[Reading-hall-of-fame] Centennial of Huey's book

[tsticht at znet.com]

Hi All! Ken, Bill, Jay in particular. Thanks for speaking in foavor of a RHF
celebration of Huey's book. I think it is particularly appropriate for RHF
to have such a celebration because the 1968 60th anniversary volume of
Huey's book by MIT Press had a Foreword by Jack Carroll, our very own
friend and colleague in the RHF. Regarding the NRC, I sent a copy of the
message I sent to RHF on to Norm Stahl at NRC and to Vickey Purcell-Gates
who spans both RHF and NRC in top offices. Rob sent me an email speaking in
favor of the RHF doing something, too. I have also sent an email to MIT
Press to see if they are going to do anything, or would like to. I'll let
you know if I hear from MIT Press anytime soon. I think an RHF session with
the title The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading: A Celebration of the Work
of E. B. Huey (or some other name along these lines) with the big names of
the RHF would bring in a good crowd. So keep the idea floating and lets see
what others think. Happy Memorial Day! Tom Sticht












Quoting Jay Samuels <samue001 at umn.edu>:

> Dear RHF,
>
> Just a few hours ago I responded to Tom's idea of honoring Huey on the
> centennial of his book. I still think his idea has great merit, but I
> wish
> to withdraw a poorly thought out idea of mine. I suggested that due to
> the
> fact that not too many teachers knew about Huey's book, perhaps the RHF
> session should be done at the National Reading Confernce [NRC]. My
> suggestion about RHF and NRC was not a good idea. The RHF has had a long,
> exclusive, and healthy partnership with IRA, and this partnership
> deserves
> to be maintained. However, there is nothing to prevent NRC from
> sponsoring
> such an event on its own, with two major reading organizations
> recognizing
> the impact that this scholar has had on reading . Happy Memorial Day to
> all
> of you. jay
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
> Jay Samuels
> Sent: Monday, May 29, 2006 6:19 AM
> To: tsticht at znet.com; reading-hall-of-fame at nottingham.ac.uk
> Cc: barbara guzzetti
> Subject: RE: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Centennial of Huey's book
>
> Dear RHF,
>
> I like Tom's suggestion in that the Huey's book is special. At a time in
> this nation's history,  when psychology was following the rules set down
> by
> JB Watson, and was going into behaviorism, Huey was clearly into what
> would
> become cognitive psych. Huey's understanding of the psychological process
> of
> reading was awesome. How he did it was amazing. Actually without data, he
> was aware the the size of the visual unit used in word recognition varied
> depending on the frequency of the word and the skill of the person
> reading.
> Data to support his insights came 3/4 of a century later. If the HRF
> decides
> to honor Huey's centennial, I would like to take part in the activity.
>
> However, I do want to raise the red flag of caution.  When the RHF talked
> at
> the Chicago convention, we talked to about 450 people in the audience. I
> actually did a rough head count. We attracted many teachers because the
> topic we addressed - No child Left Behid - was a topic that grabbed the
> hearts and minds of teachers. It was a topic the IRA conventioners knew
> about, and the importance of the topic brought them in. And of course,
> the
> panel of speakers were people with high name recognition. I am certain
> that
> if the RHF decides to honor Huey, the name recognition would again
> attract
> an audience, but it is not clear to me how many teachers are familiar
> with
> Huey and his book. So, while I think Tom brings up a mighty interesting
> topic, we may be speaking to a much smaller audience. Never the less, the
> topic is interestitng. Here is another thought. Maybe given the somewhat
> esoteric nature of the topic, maybe it is a topic better suited for the
> NRC
> conference and topics that clearly have a public education flavor should
> remain in the IRA convention.  Jay Samuels.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
> tsticht at znet.com
> Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 12:01 PM
> To: reading-hall-of-fame at nottingham.ac.uk
> Subject: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Centennial of Huey's book
>
> RHF Folks:
>
> In a little over a year and a half we will come upon the 100th
> anniversary
> of E. B. Huey’s 1908 classic book, "The Psychology and Pedagogy of
> Reading."
>  This great tour de force bridged from research in reading, through the
> history of reading, into the teaching of reading. In a succinct summary
> of
> reading methods, Huey said, "The methods of learning to read that are in
> common use to-day may be classed as alphabetic, phonic, phonetic, word,
> sentence, and combination methods."  (p. 265 of the 1968 reprint).
>
> In the century since Huey catalogued the methods of teaching reading, his
> account is remarkably apt for the present day. In general, his
> alphabetic,
> phonic, and phonetic methods were grouped by Jeanne Chall under the
> general
> headings of "Code Emphasis" while his word and sentence methods fit well
> with Jeanne’s "Meaning Emphasis" grouping. To bring the cataloguing
> up-to-date, the "Code Emphasis" methods are today generally referred to
> as
> "Alphabetics" while the "Meaning Emphasis" methods are referred to as
> "Whole
> Language."  Huey’s "combination" methods are referred to as the
> "Balanced"
> approach.
>
> Unfortunately, data from the National Center for Education Statistics
> released last year indicate that, despite heroic efforts, with costs
> easily
> in the vicinity  of $1 trillion the National Assessment of Educational
> Progress (NAEP), the nation’s indicator of the health of the reading
> instruction patient, has flat-lined. From 1971 up to 2004, average
> reading
> scores for 9, 13 and 17 year olds are so flat that if you were a patient
> in
> an intensive care unit and had your health monitoring indicators go as
> flat
> as the 30-year NAEP data you would be declared dead! This is true for
> children at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles, too.
>
> The NAEP data do show that as children go up through primary, elementary,
> and secondary school, they do get better at reading across the percentile
> spectrum. But in 2004 the bottom ten percent of 17 year olds scored below
> the median for 13 year olds, and were just 6 scale score points above the
> median for 9 year olds. These poorly scoring students will no doubt be
> those
> who will later discover the real life importance of literacy and will
> enter
> into adult basic education to try to gain skills needed to support
> themselves and their families.
>
> This raises some questions that I’m wondering if the RHF might want to
> address for the centennial of Huey’s book in its 2008 program at the IRA
> meeting:
>
>
> 1. Do we as researchers have any better understanding about how to teach
> reading than Huey did?
>
> 2. What has reading research contributed to our ability to teach children
> across the grades from pre-school to high school?
>
> 3. Do we understand how to teach developmental reading programs in
> colleges
> and universities any better today than practitioners did in the early
> part
> of the 20th century?
>
> 4. Do we understand how to teach adult reading in literacy programs any
> better today than adult teachers did in the early part of the 20th
> century?
>
> 5. Why has reading research had so little impact on reading achievement
> scores on the NAEP in the last 30 years?
>
> Maybe RHF members will want to discuss the interest in some sort of
> activity
> related to Huey’s centennial (IRA program; edited book; etc.). The
> foregoing
> questions are just of interest to me. Others may want to suggest other
> avenues for celebrating 100th anniversary of the outstanding work of one
> of
> our nation’s earliest and most articulate reading researchers.
>
> See you!
>
> Tom Sticht
>
>
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