Student Reading Texts in America from 1607 - 1965

Reading content changes to reflect American societies desire to create a nation of good patriotic citizens united in language, traditions, and morals (Smith, 2002).

Notable Instructional Readers of the period were:
Caleb Bingham’s Readers (Smith, 2002, pg. 46).
Lyman Cobb’s Readers (Smith, 2002, pgs. 49-50).
George Hillard’s Readers (Smith, 2002, pg. 52).
Lindley Murray’s Readers (Smith, 2002, pg. 54).

“In these early years, it was the speller that introduced a child to reading. A schoolbook called a “reader” was, until the 1830’s, a book designed for children who could already read. Readers such as those by Noah Webster (the third part of his Grammatical Institute, published in 1785) or by Caleb Bingham consisted of a compilation of essays originally written for adults on a variety of subjects” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

Cobb's Juvenile Reader No. 3. Included “factual materials, such as short accounts of chocolate, opium, printing, and the porcupine” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

“The most widely-used of these readers in our country was one titled the English Reader, which did not contain a single work by an American author. It did, however, reflect ideas of liberty and equality. Abraham Lincoln called the English Reader "the best schoolbook ever put in the hands of an American youth"(Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

“Murray’s reader became a best-seller, with some six million copies sold by 1850, and Murray himself became the largest-selling author of literacy textbooks in the first four decades of the 19th century” (Monaghan & Barry, 1999, pg. 13).

A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, a three sectioned reader, published by Noah Webster. In the books he replaced the previously popular religious catechism with a moral catechism and a farmer’s catechism. It also contained the first geographical and historical information about the American country (Smith, 2002, pg. 40).

The full title was - A Grammatical Institute of the English Language: Comprising a Easy, Concise, and Systematic Method of Education, Designed for the Use of English Schools in America. In Three Parts, Part II Containing a Plain and Comprehensive Grammar, Grounded on the True Principles and Idioms of the Language. “Webster spent his own money to pay for the publication of his speller. He claimed that he would teach the country a uniform system of pronunciation that would unify the new nation” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

Noah Webster reissues his book. “Criticized for the cumbersome title of the 1783 version, Webster revised and reissued his book in 1787 under its new title, The American Spelling Book. Webster's American Spelling Book was the undisputed best seller of introductory reading textbooks in the United States until the 1820s, when it began to look old-fashioned” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

“Spelling books continued their role as introductions to reading for many years, focusing their efforts on what we now call decoding” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

Notable Spelling Books of the period whose teaching content was largely moral in nature:
1798 The Child’s Spelling Book by Caleb ALexander (Smith, 2002, pg. 60).

1799 The Young Ladies’ and Gentleman’s Spelling Book (Smith, 2002, pg. 60).

1803 The New England Spelling Book by Watts (Smith, 2002, pg. 61).

1806 A New Spelling Book by Comly (Smith, 2002, pg. 61).

1823 Analytical Spelling Book by Jones (Smith, 2002, pg. 61).

1828 The National-Spelling Book, and Pronouncing Tutor by Emerson Monaghan & Barry, 1999, History of Literacy, Retrieved from http://www.historyliteracy.org/download/Book5.pdf, pg. 12).

1831 Spelling Book by Bolles (Smith, 2002, pg. 61 ).

1834 The Young Tyro’s Instructor (Smith, 2002, pg. 61).

1836 Analytical Spelling Book by Parson (Smith, 2002, pg. 61).

The Readers by Samuel Worcester are published. They are the first to advocate the word method of teaching (Smith, 2002, pg. 60).

When the 1820 version began to stop selling because of its outdated look “Webster revised his book in 1829…called The Elementary Spelling Book (but soon dubbed the "Blue-back speller" because of its blue covers) the new version became another success (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

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“The old spelling books, with long lists of incomprehensible words accompanied by long essays, came under criticism. In response, educators created a series of books, also called "readers," which graded material according to its difficulty. Additionally, the readers included instructions to the teacher: prereading activities, comprehension questions, stories that were interesting for children, and the suggestion that teachers teach complete words before analyzing them. The best known series from this genre of new readers was the Eclectic series of William Holmes McGuffey (first published in 1836). Total sales of the McGuffey Readers are estimated at 120 million” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

McGuffey's Readers appear in a complete set (Smith, 2002, pg. 97).

