Ken Goodman, longtime UA professor and award-winning scholar, dies

He spent more than 20 years as a professor at UA, working in the Department of Language, Reading and Culture after founding the field of Miscue Analysis Research at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Goodman is known as the founder of Whole Language and for his work in the areas of reading and literacy education, Goodman’s family wrote.

“His research involved documenting readers in a range of communities, languages, and dialects as they read aloud and then retold whole stories,” the family said.

There would be analyzing of participants’ “unexpected responses” and eye movements while reading to better understand how one processes written language.

It not only influenced teachers to understand their students, but it also “encouraged kids to read real books and was responsible for the increasing popularity of children’s literature,” Goodman’s family said.

In 1975, Goodman arrived at UA joined by his wife, Yetta, working as “co-activists, advocating for public schools, for students’ rights to learn, and for the professionalism of teachers,” their family wrote.

Upon their retirement, several students and colleagues gathered together to produce a 270-page book detailing how “Ken and Yetta have been mileposts in the establishment and development of the Department of Language, Reading and Culture at the University for the past 25 years,” the group wrote.

Throughout his career, Goodman received several honors, including an induction to the Reading Hall of Fame, Oscar S. Causey Award for distinguished research, and Distinguished Researcher Award from the National Council on Research in Language and Literacy.

“By common consent, Ken Goodman was one of the greatest — the greatest — reading researcher of the 20th Century,” said Garn Press, publisher of Goodman’s books.

“He was a fearless advocate for teachers and children — an empathetic, moral force — whose reading theories based on his disciplined, systematic and utterly brilliant miscue research have been proved right over and over again.”

Goodman is survived by his wife, three daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The family is planning a memorial service during the spring or summer.