Reviews Patrick Shannon's "Broken Promises: Reading Instruction in Twentieth Century America," which presents arguments to demonstrate that basal readers have led to a reversal of the roles of teacher and textbook in reading instruction. Relates the author's experiences in trying to help teachers turn away from basal readers. (RS)

Offers guidelines for evaluating basal reading series when two series are to be adopted. (HTH)

Provides the administrator with guidelines for use in evaluating teachers' implementations of basal reader programs. (HOD)

Discusses the trend towards voluminous study guides with work sheets and drills for children's books, subjecting great literature to the practices of basal reading textbooks and discouraging children from reading. Urges teachers to trust the book to do its own teaching, and to learn to get out of the way. (SR)

The publication of the "Report Card on Basal Readers" has generated a wide range of reactions and this first document issued in the ARENA series focuses on two of these reactions. The two reactions articulated in this debate represent opposite responses to the "Report." The first section, by Constance Weaver, examines first the philosophy implicit…

Describes how the district committee of the West Des Moines Schools (Iowa) changed its reading program. Explains how the role of a basal was redefined, how trade books were incorporated, how the program encouraged independent reading, and how writing was given a major role in reading class. (JK)

This paper considers how the services of paraprofessionals might be used in teaching and learning situations, especially reading instruction. The paper points out that teachers need to observe each child and notice if modifications need to be made in teaching reading, a situation that becomes quite difficult for the regular teacher to determine…

Notes that basal series commonly used in kindergarten through grade six teach only about half of the most common English words. Offers a list of 382 common words that do not appear in the books and suggests that teachers supplement their basals with their own word learning lessons. (FL)

Examines skills-based, interactionist, and whole language positions on literacy instruction, focusing on the issue of control. Discusses how these three approaches are reflected in both Canadian and American basals. Argues that students must be treated as active learners, adding a political and sociological dimension to the whole language…

Reports a survey of 639 teachers (grades K-9) that revealed most preferred using a combination of basal and tradebooks in their reading programs regardless of teaching experience, formal training in reading, or grade level. (NH)

Intended primarily for teachers and administrators, this paper presents 20 guidelines as the basis for an evaluation procedure for workbook, skillbook, and ditto master components of basal reading programs. The paper begins with a discussion of how and why workbooks are used in the classroom, a description of the original study from which the…

Answers questions from two teachers who are apprehensive about practices concerning basal reading instruction which they are asked to implement in their schools. (MG)

The article examines reading programs in use in Birmingham (United Kingdom) schools to evaluate their appropriateness in instructing partially sighted students in integrated settings. Suggestions are made for general appearance, contrast, paper type, type size and style, spacing, line length, readability, and vocabulary. (DB)

Summarizes research for teaching writing to students with learning problems. Develops, from the literature review, a checklist of instructional features and uses of the checklist to examine two fifth-grade basal textbooks. Concludes by recommending modifications: add modeling to the instruction, make parts of the instruction more explicitly…

Analyzes different approaches to assess learner achievement in the spelling curriculum. Considers the assessment of spelling and the basal textbook; using spelling words for student mastery based on research; individualized spelling; use of spelling words in context; standardized testing to notice student achievement in spelling; teaching spelling…