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The span of this period is less clearly defined than the previous because the "new" ideas had slowly been developing over the past quart of the century. This period lasted about 40 years. (Smith, 2002, pg. 69)

ABC Method books fall out of favor due to the German Pestalozzean methods advocated by Horace Mann giving rise to the Word Method and the Alphabet-Phonetic Method (Smith, 2002, pgs. 69-107).

My Little Primer by John Bumstead is the first reader based entirely on word method (Smith, 2002, pg. 81).

“The word method began in reaction to the alphabetic method….In this early phase of the word method, it was used to introduce children to their first reading, in primers. However, instruction soon reverted to traditional approaches, telling children to spell out words placed before a story prior to reading them in the story” (Monaghan & Barry, 1999, pg. 19).

Graded Series Readers are first published by numerous publishing houses including: "Worcester, McGuffey, Swan, Russell, Towers, Sanders, Town and Holbrook, Hillard, Parker and Watson" (Smith, 2002, pg. 78). With the advent of grader readers the graded classroom also began to evolve (Smith, 2002, pg. 78).

David Tower produces several Readers including: Gradual Readers, a series of grammar, and his Intellectual Algebra plus a primer - The Child's First Step Taken in the Right Place (Smith, 2002, pgs. 102-103).

David B. Towers included in his book not only spelling of a word but also the pronunciation of the word (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

John's First Book, also known as The Child's First Reader, was written by Webb and published by Joel Greene (Smith, 2002, pg. 84).

The New Word Method Primer published by John Russell Webb (Smith, 2002, pg. 82).

“In the word method, words are learned as wholes, by sight. Children are asked to link a printed word to a word already in their speaking vocabulary. There is no sounding and blending: instant recognition is the goal” (Monaghan & Barry, 1999, pg.18).

John Webb published a complete set of Normal Readers converting his first book John's First Book into Webb's Normal Reader, No. 1 (Smith, 2002, pg. 88).

The School and Family series published by Marcius Wilson were the first to specialize in scientific content (Smith, 2002, pg. 107).

Deutsches Lesebuch, (The German Reading Book) reprinted in Philadelphia, PA (Smith, 2002, pg. 74).

“Several 19th-century educators believed that the only logical and scientific way to begin instruction to reading was with an alphabet that had a one-to-one correspondence of letter to sound. There are several explanations for the introduction of the 36-character Deseret alphabet to Utah in 1852. The Mormons wanted to make it simpler for children to learn to read and spell; they wished to address the needs of converts converging on Salt Lake City from many different countries; and Brigham Young, the Mormon leader, was reportedly a terrible speller (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

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Page 5:
"Lesson II. The Pen.
We rit with a pen. The pen iz ov grat yioos. We kan mak non owr thawts, bi th yioos ov the pen. Hwen we wish too tawk with our frendz hoo liv far awa, we ma sit at hom, and tawk with them bi menz ov the pen, and tel them al we wish them to no. Hwen we hav lurnd to red, we shud also lern to rit” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

Reader specifically designed for use in the Catholic school system.” Readers designed for these children differed in content, but not in methodology, from the mainstream texts” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2002, no page number).

A concern for the cultural development of children became the priority during this period. Reading was viewed as "a medium for awakening a permanent interest in literary material that would be a cultural asset to the individual in adult life" (Smith, 2002, pg. 108).

Around 1889 Herbartianism began gaining popularity and with it the Word Method began to flourish. Three notable books produced: The Essentials of Method in 1889 by Charles DeGarmo, General Method in 1892 by Charles McMurry, and the Method of the Recitation in 1897 by Charles & Frank McMurry (Smith, 2002, pg. 111).

“In the word method, words are learned as wholes, by sight. Children are asked to link a printed word to a word already in their speaking vocabulary. There is no sounding and blending: instant recognition is the goal” (Monaghan & Barry, 1999, pg. 18).

"By the 1880's, educators had become concerned with emphasizing understanding in beginning reading instruction. They were convinced that this could only occur by using sentential text in silent reading activities. In response, 'sentence' and 'story method' readers appeared" (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

The Primer stated: “The first month of the school year was to be spent learning useful ‘sight’ words such as parts of the head. In the second month children were asked to pronounce and spell words on the basis of their phonic similarity” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

Swinton's book used the early Word Method: “In this early phase of the word method, it was used to introduce children to their first reading, in primers. However, instruction soon reverted to traditional approaches, telling children to spell out words placed before a story prior to reading them in the story” (Monaghan & Barry, 1999, pg. 19).

