Reading and Writing Instruction: What’s Changed?

Joanne Robertson-Eletto

Touro Graduate School of Education

Introduction

Historical narratives allow us to appreciate the rich legacy of our profession, and to

imagine possibilities for teaching in the 21st century. In this photo-essay, I focus upon the

preparation and supervision of teachers, and the instructional materials for teaching reading and

writing in the 1920s. Family photos, primary source documents, archival photographs, and

Ancestry records were part of the inspiration for this piece. Vintage textbooks helped to frame

an analysis of differentiated literacy instruction one hundred years ago. Issues of constancy,

change, and teacher resiliency are examined, with implications for contemporary literacy

teaching and learning.

The 1920s

The 1920s was a time of optimism and progressive thinking in education. However, it

was also a time when Americans strove to reclaim a sense of normalcy in their lives. The

Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, which lasted until December of 1920, claimed approximately

650,000 lives in the United States (Vollett, T., 2020). Urban and rural families lost parents,

children, friends, and relatives. Emotions were raw, and further compounded by World War I

fatigue. Consequently, issues related to home and family took precedence in most people’s

thinking.

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Figure 1

The Willard School

Note. Personal family photo taken in Perry, Iowa circa 1914. My father is fifth from the left, in

the top row.

The 1920s

The 1920s was a time of optimism and progressive thinking in education. However, it

was also a time when Americans strove to reclaim a sense of normalcy in their lives. The

Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, which lasted until December of 1920, claimed approximately

650,000 lives in the United States (Vollett, T., 2020). Urban and rural families lost parents,

children, friends, and relatives. Emotions were raw, and further compounded by World War I

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fatigue. Consequently, issues related to home and family took precedence in most people’s

thinking.

Figure 2

Clipping from Chillicothe Gazette

Note. A letter from the then Superintendent of Schools, F. J. Prout, on October 2, 1918.

Waves of newly arrived immigrants made people anxious about their own job security.

In general, the populace was totally unprepared for the stock market crash of 1929, and the

“Decade of Depression” that would follow. The 1920s was literally the calm before that

economic storm.

My Father’s Story

My father, John M. Robertson, grew up in the small, mid-western town of Perry, Iowa.

According to the 1920 census nearly all residents in Perry spoke, read, and wrote in English. All

census participants claimed the United States was their country of birth. Many “heads of the

household” were listed as farmers, but others were recorded as linemen, brakemen, engineers,

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conductors, or laborers for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad. My

grandfather, Charles, was a lineman/maintainer.

Figure 3

Perry, Iowa Railyard

Note. Personal family photo of my father, his brother, and my grandfather, circa 1918.

In 1920, my father would have been ten-years-old. He would have known all about

trains, riverboats, and the “Wild West.” He could have told you how to set up a camp site, that

the Mississippi river ran all the way from Perry to New Orleans, how to swim against a river’s

current, and even how to “break a bronco.” He would have been familiar with the Jesse James

and James Younger gangs, as his grandmother lived in the vicinity of the gangs’ first, successful

train robbery. His report cards showed he was an average to above average student. Of

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particular note is that fact that only 78% of children between the age of five and seventeen were

enrolled in school at this time (Six Fast Facts About Returning to School 100 Years Ago, 2020).

Many students left school after eighth grade to help support their families, as Child-Labor Laws

were not enacted until 1938.

There were no integrated schools in the 1920s, and schools were classified as either

“White” or “Colored.” Moreover, only Black teachers were permitted to teach in “Colored”

schools. Over this decade, 5000 additional schools would be built for Black children in the

South, as part of the Rosenwald School Project. Julius Rosenwald, then President of Sears,

Roebuck and Company, built a network of public schools in rural southern communities.

Between 1915 and 1932, the schools built through his challenge grants provided 660,000 African

American students with access to education throughout America’s segregated rural south (The

Chicago Community Trust, 2015).

Teaching Philosophies of the 1920s

The progressive movement, spearheaded by John Dewey (1916), paved the way for

experiential and individualistic approaches to the teaching of readers and writers in the 1920s.

Dewey highlighted the role of the learner in the process, and further acknowledged that students

learn differently. Thus, he proposed they be taught with materials suitable for their strengths and

needs. As a result, educators began to reconsider the value of basic reading and writing

instruction to individualize instruction and create future productive citizens. Educators began to

reconceptualize teacher preparation, instructional materials, and the modernization of their

classrooms. In doing so, they strove to apply a vast body of educational research to classroom

practice. The major research topics of this time were: reading interests; reading disability; and

readiness for beginning reading (Banton Smith, 1965).

