This podcast includes the first part of a conversation I had with David Pearson about an article he published near the height of the Whole Language movement. The article is fascinating in its analysis, prescient in its forecasting, and penetrating in its writing.
The following is a brief guide to the recording:
1. David discusses the powerful influence of the Whole Language philosophy beginning in the 1960s and its blossoming into a political movement as the context for his being invited to write this thoughtful analysis as a critical friend of the movement.
2. In the introduction to the article, David saw Whole Language as a potential catalyst for wide-scale reform, but its effectiveness, he wrote, would depend on the political sensitivity of its leaders. He discusses the political dynamics of the time and the blows that fell Whole Language in the years to come leading up to the current SoR movement.
3. The period between 2000 and 2023 saw significant realignments within the field of reading research and a tension between balanced literacy instruction as a modified Whole Language and a renewed back to basics movement which appropriated the term Science of Reading.
4. David discusses his take on the emerging conventional wisdom and makes observations about the National Reading Panel report in 2000, Reading First, and provides his insights into issues swirling in today’s iteration of the battleground. He also discusses the beginning of the Science of Reading movement and its emergence as a realignment of traditional reading research organizations and journals.
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