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Sentence and Story Method Reader (Smith, 2002, pg. 111).

Sentence and Story Method Reader (Smith, 2002, pg. 111).

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Rebecca S. Pollard’s series used a Synthetic Phonics Approach: “The readers in this category contain the set sequence that was in place by the end of the 19th century for teaching beginning reading. The sequence was: (a) teach the letter names and their sounds, usually with pictures and/or a teacher-contrived “sound experience”; (b) sound out and blend words as soon as a few letter-sounds are learned; and (c) orally read sentences and stories containing words with the letter sounds learned” (Monaghan & Barry, 1999, pg. 24).

This approach was designed for the child to be “ taught all the sounds of the letters before moving into text” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

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Ward Rational Method in Reading developed by Edward Ward. It included a primer and six readers. Also included first colored pictures. Ward tried to reconcile the word method and the phonetic method in his primer (Smith, 2002, pg. 127).

Ward used diacritical markings on the traditional alphabet: “diacritical marks were used in the child’s text to make the pronunciation of any particular letter unambiguous” (Monaghan & Barry, 1999, pg. 22).

Ward believed that “if diacritical marks were used in the child’s text to make the pronunciation of any particular letter unambiguous” there was no need to use either the Word or Phonics Method (Monaghan & Barry, 1999, pgs. 22-23).

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Method of the Recitation by Charles & Frank McMurry (Smith, 2002, pg. 111)

Stepping Stones to Literature by Louise Arnold and Charles Gilbert is the first Reader published that uses George Farnham's concepts of teaching children by use of the Word Method "A method that made use of entire sentences or even whole stories as a starting point offered a happy opportunity to introducecumulative folktales from literature into readers fo beginners" (Smith, 2002, pgs. 133-134).

"Pioneer literary readers...which contained nursery rhymes like 'Jack and Jill' and Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.' and old tales like 'The Tortoise and the Hare'" (Martinez, & McGee, 2000, p.157).

Ellen M. “Cyr used a synthetic phonics approach, marking the new words diacritically before each story. She was the first woman to have a major series marketed under her own name. The Children’s Readers were soon retitled the Cyr Readers”
(Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

Graded Literature making use of the Word Method is published (Smith, 2002, pg. 134).

Sarah Louise Arnold, in her primer, stated specifically how the teacher was to use the sentence approach method. A picture (a red apple) is presented to the class for discussion, followed by a printed statement on the blackboard: “‘This is a red apple." Sentences are then examined by words (apple, see), then examined by letters (a, s)”’ (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

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Gail Calmerton and William Wheeler state specifically on page 3 of their book: ‘"This little book . . . is to be read by the children and not to them by the teacher"’ (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

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Charles Eliot “Norton was convinced that selection of content, not methodology, was the primary solution in teaching beginning reading” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

Adline Readers by Catherine Bryce and Frank Spaulding include a primer and five readers. They are the first to use decorative end papers. The primer and first readers content is based on rhymes while the advanced readers include primarily stories from literature. It was the first reader to use rhymes. (Smith, 2002, pgs. 139 -140).

“The story method undergirds this work, but it is one of the first readers to feature a "vocabulary" of words at the end of the book - to be learned as sight words. There are no longer any vocabulary restrictions” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

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Elson Readers by William Elson feature for the first time stories geared to children's interests (Smith, 2002, pg. 144).

William H. Elson and Christine Keck created the Elson Grammar School Reader for publication by the Scott Foresman Company. The “series contained a blend of traditional stories (to elevate taste and judgment) along with the civic concerns of the Progressives. (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

This series by George Burchill, William L. Ettinger and Edgar Dubs Shimer “invoked the progressive educational movement in its title while using the ‘classics of childhood’ as its texts” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

"With the advent of instruments of measurement, it was possible for the first time to obtain scientific information about the effectiveness of reading methods and materials....As a result, more innovations in reading instruction issued forth during this period than in all the past centuries (Smith, 2002, pgs. 148-149).

Also during this period supplemental silent Readers are published to be used in conjunction with the basal system. Following the World War “many supplemental readers [were] of a patriotic character” (Smith, 2002, pg. 161)

Elson Readers by William Elson feature for the first time stories geared to children's interests (Smith, 2002, pg. 144).

