History of Literacy Home

Mon 4:10 - 7:00 August 30th - December 13, 1999
Dr. P. David Pearson, Co-Instructor Office: 516 Erickson Hall Phone: (517) 432-0132 (office) (517) 347-7756 (home) Email: ppearson@msu.edu Office Hours: by appointment	Dr. Nell K. Duke, Co-Instructor Office: 360 Erickson Hall Phone: (517) 432-4865 (office) (734) 622-9643 (home) Email: nkduke@msu.edu Office Hours: by appointment

Meeting room: C211 Wells

This course considers the history of reading from three perspectives: (a) reading as a cognitive, social and cultural activity, (b) the teaching of reading, and (c) the study of reading from the advent of the written word to the present. There is a particular emphasis on the history of reading pedagogy and research in the United States. Course topics include the development of English orthography, children's texts and teaching methods used at different points in time, and trends in methods for reading research. Primary in-class activities include seminar-style discussions of common texts, presentations of jigsaw readings and focus projects, and examination of reading-related artifacts. Primary out-of-class activities include (a) preparing a lesson on some aspect of reading as a cultural tool, (b) writing a short history of some aspect of reading as it has been taught over time, and (c) writing a short history of some phenomenon in reading as it has been conceptualized and researched over time. Students will be encouraged to focus on an aspect of reading closely related to their own research interests and/or past experiences. As part of the course, we will work with students to develop presentation and writing skills that are generalizable to the 'real world' of reading research. Texts include: Alberto Manguel's History of Reading, Nila Banton Smith's American Reading Instruction, and a coursepack. Enrollment in the course is limited to 15 students. Entrance into the course requires permission of one of the instructors.

Readings

General Topics, Assignments, and In-Class Activities, By Session

Class 1: August 30
Topic: Introduction to Course; History of Reading as a Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Activity

Readings:
Moore, D. W., Monaghan, E. J., & Hartman, D. K. (1997). Values of literacy history. Reading Research Quarterly, 32, 90-102. (to be read in class)

Sampson, G. (1985). Writing systems: A linguistic introduction. Stanford University Press. (Chapter 1: Introduction and Chapter 2: Theoretical Preliminaries)

Activities:
Introduction to course
Independent reading of Moore, Monaghan, & Hartman (1997) and Sampson (1985)
Discussion of readings
Questionnaire on background, interests, goals

Class 2: September 13
Topic: History of Reading as a Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Activity

Readings:
Manguel, D. (1996). A history of reading. New York: Viking Press. (The Last Page through Picture Reading)

Second reading to be announced: non Western.

Activities:
Come to class with at least a list of insights, puzzlements, and disagreements-at least one of each for each chapter in Manguel. For each, be sure to note the page number and the specific line of text that prompted your response.

Library tour: Special collections of older educational and cultural materials. Meet in Special Collections at the library at 4 p.m. for a tour during the first hour of class. The special collection is in the east wing in the basement (ground floor) of the main library. Get to the East Wing on the first floor (to your right when you enter through the back door of the library). Find the elevator, take it down to ground floor, walk straight ahead toward oversize collections (the convac shelving will be on your right). When you reach the red line on the floor, follow it around to the right and go in the Special Collections door). In preparation for class, look at MAGIC and see what is in special collections. For example, if you do a search for "readers" you will get lots of old readers from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Class 3: September 20
Topic: History of Reading as a Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Activity

Readings:
Manguel, D. (1996). A history of reading. New York: Viking Press. (Being Read To through The Symbolic Reader)

Kaestle, C. F., Damon-Moore, H., Stedman, L. C., Tinsley, K., & Trollinger, V. W. (1991). Literacy in the United States: Readers and reading since 1880. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, Chapter 10.

Activities:
Small group discussions of each of the 8 chapters in Manguel
Bring in a piece of American print literature from a particular era (pre 1900, 1901-1945, 1945-1980) to use as we discuss Chapter 10 from the Kaestle et al book.

