Using Basals: Determining How to use Basals Effectively

1. Using Basals: Determining How to use Basals Effectively

2. Understanding the basal 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 McGuffey’s Eclectic Reader • 1812 The Beacon Street Readers: Strong phonics and articulation drills • 1941 Dick and Jane New Basic Readers: Supported sight reading and repetition

3. Anatomy of the Basal Reader • Composed of a group of core materials 1.Student text 2.Teacher’s edition 3.Students’ and teacher’s workbooks 4. Supplemental practice and enrichment exercises

4. Teacher’s Edition • Instructional guide and in-service support • Three important features 1. Scope and sequence chart 2. Reduced version of the student’s text 3. Suggested lesson plan for the teacher

5. The Student’s 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???

6. 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.

7. Strengths of Basals • Strengths Basal Readers • A sequenced or spiral curriculum • Saves teacher’s 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

8. Limitations of Basal Readers • Editing stories (both text and illustrations) removes support • Basal’s 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

9. 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 teacher’s edition is the scope and sequence chart • Some are organized in themed units

10. Instructional Beliefs and Basal Readers • The philosophical underpinnings of different basal series varies with respect to the author’s beliefs about how children should be taught to read. • There are skills based basals and literature based basals.

11. 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”.

12. 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

13. Taking Control of the Basal • Reading to,with, and by children – Called a “Balanced Approach to Reading”

14. Reading TO Kids • Set the stage: Why are we doing this? Where are we going? • Introduce the selection – discuss the cover and title, discuss the topic and how it might apply to the kids, … • Read the selection – PRACTICE FIRST • Focused or Open Discussion

15. Read WITH Kids • Echo Reading – repeated reading (I say – you say) • Choral Reading – reading as a whole • Antiphonal Reading - a collaborative dialogue • Guided Reading – Children read in group at instructional level (mumble voice) with teacher’s individualized feedback

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. Language Experience • What I think I can say • What I say, I can write, or someone can write for me • What I write, I can read Roach Van Allen

20. ReQuest LessonReciprocal 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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 curriculum’s schedule. • Back

24. 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)

25. 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

26. 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