Editing Zerna Sharp (section)

==Career==
===Early years===
Sharp began her career as an educator. She taught first-grade students for nearly a decade at elementary schools in Hillisburg, [[Kirklin, Indiana|Kirklin]], and [[La Porte, Indiana]]. Sharp also served as an elementary school principal.<ref name=NYT-6-1981/><ref name=GS304-05>{{cite book | editor=Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair | title =Indiana's 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State | publisher =Indiana Historical Society Press| year =2015 | location =Indianapolis | pages=304–05 | isbn =978-0-87195-387-2}}</ref>

===Creator of the Dick and Jane readers===
Sharp created the characters and concept for the [[Dick and Jane]] readers, which were widely used in classrooms in the United States and in other English-speaking countries for nearly four decades before they were replaced with other reading texts.<ref name=NYT-6-1981/><ref name="Communications1999">{{cite journal|publisher=Emmis Communications|title=In Other News: 1927|journal=Indianapolis Monthly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gx0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA214|date=December 1999 | volume =23 | issue =4| location =Indianapolis, Indiana |pages=214 |access-date=July 8, 2019|issn=0899-0328}}</ref><ref name="Kismaric2004">{{cite book|author=Carole Kismaric|title=Growing Up with Dick and Jane- Wal Mart: Learning and Living the American Dream|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbXhjoKvhy0C|date=November 1, 2004|publisher=Harpercollins|isbn=978-0-06-076681-8|page=21}} (Reprint edition)</ref> She came up with the idea for the [[Basal reader|beginning readers]] for elementary school children while working as a reading consultant and textbook editor for [[Scott Foresman|Scott, Foresman and Company]], a publisher in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]].<ref name=NYT-6-1981/><ref name=AmericanEducators290/>

[[William S. Gray|William Scott Gray]] (1885–1960), director of the Curriculum Foundation Series at Scott Foresman and dean of the [[University of Chicago]]'s college of education, hired Sharp to develop the characters for the readers and to combine her approach with his ideas for a process of learning to read.<ref name=GS304-05/> Sharp noted the reduced [[Reading (process)|reading ability]] of children and urged the development 
of a new reading format for [[Primer (textbook)|primers]]; Gray's research focused on methods to improve reading instruction using content that would be of interest to children and develop their word-recognition skills.<ref name=Jorgenson>{{cite encyclopedia| author=Gerald W. Jorgenson| title =William Scott Gray (1885–1960) | encyclopedia = Education Encyclopedia | publisher =StateUniversity.com  | url =https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2021/Gray-William-Scott-1885-1960.html | access-date =July 8, 2019}}</ref> Gary and Sharp wanted children who read the books to be able to readily identify with the characters. They also wanted the characters in the stories to participate in typical activities.<ref name=Tandy>{{cite web| author=Elizabeth Tandy| title =Reading With and Without Dick and Jane: The Politics of Literacy in c20 American, a Rare Book School exhibition | publisher =University of Virginia | date =June 9, 2003 | url=https://rarebookschool.org/2005/exhibitions/dickandjane.shtml | access-date = July 8, 2019}}</ref> Before the appearance of the Dick and Jane stories, reading primers "generally included Bible stories or fairy tales with complicated language and few pictures."<ref name=Gabriel>{{cite news| author=Trip Gabriel | title =Oh, Jane, See How Popular We Are | newspaper =The New York Times | page=C1| date =October 3, 1996 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/03/garden/oh-jane-see-how-popular-we-are.html | access-date =July 8, 2019}}</ref> 
  
Sharp was not the author or illustrator of the texts. As the creator of the Dick and Jane beginning readers, Sharp designed the format and content. She also selected the storylines from ideas that others submitted. Gray co-authored with William H. Elson the ''Elson Basic Readers'' (renamed the ''Elson-Gray Basic Readers'' in 1936), which Scott Foresman published in Chicago, Illinois. The "Dick" and "Jane" characters, created by Sharp, made their debut in the series in 1930. After the Elson-Gray series ended in 1940, Sharp's characters continued in a subsequent series of primary readers that were better known as the "Dick and Jane" readers.<ref name=Jorgenson/><ref name=Tandy/>