Class 4: September 27
Topic: History of Reading as a Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Activity

Readings:
Manguel, D. (1996). A history of reading. New York: Viking Press. (Reading within Walls through Endpaper Pages)

Kaestle, C. F., Damon-Moore, H., Stedman, L. C., Tinsley, K., & Trollinger, V. W. (1991). Literacy in the United States: Readers and reading since 1880. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, Chapter 3.

Activities:
Examination of assessment artifacts. Details to be provided.
Other activities to be announced

Class 5: October 4
Topic: History of the Teaching of Reading

Readings: (Note: this is the heaviest week of reading; you may want to get a head start!)
Smith, N. B. (1986). American reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. (pages v - 156)

Matthews, M. M. (1966). Teaching to read: Historically considered. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. (pages 1-52)

Venezky, R. L. (1999). The American way of spelling: The structure and origins of American English orthography. New York: Guilford. (Chapters 1 and 6)

Activities:
Examination of reading instruction artifacts, Part I
Other activities to be announced

Class 6: October 11
Topic: History of the Teaching of Reading

Note: First assignment due

Readings:
Smith, N. B. (1986). American reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. (pages 157-264)

Huey, E. B. (1908). The psychology and pedagogy of reading. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (pages 265-300)

Activities:
Examination of Reading Artifacts, Part II
Small group presentation/discussion of assignment #1

Class 7: October 18
Topic: History of the Teaching of Reading

Readings:
Smith, N. B. (1986). American reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. (pages 265-307)

Jigsaw Reading (the week before, groups of three will sign up for the close reading of one article on the list of possibilities)

Activities:
Jigsaw Readings Presentations (meet in article-alike groups to plan presentations to cross-article groups; then we will shift to cross article discussions).
Smith: whole class discussion of the assigned reading

Class 8: October 25
Topic: History of the Teaching of Reading

Readings:
Smith, N. B. (1986). American reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. (pages 308-426)

Jigsaw Reading: (Individual choice from the remainder of the list of possibilities)

Activities:
Jigsaw Readings Presentations-small group discussions organized by some common criterion, to be determined in class, such as age, research methodology, area of interest.

Smith: To be determined

Class 9: November 1
Topic: History of the Teaching of Reading

Readings:
Smith, N. B. (1986). American reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. (Epilogue, pages 19-56)

Chall, J. (1996). Learning to read: The great debate (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. (pages 200-262)

Activities:
PDP's Presentation of the Landmark Reading Reports Grid
Other activities to be announced

Class 10: November 8
Topic: History of the Teaching of Reading

Readings:
Chall, J. (1996). Learning to read: The great debate (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. (Introduction to the Third Edition)

Pearson, P. D. (in press). Reading in the 20th Century. To appear in the 100th Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education.

Activities:
Pearson piece: Author's Chair: meet in groups to prepare questions for interview with David Pearson, followed by a meet the press interview format.

Chall (and all the readings in this part): A discussion of the most important developments (movements, methods, materials, research findings, and the like) in the history of American reading instruction. Come to class prepared to share your candidates for the top ten list.

Class 11: November 15
Topic: History of the Study of Reading

Readings:
Venezky, R. (1984). History of reading research. In P.D. Pearson, R. Barr, M. Kamil, & P. Mosenthal (Eds.). Handbook of reading research (pp. 3-38). New York, NY: Longman.

Venezky, R. (1987). Steps toward a modern history of American reading instruction. Review of Research in Education, 13, 129-167.

Activities:
To be announced

Class 12: November 22
Topic: History of the Study of Reading

Readings:
Pearson, P. D. Research as reading. Manuscript in preparation

Class 13: November 29
Topic: History of the Study of Reading

Readings:
Gardner, H. (1985). The mind's new science: A history of the cognitive revolution. New York: Basic Books. (pp. 3-45)

Pearson, P. D., & Stephens, D. (1993). Learning about literacy: A 30-year journey. In C. J. Gordon, G. D. Labercane, & W. R. McEachern (Eds.), Elementary reading: Process and practice (pp. 4-18). Boston: Ginn Press.

