This manuscript describes the need elementary teachers have to analyze beginning and complex texts for teaching affordances and obstacles when teaching reading foundational skills and core ELA standards. A Guide to Analyze Texts for Elementary Students (GATES) is provided and described. Two teacher cases discuss how real teachers have used the…

Discusses available options for teachers and parents who are concerned with the sexist aspects of their children's reading materials. (JM)

Notes that most textbooks used in teacher education classes fail to discuss adequately the issues of sex equity, sex bias, sex differences, and the social contributions of women. Offers a list of resources for providing sex equity in education. (RL)

Suggests sources which can guide schools in evaluating textbooks. (MKM)

Focuses on books, booklets, and position papers that would be useful reading for educators involved in making decisions about selecting materials for schools. Discusses guidelines for judging and selecting textbooks and studies and readings on textbooks. (PRA)

Describes an approach, called "Questioning the Author," that is targeted toward getting young readers to engage with their textbooks--to really consider ideas deeply. Notes that the approach attempts to actualize the presence of an author, understand the author as a fallible transmitter of ideas, and transform author's ideas into readers' ideas.…

This article reports the findings of a study that analyzed the teacher editions of primary-grade science and social studies textbooks for comprehension strategy instruction. After observing several science and social studies classes in the primary grades, it became clear to the authors that strategy instruction was missing in many of the lessons.…

Notes that primary and intermediate grade teachers rely heavily on basal readers for instruction and offers the advantages of and guidelines for using a skill trace approach to tracking selected skills across the program, as an evaluation strategy.NH)

Indicates that popular methods texts used in college classes are no better than basal manuals in providing guidance in how to teach comprehension. (FL)

Provides a system for evaluating both the quality and the appropriateness of the placement and instructional tests that accompany basal reading series. (FL)

Publishers have responded to calls for more minority characters and females in basal readers, but many of the changes appear superficial. (MKM)

Shows that a wide variety of textbook characteristics play a role in influencing teachers' selection process, and that some of these interact with teacher characteristics. (FL)

Discusses four recent writing books: "Teaching to Write: Theory Into Practice" (Jane B. Hughey and Charlotte Slack); "The Writing Teacher's Handbook" (Jo Phenix); "Scaffolding Young Writers: A Writers' Workshop Approach" (Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos); and "Directing the Writing Workshop: An Elementary Teacher's Handbook" (Jean Wallace Gillet…