A longitudinal investigation of content, resources, and instructional approaches in a basal reading series within a research and policy context (original) (raw)
Related papers
Reading instruction in first-grade classrooms: Do basals control teachers?
1995
A study described first-grade teachers' beliefs and practices about reading instruction. Drawing from interview and observational data, 16 teachers from 4 districts in south-central Texas were placed on a continuum from skills-based to literature-based in relationship to their use of the basal. Only 2 teachers were found to rely solely on the basal, while 3 teachers enhanced the basal with literature, and 4 teachers used only literature in the reading instruction. Six teachers enhanced their basal use with additional skills and one teacher relied on skills only in her reading instruction. This diversity of teaching beliefs and practices was corroborated by questionnaire data from a larger sample of teachers. Next, a framewurk developed by M. Belenky and others was used to categorize teachers' ways of knowing. Findings showed one teacher to be a "silent knower," six were "received knowers," one was a "subjective knower," seven were "procedural knower ," and one was a "connected knower." Result^ challenge P. Shannon's hypothesis that basals "deskill" teachers while supporting L. Sosniak and S. Stodolsky's view that teachers are more autonomous in their use of textbook materials. (Contains 36 references and 3 figures of data. An appendix presents a summary of the "ways of knowing" categories.) (Author/RS) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document.
So What's New in the New Basals? a Focus on First Grade
Journal of Literacy Research, 1994
The authors examine the first-grade materials in five new basal programs submitted for the 1993 Texas state adoption. 1 These series are compared with program materials currently in use in the state (copyright 1986/1987). The analysis focuses on features of the pupil texts (e.g., total number of words, number of unique words, readability levels, literary quality) and features of the teachers' editions (e.g., program design, organization, tone). Results of the analysis indicate substantial changes in the more recent series. The findings are interpreted in terms of historical trends as well as recent developments in the literature-based and whole-language movements. Implications for future research are identified that relate to the study of the implementation and effects of these new programs.
Comprehension instruction in current basal reader series
A vast amount of reading comprehension research was reported in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The study reporced in this paper used the basal reading programs considered by California for adoption in 1988 Ps a vehicle for examining how the comprehension research had affec4.ed basal materials. Five series that were completely new and that had been issued by influential publishers were chosen for study, and two topics were selected for attention: main idea and story structure. Results revealed that the fi7e series did not turn out to be as different from their predecessors as they appeared to be at first. Four of the five series examined use expository and narrative text indiscriminately when they teach and review main ideas. As a result, the conception of "main idea" that the four series foster is neither clear nor consistent. The series are similar to older programs except that they cover many more topics. Results also showea that all five series teach the components of stories early; and much of what they teach is covered quickly. Additionally, the four series that use narrative text for main idea instruction never relate what is done with stories in the manual sections to what is taught in other sections labeled "story structure." Finally, examination also revealed that expository texts are often referred to as "stories," even though all five series teach and frequently review the nature of "story." Findings suggest that manual segm9nts dealing with main idea and story structure need to be improved. (Three tables and 3 figures of data are included; 36 references are z!ttached.) (KEH)
Changes in the Texts of Reading Instruction during the Past Fifty Years
Practices for Teaching Common Core Literacy, 2015
The premise of this chapter, as is the case with the entire volume, is that solutions to the problems of the present can benefit from an understanding of the efforts of the past. The current policy to ramp up text levels illustrates a problem where all existing knowledge needs to be brought to bear—whether that knowledge comes from theoretically derived research, tried and true practice, or commonsense. The contexts of classrooms in the 1960s may not be exactly the same as those of the 2010s but, in any reading interaction, the fundamental participants remain the same—students reading texts with the support of teachers. We begin by comparing the texts over the past 50 years. Then we examine curricular and policy events that have influenced the elementary texts used during the period. The final section of the chapter provides recommendations for how teachers might employ evidence-based practices to responds to these increased demands for challenging texts.