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The gradual transition in thinking is evident in educational textbooks from the 1920s

through 1930s, which were a mix of traditional and progressive ideas about teaching children to

read, write, and compute (three Rs). The focus of this narrative is upon reading and writing

instruction, as they which not taught as unified processes in the 1920s. Two topics were

frequently discussed educational literature between 1918 to 1924. They were: the preparation

and supervision of teachers; and remedial reading (Banton-Smith, 1965).

Preparation and Supervision of Teachers

Teacher Manuals

Teacher manuals or professional books of this decade, started to have more form and

substance. Paper covered pamphlets and teacher editions were replaced with cloth bound books

differentiated for each grade level. Essential elements of these manuals included scientific

investigation and learning theories; reading objectives; pre primer methods; procedure by lessons

or stages of development; word recognition and phonetics; tests; individual needs; and remedial

work. Instructions were less dogmatic in these manuals, and teachers had flexibility in planning

instruction and integrating enrichment activities. The first-grade grade teacher manual contained

instructions for the primer and first reader. Instructions for second and third graders were

combined in a single book, as were those for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders (Banton-Smith,

1965).

Student Basal Readers

According to Banton-Smith (1965, p.209), “supplemental books never before had been so

abundant, so beautiful, or so varied in content.” The pre-primer was an innovation of this time

period, and considered a foundational preparation for the series of readers that would follow in

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the subsequent grades. The authors took into account the limited word recognition of young

children who were just learning to read, therefore, there were fewer words in each sentence. Pre-

primer and primary texts were highly repetitive to promote word recognition. Standard word

lists were the basis for the selection of vocabulary for each story.

Reading Instruction

Methods for teaching beginning reading were varied, and included: reading stories

composed by the children; reading and carrying out direction sentences; dramatizing stories;

learning and reading rhymes, and reading from prepared charts containing the primer vocabulary

(Banton-Smith, 1965). Sets of small books (pre-primer to grade six), included realistic

narratives, old tales, modern fanciful tales, informational selections, poetry, fables, and silent

reading exercises. As an example, first graders read texts such as The Just So Stories, The Tale

of Peter Rabbit, and Alice in Wonderland. There were also workbooks for “silent reading and

directed study” seat work (Wheat, 1923, p. 223).

A major shift in pedagogical thinking was a move away from expressive oral reading to

silent reading for “thought-getting.” In The Teaching of Reading (1923), Wheat describes the

various phases of reading instruction, with an emphasis upon silent reading for idea generation.

Reading for meaning was the prevalent ideology of the 20s, and phonics was characterized as an

instructional strategy of “no value” (Banton- Smith, 1965, p. 233).

Yet, a review of the scope and sequence of teacher manuals reveals that fluency, letter,

and word identification activities were still integrated. In general, however, phonics was taught

more moderately, and subordinated to other “general reading skills” (Banton-Smith, 1965, pp.

235). These skills were: comprehension, retention, interpretation and appreciation, organization,

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and research. In addition, “specialized skills” were developed that included: understanding the

meaning and use of technical vocabulary; reading word problems; and knowing how to record

and report observations and experiments (Banton-Smith, 1965, p. 237).

Writing Instruction

It is apparent from archival records that writing instruction was traditional, with a

continued emphasis upon composition, grammar, spelling, and penmanship (Wheat, 1923, p.

166). Children learned to print before learning cursive writing, and the latter was usually taught

in a separate class. The Palmer Method was the most popular approach for teaching cursive

writing in the early twentieth century.

Figure 4

The Palmer Method

Note. The Palmer Method of Writing Instruction focused upon developing skills to draw loops,

curved lines, and join letters together.

Figure 5

Special Study of the Capitals, Small Letters, and Figures

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Note. After a series of sequential drills involving straight line and ovals, students learned good

posture, correct pen holding, and how to use muscular movement in making good two space

compact ovals in order to “write well.”

An innovative approach using students’ own dictated stories based upon personal

experiences, was introduced in the 1920s. It would later be known as the “language-experience”

approach.

