Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Integrating the Elementary Language Arts:
A Historical Perspective
E. Jennifer MonaghanDouglas K. Hartman
Chapter 16
Toward Defining the Language Arts …
• “Our goal is to define … what students should learn in the English language arts—reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visual representing.”
International Reading Association/National Council of Teachers of English (IRA/NCTE). (1996). Standards for the English Language Arts. Newark, DE: International Reading Association/National Council of Teachers of English.
1620s to 1780s
Sequential Teaching of Reading & Writing
Reading the Bible is the route to salvation
New-England Primer (n.p.). (1727). Boston: S. Kneeland & T. Green.
1780s to 1840s
Integrating Speaking & Spelling Instruction
Oral spelling is the route to reading acquisition
Webster, N. (1843). The elementary spelling book; being an improvement on the American Spelling Book (p. 20). New York: Cooledge & Brother.
(Original work published 1829).
1840s to 1880s
Pestalozianism & Schoolbooks
A shift toward child-centered reading instruction
William Holmes McGuffey (1837). Eclectic First Reader (p. 14). Cincinnati: Truman & Smith. Reproduced in John H. Westerhoff III (1978). McGuffey and His Readers: Piety, Morality, and Education in Nineteenth-Century America (p. 115). Nashville, TN: Abingdon.
1840s to 1880s
Pestalozianism & Schoolbooks (continued)
A shift toward child-centered writing instruction
Frost, J. (1839). Easy exercises in composition (p. 24). Philadelphia: W. Marshal. Reproduced in Schultz, L.M. (1999), The young composers: Composition’s beginning in
nineteenth-century schools (p. 52). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
1880s to 1930s
Progressivism & the Integration of Literacy Instruction
Francis Wayland Parker
Source: http://www.ucls.uchicago.edu/photo_album/1809s/parker.html
1930s to 1970s
Disintegrating the Language Arts
The Whole Word Approach
Kleiser, C., Ettinger, W.L., & Shimer, E.D. (1917). The Progressive road to reading: Story steps (p. 7). Boston: Silver, Burdett.
1980s to 1990s
Integrating the Language Arts
Emergent literacy, process writing, whole language, & literature-based reading
Mavrogenes, N.A. (1987). Young children composing then and now: Recent research on emergent literacy. Visible Language, 21, p. 281.
1990s to 2010
Where We Are Now in the Era of NCLB
Renewed emphasis on reading rather than writing instruction
Citations of the Words “Reading,” “Writing,” “Language Arts,” and “Literacy” in Public Law 107-110 (2001), the No Child Left Behind law
Reading Writing Language Arts Literacy COMBINED TOTALS 249 26* 7 108The disparity in favor of reading and reading instruction over writing and
writing instruction is obvious. * This total includes a deduction of 3 citations of the phrase “in writing.”Sources:TITLE 1 Improving the Academic Achievement of the DisadvantagedSections 1001-1004; Part A, Improving Basic Programs, sections 1111-
1120B; Part B, Student Reading Skills Improvement, sections 1201-1208; Subpart 2,
Early Reading First, sections 1221-1226; Subpart 3, William F. Goodling Family Literacy, sections 1231-1242; Subpart 4. Improving Literacy…School Libraries, section 1251;
Part C, Education of Migratory Children, sections 1301-1309.TITLE 2 Preparing, Training, and Recruiting High Quality Teachers and
PrincipalsSubpart 2. National Writing Project, sections 2331-2332. Public Law 107-110, the No Child Left Behind of 2001. Retrieved November
29, 2010, from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html
Summary of Chapter
Era Years Themes/Events
The New England Primer:Sequential Teaching of Reading & Writing
1620s to 1780s
Reading is taught before writing because it is through reading that the young acquire the values (at this time, the religious values) of adults.
Noah Webster’s Spelling Books:Integrating Speaking & Spelling with Reading Instruction
1780s to 1840s
In the 1730s, spelling books emerge as the key text for American reading instruction, which is based on the alphabet method. Noah Webster’s spellers outstrip all others in their sales.
(Monaghan & Hartman, 2010)
Summary of Chapter
Era Years Themes/Events
Pestalozzianism & Child-Centered Schoolbooks:Parallel Shifts in Reading & Writing Materials
1820s to 1880s
The sterility of the alphabet method and rote learning gives rise to reform. Reformers invoke the child-centered principles of Johann Pestalozzi to introduce child-centered reading and writing instructional texts.
Francis Wayland Parker:Progressivism & the Integration of Literacy Instruction
1880s to 1930s
The same principles are adopted by Progressives, who integrate reading & writing into their curricula. Children read what they have written.
(Monaghan & Hartman, 2010)
Summary of Chapter
Era Years Themes/Events
The Whole Word Approach:Disintegrating the Language Arts 1930s to 1970s
Both the Progressives & their successful rivals, the adherents of the scientific movement in education, adopt the whole word approach to reading instruction while synthetic phonics and writing take a back seat.
Integrating the Language Arts:The Impact of Cognitive Research
1980s to 1990s
Research on language acquisition & emergent literacy, combines with process writing, whole language, & literature-based reading to renew a focus on integrating the language arts.
(Monaghan & Hartman, 2010)
Summary of Chapter
Era Years Themes/Events
Where we Are Now:In the Era of No Child Left Behind 1990s to 2010s
New voices call for “balanced” reading instruction, but “high stakes” national and state testing conflict with integrative goals since they renew the exaggerated emphasis on reading, rather than writing instruction.
(Monaghan & Hartman, 2010)