1992
This 1992 yearbook presents the following 26 articles: "Tensions between Numbers and Knowing: A Study of Changes in Assessment during Implementation of Literature-Based Reading Instruction" (P. L. Scharer); "Story Reading in Daycare: A Help or a x LITERACY RESEARCH AND PRACTICE: FOUNDATIONS FOR THE YEAR 2000 study to help inform and improve instruction or to help us better understand how readers learn to read. Research questions should go beyond confirming the obvious or near obvious. Researchers need to ask themselves, "Is this question one that has been answered before?" We advocate using the "So what?" test. After forming a research question, ask "So what?...Of what importance is this question?" "How will answering this question affect literacy instruction?" "What difference will this study ma e?" If the study passes the "So what?" test, then it may be worth pursuing. The z-.pent by researchers thinking through their questions is worth every minute. APPROPRIATE RESEARCH PROCEDURES Research procedures should be clear and to the point. Procedures should be described in enough detail to allow for easy replication. Moreover, the procedures should be dependent upon the question that is asked; that is, the procedures employed for addressing the question should seem appropriate to the reader. The method should not get so bogged down in elaborate designs and methodologies that the reader wonders how the procedures are connected to the questicns at hand. Instructional research should take place in authentic settings, and the treatment should be of reasonable length so that students can become familiar with it. A one-week treatment may result in a significant effect, but we may wonder if that effect is due to the novelty of the instruction rather than its substance. Control group treatments, too, should be reasonable and authentic to the instructional context, and the amount of instructional time and resources given to all treatments should be comparable. Measures of significant variables should be appropriate for the variables. Comprehension, for example, should be assessed by some method or instrument that is meant to measure comprehension. Conversely, when overall reading performance is measured only by word list recognition, we are led to wonder about the appropriateness of the measure and the procedures employed in the study. DATA ANALYSIS Again, the keys to good data analysis are appropriateness and clarity. Data analysis should go far enough only to answer the research questions. Analyses that go beyond the original question or continue to confirm what was found in a previous analysis tend to overwhelm the reader and draw the reader's attention away from the important findings and toward the researcher's prowess in statistical analysis. A factor analysis, although sophisticated, is not impressive when a t-test would have sufficed. Research reports are meant to inform those who read them. Appropriate analyses are essential to a good study, but excessive and unneeded analysis tends to weaken an otherwise informative report. 6 L17ER4CY RESEARCH AND PRACTICE: FOUNDATIONS FOR THE YEAR 2000 in assessment tools during the school year will then be discussed, and the difficulties experienced as teachers attempted to use new documentation techniques will be described. Finally, patterns of change in four of the five teachers will be illustrated using data from the experiences of two focus teachers. August Assessment Concerns District course of study. During August interviews, teachers expressed concerns about how to satisfy the district's course of study without using basal worksheets and tests. Andrea (grade 6), for example, concluded: It [literature-based read.. istruction] is not good for upper grades. It does not lend itself for teaching the objectives and course of study. I am not sure I am picking the right reading selections to develop the skills they need. Similarly, Nadine (LD) explained that general comprehension objectives could be more easily satisfied than specific phonics goals. You can always reach the goals of main idea, appreciation of literature and things like that but the more specific goals, the phonics types of goals, I find harder to reach through literature and substantiate what I am doing. Grading policies. Nancy (grade 1) was less concerned about grades than the other focus teachers since she was not required to use letter grades (A, B, C, Tensions Between Numbers and Knowing: A Study of Changes in Assessment 9 Andrea decided to eliminate the chapter question sheets and provide her students with choices in not only what they read, but how they would respond to what they were reading. She obtained a collection of biographies from the public library and prepared brief minitalks about each of the books. Since she had not read most of the books, she focused her "p.tches" on what she knew about the life of each person. Students chose books and generated sharing ideas such as making dioramas, documenting the person's life through a time line, or writing a biographical sketch. Andrea noted a change in her students as readers: "With the biographies, they were bubbling about what they were reading. They wanted to share with each other. This [question sheets] was old, boring class work. There was no discussionjust what did you get for question 4?" She reflected on her observations and was pleased with the changes in her students and also the changes in her role as a teacher. The kids were into the reading and they used their time very well. They wanted to read. They