Using Basal Readers: From Dutiful Fidelity to Intelligent Decision Making

Abstract

When schools and teachers adopt core reading programs they can use them with fidelity or make intelligent decisions about the texts, lessons and components they select to use. The evidence suggests that these programs are not research‐based documents, but rather compromises between what the research suggests about effective reading instruction and what the market wants. Given these compromises and complexity of core reading programs teachers should make decisions about what texts their students will read, what skills and strategies they will teach, and what program components they will use. Teachers should have the prerogative to move students beyond the core program into the wider world of children's literature and informational books. The article outlines eight key decisions that teachers should make.

What Teachers Want: A Statewide Survey of Reading and English Language Arts Teachers’ Instructional Materials, Preferences, and Practices

“…I feel especially sad for students who can easily read the basal and are not allowed to read novels during their small group time or are very limited in the higher level reading that they are allowed to do while at school" (Comment #72). Dewitz and Jones (2013) suggest that the ways basal readers should be used in the era of the CCSS is for teachers to make decisions about what to use and what not to use. In a study of how teachers use basal readers, Meidl (2013) also found that teachers did not follow the basal readers with fidelity, but used them as a tool for making instructional decisions.…”

Meeting First‐Year Challenges in Reading Instruction

“…Marco was hired as a second‐grade classroom teacher in an urban public school district. Before the school year started he was oriented to a commercial core reading program, which is not surprising at all, considering that 74% of American teachers use basal programs in their classrooms (Dewitt & Jones, ). He was directed by his principal to teach reading using this program “with fidelity.” He collaborated with his mentor teacher to find out exactly what this meant.…”

Evaluating textbooks for primary grade reading instruction: A usable heuristic for L1 education

“…Knudsen et al (2011) point to the prominent role of textbooks in early reading instruction in Norway, Sweden, France and Brasil, and a number of studies show a similar situation with regards to United States (e.g. Brighton, Moon, & Huang, 2015;Dewitz & Jones 2012;Hoffman et al 1998). In the case of Denmark, which is the empirical focus in this special issue of the journal, both Frost (2003) and Elbro (2008) have described the important role played by textbooks in early reading instruction in Danish classrooms.…”