Several popular Readers embrace the word method during this period including:
The Aldine Readers by Bryce and Spaulding
Elson Readers published by Scott Foresman
Everyday Classics by Baker and Thorndike
The Horace Mann Readers by Hervey and Hix
Language Readers by Baker and Carpenter
The Merrill Readers by Dyer and Brady
The Progressive Road to Reading by Burchill, Ettinger, and Shimmer
Reading Literature by Free and Treadwell
Story Hour Readers by Coe and Christie
(Smith, 2002, pg. 134)

Reading Literature Series by Margaret Free and Harriette Taylor Treadwell is the first Primer to use only folktale adaptions for beginning readers (Smith, 2002, pg. 141).

The transition from oral to silent reading occurred producing several new series of Readers and a public school society obsessed with silent reading (Smith, 2002, pgs. 149-154). Also during this time there was a marked the rise in informational, factual and patriotic supplemental stories (Smith, 2002, pg. 161).

Informational Readers begin to be published
Readers containing only material considered to be informational began to be published (Smith, 2002, pg. 161).

Some of the notable Information Readers mentioned in Smith’s book (2002) are:
Home Life Around the World by George Mirick (pg. 161)
Little American History Plays for Little Americans by Eleanor Hubbard (pg. 162)
Twins Series by Lucy Fitch Perkins (pg. 161)

The transition from oral to silent reading occurred producing several new series of Readers and a public school society obsessed with silent reading (Smith, 2002, pgs. 149-154) with an “exaggerated and…almost exclusive emphasis on silent reading procedures” (Smith, 2002, pg. 150).

The Boys and Girls Readers by Emma Bolenius and The Silent Readers by Lewis & Rowlands were the first to use silent reading techniques (Smith, 2002, pg. 165).

The Silent Readers by Lewis and Lindsay were the “first complete set of readers devoted to silent reading” (Smith, 2002, pg. 165). On page one “they begin the book by instructing their young readers: ‘The book which you are now beginning has been specially prepared for you to read to yourselves silently, because that is the way you will have to read most often when you grow up. You must even try not to move your lips as you read’” (Monaghan & Barry, 1999, pg. 37).

Other Notable Silent Readers of Period included:
The Progressive Road to Silent Reading by Ettinger, Shinier, et al.,
The Silent Reading Hour by Buswell & Wheeler,
Lippincott’s Silent Reading for Beginners by Watkins,
The Learn to Study Readers by Horn & Sheilds
(Smith, 2002, pg. 165)

James Baldwin and Ida. C. Bender series “ makes early use of full color for many of its illustrations” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

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James Fassett produces the Beacon Series, a highly systematized method of phonetics (Smith, 2002, pg. 130).

William H. Elson and Lura E. Runkel Co-authored this primer for the Scott Foresman Company. “A word list is included in the back of the book, and the teacher's guide contains scripted lesson plans that include telling a story, dramatizing the story, and developing words and sentences. ‘Phonetics’ consists of linking sounds to letters. Spot first appears as a cat (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

A classic example of the sentence and story method reader. Written by Sarah Louise Arnold, Elizabeth C. Bonney and E.F. Southworth (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

The subtitle of the See and Say series was “A Picture Book Teaching the Letters and Their Sounds with Lessons in Word Building” (Monaghan & Barry,1999, pg. 32).

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The Lincoln Readers by Isobel Davidson and Charles Anderson were published and consisted of eight readers and a primer designed to include information that was testable (Smith, 2002, pg. 169).

Ethel H. Maltby and Sydney G. Firman’s primer is entirely based on the story method approach. “There are no children in this… primer. All the stories feature talking animals. The stories are rhythmic and repetitive” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

During this period "The Twenty-Fourth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part 1....exerted an influence of great magnitude in changing [the] reading practice" (Smith, 2002, pg. 185).

Also an abundant and varied supply of Supplemental Reading books appear during this period (Smith, 2002, pg. 197).

Preprimers were used with children learning to read and had only a limited amount of words. “Some…were planned as specific preparation for a series of readers that they [accompanied]…and others were designed for use independently” (Smith, 2001, pg. 201).

This new type of supplemental reader was a set of small books on the same general subject but each contained different stories. Popular sets included: Social Science Readers, Little Folks Library, The Happy Hour Books and Little Color Classics (Smith, 2002, pg. 197-198).

Popular Supplemental Readers with fanciful tales began to appear. Some of the more popular ones included: Timothy Crunchit and The Calico Bunny by Martha Jane Hall, Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag, and The Magic Boat by Lula Wright (Smith, 2002, pg. 197).