Remedial Reading

The Characterization of Readers

The shift in the concept of individualized instruction, generated by progressives, though

ostensibly noble, resulted in the division of students within classes. Individualization, combined

with the increased advocacy for mental intelligence tests with Binet equivalents in public

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schools, led to the specific categorization of students. Students were generally grouped as “poor,

average, and superior” (Wheat, 1923, p. 243) in ability. Dewey asserted that grouping based

upon test scores was a threat to democracy

Wheat (1923) proposes “special help for backward pupils” or those with “degrees of

backwardness.” He characterizes one second grader as “backward” because of his “lack of

familiarity with printed words and an utter lack of phonetic power.” Similarly, the degree of a

fourth grader’s backwardness was related to the number of repetitions he makes while reading

out loud. He writes, “Getting no meaning from the sentence as he phrased it, he repeated in an

attempt to get something from the sentence by the second reading” (Wheat, 1923, p. 315).

Word study for recognition, pronunciation, and comprehension of difficult words was the

recommended intervention for students with “various kinds of backwardness.” Remedial work

included “eye training and focus,” including “flash cards” and “flashing phrases,” “lessons in

focus and accuracy,” reading “perfectly” until no errors are made; “breathing exercises,” since

“practice in breath control is related to the problem of meaning and interpretation;” and

“articulation exercises for “mumblers” or those with other bad speech habits” In the early 1920s

terms such as “handicapped foreign” enter the discourse. Immigrant children, Wheat

characterized as “backward” because of their “meager vocabularies” (Wheat, 1923, p. 316).

Concluding Thoughts About the 1920s

Teachers in the 1920s enriched reading and writing instruction through multiple

approaches and varied materials. It should be noted that they were given professional leeway to

make these decisions. Concurrently, the field of special education was emerging in response to

calls for the differentiation of instruction for diverse populations of students. Teachers began to

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consider new child descriptors, such as “backward” and “word blind,” (the first descriptor for

dyslexia) and what they designations meant for the students in their classrooms.

In addition, these resilient teachers applied “modern classroom” research about silent

reading for literacy instruction. Simultaneously, integrating traditional phonics approaches and

word study when they felt they were necessary. Not much was known about second language

acquisition in the 1920s. There were few research studies about the teaching of “handicapped

foreign” students. The selection of the term “handicapped,” demonstrates a deficit perspective

about immigrant children. I tend to believe that if the classroom teacher was a child of

immigrants, this classification would have been abhorrent. Considering the number of students

in teachers’ classes, it is incredible that they were able to nurture the literacy development of the

readers and writers in their charge at all.

Not every student continued their education after eighth grade or high school, choosing to

pursue apprenticeship pathways in varied fields. Social, economic, and political factors played a

significant role in their decisions. My father, left home after graduating from high school to

become an “ordinary seaman.” Later, he continued his studies, and became the master and pilot

of one the largest container ships in America. In retirement, he was a consultant and guest

lecturer at the Kings Point Naval Academy in New York. The students from the 1920s, would

come to be described as “the greatest generation.” The influence of their teachers can never be

overlooked.

Figure 6

World War II Service

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Note. Personal family photo of my father, John M. Robertson, during World War II. He earned

the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Middle East War Zone Awards for his service at sea.

Literacy Learning Today

A vast and expanding number of landmark studies have greatly influenced literacy

instruction since the 1920s; they include, but are not limited to, emancipatory pedagogy (Friere,

1970); emergent literacy (Clay; 1970, Teale & Sulzby 1986); socio-psycholinguistic theory of

reading (Goodman,1996; Smith, 1973), transactional theory of reading (Rosenblatt, 1978);

family literacy practices (Taylor & Dorsey Gaines, 1988; Heath, 1983); sociocultural theory

(Moll, 2005), and New Literacies (Gee, 2015). Fostering students’ critical thinking, “growth

mindset” (Dweck, 2006), and sense of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977) are stressed.

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Echoes of Dewey’s sentiments reverberate in today’s calls for student discovery, self-

directed learning, and personalized approaches that address the whole child. Personalization in

the 21st century has become highly computerized, and the teacher’s role is changing. Chalk

boards, overhead projectors, TV carts, and cursive writing worksheets have been discarded and

replaced with instructional technology, such as Smart Boards, iPads, and eResources.

Preparation and Supervision of 21st Century Teachers

Teacher preparation and supervision continues to receive scrutiny at the state and national

level. There is an increased focus upon “evidence-based” teacher educator programs. The

Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), determines if teachers are

“classroom ready” to meet the instructional needs of diverse student populations. Issues related

to equity, justice, educational technology, and culturally responsive teaching are scrutinized in

their accreditation reviews. These concepts are congruent with contemporary research in the

field of literacy studies.

