ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion of the history of reading instruction over a period of about 3,000 years. It presents the major theoretical notions that led to different reading programs and approaches. Writing and reading are the inventions of multiple human beings around the world who, in the distant past, etched or drew images on cave walls or rock faces. The nineteenth century also brought a great deal of public criticism to schools and to the teaching of reading. Many individuals bitterly attacked the teaching of reading. The increased interest in vocabulary was associated with another force beginning to exert influence on reading and reading instruction—textbook publishers. The 1930s and 1940s saw the development of a basic reading lesson that quickly became part of most teachers’ guides, the directed reading activity. Language Experience Approach consists of students helping to create their own reading material. Students write or dictate their own stories, which are then used as reading material.
