Sources

Brown, E. (2006, November). History of reading instruction. Retrieved from
http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/historyofreading.html

Herd. (2009, July 29). Timeline and my first grade reading instruction. Retrieved from
http://reflectionsofaclassroomteacher.blogspot.com/2009/07/timeline-and-my-first- grade-reading.html

1439ish--Johan Gutenberg Invents Moveable Type

This man started the printing revolution. At the time, there was a very low literacy rate in Europe. There were oral readings by street entertainers (sounds better than the usual mime).


On a press like this one with moveable type, the Bible and latin grammar books were printed starting in 1452.

It cost about 3 years' salary for a middle class person to purchase a Gutenberg Bible. However, this was much more economical than the typical hand written Bibles of the day.

15th-18th Century: The Hornbook

The cutting edge in instructional materials of the time were hornbooks, like the one above. The content was alphabetic and scriptural. The goal of reading in this era was for children to be able to read and memorize the scriptures.

1893-1896: Phonics vs. Word Methods

Public schools are surveyed. After giving spelling assessments to 33,000 students in the U.S., Jospeh Rice (editor, doctor, education critic) determined that students educated with phonics performed better than students educated with word methods.

1889-1900: The Sentence Method

Popular thinking stated that since we speak in sentences, we should learn to read in sentences. When this failed miserably, the phonetical approach became repopularized.

The 1920's: Sight Words and Basal Readers

Bert Brown, who learned to read in the 1920's

In the '20s, kids were learning to read by being taught to memorize sight words. Basal readers were used in schools. My 93 year old grandmother learned to read in Philadelphia public schools the 1920s. She remembers words being written on the board for memorization. She remembers reading aloud from basal readers (while seated two to a seat) as the teacher walked up and down the aisles making sure they were following along. There were lots of spelling words assigned for homework.

The '30s, '40s & '50s: Dick, Jane, Sally & Spot

In the 1930's, a series of basal readers starring the loveable characters Dick, Jane, Sally, and their pets came on the scene, compliments of Scott Foresman. Written by William S. Gray and Zerma Sharp, they had a good run, being used well into the 1970's. Even today, nostalgic gift items with images of the characters can be found. Anthologies of the Dick & Jane tales are still available at bookstores.

With large print, sight words and repetition of text, they became favorites of parents, teachers and young readers. However, Dick, Jane and Sally got put on the shelf when phonics became realized as the more effective way to teach reading.

The 1970's and 80's: Whole Language Approach and Basal Readers

The trend in education in the 1970's and 1980's favored a whole language approach to reading as opposed to a phonetical appraoch. Students are taught to read from whole words, not individual sounds.

1990's and Beyond: Balanced Literacy...What's Next?

A little bit of everything seems to be the norm with modern reading instruction. Teachers balance phonics, sight words, read alouds, fluency, and modelling.

What's next in the reading classroom? It will be exciting to see technologies, reading research and strategies developing and expanding in the future in our schools. However, I believe it is important to keep in mind the many varying learning styles and do whatever works for each individual student.