Today’s teachers are knowledgeable about content and pedagogy. Reading and writing

instruction has been renamed literacy instruction, to reflect the ways literacy involves reading,

writing, listening, speaking, visually presenting, viewing, and digital abilities. The ways 21st

century teachers organize their classrooms demonstrates their belief about the role of

conversation, collaboration, and active engagement in the development critical thinking.

Therefore, teachers adopted process approaches to create communities of readers/writers, using

interactive modeling, mentor texts, and discussion. The active and constructive role of the

apprentice reader/writer role in literacy lessons, and the influence of the social context upon

students’ learning are widely recognized and acknowledged in the field of literacy studies.

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As in the 1920s, more traditional approaches sometimes supplement instruction.

Teachers remain resilient and creative in the ways they implement “evidenced based” and

strategies instruction in their own literacy classes, and the ways in which they use standardized

materials to promote learning for their students.

Teacher Manuals and Student Readers

Teachers from the 1920s might recognize the formatting, scope and sequence of today’s

standardized literacy programs. Contemporary mass-produced teacher manuals are pleasingly

designed and integrate the latest “evidence” to support instructional approaches. Educators from

one hundred years ago would marvel at the comprehensive resources that integrate technology

with literacy instruction. The digital learning curve would be steep for them, but the teaching

approaches would seem familiar.

Twenty-first century readers are appealing in appearance and abundant in supplementary

materials. I’m not sure if teachers from the 1920s would think these readers are of quality, as

they focused upon the classics. After reviewing them, however, they could easily perceive how

the texts increase in complexity for each grade level. The practice of leveling books for guided

reading would be a new concept for them. Today’s teachers understand the progression and

characteristics of each text level, and use them appropriately to promote students’ reading

competencies. Contemporary classroom libraries provide students with access to all levels of

books throughout the school day.

In many urban and suburban school districts, computerized literacy programs (Raz Kids,

Reading A-Z, Epic, or MyOn), have been adopted. These digital programs permit teachers to

assign the same passage, but at varied levels of difficulty, for their guided reading groups. It

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should be noted that the depth, breadth, and quality of the literacy tasks related to low level

passages are significantly less rich, which makes comprehension more difficult. Meager texts do

not allow students to use multiple strategies to understand what they are read.

Reading Instruction

Read alouds are still popular with teachers as an instructional strategy, as they promote

student engagement, interest, and model fluent reading. However, these shared readings now

focus upon critical comprehension skills through open-ended student discussions. Students are

encouraged to share what they notice or wonder about a text, and to make connections to their

own lives. These classroom conversations create a necessary space for students to express their

thinking and questions about literature, and give teachers the opportunity to “unpack” the layers

of meaning students might not notice (Burkins, J. & Varis, K., 2019). Through think alouds,

teachers model the multiple strategies proficient readers utilize, and ways to pay attention to an

author’s cues. These cues assist them summarize and determine a story’s theme. Teachers

utilize a the “gradual release of responsibility” (Fisher, D. & Frey, N., 2008) model of instruction

to support apprentice literacy learners.

Comprehension instruction has evolved. Independent reading is now considered a

meaning making process, in which the reader is actively involved in using graphophonic cues,

predicting, inferring, connecting, summarizing, visualizing, self-monitoring, and questioning the

text for understanding. Each reader “transacts” (Rosenblatt, 1978), or responds to a text in

unique ways. Student schema is as individual as a thumbprint.

The cognitive nature of the reading process is affirmed when tracking students’ miscues,

or unexpected responses to a text, when reading aloud. Students invariably substitute a noun for

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a noun, a verb for a verb, and an adjective for an adjective when they miscue. Readers do not

utter random responses, rather, they reread for confirmation, and self-correct miscues that don’t

make sense (Goodman, 1996). Therefore, the “backward readers” of the 1920s would not be

characterized as such today.

Writing Instruction

Much of today’s writing instruction is geared to the genre that students will face on state

standardized texts, so they are taught to write opinion or argument pieces that cite evidence from

textual sources. Teachers from one-hundred years ago would be surprised to see the role that

standardized tests have played in classroom instruction, as assessments were just being

introduced in their schools.

To teachers’ credit and resilience, they have also integrated a process or descriptive

approach to teaching writers, and integrated personal narratives to provide students with a

writing voice. In similar fashion, students are encouraged to learn the “habits and processes” of

a writer, how to analyze an author’s craft, or descriptive language and structural formats.

