ABSTRACT
This chapter has a dual purpose. In the first part I present some of my thoughts on the effects on reading theory and practice of Learning to Read: The Great Debate (Chall, 1967), the Carnegie Corporation supported study published 10 years ago. In the second part I present my preliminary thoughts on a scheme of reading stages * —a developmental scheme that I have been working on over the past several years. It is my hope that it may prove useful in understanding the reading process, how it develops, and how it is affected by environmental factors. It may also help to explain the periodic controversies we seem subject to in the theories and practice of early reading.
