History of Reading News. Vol.XXII No.2 (1999:Spring)

James R. Squire, Harvard Graduate School (part-time), is working on revisions of The Handbook for Research on Teaching the Language Arts and (with R. Indrisano) a new Theoretical Models and Processes in Writing to be published by IRA to accompany the Theoretical Models and Processes in Reading.

Gail Kearns, Director of the Kearns Reading Clinic in Concord, MA, published "Sesame Street Comes Home!" in the winter issue of The Puppetry Journal, the national publication of the Puppeteers of America. The article was read at the Harvard Graduation School of Education commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Sesame Street. The article told of how the design of the academic objectives of the show had been based on the research of Jeanne Chall, whose research was published shortly before the publication of Learning to Read: The Great Debate. Kearns is a former student of Chall.

Allen Berger, Miami University (Ohio), has written an invited commentary, "Literacy and Politics," for IRA's electronic journal Reading Online (1999). He also wrote the Handbook for Preparing for an IRA/NCATE Program Review in Reading (IRA, 1998). He chaired the NCTE Resolutions Committee (1998) that passed the following three resolutions: On Continued Government Intrusion into Professional Decision Making; On Certification for All Teachers; and On Testing and Equitable Treatment of Students. He is an active member of IRA's Professional Standards and Ethics Committee that reviews reading programs for IRA/NCATE.

Thecla M. Spiker, Shaler Area School District, Glenshaw, PA, was the awardee of the History of Reading SIG's Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award. She has recently presented her research at a number of professional conferences. She has discussed her research and findings on the history of the Cathedral Readers (Dick and Jane for Catholic Schools) at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate Research Colloquium, the Keystone State Readin Association Annual Conference at Seven Springs, PA, in October and at the national Reading Council Annual Conference held in Austin, TX, in December. In addition she is an invited presenter for the Popular Culture Annual Conference in San Diego, in early April. Spiker will also present her research at the History of Reading SIG session during the upcoming IRA Conference at San Diego.

Elizabeth U. Patterson, University of Texas at Austin, has recently returned from East Texas where Bill Martin, Jr., has given his blessings for her to pursue a his-tory of Martin's life for her dissertation. Patterson says that it was at last year's Pre-Convention Institute in Orlando, that she began to seriously consider the notion of life/oral histories for her dissertation. She ex-presses gratitude for the inspiration, insights, and enthusi-asm she received from the presenters and participants of that Institute.

Arlene L. Barry, University of Kansas, has recently finished a manuscript titled "Is the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s a 1990s Approach to Dropouts and Illiteracy?' It has been accepted by the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy for publication.

Harvey J. Graff has recently joined the Division of Behavioral and Cultural Sciences at the University of Texas San Antonio as Director of the Division and Professor of History. He is a member of the graduate faculty in Literacy, Language, and Culture.

Charles Monaghan, Brooklyn, published The Murrays of Murray Hill, a study of the textbook writer Lindley Murray (1745-1826). The book establishes that Murray was the largest-selling author in the world in the first four decades of the 19th century.

Norman Stahl, Northern Illinois University, has been appointed for a three-year term as the Historian for the National Reading Conference.

Douglas K. Hartman, University of Pittsburgh, was recently elected to a two-year term on the Board of Directors of the National Reading Conference. He also edited his first book, Stories Teachers Tell: Reflecting on Professional Practice, to be distributed through both the International Reading Association and the National Textbook Company.

Mrs. Pat Garrett, Secretary: Children's Books History Society in the United Kingdom, reports she is organizing a conference at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, UK, from 29 July to 1 August, 1999, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Religious Tract Society. The RTS was one of the foremost publishers of children's books throughout the nineteenth century. The Tract movement had an influence on the American Tract Society and the American Sunday School Union, relating to the long history of Puritan publishing in the United States.

CleoBell Heiple, Upland, California, will present "Fifty Years in First Grade" at the IRA conference in San Diego. Her book, Stories from the Hill, compiled mainly from a collection begun in 1946 when she graduated from the University of Northern Iowa, is now ready to offer to publishers.

Linda M. Pavonetti, Oakland University, is researching the changes in American Children's Literature during the 20th Century. Her major interests lie in Children's and Young Adult Literature.

Lucy Schultz, University of Cincinnati, reports that her book on the history of writing instruction in the 19th-century school will appear in March from Southern Illinois University Press in their Studies in Writing and Rhetoric series. The book's title is The Young Composers: Composition's Beginnings in 19th Century Schools. The book's working title was Muted Voices: Writing (Instruction) in 19th-Century Schools. Schultz would appreciate hearing from anyone who has had a chance to read her book. Her e-mail address is: lucille.schultz@uc.edu.

Pat Anders and Yetta Goodman, University of Arizona, are in a study group with advanced graduate students exploring the lives of female scholars in language arts and reading from the 19th and early part of the 20th century. They are especially interested in the lives of Lucy Sprague Mitchell and her BEE colleagues, Gertrude Hildreth, Jeanette Veatch, Roma Gans, Dora V. Smith, Ruth Strang, Lillian Lameroux, and Doris Lee.

Ralph Staiger, retired, reports his latest book, Thomas Harriot, Pioneer Scientist, is a departure from his professional reading contributions. It is historical--Harriot was an Elizabethan, a protégé of Walter Ralegh [many sources spell his name Raleigh; however, Ralegh himself, omitted the "i"] and almost unknown today, for he did not publish anything after his first book.

E. Jennifer Monaghan, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York, gave the 16th annual James Russell Wiggins Lecture in the History of the Book in American Culture at the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA. It was titled, "Reading for the Enslaved, Writing for the Free: Reflections on Liberty and Literacy." She gave the same lecture as part of a series of presentations sponsored by the graduate program in the History of the Book at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. Her essay, "Phonics and Whole Word/Whole Language Controversies, 1948-1998: An Introductory History," was published in Richard J. Telfer, ed., Finding Our Literacy Roots. Eighteenth Yearbook of the American Reading Forum (Whitewater, WI.: American Reading Forum, 1998), 1-23.

Sidney J. Rauch, Professor Emeritus, Hofstra University, has recently served as a consultant to the Graduate Education Department, New York Institute of Technology, Long Island, NY, in preparing a proposal for a dual masters in Reading and Special Education. He also has served as consultant to Globe Fearon Publishing in preparing a "Diagnostic and Placement Guide" for the World of Vocabulary (all 8 levels). Rauch has recently been a visiting author for elementary schools in Jeffersonville, NY and Ft. Myers Beach, FL, where his topic was "Motivating Reading and Writing at all Grade Levels." He also has been named to the editorial board of the Journal of Reading Education, a publication of the Organization of Teacher Educators in Reading.

Avon Crismore, Indiana University-Purdue University, is teaching a graduate course, "Introduction to Literacy." The focus of the new course is the history of reading and writing, as well as modern issues. Crismore also attended a conference at the University of Louisville, The Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition. The theme was "Multiple Literacies."

Jane Bingham, Oakland University (Rochester, MI), is in the process of making final additions to Oakland's Historical Children's Literature Collection, which includes facsimiles or reprints of early books and manuscripts used in part with children in monastic schools in Britain as early as the sixth century. Other items in the collection include books used with or by children in each century up to the end of the 20th century. The collection is arranged chronologically. Cataloging is not yet complete.

Richard Robinson and Betsy Baker of the University of Missouri-Columbia and Richard Venezky of the University of Delaware have recently completed work on a manuscript titled, "An Annotated Bibliography of Historical Sources in American Reading Education with Special Emphasis on the Period 1900-1970." This review of past work in reading education is divided into the following sections: General Works in Reading, Summaries of Reading Research, Reading Paradigms, Perception and Word Recognition, Oral and Silent Reading, Vocabulary and Comprehension, Readability and Legibility of Text, Readiness, Reading Disabilities and Remediation, Reading Assessment, Texts for Reading Instruction, Professional References Related to the Teaching of Reading, and Reading Educators. While details of publishing this manuscript are at this writing still an open question, they hope to have a publisher shortly.