Curriculum Development Timeline (1)

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Timeline of Curriculum Development in English and Language Arts Kaitlin Brogan Educ 522: Curriculum Development and Instruction Dr. Shannon Gilbert-Keenan June 13, 2022
1911 - The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) was founded. The NCTE works to improve the quality of teaching and learning of language arts at all levels of education. The NCTE encourages teachers to collaborate with one another through shared stories, journal publications, and resources. The Council was originally ¨formed primarily out of protest against overly-specific college entrance requirements and the effects they were having on high school English education¨ (¨National Council of Teachers of English,¨ 1998). Over the years, the NCTE continues to work together to alter their vision statement to reflect the current needs. 1950s - Whole word approach; also known as the Constructivism theory, to reading was resurfacing after its big push in the 1930s with books like Dick and Jane . Students were being taught through rote memorization where words are repeated on each page throughout the book. Students are also encouraged to use clues on the page such as pictures to help them guess at unknown words. Students also connect background knowledge to new words as they are learning to read. Teachers that use the whole word approach combine multiple facets of literacy while teaching reading such as oral language through speaking and listening as well as writing (Reyhner, 2020) 1955 - Phonics based approach which was led by Rudolph Flesh when he wrote the book Why Johnny Can't Read. This approach focuses curriculum on students being able to sound out or decode words based on their spelling rules (Reyhner, 2020). Students are taught to break down the sounds of a word and blend together. While many words are decodable, there are still some words that do not follow the rules and still have to be memorized (many now refer to these words as heart words since there are parts in the word that you have to know by heart). 1980s - The Reading Wars of the 1980s to 1990s. Once again, the pendulum was swinging between two different thought processes on teaching reading. The debate between the whole word approach and phonics based approach was once again an important conversation. Advocates for both sides continued to push their curriculum forward, showing the various benefits of each approach ( Reading Horizons, 2006). Some curriculum attempts to give teachers structure in their literacy block with time devoted to teaching explicit phonics and then whole group instruction followed by small group instruction to work on the whole word approach. 1996 - Balanced Literacy gained more ground as it looked to incorporate the multiple approaches that have been highly debated such as whole word and phonics approaches. Curriculum in balanced literacy incorporates various literacy skills in a block of time. Students are taught to look for multiple cues when reading: 1. Meaning, 2. Sentence structure, and 3. graphic/visual. (Riley and Miller, 2020). This approach is very teacher guided as it focuses more on background knowledge than spelling patterns. As students read, they build their knowledge about the given topic, discuss to further understand, and then write about it. 2009 - Common Core Standards (CCS) were developed. By 2010, 45 states had adopted them and were starting to put them to practice within classrooms. Common Core works to develop a higher critical thinking in students, student centered teaching with collaboration and reflection, and raises expectations in all students (Strauss, 2013). With the development of Common Core Standards many publications that provide schools curriculum looked to the standards when developing their programs. The CCS are also tied to assessments that gauge progress. There is still much debate towards whether CCS was the correct move in education. 2010 - International Reading Association (IRA) revised the criteria to develop and evaluate programs for reading professionals. As states began to play a larger role in their individual reading standards, the IRA revised their criteria. The IRA then developed the Standards for Reading Professionals which describes what working professionals will need and should be able to do when they enter into their professional environment (Glatthorn, et al., 2019). There are 6 Standards which are as follows: Foundational Knowledge, Curriculum and Instruction, Assessment and evaluation, Diversity, Literate environment, and Professional learning and leadership (Glatthorn, et al., 2019). Present - As always, thought processes are changing. The Science of Reading is taking hold and educators are completing research to understand more about how the brain works when it comes to learning to read. Phonics based instruction is becoming more prevalent. Curriculum is pushing for students to have a firm understanding of spelling patterns and the sounds they make. This is then translated into students reading decodable text which is only made of spelling/sound patterns the students have been explicitly taught and sight words (or the term heart words as is becoming strongly popular). Phonics based instruction is becoming the majority of the literacy block in the primary grades.
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