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)

The first-grade components of three textbook programs--mainstream basal, combined phonics and literature, and phonics emphasis--were compared on cognitive load (e.g., number of different words) and linguistic content (e.g., number of monosyllabic, simple vowel words). Three levels of three components of a program--literature anthologies, decodable…

A study was designed to determine if the classifications and definitions of context clues suggested in ten reading methods textbooks were used in three basal reading series. The method textbook analyses provided 27 different context clues. The analysis of the basal reading series--D. C. Heath (1983), Ginn (1984), and Scott, Foresman (1983)--showed…

Investigates the degree to which instruction in teachers' manuals relates to the stories in basal readers. Finds that the instruction in teachers' manuals relates to children's stories less than 33% of the time. (SKC)

Reports on a study that examined the manuals of sixth-grade basal readers to determine whether the suggested poetry teaching procedures reflected the pedagogical procedures recommended by expert opinion, concluding that they did not. (HOD)

William S. Gray, Professor of Education and Dean of the College of Education at the University of Chicago, began work in 1929 on a major revision of the "Elson Readers," a popular basal series published by Scott, Foresman and Company. Organized around the daily life of two ordinary children, the "Dick and Jane" readers…

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)

Two of the most widely used reading programs in the country, the 1976 Houghton Mifflin Reading Series and the 1976 Ginn Reading 720 Series, are analyzed in this volume to determine the methods they suggest for teaching reading comprehension. Eight sections contain the following information: (1) a short description of some of the surface features…

To examine how classroom conditions such as students' mean aptitude, materials used, and instructional time influence the amount of reading material covered, 12 first grade classrooms were each observed for 12 days over a 36-week period. Students' reading readiness and word recognition skills were tested prior to observation while group mean…

To weigh the negative effects of "primerese" against its supposedly improved readability, a study compared the reading of controlled basal stories with that of the same stories minimally rewritten into more natural language. Participants were 64 white, lower middle class first grade students selected from five classrooms (all with basal…