Teachers use think alouds with mentor texts, to model and highlight an author’s techniques, and

to co-write with their students. This is reminiscent of the “dictated stories” of the 1920s.

Reading Intervention

The Characterization of Readers

Labels for literacy learners have not gone away. They have changed from the deficit

descriptions of “backward” readers in the 1920s, to modern deficit terms such as “struggling” or

“at risk.” Despite the fact that we know so much more about the ways the brain processes

information, the nature of the reading and writing processes, and the social and emotional factors

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that impact upon achievement, the onus for failure continues to be placed upon the student who

is performing below grade level expectations. Educators need to examine the types of texts

students are asked to read, the literacy tasks they are required to complete, and the presence or

absence of teachers’ motivational mindsets when assessing and evaluating student achievement

and progress.

English Language Learners (ELLs), English as a New Language (ENL) Learners, Bilingual

and Multilingual Learners

Similar deficit perspectives about the limited vocabulary of bilingual, multilingual, and

English Language Learners, and the correlation to reading and writing struggles are present in

today’s research (Shapiro, 2014). Over emphasis upon assessment through standardized tests,

rather than classroom teachers’ assessments, have exacerbated the situation. Consequently, ELL,

ENL, bilingual or multilingual students are often referred to special education. A teacher shared

her frustrations with me, and the fact that her district has been “red-flagged” for this placement

practice. We are still striving to develop culturally and linguistically appropriate strategy

instruction in reading and writing for children whose first language is not English (Hoover et al.,

2019). Additional historical overviews might focus upon special education “red flags,” and the

populations of students who have been traditionally misplaced and disadvantaged through this

classification system.

When the Unexpected Happens

The most striking similarity between the 20s and now, is the devastating impact of a

pandemic upon families,’ students,’ and teachers’ lives. Life could not continue “as usual.”

During the Spanish Flu quarantine schools were briefly closed, and teachers sent home work

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packets to families. Twentieth-century classroom teachers attempted to continue instruction and

provide reinforcement activities electronically during the spring of 2020. However, just as the

people living in 1920 were totally unprepared for the Great Depression, teachers and

administrators were totally untrained for virtual learning. From March to June of 2020, students

joined their classmates and teachers through Google, ZOOM, app-based learning, and other

learning platforms. The historic closing of schools, affected 50.8 million public school students

(Education Week, 2020). Teachers were affected as well. While designing digital units of study

for their students, they also needed to learn how to manipulate the “bells and whistles” of the

learning system they were told to use. Teachers reported changing learning platforms more than

twice, as their school systems realized their advantages/disadvantages.

Children without access to Wi Fi or a computer were shortchanged in this process.

Districts reported a lack of Chrome books or iPads for all. Students who were fortunate enough

to get a device, might have had to share it with four other siblings. Children who were transitory

residents in a school district, or living in shelters had no chance. One teacher shared her

concerns that some of the children had just “disappeared,” and could not be contacted by phone

or email.

Teaching has always been a vocation, and teachers have always been resilient. The

legacy they have left for those to follow, is one of knowledge, empathy, and mindful teaching

(Palmer, 2002). Teachers understand the importance of creating safe and supportive learning

environments for all students. They do what needs to be done, with minimal resources. They’ve

demonstrated these characteristics for the last one hundred years (and most likely before), and

will most assuredly continue to do so in the future.

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Figure 7

Benscreek, Pennsylvania, One Room Schoolhouse

Note. Personal family photo of my mother, Anne Semo, posing with her students circa 1932.

She was a first-generation child of immigrants. Her multiage pupils were also the children of

immigrants.

In the summer of 2020, I spoke with an educator who was asked to begin a summer

program aimed at helping her special education students “catch up.” She stated, “Their desks

will be six feet apart, and they asked me to wear a mask. The students don’t have to wear them,

just me! I want to wear a transparent face shield so the kids can see my mouth when I talk. The

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other masks will frighten them.” We talked for quite a while and agreed that is the most sensible

option. Her students, like all students, need that personal connection/relationship with their

teacher. Today’s teachers make enriched learning contexts happen, just like their predecessors

did. (Robertson, 2004).

Figure 8

Lilly’s Graduation From Preschool

Note. Personal family photo of my granddaughter Lilly during the spring of 2020. Despite the

challenging circumstances and frightening times for the children, the teachers planned a joyful

graduation ceremony for their preschoolers. Lilly is participating from her family’s car.

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