Popular Supplemental Readers with informational content were: Science Readers by William & Stella Nida and the Busy Carpenters by James S. Tippett (Smith, 2002, pg. 197).

Two of the popular Supplemental Readers that contained Realistic Stories were: Billy Gene and His Friends by Maude Dutton Lynch and Shug, the Pup by F.M. Reynolds (Smith, 2002, pg. 197).

Notable feature of the series was the fact that all the content included was "the result of an extensive investigation of Children's interest and teachers' judgement" (Smith, 2002, pg. 214).

The books in this series were the first books in a series to each be given a separate title. This idea was quickly adopted by other publishers. Other notable features include a "profusely" illustrated primer and first reader along with content drawn primarily from the field of social studies (Smith, 2002, pg. 212).

"The work-play idea is that of dividing the program into two parts, one being that of definite hard work in acquiring skills, and the other being the play or enjoyment in natural reading of every kind of literature." (Smith, 2002, pg. 209). Also these books were the first ones ever to put designs on the back covers (Smith, 2002, pg. 209).

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Elson Readers are updated by William Gray to reflect new reading developments in the field (Smith, 2002, pg. 145).

In 1930 "several schools dared to dispense with a basal reader throughout the grades, and to organize their reading instruction entirely around the needs and activities of the children" (Smith, 2002, pg. 229).

William Gray, along with several collaborators, revised the Elson-Gray series and then combined it with The Curriculum Foundation Series to create The Scott Foresman Reading Program (Smith, 2002, pg. 211).

1935 - 1950 mark the beginning of international unrest with Hiltler's aggression. In 1939 World War II begins and the United States join the fight in December of 1941. After the war ended in 1945 many problems associated with it still plagued the United States but were resolved by 1950 (Smith, 2002).

Basal Reader changes included: Providing more preprimers due to wide acceptance of reading readiness concepts,Picture placement and arrangements begin to change, sentances and paragraphs adopt the regular paragraph style instead of the hanging indentation due to eye movement studies, trend of reducing vocabularies in beginning readers continues (Smith, 2002, pgs. 258-260).

Four new series were published before the war and only 2 after compared to the 16 new series published between 1925 - 1935 (Smith, 2002, pg. 249).

"The most obvious effect of this period was a reduction in output of research and instructional materials (Smith, 2002, pg. 248). After 1945 the number began to steadily increase again.

Scott Foresman Company publishes William H. Elson and William S. Gray’s notable characters debut.
(Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

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William H. Elson and William S. Gray.join together to create this series for the Scott Foreman Company. It was considered “ a totally packaged basal reading program” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

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This series was updated to incorporate many of the new trends in reading and added several new books to its series. The most notable addition though was in their teachers guides where they coined the term "structural analysis to identify the skills belonging to [the] word-recognition technique" (Smith, 2002, pg. 267).

The features of this new series included stories "written by well-known authors of children's literature....[and] it was first to provide social studies and science content designed to accompany curricular topics in this area" (Smith, 2002, pgs. 262-263).

(Smith, 2002, pg. 261)

Publisher Scott Foresman had William S. Gray and MayHill Arbuthnot create this new reader for them (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

The Curriculum Foundation Series was produced for the Scott Foresman Company by William S. Gray, Dorothy Baruch and Elizabeth Rider. It “led the way for many of the postwar generation of readers. These series contained teachers' guides, workbooks, and related and supplementary texts” (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

The Ginn Basic Readers introduced the concept of "vertical arrangement. According to this plan the program is planned not only horizontally in grade levels but also vertically across grade lines to ensure continuity in skill development" (Smith, 2002, pg. 265).

"One distinctive feature of this program...was the integration of reading skills and techniques in curricular settings. A second distinctive feature was the built-in-program providing for utilizing interrelationships with the other language arts....The Betts Basic Readers program was one part of a larger program under the general caption 'Language Arts Series'" (Smith, 2002, pg. 267).

Full title: The New Alice and Jerry Books Basic Readers, Reading Foundation Series: Here and There. Scott Foresman asked Mabel O'Donnell to write this new series “since the basal reader market was a lucrative one…. Few demonstrated the mass appeal and consistent strength of the Scott, Foresman series" (Monaghan Collection on the History of Reading, 2001, no page number).

Influencing reading instruction during this period were: expanding knowledge, technological innovation/revolution and a "deep concern for the survival of democracy' (Smith, 2002, pg. 287) through an increase in literacy.

