[Reading-hall-of-fame] Centennial of Huey's book
Alan Farstrup
afarstrup at reading.org
Wed May 31 15:58:58 BST 2006
I agree that 2008 would be the appropriate time and that we should attempt
to put a strong program together. Pat's comments are interesting and I'd
like to hear others' take on them given what the profession seems to be
faced with in today's policy atmosphere.
Alan
--
Alan E. Farstrup, Ph.D
Executive Director
International Reading Association
800 Barksdale Road
Newark, Delaware 19714-8139 USA
Tel: +1 302 731-1600 Extension 220
Fax: +1 302 731-1057
Email: afarstrup at reading.org
Website: http://www.reading.org
> From: <tsticht at znet.com>
> Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 07:33:12 -0700
> To: Rob Tierney <rob.tierney at ubc.ca>
> Cc: <reading-hall-of-fame at nottingham.ac.uk>
> Subject: RE: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Centennial of Huey's book
>
> Rob: I have been thinking that the celebration should take place in 2008,
> the 100th anniversary of Huey's l908 book. So there is time to put a good
> program in place. You have probably seen emails from Ken, Jay, Yetta, and
> Patrick Shannon by now. So it looks like there is interest. Perhaps, as Ken
> Goodman suggests, you could appoint a committee (I would volunteer to work
> on it) and planning progress could be discussed in Toronto in 2007. I'll
> forward this to RHF members, too, so others can be thinking about all this.
> Thanks, Tom Sticht
>
>
> Quoting Rob Tierney <rob.tierney at ubc.ca>:
>
>>> Tom
>>
>> Sorry for the sporadic responses..I have been out of town and away from
>> e-mail
>>
>> Are you able to proceed with organizing a session
>> for the 2007 IRA with RHF sponsorship as well as
>> NRC support (assuming that you hear from VPG)?
>>
>> I think the material in your first e-mail could
>> serve as the basis for the presentation..in terms
>> of presenters, I would suspect yourself, Jay and
>> maybe some others from RHF, but it could also
>> include others.
>>
>> Rob
>>
>>
>>
>>> 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. Huey¹s 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 Jeanne¹s "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." Huey¹s "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 nation¹s 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 I¹m wondering if the RHF might want
>> to
>>>> address for the centennial of Huey¹s 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 Huey¹s 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 nation¹s earliest and most articulate reading researchers.
>>>>
>>>> See you!
>>>>
>>>> Tom Sticht
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Rob Tierney, Dean
>> Faculty of Education
>> University of British Columbia
>> 2125 Main Mall
>> Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z4
>>
>> Tel: 604-822-5757
>> Fax: 604-822-6501
>>
>>
>
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