[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: A piece I felt I had to write

[Eufimia Tafa]

Dear David,

Thank you for writing for Marie Clay’s work which is also well known  
in Greece as it is around the world.  Her writings on emergent  
literacy have inspired all of us who are working in the field of  
literacy education to help Greek kindergarten teachers understand the  
concept of emergent literacy.
In the spring of 2004, while I was on a three-month Fulbright grant at  
Rutgers University as a visiting scholar I contacted Marie to discuss  
with her issues regarding the development and standardization of the  
Concepts About Print in Greece.  Then, in May 2004, during the 49th  
Annual ILA Convention in Reno Nevada, I first met Marie Clay. She had  
just delivered a keynote address. During our meeting I presented her  
with the results of the pilot project of the development of the C.A.P.  
in Greece.  She seemed satisfied and enthusiastic that one of her  
assessments was going to be translated into another language. The  
C.A.P. finally was standardized to 2,744 children aged 4 years 4  
months to 7 years 6 months from all over Greece and now it is used by  
Greek teachers. When in autumn 2007 Marie was invited to be the  
keynote speaker at an international conference that was to be held in  
the University of Crete, Greece, which wanted also to declare her an  
honorary doctorate, she was excited but her health problems made her  
hesitant to accept the invitation and attempt the long trip to Greece.  
Her respond was prophetic.  However, the Conference was dedicated to  
her memory and Marie's daughter was among the invited speakers.
​Marie Clay’s whole work as well as the translation of her work in  
different languages  has contributed to greater understandings about  
emergent literacy and literacy teaching and learning around the world  
and I am honored that I have been able to introduce one of Marie’s  
assessments to Greek educators.

Eufimia Tafa

Quoting P David Pearson <ppearson at berkeley.edu>:

> I posted the attached piece on FaceBook out of respect from one of our
> departed RHF colleagues, Marie Clay, whose contributions have been called
> into question in an APM series of podcasts by Emily Hanford with the
> umbrella title of Sold a Story
> <https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/>.  I have listened to the
> first two, and I'm focusing on the second, which is mainly about Marie
> Clay's work. Hanford unpacks her account of Marie's contributions and goes
> on to tell us why they are misguided. To quote Hanford, "In this episode,
> I’m gonna tell you where this idea comes from. I’m gonna tell you what’s
> wrong with it."  I've embedded a link to the piece I posted on FaceBook, a
> medium which not all of us use.
>
> So I am taking the liberty of sharing it directly. Below is the
> introduction to it. If you like, you can read the whole piece here
> <https://www.dropbox.com/s/llizr8t9cwve4y3/Marie%20Clay.A%20personal%20reflection.Final.pdp..pdf?dl=0>.
> My piece is not really about Hanford. It is really my 15 year overdue piece
> about Marie's legacy in our field. That said, I think we all need to be
> aware of Hanford's reporting and its impact on policy.
>
> *A note to the reader*: I wrote the initial draft of this essay soon after
> Marie Clay’s death in 2007, but I failed to finish it in time for inclusion
> in a publication honoring her contributions to the field. And it has rested
> in a comfortable sinecure in the cloud since that time. About a week ago, I
> happened on an American Public Media podcast by Emily Hanford, one that
> cast doubt on the professional contributions of Marie Clay. Essentially,
> Hanford blamed Dame Clay for America’s dismal reading performance when Clay
> offered teachers an approach to promoting reading development that, at
> least according to Hanford, is just plain wrong. And it is wrong, Hanford
> added, because it is at odds with what we know because of recent advances
> in the science of reading. Time to right that wrong by restoring phonics
> first and fast to the top slot in our reading curriculum.
>
> I was appalled and angered by this indictment for two reasons: (a) it is
> based on a limited portrayal of scientific reading research (dare I say,
> just plain wrong?), and (b) it was directed at scholar who has left us a
> rich, perhaps unparalled, legacy of understandings about the nature of
> reading acquisition, one to be celebrated not denigrated. At the height of
> my rage, I remembered this unfinished tribute. Thanks to the search
> affordances of our digital age, I found it—as I said, resting comfortably
> in the cloud. So, I got to work and finished it for this occasion (Finally
> met the deadline! Thanks for your patience, Marie). Today, I’ll forego a
> point-by-point counter to Hanford’s outrageous claims in favor of an
> argument for celebrating Professor Clay’s legacy.
> --
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> *"**“Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be
> again.” – Eleanor Roosevelt*."
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> P. David Pearson
> Evelyn Lois Corey *Emeritus* Professor of Instructional Science
> Graduate School of Education
> University of California, Berkeley
>
> email:  ppearson at berkeley.edu
> other e-mail:  pdavidpearsondean at gmail.com
> website for publications:  www.pdavidpearson.org[1]
> *******************
> *Please use HOME ADDRESS for responses*
> 110 41st Street, Apt 401
> Oakland CA 94611-5237
> iPhone:  510 543 6508
> ****************************************
>
>
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee
> and may contain confidential information. If you have received this
> message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and
> attachment.
>
> Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not
> necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email
> communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored
> where permitted by law.



Links:
------
[1] http://www.pdavidpearson.org
-- 
Dr. Eufimia Tafa
Professor Emerita
University of Crete
Greece
E-mail: etafa at edc.uoc.gr
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/pipermail/reading-hall-of-fame/attachments/20221029/77586021/attachment-0001.html>