1	1950-1965 From American Reading Instruction by Nila Banton Smith Pp 287-390
2	Leadership as a Nation Cold War Launch of Sputnik Technological revolution was eliminating unskilled jobs
3	Changes in the Classroom Content literacy became more important Role of education was to develop the “knowledge, appreciations, skills and attitudes necessary for living in a changing world, to develop faith in the values of democracy, to develop the understandings and ideas necessary to the achievement of a free world, and to develop the ability to defend democracy against the threat of totalitarianism” (Herbert Gwinn)
4	Government Support John F. Kennedy asked congress to approve large amounts of money to be used on education Lyndon Johnson launched efforts to create job training centers for out-of-school people “Remedial reading courses open up new vistas for slow learners.”
5	Professional Books Many more professional books on reading were published during this time Included large number of books for college students and adult to use to improve their reading abilities Included soft-cover workbooks containing reading exercises
6	Teachers Manuals Doubled Included annotated and “keyed” editions—included children’s book and the teacher’s manual with notes to the teacher placed directly on the page that the children were reading
7	Basal Readers Included more art work Books got a little bit bigger Authored by several people New development was to provide multiple texts Enrichment readers Simplified versions of basal texts for slow readers Supplemental reader in addition to two basal readers for each grade 2 through 6
8	Reading Programs Included heavy emphasis on phonics which children sometimes learned before they started reading Almost always had workbooks and some included testing programs Included “whole word” approach where children learn new word as a whole
9	Reading Readiness Materials Children should be exposed to reading before age 6 Placed heavy emphasis on language ability/skills Involved visual and auditory discrimination, sequencing, and sometimes kinesthetic exercises
10	Individualized Instruction Gained popularity between 1950 and 1960 This was actually a shift back to earlier days of Dame schools, etc. Breaking up traditional class organization to allow for individual progression gained popularity Patterned after Winnetka or Dalton systems Research suggests that children and teachers using dividualized instruction are more engaged and that children tend to read more books in individualized programs
11	Minorities More nationalities and ethnicities reflected in readers of the time
12	Linguistic Approach “conceives the reading act as that of turning the stimulus of the graphic shapes on a surface back into speech (Strickland, 1964)
13	Programmed Learning Became briefly popular Relied on breaking learning into small subject areas or skills Students answered questions and had to achieve a certain mastery level in order to move on to the next unit Originally associated with “teaching machines” a device that presented individual students with a program and questions that had to be answered, as well as exercises to be performed, etc. Students got quick feedback regarding errors.
14	Michigan Successive Discrimination Reading Program Programmed learning developed by Donald Smith (who founded the North Central Reading Association with Harry Patterson, my father!) that was intended to teach reading, writing, and listening to English speaking children and adults.
15	Sociology of Reading More and more studies looked at the social nature of reading and the social influences that impact reading Look at the kinds of texts people read, the impact of mass media, library use, reading as it related to juvenile delinquents, the results of different approaches to the teaching of reading, and the teaching of reading to “atypical” children such as the cognitively impaired, blind, gifted, and deaf. Renewed emphasis on reading readiness
16	Critical Attacks on Reading Instruction Brought about resurgence of studies dealing with phonics and word attack Increased the number of “then and now” studies that looked at reading achievement levels linked to previous eras Increased number of studies that looked at psychological aspects such as personality, emotions, self-concept, concept-formation, transfer, reinforcement as they applied to reading
17	Increased Interest in Research on Reading Disabilities Brain damage Reading habits of youth indicated deficiencies that teachers needed to help children overcome Emotional disturbances