Goodman, Y. (2011). Sixty Years of Language Arts in Education: Looking Back in Order to Look Forward. NCTE, 17-25. https://library.ncte.org/journals/EJ/issues/v101-1/17260

namic  change  in  America  that 

included an ever-widening circle 

of  women  and  people  of  color 

achieving their places in the job 

market  and  in  the  professions. 

At  the  time,  many  professional 

educators were actively involved 

in  the  civil  rights  movement, 

Americans   were   marching   for 
peace and peace resolutions. Teachers 
were  being  encouraged  to organize
individualized  self-selected  reading  
programs and to involve children in selecting 
creative writing  topics  and  learning through 
 community resources. However, some   
scholars   were   concerned that  using  
children’s  literature  in  reading  instruction
would  destroy  children’s  joy  of  reading  
while some  professors  of  reading 

methods   courses   believed 

it  was  important  to  teach 

teachers  how  to  use  com-

mercial  textbooks  that  in-

volved children in the skills 

of  reading  before  allowing 

them  to  read  self-selected 

trade  books. 

(Goodman, P18-19)

Reference:
Goodman, Y. (2011). Sixty Years of Language Arts in Education: Looking Back in Order to Look Forward. NCTE, 17-25. https://library.ncte.org/journals/EJ/issues/v101-1/17260

ary  perspective  expanded  greatly  in  the  1970s  and 

1980s,  supported  by  integration  of  research  from 

psychologists, anthropologists, and linguistics in the 

new fields of sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. 

As  researchers  studied  language  use  in  urban  com-

munities,  the  new  understandings  about  language 

variation,   language   development,   and   language 

learning  and  their  influences  on  pedagogy  became 

part of teacher education programs. The importance 

of building on the child’s mother tongue and valu-

ing every student’s language were common topics in 

teacher education and conference programs.

In  this  era  teachers  were  involving  students 

in  more  reading  and  writing  of  authentic  materi-

als than ever before. Children were invited to write 

personal narratives and were encouraged to respond 

to literature. (Goodman P 20-21)

Reference: Goodman, Y. (2011). Sixty Years of Language Arts in Education: Looking Back in Order to Look Forward. NCTE, 17-25. https://library.ncte.org/journals/EJ/issues/v101-1/17260

Reference:
ERIC - ED285946 - School Segregation in the 1980's: Trends in the United States and Metropolitan Areas. A Report by the National School Desegregation Project., 1987-Jul. (n.d.). ERIC. Retrieved April 16, 2023, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED285946

language  movement  at  the  peak  of  its  influence. 

Teachers  were  actively  involved  in  research,  in 

developing  their  classroom  curricula,  in  writing 

books  and  articles,  in  organizing  conferences,  and 

taking  leadership  in  their  school  districts  and  in 

professional  organizations.

Constructivist  influences  keep  expanding  during 

the  1990s  and  into  the  21st  century.  Involving 

young students in inquiry into exploring language 

and  language  processes  remains  a  focus  in  many 

classrooms.  Rather  than  memorizing  rules  and 

searching for single correct answers to teacher ques-

tions, children are encouraged to study the language 

in  their  communities,  explore  their  own  literacy 

histories, and consider their own reading and writ-

ing processes. In  another  development,  children  are  having greater  experiences  with  technologies  than  most 

of their teachers ever had as they become involved 

in  chat  rooms,  text  messaging,  and  interactions 

with  their  peers. (Goodman P.22-23)

Reference:
Goodman, Y. (2011). Sixty Years of Language Arts in Education: Looking Back in Order to Look Forward. NCTE, 17-25. https://library.ncte.org/journals/EJ/issues/v101-1/17260