did not have to be forced to do it. It was more efficient for me because I was not making up question sheets for one biography to go over with the class. I was involved with them. I was conferencing one on one. It was more personal attention for them. Andrea began to question what she valued in her students as readers and how she might better translate her observations into grades: "Well, what is assessment of reading? Is it their ability to decode or all the little pieces that K: Structuredfollowing a set of questions. R: What are some of the things we've learned about her? K: She does like to read some. Ju: She is very interested in basketball. R: What else does she like? Ju: Comics. J: She Ramona Quimby. R: Time after school. Ju: Nintendo. K: Likes TV three hours a daycould be worse. Ju: Could she be spending some time playing Nintendo? J: She sounds like a latchkey child so TV could be used for companionship. [Goes on to describe her own experiences as a latchkey child growing up with a mother who is a teacher. Talked about watching television after school as a "time filler" until her mother came home.] A: There is not much reading in the home. R: She did mention a few magazines, like Jet and Sprint that she reads. K: I thought her reading was a lot more hopeful than I expected. A: I think she is clever, bright in general and kind of "with it." R: Where do we put that? J: Under hypotheses about Emma's abilities. K: Social studies is not activity based at all. R: It does sound like a text-based program [based on Emma's description]. K: Emma is pretty confident during the interview. R: Good observation. What are her goals? K: She wants to be a librarian. R: What about the interview itselfas an instrument for assessment? What did you notice? Kt: The teacher was very confident. She used open-ended questions. This made Emma feel comfortable. A: After she [teacher] asked a question, she then asked follow-up questions. R: The teacher did take time to explore interests. What else did you notice? Mc:This was more like conversation. Ju: The questions flowed.
Implementing basal reading program in EFL upper secondary school settings
JEES (Journal of English Educators Society), 2021
Basal readers have been selected by the school to cope with students’ lack of vocabulary size. With some positively perceived learning outcomes, the readers continued to be used from year to year and were decided as a school program, in addition to ELT national curriculum. The research is aimed at exploring the following aspects: (1) the teacher’s use of basal readers in the classrooms, (2) the classroom procedures developed by the teacher understudy, and (3) the students’ response to the implementation of the basal reading program. A descriptive case study with classroom observation as a main data collection technique was employed to explore the phenomena. The research brings several points to consider. First, basal readers have been extensively used by the school for different purposes: 1) for vocabulary enrichment, (2) for intensive reading materials, (3) as resource making classroom tests, and (4) a basis for writing phonetic symbols, and (5) for promoting speaking skills. Se...
Cogent Education
Empirical research is a critical in the field of education, however, research funding sources are often hard to identify. In this study, we examined how National Center for Education Research (NCER), a branch of the federal Institute of Education Science (IES), has supported research on various areas of reading development and instruction. Our goal was to identify the major trends and issues in NCER reading research projects over the past 13 years by examining the general characteristics, participants, and research foci of the studies. To do so, we reviewed and coded 158 research projects based on existing content analyses about reading research. Findings indicate that the NCER has allocated approximately $397 million to 158 reading research projects from 2004 to 2016. Research projects under the Reading and Writing program were the most frequently funded, particularly studies focusing on comprehension and including participants in grades K-3. Recommendations are made for reading researchers seeking funding based on the major trends and issues identified in NCER studies.
New Policy Guidelines for Reading: Connecting Research and Practiceby Jerome C. Harste
1989
Intended to help teachers, researchers, curriculum developers, and administrators develop improved policy in reading instruction and research, this book challenges several widespread assumptions about effective reading instruction and concludes with 20 policy guidelines which can be used to evaluate existing reading programs and redesign them to aim at higher levels of comprehension. Following an introduction, the book contains five chapters: (1) "Reading, Reading Instruction, and Reading Research," discussing the relationship among the three; (2) "Supporting Practical Theory," dealing with trusting teachers, supporting inquiry, taking risks, building upon what we know, and supporting self-evaluation; (3) "Effective Change Projects," discussing the characteristics of school reading programs exemplifying effective school change and dynamic, research-based instruction; (4) "The Agenda Ahead"; and (5) "Guidelines for Improving Reading Comprehension Instructior," encapsulating available information about the conditions that are likely to improve the teaching of reading in our schools. A section of 54 notes, and a 228-item bibliography are attached. (SR)