In Room 254 at Hartford’s Martin Luther King School, reading workbooks and grammar books are out. Poetry is in. “A tree toad loved a she-toad Who lived up in a tree . . .” Forty y… ...

So, you may be ready to ditch your basal reader and transition to the workshop model. Or maybe you love your basal but want to get more out of it. Either way, here are 5 ways to make your basal reader ...

Basal readers rely more on analysis and documentation and less on students ... For example, the brand new Reading Street teacher editions guide teachers through the reading of each ...

For examples of the problems workshop leaders had identified, the group turned to a 3rd grade selection in “Reading Street,” a narrative poem called “When Charlie McButton Lost Power.” ...

Today’s basic reading anthology textbooks — so-called basal readers — lack those selections. To meet Common Core demands, they’re instead glutted with 21st-century informational texts.

In Lynn Drew`s 2nd-grade classroom at Crow Island School in Winnetka, children learn to read by learning to write. Critics call it putting the cart before the horse. Proponents, such as Drew, call … ...

This story right here, "The Secret Life of Trees," is an example of informational text. JOHN MERROW: Basal readers go back to the "McGuffey Reader" that was introduced in 1836.