Revisiting Silent Reading —
Abstract of

Chapter 1
Silent Reading Pedagogy: A Historical Perspective

P. David Pearson

Susie Goodin

The story of how silent reading instruction developed is not simple. The practices in any given period were shaped as much, perhaps more, by forces outside as inside education; these were social norms, political events, economic factors, and literacy technologies that played out in the larger cultural ecology. Authors P. David Pearson and Susie Goodin describe the changes in the roles that silent reading has played in instruction by mapping them onto norms and events in the larger society and culture, arguing that silent reading as a social practice existed for some readers, the avid and advantaged, long before it became a regular part of reading pedagogy. They look back to elaborate on a past with multiple courses of influences of change and use that perspective to ask questions about the future of reading pedagogy, especially in regard to finding a balanced approach to silent reading instruction.

Pearson, P., & Goodin, S. (2010). Silent Reading Pedagogy: A Historical Perspective. In E.H. Hiebert, & D. Reutzel (Eds.), Revisiting Silent Reading (pp. 3-23). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.