[Reading-hall-of-fame] RHF special program

[tsticht at znet.com]

Colleagues: Tuesday  May 6th, 2008 is the traditional day for our RHF
breakfast meeting in Atlanta this year followed by the morning two hour
session in which inductees from the previous year make presentations. This
year RHF members will also present an afternoon special program at  2-4pm
in the Georgia World Congress Center, Room C307. The program for the
presentation follows.  Hope to see you at this special program. Tom Sticht

A Reading Hall of Fame Program

Program Title: The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading: E. B. Huey  One
Hundred Years Later

1. Introduction to E. B. Huey's 1908 Work and the Program of the Day

Rob Tierney, University of British Columbia, Chair of Panel

This is a celebration of  the 100th anniversary of E. B. Huey’s 1908 classic
book, "The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading."  This seminal work covered
research in reading, the history of reading, and the teaching of reading.
Our panel  looks at facets of these topics to reveal relationships of
Huey's insights to contemporary understandings of the psychology and
pedagogy of reading.

2.  Huey's Perspectives Related to Whole Language Research and Pedagogy

Yetta Goodman, University of Arizona

This presentation examines: (1) aspects of Huey's work that does or does not
support whole language research and pedagogy and (2) an exploration of the
research to practice continuum. In the field of reading research and
instruction we have been leaping from research to practice without taking
into consideration theory and knowledge about learning, teaching and
language.

3. Huey's Work on Automaticity, Fluency, and Comprehension in Reading

Jay Samuels, University of Minnesota

In 1908 Huey summarized much of what we know about reading fluency and
automaticity. But his insights were more focused on the work of the eye in
reading [eye movements], and on word recognition and fluency, and he really
did not have much insight into comprehension. Regarding fluency, Huey could
not anticipate how instruments such as the DIBELS tests would today come to
dominate early assessment of reading by making false claims that these
instruments test fluency. This presentation will describe the weaknesses of
the tests and explain how teachers can measure student reading fluency using
a method that satisfies contemporary requirements.

4. Huey's Thoughts on Oral Language in Relation to  Reading:
Toward a Multiple Life Cycles Education Policy

Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education

In discussing the nature of reading, Huey stated that, "The child comes to
his first reader with his habits of spoken language fairly well formed, and
these habits grow more deeply set with every year. His meanings inhere in
this spoken language and belong but secondarily to the printed symbols." .
This presentation examines contemporary understandings of what has been
called "the oracy to literacy" transfer effect with children and adult
learners.

5. Huey's Work and Its Impact on Scientific Research on Reading

Patrick Shannon, Pennsylvania State University

This presentation examines the impact of Huey's work on research on  the
psychology and the pedagogy of reading.   Huey hoped that  psychologists
would claim the theoretical and practical center of the  reading education
field in order to make better sense of how children  ought to be induced
with the habits of reading. His work is considered in the context of a
discussion about the similarities and  difference among four quotes
regarding the role of science in the teaching of reading by William James
(1901), Huey (1908), John Dewey (1928), and Susan Newman  (2003). 
Re-examination of Huey's work can help the field better understand current
decisions about reading research and teaching.

6. Discussant

Alan Farstrup, Executive Director, International Reading Association

A session on E. B. Huey from the Hall of Fame can form a very useful context
for examining some of the follies and sins of the present testing and
oversimplification mania that seems to be infecting so much of our policy
and instructional dialog.  Huey was dedicated to "science" but in a very
different way.  He relied on experimentation and the development of solid
evidence in support of his theories, just as so many do today but with
great difficulty given the sometimes narrow, selective and rigid
application of scientific principles and techniques.