Sharp worked with Gray to create the characters and primary readers that incorporated his input and used the whole-word or [[sight word|look-say]] method of word recognition (also called sight reading).<ref name=Gabriel/> The look-say method used a controlled vocabulary and taught readers to memorize the words through repetition, placing limited emphasis on teaching [[phonics]].<ref name=Ravitch>{{cite journal| author=Diane Ravitch| title =The Triumph of Look-Say | journal =Education Next | volume =7 | issue =1 | date =Winter 2007| url =https://www.educationnext.org/the-triumph-of-looksay/| access-date =July 8, 2019}}</ref> Teacher guides accompanying the texts also encouraged adoption of the whole-word (look-say) method of identifying the meaning of words from the illustrations and repeating words introduced in the text.<ref name=Tandy/>

===Content developer===
Sharp felt that the watercolor illustrations and texts should work together to provide stories that young readers would relate to and help them learn to read more easily. The text introduced a repetitive pattern of words;<ref name=GS304-05/> the illustrations provided visual reinforcements to help students understand the meaning of the words.<ref name=Tandy/> Sharp suggested that primers introduce to new readers only one new word on each page and only five new words in each individual story. The Dick and Jane primers adhered to this format.<ref name=NYT-6-1981/><ref name=AmericanEducators290/>

Sharp worked with illustrator [[Eleanor Campbell (illustrator)|Eleanor B. Campbell]], who did most of the illustrations for the Dick and Jane readers, and others to produce and edit the content.<ref name=Tandy/><ref name=Gabriel/> In addition, Sharp named the characters in the stories and supervised the layout and illustrations. Sharp, who never married, referred to the two main characters, "Dick" and "Jane," as her children. These names were chosen because they were easy to [[Subvocalization|sound out]]. To make sure language in the texts were authentic, Sharp also observed children playing and listened to their speech patterns.<ref name=NYT-6-1981/><ref name=AmericanEducators290/><ref name=GS304-05/>

The Dick and Jane reading series taught reading as well as American middle-class values to school-aged children. The storylines that Sharp selected described the lives and experiences of a stereotypical American middle-class, white family in a two-parent suburban home that included three children and two pets. "Father" wore a suit, worked in an office, mowed the lawn, and washed the car. "Mother" stayed at home, did housework, and raised the children. "Dick," the oldest of the family's three children, was active and well-behaved. "Jane," the second oldest child, was pretty and carefree. She also helped care for the youngest sibling, a baby sister named "Sally." The family dog was named "Spot;" their cat was named "Puff."<ref name=GS304-05/><ref name=Tandy/><ref name=Gabriel/> The fictional family's suburban home was surrounded with a white [[picket fence]]. Because the readers were made for nationwide distribution, the text and illustrations intentionally lacked references to specific regional geography such as mountains, rivers, lakes, plains, or the seashore.<ref name=Tandy/><ref name=Gabriel/>

===Response to criticisms===
The Dick and Jane readers, which included titles such as ''We Look and See'', ''We Come and Go'', ''We Work and Play'', and ''Fun with Dick and Jane'', among others, monopolized the market for several decades and reached the height of their popularity in the 1950s, when 80 percent of first-grade students in the United States were learning to read though the Dick and Jane stories.<ref name=GS304-05/><ref name=Gabriel/> However, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, critics of the Dick and Jane readers began to point out its stereotypes; concerns about class, gender, and racial bias; and errors in content and illustrations. Increasing social changes, including the [[civil rights movement]] in the 1960s, also made the characters of "Dick and Jane seem increasingly irrelevant to some."<ref name=Gabriel/> Sharp, who was proud of the series and objected to the harsh criticism,<ref name=GS304-05/> replied, "That's all an adult's viewpoint."<ref name=NYT-6-1981/>