Is There a Match between What Elementary Teachers Do and What Basal Reader Manuals Recommend

Abstract

734 The Reading Teacher April 1984 Content of basal manuals This article will report on classroom observations that focused on these questions at three different grade levels. First, however, the kinds of activities suggested in the basal manuals used by the observed teach ers will be described. The core of a basal lesson is a selection in the reader. For each selection, the teacher's manual sum marizes the content, identifies the new vocabulary, offers suggestions on how to teach the new words, provides background information to help students comprehend or acquire interest in reading the selection, and suggests at least one prereading question. The manuals propose that the children read the selection silently, after the prereading activities. In the