Reading instruction has been the subject of significant controversy for more than five decades, and Kappan has allowed advocates of many different types of reading instruction to make their cases in the magazine's pages. Teresa Preston chronicles the history of the reading wars as they played out in Kappan. Researchers and scholars have debated…

This study examines the specific recommendations of prominent educators and student readers of the nineteenth century regarding word recognition instruction and the varied activities which support such instruction. In the nineteenth century books, the authors examine all explicit instructions to the teachers in both front and end matter and then…

The teaching of reading has been a source of contentious debate for many years. Margaret Meek Spencer contributed her passion for the importance of specific texts to help children learn to read. In addition to the kinds of texts to be used, important aspects of the debate include the relationship between national curriculum policies and robust…

This article discusses the current contradictory policies surrounding the push for phonics instruction in Texas schools. Focusing on this current iteration of the reading wars, this article seeks to help teachers develop a historical context for reading instruction, review existing research on learning to read, and turn that knowledge into…

The twenty-first century Reading War is, in fact, nothing new, but some of the details are unique to our current culture driven by social media. This volume seeks to examine the current Reading War in the context of the historical recurrence of public and political debates around student reading abilities and achievement. Grounded in a media…

Basals have played an important role in classroom instruction for almost 200 years. Historically, basal programs have been influenced by both important research and policy reports. This study analyzed one publishing company's basal program across seven editions in order to trace the interaction of research, policy, and publication. Teacher's…

For more than 100 years, research on the psychology of reading has proliferated. In this article, the authors wish to help modern reading researchers understand the origins of the discipline and benefit from its history. This article draws heavily on Edmund Burke Huey's 1908 landmark volume "The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading,"…

"Ghosts of No Child Left Behind" politically situates curriculum within a historically and critically informed context, to understand the structural forces that have contributed to the creation of a population of adolescents who read below a third grade level. The book then proposes a reconceptualization of literacy curriculum within a…

Reviews the history of phonics and whole word instruction, arguing that students' reading proficiency does benefit from learning fundamentals of phonics. (HTH)

Contains a historical view of decoding and discusses what it means for teachers of phonics. (RB)

Attacks the whole-word, or "look-say," method of teaching reading, widely used in the United States since 1836. Cites evidence to support this method as the sole reason for the high functional illiteracy rate in the U.S. Recommends the use of intensive phonics as the solution to America's reading problem. (NJ)

Provides a different perspective on the recent controversy over the competing emphases to beginning reading, known as Whole Language and phonics, by examining the history of disputes about reading education. Helps illuminate the current debate by indicating which issues are novel and which continue unresolved from the past. (DSK)

Identifies analogous patterns in the histories of education and literacy education, noting wide swings of fadism over time, tracing phonics instruction throughout history, inspecting a model of educational innovation as related to literacy, and suggesting implications of this model for the future (noting lessons to be distilled from awareness of…

Presents a modified replication of Austin and Morrison's classic 1963 study of the status of U.S. public school elementary reading instruction. Discusses how school and classroom libraries in the 1990s are more prevalent and better equipped, and how changes in programs and philosophy are common in the late 1990s, unlike in the 1960s. Appends the…

The major theory examined in this paper is that the increasing problem of illiteracy in the United States may be due to a faulty method of teaching reading. The causes of the illiteracy problem and possible solutions are explored using evidence from reading research and classroom results. The following topics concerning the teaching of reading are…