The Roots of Reading Comprehension Instruction

Abstract

This volume is a watershed in the fi eld of reading. That we have reached the point in our history when an entire handbook could be devoted to the topic of reading comprehension is gratifying, especially for those (many of whom are authors in the volume) who have worked across the last 40 years to ensure that reading comprehension has a home in the fi eld’s portfolio of theory, research, curriculum, and assessment. Lest we dwell too long in celebratory mode, we would do well to remind ourselves that it has not been easy to secure a foothold for reading comprehension in these conversations about reading, especially around the question of early reading pedagogy. As I will document in this chapter, it was not until the 1980s that it really started to take hold especially as a fact of everyday classroom instruction informed by theory and research. And then suddenly, after 15 years of prominence in conversations of theory, research, and practice-and for a host of reasons, many having to do with curricular politics (Pearson, 2004, 2007), reading comprehension was placed on a back burner from the mid-1990s to the mid2000s. It is time it returned to a central role in discussions of reading pedagogy. To assure its return, we will have to give it our rapt and collective attention.

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