In the 1990s, debates over literacy instruction reached a tipping point in the nation’s most populous state. Learn more about the reading crisis in California and the start of the so-called “Reading Wars” in this episode of A Novel Idea. Plus, hear from:
- Dr. G. Reid Lyon, former director, NICHD
- Dr. Maryanne Wolf, author, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain and Dyslexia, Fluency, and the Brain
- Dr. Timothy Shanahan (Twitter: @ReadingShanahan), distinguished professor emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago
Learn More
“The Reading Wars,” Nicholas Lemann, The Atlantic Monthly
https://www.pbs.org/weta/twoschools/thechallenge/history/
Scarborough’s Rope
https://institute.aimpa.org/resources/readingrope
Episode transcript and sources
https://irrc.education.uiowa.edu/transcript-and-sources-novel-idea-episode-6
A Novel Idea website:
07/13/23 • 31 min
A Novel Idea: The History of the Science of Reading - 6: The Reading Wars
Transcript
Welcome to the mid-1990s. While teens across the country were trading in their spiral perms and shoulder pads for scrunchies and baggy jeans, and artists like Pearl Jam and 2Pac were battling it out on the charts, America’s reading experts had their eyes on a different kind of clash. Tensions were rising on both sides of the literacy education debate, and soon, the issue of whole language versus decoding-emphasis instruction would erupt onto the front pages of newspapers across the country.
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