This curriculum first became available in 1950 and the series was completed by 1958 however it was significantly revised and republished in 1962. The revisions included extending the program through the eighth grade and creating a simplified versions of each grades reader that looked exactly the same as the regular one except for the amount of new words (Smith, 2002, pg. 313).

It was the first graded Linguistic Principles reading series (Smith, 2002, pg. 360).

"The program was prepared in order to provide readers that might reflect the multicultural, multiracial, and multiarchitectural needs of a big city" (Smith, 2002, pgs. 353-354).

Consisted of "readers that would narrate interesting situations common to multicultural backgrounds of children in a big city, and that they would contain illustrations depicting characters of different races" (Smith, 2002, pg. 352).

Using the Initial Teaching Alphabet, which was an augmented alphabet, this reading series used "a language arts approach. From the beginning, children participate in activites involving reading; handwriting; and creative writing, spelling, and thinking" (Smith, 2002, pg. 367). The usual stories in the beginning readers were replaced with stories of of a dinosaur. (Smith, 2002, pg. 367).

Several programmed reading courses became available between 1960 - 1965: The Teachall Reading course, Steps to Better Reading, The Basal Progressive Choice Reading Program,The Michigan Successive Discrimination Reading Program, and Programmed Reading Books (Smith, 2002, pgs. 369-371).

Guides were expanded and revised to reflect new trends in reading and readers were bigger and more colorful (Smith, 2002, pg. 322).

Created two editions of its basic reader - the Established & the Multi-ethnic. "The Multi-ethnic edition reflectes in its selections, illustrations and teaching procedures for 30 cultural and ethnic groups" (Smith, 2002, pg. 321).

Created for the below average reader to help "reawaken [their] interest in reading" (Smith, 2002, pg. 321).

By 1962 the full curriculum was in print. "The primary purpose...was to capitalize on the interrelationships of the language arts skills by providing experiences in reading, writing, speaking, and listening....The authors advocated a 'modifed approach' that makes use of teaching reading by the individualized plan as well as by the group-oriented arrangement" (Smith, 2002, pgs. 308-309).

Created to be used by children who needed reading material more challenging than the basic basal reader provided (Smith, 2002, pg. 321).

First reading series developed for children that used the Linguistics Principles (Smith, 2002, pg. 359).

This series was noted for its "highly specialized phonic approach that begins as soon as a child enters first grade" (Smith, 2002, pg. 315).

The Third Edition was published in 1963. These readers began a new trend by including "skill-building material" and calling the readers "textbooks" (Smith, 2002, pg. 318). Also included in the options was "a special sight saving edition and a Braille edition" (Smith, 2002, pg. 317).

Featured a mix "of stories, old and new, poems, and plays... [and] informative articles" (Smith, 2002, pg. 323).

First published in 1957 and republished in 1963. The 1963 edition had several new features including Diagnostic and Achievement tests. It also provided Readers beyond sixth grade which included book-length novels featuring topics of interest to boys (Smith, 2002, pg. 306).

"The content features literature and is high interest appeal...[with] exercises...designed to foster appreciation, develop skills, and to extend reading interest (Smith, 2002, pg. 322).

Updated to reflect new trends these readers included:
" ' Enrichment Readers'...excellent selections from children's literature and the classics. 'Book-Length Stories' are provided for the middle grades....[along with] song records...and...full-color film strips for teaching phonics" (Smith, 2002, pg. 320).

Macmillan promoted this series by capitalizing on the need for schools to current on new methods so their children would not fall behind in this new age expanding technology (Smith, 2002, pg. 310).

Also known as The Curriculum Foundation Series, it was extensively updated and revised to reflect current trends in reading (Smith, 2002, pg. 321).

Martinez, M., & McGee, L. (2000). Children’s Literature and
Reading Instruction: Past, present, and future. Reading
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Department of Special Collections website. Retrieved April
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Monaghan, E. J., & Barry, A. L. (1999). History of Literacy.
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http://www.historyliteracy.org/download/Book5.pd

Smith, N. (2002). American reading instruction. Newark, DE:
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Moore, D., Readence, J., & Rickelman, R. (1983). An Historical exploration of Content Area Reading Instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 18(4), 419-438.

Shannon, A. (2000). "What's My Name?": A Politics of Literacy in the Latter Half of the 20th Century in America. Reading Research Quarterly, 35(1), 90-107.