Activities:
To be announced

Class 14: December 6
Topic: History of the Study of Reading

Readings:
Guzzetti, B., Anders, P. L., & Neuman, S. (1999). Thirty years of JRB/JLR: A retrospective of reading/literacy research. Journal of Literacy Research, 31, 67-92.

Alexander, P. A. (1998). Knowledge and literacy: A transgenerational perspective. In T. Shanahan & F. V. Rodriguez-Brown (Eds.), 47th yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 21-43). Chicago: National Reading Conference.

Activities:
To be announced

Class 15: December 13
Topic: Presentation of Focus Projects

Readings:
None

Activities: Presentation and discussion of individual focus projects

Assignments & Evaluation

Assignment One:

The primary purpose of assignment one is to encourage you to engage in some synthesis and deeper thinking about some aspect of reading as a cognitive, social, and cultural activity. Secondarily, we hope that this assignment will lead you to include some examination of reading as a cognitive, social, and cultural activity in your future teaching.

This assignment requires that you prepare a lesson on some significant aspect of reading as a cognitive, social, and cultural tool to teach to a population of your choice. We ask that you identify for us the population you have chosen (e.g., first graders, high school seniors, masters-level graduate students) and submit a lesson plan as well as all relevant artifacts for the lesson. Whether or not you actually conduct the lesson, now or in the future, is up to you.

Your lesson plan and artifacts will be evaluated with the following questions in mind:
· Does the lesson reflect some synthesis and deeper thinking about some aspect of reading as a cognitive, social, and cultural activity?
· Does the lesson appear appropriate and potentially engaging for the target population?
· Does the lesson meet professional standards in terms of mechanics, etc.?

This assignment is due on October 11, 1999 at the start of class. (This is the week after we conclude the section of the course dealing with History of Reading as a Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Activity.)

Assignment Two:

The primary purposes of assignment two are (a) to encourage you to study more deeply the history of some aspect of reading pedagogy and (b) to develop your skill in writing pedagogical history.

This assignment requires that you write a history of some aspect of reading pedagogy going back at least fifty years. For example, you might study the history of teaching letter naming over time. Because of the limited time we have in this course, and because few if any of you are likely to go on to be formal education historians, we do not intend for you to research or write an exhaustive or highly analytical history of the topic you chose. Rather, we would like you to approach this as a writer who would just like to include some history of this aspect of reading pedagogy in a literature review, perhaps for a methods textbook, a methods book specifically on that topic, or a research article related to the topic. For models of what these pieces might look like, XXXXXXXXX. Length of these accounts will depend on the topic and how you approach it, but we would expect most papers will be somewhere between 7-10 pages.

Your paper will be evaluated with the following questions in mind:

This assignment is due on November 15, 1999 at the start of class. (This is the week after we conclude the section of the course dealing with the History of the Teaching of Reading.)

Assignment 3:

The primary purposes of assignment three are (a) to encourage you to study more deeply the history of the study of some aspect of reading and (b) to develop your skill in writing research history.

This assignment requires that you write a history of the study of some aspect of reading going back at least fifty years. For example, you might write a history of research on children's pre-reading knowledge over time. Again that we ask that you approach this not as a career historian. Rather, we ask that you approach this as an empirical researcher who would just like to include some history of research on this topic in their literature review for a research article or like document. For good models of these types of discussions, see marked sections of Volume 2 of the Handbook of Reading Research. Length of these accounts will depend on the topic and how you approach it, but we would expect most papers will be somewhere between 9-15 pages.

This assignment is due on December 13, 1999 at the start of class. (This is the last day of class and the conclusion of the section of the course dealing with the History of the Study of Reading.)

Weighting to determine final grade:
Class participation: 20%
Assignment # 1 20%
Assignment # 2 20%
Assignment # 3 20%
Wild card*: 20%

*Wild card: Your highest score gets counted twice.