a dialect, not making errors
recommended changes in the classroom- less competitive, learning from each other
Developments

21. Literary Theory Perspective: 80s
“New Criticism”
- the primary tradition of literary criticism post-WWII until the 1980s
- students/teachers focused on the true meaning of text
Reader-response theory
-authority to the reader=affected teaching practices
-Rosenblatt’s texts- her view=meaning is in the transaction between the reader and the text
Developments

22. The Pedagogical Correlates of New Perspectives
COMPREHENSION- FOCUS OF THE 70s-80s
LITERATURE-BASED READING-late 80s
PROCESS WRITING-mid 80s
INTEGRATED INSTRUCTION
WHOLE LANGUAGE (and its DEMISE)
New
Perspectives

23. Comprehension on Center Stage
Part of reading classrooms from the 30s-70s
Chall’s influence continued
Center for the Study of Reading (federally funded study) placed nat’l attention on comprehension
-research from that study and others focused on strategies to improve comprehension through instruction, monitoring, organizers, etc.
New
Perspectives

24. Literature-Based Reading: late 80s
Intensified greatly in the late 80s (appeared briefly and intensely after Chall’s work too)
BASALS: HAD EXCERPTS AND ADAPTATIONS
- reducing vocabulary difficulty and grammatical complexity and taking out offensive material-words/themes
Literature had supplementary role in school reading programs
- children selecting and independently reading own books- occurred even in the 60s-Book clubs and literature circles-voluntary structures, teacher-influenced cultural practices (ways to interact and support each other)
New
Perspectives

25. Literature-Based Influences
Rosenblatt’s reader response theory
“just plain reading” as important in elementary programs- Anderson et al’s Becoming a Nation of Readers (1985)
Atwell’s In the Middle (1987)-persuasive account of reading reluctant adolescent readers with existing literature and reading workshops
1988 CA Reading Framework- call for more challenging texts for all grade levels w/ real literature
EFFECTS ON PUBLISHING- 80s-90s: interpretative questions, little vocabulary control, skills in the appendix
New
Perspectives

26. Process Writing Held a strong position in elementary LA curriculum
70s-80s-Influences
Sociolinguistic -writing to real audiences/purposes
Psycholinguistic- focus on quality of thinking and problem solving less on spelling and grammar
Constructivist-writing most transparent of all instructional activities
Writing as a way to make sense, legitimate and revealing- new view of early writing developments (influenced by Graves and Calkins)
Reading and writing as connected
New
Perspectives

27. Integrated Instruction
Two stances re: integration= 1. how to integrate reading with other LA (writing, speaking, and listening) and 2. across subject area
Goes back to Dewey and other progressives- teaching and learning across curricula (little attn until late 80s)
Changed perspective in the late 80s-language/reading best taught with other purposes, activities, and learning activities-sociolinguistic perspective
New
Perspectives

28. WHOLE LANGUAGE MOST SIGNIFICANT MOVEMENT IN THE LAST 30 YEARS
-THE METHOD OF THE 90s
Whole language can be seen as the integration of comprehension, literature-based reading, integrated instruction, and process writing with the strengths and weaknesses of each area included
New
Perspectives

29. Whole Language Influences/Tenets/Shifts
Child-centered pedagogy of the progressive
All readers make their own meanings for encountered texts
Authentic activity- real texts/tasks/deeper questions
Integration-w/in LA and b/t LA and other subject areas
Literature was central; phonics in the background
Faith and hope in the teachers
Suspicion of mandates and controls beyond the classroom
Questioned use of basals
-however, activities and tools of whole language were “basalized”
-Publishers-backgrounded skills and foregrounded integrated LA activities
New
Perspectives

30. WHOLE LANGUAGE OPPONENTS
resistance thru-out the country
some places never accepted it
some implementations- not matching its philosophical or curricular tenets
all kids received the same literature
differing views of skills, conventions, and strategies- inconsistent practices emerged
New
Perspectives

31. THE DEMISE OF WHOLE LANGUAGE
-“Unintended curriculum casualities” -Questionable applications -Dissatisfaction with any extreme views -Paradigm shift in the ideology of reading research -Increase in the politicization of reading research and policy agenda -Increasing pressure for all educators, esp. in reading to produce measurable results -Dramatic shift in the current model of professional development -Now: Who Holds the High Ground?
New
Perspectives

32. Looking Ahead: Will We Benefit From the Lessons of History?
One possibility: the paradigm of basic skills- phonics and heavy skills
-These advocates may gain ground if they can persuade governments at all levels and the educational publishing industry.
-Result would be moderate to substantial shifts:
--especially in kindergarten and grade 1 with explicit instruction
--Writing aligns w/ whole language: literature-based reading and process writing- similar to early 90s and some 80s perspectives
-- RC=Dec* LC returns along with teacher as transmitter of knowledge
Looking
Ahead

33. ANOTHER POSSIBILITY: A Hybrid Paradigm
“ecologically balanced” approach
less shifts if this alternative dominates.
authentic texts/tasks, writing emphasis, literature, response, comprehension w/ explicit phonics instruction, word identification, comprehension, spelling, writing
most differences in the early grades
highly contextualized
like whole language philosophically- students as active meaning-makers
favored by the author= respects all of the research in the field, “wisdom of practice,” and professional history of reading
-an alternative to the pendulum swinging that has infected the field for the majority of the 20th century.
Looking
Ahead

34. References
Pearson, P.D. (2002). American reading instruction since In Smith, N.B. (2002). American reading instruction (pp ). Newark, DE. International Reading Association. Stahl, N.A. (2002). Epilogue. In Smith, N.B. (2002). American reading instruction (pp ). Newark, DE. International Reading Association.
References