Uses content analysis and a descriptive technique to describe the attributes of the most prominent workbook items found in the workbooks of four basal reading series. (SR)

Analyzes six basal reading series and reveals that the number of "distant" stories--those with content that is not closely related to the reader's experience--increases with the age of the intended audience. (FL)

Analyzes some problems that can make beginning basal stories difficult for young readers to understand and offers suggestions for ways teachers can help alleviate the problems. (FL)

A study determined the relationship between basal illustrations and contextual meaning. Five basals were analyzed to determine the percentage of illustration miscues appearing in each story. The basals chosen were from Silver Burdett and Ginn, Houghton Mifflin, Scott Foresman, Holt Rinehart and Winston, and D.C. Heath and Company. Results…

Analysis of third-grade books in the New Macmillan Reading Program reveals that the books exceeded the publisher's designation of readability and did not progress in difficulty from easy to more difficult. Findings suggest the need for more complete and reliable information from publishers concerning textbook readability. (FL)

A study determined the levels of comprehension generated by questions accompanying the stories in new basal readers. A sample of 200 questions, 100 randomly selected from each of the 2 most widely used third-grade series (the Scott Foresman series "Celebrate Reading" and the McGraw-Hill series "A New View"), were analyzed for…

Examines workbooks designed to accompany primary grade basal readers to determine the incidence of new vocabulary words they contain. Found that, with one exception, the workbooks all contained at least 30 percent new words--words not introduced in previous levels or at the levels for which the workbooks were designed. (FL)

A comparison of comprehension questions in teachers' manuals for two meaning-based basal series with two decoding-based linguistic/phonic series found that individual series types maintained their philosophical integrity in their approaches to questions. (FL)

Finds that the new basals are different from the old basals, that students' rating and rankings of the old and new basals are consistent with the researchers', and that teachers varied in the ways that they used basal materials and in their views of the construction of knowledge. (SR)

A study involved a comparison of the "Miami Linguistic Readers" and the "Holt Basic Reading Series." It was hypothesized that there is no difference between the "Miami Linguistic Readers" and the "Holt Basic Reading Series" in vocabulary load, word recognition, and comprehension requirements. An analysis of…

Primary reading textbooks used in Israel were examined for sexual stereotyping. It was determined that male and female descriptions in the textbooks differ from true life situations. High correlations were also found between particular personality traits and sex in the books, which do not also exist in reality. (Author/MV)

Notes that little research has been undertaken into the effects of anthropomorphism on children's reading and presents questions concerning the use of this device in beginning reading materials. (FL)

Applies the Canonical Story Grammar Model to a major beginning reader computer series. Analyzes the teaching manual and interviews the series' representative. Finds that the stories did not contain adequate story grammar. Notes weaknesses in the manual analysis and interviews. (RS)

Five commonly used basal readers from grades one through three were studied to determine how they portrayed and represented older adults. It was hypothesized that older adults would be portrayed as active, contributing, and productive members of society and that they would be represented in the basals in proportion to their numbers in the…

A study investigated whether the workbooks used in the first grades of the Rahway, New Jersey, public schools provided adequate practice in the skills listed in that school district's reading skills array. The four workbooks analyzed were (1) "Phonics We Use: Book A," (2) "The Phonics Workbook: Book A," (3) "Programmed Reading Activities for Books…