Running head: A TIMELINE OF READING
A Timeline of Reading Instruction
Grand Canyon University
RDG 509
November 9, 2009
Abstract
Reading instruction has undergone many changes since the first colonists settled in America. Hornbooks and battledores morphed into primers and basal readers. Religion played an important part throughout the first half of the history of reading instruction in America. Books grew into stories that were enjoyable instead of remedial. The alphabet played a significant role, as did pictures, when teaching reading. The debates of whole language and phonics has spanned the centuries, leaving no distinct decision. The researcher examined the trends from the 1600s to the present and identified the type of reading
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Battledores Also had lists of short words and sometimes included a prayer, but normally they had a short story or fable instead. With a greater surface area, battledores could also contain illustrations. These were generally pictures of everyday life that would have been familiar to children of the time (Dianeohio, 2006, ¶ 4). Following the battledores were spellers and primers. The New England Primer was "among the most popular texts of the day" (Robinson, 1997, p. 45). This primer "was considered the prototype schoolbook for nearly 100 years" (Shannon & Crawford, 1997, p. 227). The primers included both the alphabet and parts of the Bible. Both of these "employed the alphabet as an organizational feature for literacy instruction and spiritual study" (Wikipedia, 2009, ¶ 2.3). A popular book during this time was The Child's New Play-Thing, which "introduced the alphabet with a lettered story about an appetizing apple pie" (Wikipedia, 2009, ¶ 2.5). The 1800s brought about a change in reading instruction. Noah Webster published his blue-back spellers. These books "focused on the right pronunciation, on patriotic and historical selections, proverbs, moral stories, fables, as well as an expressive oral reading" (Robinson, 1997, p. 46). The first set of readers was also introduced, the McGuffey’s Readers. It has been estimated that least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its
In this article, Moats provides an overview of the whole language reading instruction approach as well as a critique of the approach, its shortcomings in literacy based on scientific studies, how and why it is still pervasive in classrooms today, and how educators can fix the situation. First, Moats presents the reader with the background of the phonics instruction versus whole language instruction “reading wars” debate which led many educators to try to synthesize the two different types of language instruction under what she refers to as “balanced literacy”. Whole language is literacy approach that deemphasizes phonics in favor of meaning; advocates of this approach believe that literacy is similar to natural language acquisition therefore children can acquire skills through exposure to print and teaching modeling without explicit phonics instruction.
My early reading experiences reflect the history that Vogt and Shearer (2011) describe in the first chapter of Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches in the Real World. The basal reading programs of the 1970s and 1980s included “leveled readers, phonics activities, and a great deal of comprehension skill practice, usually found on the pages of the accompanying workbooks. The programs also included highly structured, detailed teacher’s guides, with different lesson plans for each of the three instructional groups” (Vogt & Shearer, 2011, p.13).
he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:
Children before the seventeenth century shared narrative, whether oral or through chapbooks, with adults. The first widely distributed texts for children were by puritan writers; in the mid-eighteenth century books began to be produced commercially, usually with an
Reading and writing have been in our lives and around our lives ever since the beginning of time. It is something we are naturally born into. Almost every human being has performed some type of reading or writing, whether they live in the big city, or whether they live in the woods. They have all performed some form of reading or writing in their life. It is human nature. We are born into it. I have many memories of reading and writing, though I may not be very fond of it when it concerns schoolwork, it is something I have naturally adjusted to and it somehow has made me, and probably everyone else around me as well, who we are today.
Clay, M. M. (2002). 'Taking records of reading continuous texts'. In M. M. Clay, An
If I had to create a timeline of where literacy began for me formally, I would say in or around about the third grade. I grew up in a single-parent home with ten other siblings including myself; my mother was deaf. The sounds that I remember hearing for a long time were high pitch noises that my mom used to communicate with us. I attended preschool where I learn to cite the alphabets and numbers, but the most memorable lessons in literacy I learned came from my mother. She had a unique way of teaching us; for example, I remember my mom drawing pictures of different animals and labeling them. Although she was unable to verbally pronounce their names she signed out each letter, which is when I got my first lesson in sign language and spelling.
For this assignment, I will first briefly discuss the value of early reading pre-school and the stages of reading. After that I will critically evaluate the history of introducing synthetic phonics reading in primary schools in England. Furthermore, I will investigate the developments and issues which have been brought about the different teaching strategies used in schools and using teaching synthetic phonics in early years to teach first reading.
There have been many debates over which literacy instruction produces the most favorable outcomes in terms of test scores. During the 1960’s, teachers favored the phonics approach in helping students become literate because they believed that it made the most
How did you learn to read? Most of us do not put much thought into this question, but learning to read is a difficult task. According to Cervetti and Hiebert, the National Reading Panel identified five essential components that a teacher should use during reading instruction, which gives the student the highest chance of being an effective reader (2015, p. 548). These five essential components are also called five pillars of reading instruction. They are Phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. This paper will describe each of the five pillars, how they are related, the benefits, as well as give some effective methods of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness. It will continue by addressing the relationship between reading assessment and instruction and end by identifying ways to address the needs and different learning styles of a student. This paper will start by looking at a definition of phonics and phonemic awareness, then move onto the role that each play in learning to read, how they are related, the benefits and effective methods of teaching both.
For a child who is just starting to learn to read, they need sufficient practice in reading a variety of different books to achieve fluency. Reading can be complex and has many different aspects (Burns,1999). It is suggested that children who have problems reading and writing at a young age will find it hard to catch up as they get older and will not reach their full potential as adults, many will withdraw from school or society and some becoming involved with crime (MacBlain,2014). 40 percent of children find learning to read a challenge but with early help, most reading problems can be prevented (Reading Rockets, n.d.).
My life as a reader has been like a rollercoaster, I had ups and downs. There had been times where I would read regularly and my reading level would go up and there had been times where I completely stopped reading and my reading level dropped drastically.
|Dynamic Indicators |A set of procedures and measures for |DIBELS are designed to be short (one minute) fluency |
The way of learning and reading has changed dramatically over many generations because of new technological advances. Learning is the knowledge acquired through experience, study, or being taught. In Birkerts essay, he explains that learning and how we gather information has changed over time. He says newspapers, magazines, brochures, advertisements, and labels are things that are around individuals every day. These are things that individuals will read to gain knowledge of certain things that are going on. For example, individuals will read labels on food items to see what the food is made out of because some individuals are allergic to certain ingredients and need to know this information. Time has changed the way individuals learn. Learning at one time was all from books and individuals taking notes on those books. Years ago, books were rare and that is what individuals used to learn and when they had a book they had to take out all they could from that book. Learning has gone from just books to many different ways of receiving information. Today’s big new way of learning is from the internet. Individuals have gone from staring at a book for hours to typing a question they have into the internet and getting results back from many sources. Birkerts describes this in his essay, “As we now find ourselves at a cultural watershed-as the fundamental process of transmitting information is shifting from mechanical to circuit-driven, from page to screen-it may be time to ask how
I wouldn’t say that I am a good writer, and I really don’t like to read books either. Through my years in school I became literate in these two categories. I was and still am not interested in writing, or reading books in my spare time. The only writing I have ever done is for school. Writing just does not interest me, and the only reading I do out of class is reading about sports in magazines, or reading the news, or looking at web pages. I have only read a couple of books on my own, 95% of all the books I have read have been for school. The reason for not writing out of class is probably attributed to the fact that I am a very impatient person, and I have a short attention span. I have no interest in writing and reading so when