In late 2022, Emily Hanford’s investigative reporting publicized a controversy in reading instruction between proponents and detractors of the pedagogical technique called “cueing theory” (https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/). Both Minnesota and Wisconsin have since passed laws (MN 2024 HF-2497 and WI 2023 Act 20) discouraging reading curricula that rely on the now-discredited cueing theory.
This modern “reading war” echoes a disagreement a generation earlier between proponents of “whole language” instruction and phonics instruction. Two of the books on the Krueger Library retention list come from the opposing sides of that earlier reading war.
Goodman, Kenneth S, and Yetta M Goodman. A Whole-Language, Comprehension-Centered Reading Program. Arizona Center for Research and Development, University of Arizona, 1981.
Cox, Aylett R. Structures and Techniques: Remedial Language Training: Multisensory Teaching for Alphabet Phonics. Cambridge, Mass: Educators Publishing Service, 1974.
Recap: In 2022, twenty-four Minnesota libraries joined together in a commitment to retain over a half-million print books which are scarcely-held in Minnesota. It is called the Minnesota Shared Print Collection. Here is one of the stories from the Winona State share of the collection.
