1. American Reading Instruction Issues and Trends 1920-1940 Heather Rowlings

2. General Findings 1920-1940 O Focus on research based methods for supporting struggling readers O Individualized reading movement O Divisions of philosophy- basal skill approach versus broad approach O Reading Readiness and Mental Age

3. Ties to the Past O Thorndike’s IQ and reading assessments O Word method was blamed for soldiers in WWI not being able to read instruction manuals O Social Efficiency influences O Progressive influences

4. Research and the Struggling Reader 1920-1940 Davis, G. (1931). Procedures effective in improving pupils of poor reading ability in regular reading classes. The Elementary School Journal. 31, 336-348. O How many poor readers are there in the 4 th grade? O What effective procedures can be used to help improve reading ability O Measured using the Gates Silent Reading Test (Forms A and C)

5. Research and the Struggling Reader 1920-1940 O Findings O 51% of students failed to meet their grade level reading ability on both forms of the assessment O Students were then broken into groups based on specific reading need based on informal teacher assessments O Lack of comprehension and sight words were the two largest issues

6. Research and the Struggling Reader 1920-1940 O Effective Procedures O Strategic and flexible grouping O Drills in word recognition of new words O “Vary assignments to fit the objectives taught” (Davis, 1931, p.342) O Ask students interpretive questions O Model fluency O Lessons focusing on using context clues O Introduce new books in an interesting manner

7. Philosophical Divisions 1929-1940 O Broad Approaches O Inspired by the Progressive movement O Developing a variety of abilities O Curriculum guides provided little information for teachers O Child centered O Basal Approaches O Using a scope and sequence of skills to teach reading O Did not focus on one specific approach, but did focus on specific skills O Aligned with Social Efficiency theories

8. Reading Readiness 1920-1940 O Arnold Gesell O Development was controlled by maturation O “If the child is not ready, wait” (Teale, 1995, p. 101) O Morphett and Washburn (1931) O If a child had the mental age of 6.6 then they were more likely to succeed in school O Reading readiness tests began appearing as a diagnostic tool O Reading instruction was prohibited in kindergarten in some cases O In 1922, 12% of all children were enrolled in kindergarten O Mainly to develop socially

9. Laying the Groundwork O Increased awareness and enrollment in kindergarten O Maturation theories continued into the 1950s O Basals included reading readiness activities O Parallels to the phonics-whole language debates O Influences in the equality movement

10. References Davis, G. (1931). Procedures effective in improving pupils of poor reading ability in regular reading classes. The Elementary School Journal. 31, 336-348. Gates, A.I. (1937). The necessary age for beginning reading. The Elementary School Journal. 37, 497-508. Kliebard, H.M. (2004). The Struggle for the American Curriculum: 1893-1958. New York: Routledge Falmer. Martinez, M.G. & McGee L.M. (2000). Children’s literature in reading instruction: past present and future. Reading Research Quarterly. 35, 154-169.

11. References Robinson, H.A., Faraone, V., Hittelman, D.R., & Unruh, E. (1990). Reading Comprehension Instruction 1783-1987. Newark Delaware: International Reading Association. Smith, N.B. (2002). American Reading Instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Teale, W.H.. (1995). Young children and reading: trends across the twentieth century. Journal of Education. 117, 95-127)