"Setting the Foundation: A Report on Elementary Grades Reading in Tennessee" (ED572952) provides insight into the challenges associated with early grades reading in Tennessee, along with a set of recommendations for building more readers across the state. This appendix provides detailed information about reading programs in Tennessee…

Dozens of teachers and literacy specialists from across the country hunkered down in Baltimore at round tables, with laptops, pens, and paper, intent on rewriting the collections that wield tremendous influence over the way millions of U.S. children learn literacy skills: the big-name basal readers. Hailing from 18 school districts in 11 states,…

This study was needed to determine if the Accelerated Reader (AR) program made a positive impact in schools, which were attempting to increase student achievement in reading. The purpose of this study was to determine if students who received reading instruction supplemented with the AR Program achieved higher reading scores as measured by the…

Research supports using research-based comprehension strategies; however, comprehension strategy instruction is not highly visible in basal reading programs or classroom instruction, resulting in many students who struggle with comprehension. A content analysis examined which research-based comprehension strategies were presented in five…

This book will help teachers address how to manage guided reading groups with the Guided Reading Kidstation Model, a model that focuses on meeting students' diverse needs and ensuring student accountability. Activities within the model are based on the Standards for the English Language Arts and are appropriate for use with the variety of students…

The process of teaching the child to read has gone through many stages of progress. Word, sentence, and phonic methods may each contribute to the process, and that undue emphasis on any one of these methods demands too great a sacrifice in quality and interest. The "Merrill Primer" is built on the familiar rhymes of Mother Goose and…

The chief difficulties in teaching a child to read are focused in the Primer (ED622318) and the First Reader. If the teaching in the first year is wisely done, the later work in reading should go forward smoothly and steadily. Every step in this fundamental work must be carefully planned and developed. The First Reader, therefore, should be a…

There is no more direct way to the interest of children in the second school year than through the story. All thought of drudgery vanishes and the lesson is a real source of delight when the reading book furnishes one good story after another. This "Second Reader," therefore, is a book of stories -- stories in prose and verse. Fairy…

An appreciation of the best there is in literature is one of the chief aims of the reading lessons. It is therefore essential that the material used in every grade should have intrinsic value. It must be good literature and it must also be worth while for its own sake, from the child's point of view. With this aim in view, the selections in this…

This "Fourth Reader" is designed to meet the children on their own level and to lead them by easy stages to a higher plane. Special attention has been given to keeping the vocabulary within range of the pupil's ability. The earlier part of the book contains selections that are simple in vocabulary and sentence structure, and the later…

This "Fifth Reader" contains a large amount of wholesome adventure and experience stories, including some of the great stories of world literature and selections from notable writers. The spirit and the language of the author have been preserved in stories abridged from longer works. Selections were made with a view to the needs, tastes,…

The purpose of this "Sixth Reader" is to provide, for both oral and silent reading, an abundance of matter that is of fine literary quality and at the same time is fresh and well adapted to the pupils' powers of understanding and appreciation. The suggestions for study at the back of the book are designed to give information a thoughtful…

This article traces the development of the Dick and Jane texts, examining the dominent intellectual and economic considerations of their authors and publishers in order to demystify their transmission of values, beliefs, and meanings. (MT)

Traces the history of vocabulary control in children's readers from the turn of the century, describing the enormous impact of Edward L. Thorndike. (DD)

An evaluation of the content of three basal reading series show that they are changing with the times. Current readers are less likely than older readers to show sex and racial stereotyping and no longer show life as always happy. (Author/IRT)