Sears Chapter 18 Summary

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As I read Chapter 18 from Samuels & Farstrup and the article, A Short History of United States’ Reading Research and Instruction by Sears, I was drawn in by the narratives of each decade in the Sears’ article, and my own family’s narratives came to mind.

My parents were born in 1917 and 1922, and I found myself imagining what it might have been like for them learning to read during that time. Being from a rural area and with The Depression upon them, money for schooling was hard to come by. I can remember my father talking about learning to read with an old McGuffey reader, and I also remember fondly my father reciting portions of other literature that he had memorized. My father did not understand phonics as I was taught it. It seems that teaching to read by whole-word units was the way things were done during his time, and this fits in with what the top researchers of the day were saying was the way to go.

By the 1960s, the pendulum once again had moved, and I was
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If I had to pick something, my gut tells me that government and politics have gotten too heavy of a hand in this process of teaching children to read. In Samuels & Farstrup, there are many great programs and committees that have been established since the 1970s, but it seems to me that, especially after reading the history of reading research and instruction, there is just about “nothing new under the sun”. Not to disparage the efforts of individuals, groups, and committees, but focus needs to return to the classroom teachers and literacy coaches who work closely with students day in and day out. Research informs practice and changes must be made, but our current research and methods need to take a more bottom-up approach rather than a top-down one. We need to have a multi-faceted research-based approach that is also informed by the rich history of reading in our nation. There is a lot to be learned from