Using Basals:

Determining How to use Basals Effectively

1. Used in 9 to 10 primary classrooms in the U.S.
2. Used in 85% of the intermediate classrooms
3. Have come in several forms forms over time:
The first was the hornbook
1830 The McGuffeys Eclectic Reader
1812 The Beacon Street Readers: Strong phonics
and articulation drills
1941 Dick and Jane New Basic Readers:
Supported sight reading and repetition





Understanding the basal

Anatomy of the Basal Reader
Composed of a group of core materials
1.Student text
2.Teachers edition
3.Students and teachers workbooks
4. Supplemental practice and
enrichment exercises

Teachers Edition
Instructional guide and in-service support
Three important features
1. Scope and sequence chart
2. Reduced version of the students text
3. Suggested lesson plan for the teacher
The Students text
In some basals, the beginning readers are
called primers. They often contain decodable text: text
where 90% of the words have been previously learned
or the phonics rules for them have been previously
learned. (10% new words)


????? What are some important problems with
controlling vocabulary in early basal readers???



Workbook
The workbook: Designed to provide
independently practice of skill instruction
provided by the teacher
The cost of workbooks has in some
cases, displaced the purchase of good
books and the time spent working on them
has replaced time for reading.
Strengths of Basals
Strengths Basal Readers
A sequenced or spiral curriculum
Saves teachers time
Student texts are in ascending difficulty
Skills gradually introduced and reviewed
Lesson plans provided
Helpful to beginning teachers
Assurance that reading skills are being covered

BACK

Limitations of Basal Readers
Editing stories (both text and illustrations) removes
support
Basals lesson design is questionable
Stories may not relate to students interests
Often less appealing than trade books
Censorship comes into play
Seldom contains directions on how to teach reading
Leaves little room for creativity and decision making
Promotes the use of traditional grouping
Management becomes time consuming
Organization of the Basal
Designed to take students through a series of of
books, experiences, and activities toward
increasingly sophisticated reading behaviors
(SCOPE AND SEQUENCE)
Important feature in the teachers edition is the
scope and sequence chart
Some are organized in themed units
Instructional Beliefs and Basal
Readers
The philosophical underpinnings of
different basal series varies with respect to
the authors beliefs about how children
should be taught to read.
There are skills based basals and
literature based basals.
Adopting Basal Readers
Most states have adopted some form of highly
centralized, state level-control the selection.
The remaining states select basals at the district
leveled
Texas uses elements of both
The average amount of time textbook adoption
committee members spend is approximately
one minute per page. This is often referred to
as Flip Test.
Guidelines for Evaluating
Basal Readers
Selection of basals should not be the
same as the selection of the reading
curriculum
Reviewers should be the teachers who will
work with that basal
Establishing Criteria
Taking Control of the Basal
Reading to,with, and by children Called
a Balanced Approach to Reading
Reading TO Kids
Set the stage: Why are we doing this?
Where are we going?
1. Introduce the selection discuss the
cover and title, discuss the topic and how
it might apply to the kids,
2. Read the selection PRACTICE FIRST
3. Focused or Open Discussion
Read WITH Kids
1. Echo Reading repeated reading
(I say you say)
2. Choral Reading reading as a whole
3. Antiphonal Reading - a collaborative
dialogue
4. Guided Reading Children read in group
at instructional level (mumble voice) with
teachers individualized feedback
Reading BY Kids
Independent Reading
In groups predetermined stopping point
each session with end of reading
response. Meet and set next goal
Sustained Silent Reading student
selected materials read for student
determined purposes
Direct Reading Thinking Activity
(DRTA): Used in almost all Basals
Pre-Reading
Discuss cover (or first page) and the title
Predict what will happen in the book (story)
During Reading
Read to a predetermined place
Review previous predictions
Make new ones
Read on to next stopping point


Reconciled Reading Lesson
Pre-Reading
Teach reading skills before reading
Relate them to the section to be read
During Reading
Model using skill at beginning of the reading
Have students monitor their own use of the skill
Post-Reading
Discuss use of skill

Language Experience
1. What I think I can say
2. What I say, I can write, or someone can
write for me
3. What I write, I can read

Roach Van Allen

ReQuest Lesson
Reciprocal Questioning
Pre-Reading
Carefully select non-negotiables
Preview piece (see DRTA)
During Reading
Read together to a stopping point
Teacher asks questions of students
Students ask questions of teacher
Read on to next stopping point
Analyzing a Basal Selection of Skills to
Include in a Mini-Lesson

Select and Analyze a skill
Introduce the Skill to be learned in the
context of a Whole
Students Practice and Follow-up
Return to the Whole
Assessment
Supplies Needed

END: Back to first slide
Skills Based Basals emphasize breaking
reading into a series of individual skills.
These skills are taught in isolation and
then brought into the reading process.
These basals are of the decodable type
so that the words in the stories will match
the skills being taught a t the time.

Back
Literature based basals use literature acquired
from trade books and written for literary value,
not for being decodable. Reading strategies are
taught within the context of the stories as they
are being read and as they come to be needed,,
rather on the curriculums schedule.


Back
Evaluating Basals: Guidelines
1. _Is extensive and user-friendly
2. _Supports curriculum standards/goals/objectives
3. _Offers teaching/grouping choices
4. _Provides multiple tasks to meet individual needs
for prior knowledge, literacy support, writing
options, etc.
5. _Highlights skills/strategies for vocabulary,
decoding, comprehension, study skills, graphics,
and technology at point of use
6. _Includes intervention strategies/lessons
7. _Traces skills/strategies (Scope and Sequence
chart)
8. _Incorporates varied assessment options
9. _Enhances cross-curricular connections
10. _Heightens cultural perspectives
11. _ Demonstrates process writing/leveled projects
12. _ Integrates spelling and grammar instruction
13. _Implements charts, report utility, Internet
capability
14. _Has theme organized/utilized
15. _Suggests classroom library/complete lessons

Back

Spiral Curriculum
spiral curriculum - 'A curriculum as it
develops should revisit this basic ideas
repeatedly, building upon them until the
student has grasped the full formal
apparatus that goes with them'

Jerome Bruner.
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm