Basal Reading Programs

Section I

Introduction

Literacy programs are frameworks that tutors put in place with the aim of developing how young children read together with the skills associated with reading. There are several such standard programs. All of them have three basic steps which are:

Reading assessments: These are tasks used to measure the levels of reading of the children. They are used to evaluate the literacy skills that the children need and also serve to help monitor the progress of a child. One can implement both end line and baseline assessments to do the evaluations. 

Teacher Training: Tutors are provided with training programs which equip them with aids that will help them master the five core reading skills and hence incorporate these skills in the curricula prepared for the children. This training helps to ensure that children are well equipped with proper reading skills and stay motivated in their classrooms. 

Community Action: The programs strongly advocate for the involvement of parents and various community stakeholders to help their children as they go through the process of learning to read. The programs achieve this by by engaging parents, children, and community members in out-of-school activities that promote literacy. Other programs support community action by creating reading materials that are relevant locally.

With the steps outlined above, it is possible for parents and teachers to work together and create methods or programs that help children to learn how to read and set up a conducive environment for the children to thrive both in and out of school. 

The basal reading program is one among the many literacy program. It is centered on using written texts to teach children how to read. A few people refer to it as the scientifically-based reading program. It is almost similar to the guided reading program in that both of them involve written texts. One should be careful not to confuse the two. The basal reading program has been pointed out due to reasons that will be progressively revealed. 

The basal reading program has been designed to help transfer skills that experts say are useful in learning to read (Block, Parris, Reed, Whiteley & Cleveland, 2009) . These skills include fluency, text comprehension, phonemic awareness, prosody, decoding skills, and word attack skills. 

Structure of Basal Reading Programs

The whole structure is centered on books. Basal books are usually placed in levelled grades. A full program from the lowest to the highest grade, is called a series. There exists several series of basal readers. However, they can be divided into two broad categories according to the approach they take. The first is the code emphasis approach while the second is the meaning emphasis approach. 

The code emphasis approach depends on phonemic awareness to a great extent. Other skills that seek to be built by this approach are word attack and decoding skills. Common features of a basal series include flashcards, spelling programs, and sentence strips which tend to be added to the series to make it more fun and engaging. On the other hand, the meaning emphasis program focuses more on how one can read to understand. To achieve this approach, children are normally asked questions after a story is read. The workbooks then focus on directing the children’s vocabulary lessons by probing them to put down what they have learnt from the stories (Block, Parris, Reed, Whiteley & Cleveland, 2009) . 

Traditionally, teachers found the basal reading program effective. Over time, tutors have strived to move away from it as they try to implement the whole language approach which uses guided reading as the basis of its framework by incorporating every type of book that one needs to develop his/her language through the whole curriculum (Morin, 2019) . To adhere to this trend, most basal reading series such as Schott Forseman’s Reading Street and McGraw-Hill’s Open Court have been adjusted to accommodate the whole-language-friendly approach. These series now have books that cater to students in Pre-kindergarten and also those in upper grades. The contents of the books have been derived from picture books, poems, and chapter books. To standardize these books so that each child can get the same quality of education, their authors make accompanying material such as teacher guides. The guides act as manuals from which teachers can derive their rubrics and also get to know how the program is to be followed. Basal reading programs have clashing pros and cons which make it difficult to determine how effective the programs are. 

Pros

The programs are systematic as their sequences are logical. The procedural nature of the programs make it easier for the child and tutor to interpret the content and find where they had missed an idea in case they get ahead and find out that one or more of the skills have not been sharpened yet. 

The transitions between the levels are smooth and consistent. Consequently, one develops from an emergent reader to an advanced one without any difficulties. 

Teachers have an easier job as they are given the tools and manuals that they need to evaluate the knowledge that the students have attained and explore their weak areas. It also recommends the best teaching methods to teachers and gives them hints on how to extend the lessons provided. 

Cons

Experts like to argue that what other people take as the pros of the basal literacy program are the exact things that weigh it down (Stahl, 2013) . One main constraint of basal reading programs is that the systematic approach employed by the basal literacy program is not meant to be adjusted but rather should be followed as per the instructions. This tends to limit the tutor as the program feels rigid most of the times. For instance, one cannot use it to teach students with learning disabilities related to reading. Secondly, the basal literacy program treats all children as if they are the same. The design of the program makes it difficult to identify gifts in children. A child cannot teach him/herself but rather requires the guidance of a teacher. Another downside comes from the fact that the program is progressive. The systematic buildup makes it difficult for children who have a lesser understanding of language in the beginning as they tend to lag behind and this may affect their perception of the whole program negatively. Finally, scholars like to argue that basal reading significantly lacks meaning and depth (Stahl, 2013) . They state that the design of the program is simple and uses language that is forced, nonsensical, and twisted. The scholars suggest that students need literature-based approaches. However, the texts used in the basal literacy program cannot be enjoyed. 

Since the school I have chosen is a new institution that is looking to grow, I would highly recommend the use of the basal literacy program due to its efficacy during implementation (Braker-Walters, 2014) . Such a school needs a program that is not only simple to understand and go through but one that will also live up to the educational standards. Despite being done away with by most institutions, the basal literacy program still remains to be the fundamental framework upon which all other literacy programs are founded. 

Section II

Best Practices in Reading 

According to this context, the term “best practice” refers to instructional approaches that a tutor can employ in the field of reading. The approaches aim at improving how children develop their reading techniques. More research is still being put into best practices. Those that have already been set up have been proved to work effectively if tutors apply them with fidelity (Cunningham, 2001) . One of the mainstream reports containing these practices is The National Reading Panel Report compiled in 2000. The document highlights the essential best practices for reading . However, best practices are difficult to implement when the instructions being passed to children are to be delivered daily. For instance, consideration can be put into the best possible practices for teaching explicit phonics instruction. Effectively applying best practice in this situation is undeniably difficult as seen from different angles (Dewitz & Jones, 2013). First, teachers need to have high knowledge of a language’s sound structure and a deep understanding of how the students segment the phonemes of a word and then blend them after the first sound. The instructional materials also need to be of high quality to help the children easily differentiate instructions. The best practice ceases to exist if these requirements are broken down. From this, we conclude the best practice together with its key features needs to be implemented with so much caution and attention for it to work effectively. There are five fundamental best practices in reading. 

The first practice is the need for children to be presented with explicit instructions to develop their vocabulary. The role of vocabulary in learning how to read is pivotal. Reading essentially involves printing the vocabulary that one encounters in texts to its respective oral language (Rasinski, 2012) . Understanding the texts is a crucial process in this as it is what enables the letter to be transformed to its correspondent sound. 

The need for children to develop their knowledge from text. Before this best practice was formulated, no one cared about what a child read as long as they were able to read it. However, currently, much emphasis is put into the content the texts read by children as it has been proven that these texts imprint images and, ultimately, ideologies that may influence their behavior. Interacting with books can make a child gain a large knowledge storehouse (Pearson, 2014) . . 

Consolidation, deepening, and reinforcement of reading through rereading. As an instructional technique, rereading has been overlooked from time to time yet it has been a longstanding and fortifying standard of any language art. The technique is usually slotted for the end of the lesson to help learners brainstorm and grasp the necessary concepts. Currently, rereading has morphed into intensive reading which involves reading a text multiple times to analyze it. It happens both during the reading process and after. The purpose of rereading is to develop an analytical approach that is not only probing but also aggressive with the hope of imprinting principles, concepts, arguments, and themes in the brain of learners. The technique receives overwhelming support from scholars. Research shows that rereading has the ability to improve one’s meta-comprehension accuracy (Stahl, 2013) . This is the ability of learners to assess how well they have grasped content. 

Digital texts are used to expand the motivation of a child to read. It is undeniable that the world is making the great leap from paper books to digital books and everyone is embracing it despite resistance at the beginning (Weakland, 2014) . The force is unstoppable. Before, people used to view a digital book as a printed book that is just static. However, the perception has changed with time. Digital books are now seen as a set of interactive content that have been made easily accessible through the use of tablets, mobile phones, and laptops. Digital material bears the advantage that they are light in weight, personalized, and can be accessed easily and anywhere through an internet connection. Research carried out on the effect of digital books on children show that the textbooks give children an edge in reading. 

More attention should be driven towards syntax for children to comprehend well. For many years, tutors have not been paying attention to syntax. One fact is that sentences increasingly become complex as one continues learning the language (Braker-Walters, 2014) . Students need to be made familiar with the basic structure of sentences, their syntax, and how to comprehend them well. Written text is not only abstract but is also more precise and uses a little bit more conventions than speech. To be able to put words together effectively, children must first polish their reading skills. Basics such as reading punctuations, reading for sentence meaning, tracking pronouns, and locating modifiers are skills that need to be imparted from the word go. With this skill set, a child can be able to construct dense sentences. A clear line between written language and speech emerges as children exemplify their skills in the language. 

Alignment of Basal Literacy Program with Best Practice Instruction

The basal literacy program is among the best programs to implement in an institution that is just starting. Its outcomes are not only aligned to those of best practice instruction but the program is also robust and gives an institution the opportunity to see itself for what it really is and then decide to specialize if the need arises. The basal literacy program forms the fundamental framework from which all other literacy programs are derived. This means that it can be used as an entry point framework for new institutions. The fact that it is simple and procedural makes it easy to implement. Furthermore, we have seen that the basal literacy program comes with manuals that help guide tutors on how to assess children. This is perfect for a new institution that is expected to have new tutors, some of whom may not bear any teaching experiences (Weakland, 2014) . The literacy program is also goal oriented and gives a general direction in which children should be heading. This is in alignment with the first best practice instruction which requires children to be equipped with enough vocabulary. This is a goal that can be achieved using the literacy program framework. In other words, it is easy to set goals and assess them using such a framework.

Literacy Program Rationale

McGuffey readers admit that their highly structured approach was derived from the benefits of the basal reading program (Gervais, 2016) . Experts sometimes refer to the basal literacy program as the commercial or core reading program. This literacy approach utilizes an approach that is sequence based and one that is derived from evidence to implement reading instructions. These features make the program easily adaptable by beginning teachers since the tutors have no prior experience and have also not developed personal teaching strategies. It is easy to comprehend as the lesson plans are detailed and explicit in that the words that a teacher is obligated to say to children are all scripted. The comprehension and decoding concepts of these words are also attached to the scripts. The basal literacy program also fits into almost any type of curriculum around the world due to its wholeness in achieving its set goals. It takes into consideration the core standards that formulate a curriculum and then sets learning objectives using a procedural sequence. The objectives generated are made consistent as one moves up from one grade to another. The program has been organized in such a way as to provide assessments at almost every step of the process. Aside from the pretests and posttests, the basal framework provides for other tests that can be used for remedial activities. The tests are present for each lesson. In the end, standard assessments are provided both quarterly and yearly. 

The basal reading approach does not only apply to new teachers. Experienced teachers need it too. For example, when students are switching up from one grade to the next, an experienced teacher would need an entry point into the new part of the series (Pearson, 2014) . The basal literacy programs provide such entry points. Furthermore, enrichment worksheets and remedial activities are featured by the basal reading program. These are tools that a teacher can utilize to enhance her repertoire. Big stakeholders in school such as reading directors, administrators, and principles are provided with evidence concerning how the reading skills are being passed to children. Lastly, teachers can use the tools in the program to evaluate themselves and their students and thereby allowing parents to monitor the progress of their children. 

Suggested Timeline for Implementation

The basal literacy program is projected to take 9 months to implement. The first three months will serve as the introductory time during which tutors are taught about the basics of the program and also allowed to showcase the things they have learnt in classrooms as they teach children. After this, the teachers will be placed under probation for another three months. During the probation period, the teachers will be watched and assessments provided for them. Certified basal literacy program experts will be contacted to run the assessments. Based on the results obtained from the assessments, the teachers will go back to the training programs so that their weak areas can be addressed. This will take a month. The last two months will then be used to finalize everything, handing over the programs fully to the teachers and carrying out one final assessment on the teachers. 

Evaluating the Program

Periodic evaluations will be carried out as a standard approach with their aim being to keep the teachers up to date. With changes in technology, it is undeniable that some aspects of the literacy program are susceptible to change. This means that constant standardized changes have to be made accordingly and given to teachers to master. This calls for a regular evaluation program which serves to keep track of the ability of the tutors to keep up with the updates and also their ability to pass the skills down to the children. An evaluation test could be taken bi-annually to ensure that tutors are kept on check. 

Conclusion 

The basal reading program has been identified as the best literacy program to apply in the school. The main consideration that led to this decision was the fact that the school chosen is new and the teachers employed there are assumed to have minimum experience in the education field. The pros of the basal reading program outweigh the cons. The surprising fact is that the pros of this program are exactly what cause its downsides. However, it has been made clear that the basal literacy program can be a revolutionary framework if all of its aspects are implemented as they are supposed to. In a nutshell, basal reading programs are suitable for this case. 

References

Block, C. C., Parris, S. R., Reed, K. L., Whiteley, C. S., & Cleveland, M. D. (2009). Instructional approaches that significantly increase reading comprehension.  Journal of Educational Psychology ,  101 (2), 262.

Braker-Walters, B. A. (2014). Informational text and the Common Core: A content analysis of three basal reading programs.  Sage Open ,  4 (4), 2158244014555119.

Cunningham, J. (2001). The National Reading Panel Report.  Reading Research Quarterly ,  36 (3), 326-335. doi: 10.1598/rrq.36.3.5

Dewitz, P., & Jones, J. (2013). Using Basal Readers: From Dutiful Fidelity to Intelligent Decision Making.  The Reading Teacher ,  66 (5), 391-400. doi: 10.1002/trtr.01134

Gervais, J. (2016). The operational definition of competency-based education.  The Journal Of Competency-Based Education ,  1 (2), 98-106. doi: 10.1002/cbe2.1011

Morin, A. (2019). How the Basal Reading Instruction Program Works. Retrieved from https://www.verywellfamily.com/reading-programs-what-is-basal-reading-instruction-620997

Pearson, P. D. (2014). The roots of reading comprehension instruction. In  Handbook of research on reading comprehension  (pp. 27-55). Routledge.

Rasinski, T. V. (2012). Why reading fluency should be hot!.  The Reading Teacher ,  65 (8), 516-522.

Stahl, S. A. (2013). Instructional models in reading: An introduction. In  Instructional models in reading  (pp. 11-40). Routledge.

Weakland, M. (2014).  Super Core!: Turbocharging Your Basal Reading Program with More Reading, Writing, and Word Work . Newark, DE: International Reading Association.