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…

Argues that some common vocabulary teaching strategies in basal reading programs appear to be based on misconceptions. Suggests that the teacher must stress the vital connection between vocabulary learning and comprehension. (FL)

This report examines the nature of the modern basal reader, its economics, and use. First, the report provides a history showing how the confluence of business principles, positivistic science, and behavioral psychology led to the transformation of reading textbooks into basal readers. Next, the report examines objectives and subjective factors…

Examines three complete basal reading programs to determine how frequently logically necessary relationships are expressed in the text and whether direct instruction in making logically necessary inferences accompanies such expressions in basals. Finds that, although basals offer a natural context in which logical understanding may be constructed,…

Describes ratings and rankings by both researchers and children of the new and old basal text series. Describes students' response to the texts. Identifies the engaging qualities of these texts. Shows similarities between children's and researchers' preferences. (HB)

A vast amount of reading comprehension research was reported in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The study reported in this paper used the basal reading programs considered by California for adoption in 1988 as a vehicle for examining how the comprehension research had affected basal materials. Five series that were completely new and that…

Presents a brief sketch of the history of American reading texts, describing the educational and cultural conditions that have prompted changes in reading methods and materials and in the textbooks themselves. (Author/NH)

A study examined the content of eight 1989 editions of the major basal reading series--those of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; D.C. Heath and Co.; Holt Rinehart and Winston; Houghton Mifflin; Macmillan; McGraw-Hill; Scott, Foresman and Co.; and Silver Burdett and Ginn. The study determined how and the extent to which lessons and activities that…

As part of an effort to discover what was being done with comprehension instruction in classrooms, basal reader manuals, and reading methodology textbooks, an analysis was made of the content of eight reading methods textbooks that had copyright dates at least as recent as 1983 and that were the most frequently used texts. All the pages in the…

To determine how frequently various forms of anaphora appear in materials written for children, 1,000-word excerpts were analyzed from the second, fourth, and sixth grade texts of four basal reader series. The basal programs consisted of the "Ginn Reading Program," the "Houghton Mifflin Reading Program,""Scott, Foresman…

The following assumptions motivated this monograph's analysis of commercial based reading programs: (1) basals represent the state of the art in reading instruction; (2) to offer suggestions for improvement of instruction, existing practices must be understood in detail; and (3) information about instruction contained in the literature at large or…

Examines narrative and expository text from four basal reader series for the occurrence of anaphora. Finds an abundance of anaphora in both. Notes that beginning and developing readers have difficulty in resolving them, and that instructional strategies are needed to help teachers and students deal with this element of cohesion. (RS/JAD)

To determine the general characteristics of beginning reading materials, to establish categories in regard to concepts and the instruction of concepts, and to search for a common framework among concepts, a study surveyed six popular, widely promoted basal series which had been copyrighted within the past 5 years. For each lesson, the stated…

Reports on a content analysis of four popular first-grade basal series, examining decoding and comprehension instruction in teachers' manuals, student texts, workbooks, and supplementary activity packages. Reports that none of the programs present a balanced approach to teaching decoding and comprehension with very comprehensible stories. (MM)

Working on the theory that intonation miscues caused by confusion over punctuation and other phrase boundaries will make the apprehension of text more difficult than necessary for young developing readers, a study reviewed the research and literature relevant to the effects of location of punctuation, phrasing, and line breaks in text and on the…