IRA website spotlights history

 The International Reading Association has added history to its website as part of its Web Resources: Issues in Literacy section. The IRA website now has a page titled “Focus on the History of Reading: IRA Programs and Resources” along with its many other Focus on Topics in Reading entries.

The new Focus on History page has much information about the History of Reading SIG, but its chief contribution may be its two bibliographies. The first offers “Selected Topics in the History of Reading and Writing” across the world, and the second narrows its focus to “Persons Who Influenced Reading Instruction in Colonial America and the United States.” (Only persons who are no longer living are included.) The Topics bibliography lists books and articles alphabetically on a wide variety of subjects. The more than 130 persons named in the Persons bibliography range from Jacob Abbott, who in 1835 wrote Rollo Learning to Read, or, Easy Stories for Young Children, to the progressive educator Laura Zirbes (1884-1967). Both bibliographies are searchable by individual words.

For further information, visit the Focus on History page on the IRA website.