Basal vs. Trade books

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Home : 2003 : November : 19

Basal vs. Trade books
By 6thTeacher

As part of my district reading committee, I am currently help choose what we are going to spend our money on. Some advice:

It should not be a basal or "books" issue. Your goal should be to improve your instruction. At
our district we have went the trade book route for almost twenty years. We are light yearsbehind other districts, so we are leaning toward a basal.
What are you currently using? Buying trade books is great, but most kids need help in learning and applying comprehension strategies. Some teachers have not had updated training in years (even the things from my college in late 90's is

outdated) so the basal route may be your best bet to ensure that they understand how to teach.

A study conducted in the 80's (I think) found that with trade books, teachers were asking a lot of questions and testing a lot, but kids were not learning how to infer, how to connect what they read to life, etc.

I am not a basal-thumper, but I worry that many of the teachers coming to our district in the next 5 years will be lost. I arrived to a room full of class sets of books and was frustrated quickly. A basal would have allowed me to use some things that were already developed--a big time-saver.

As far as the worksheets, who says you have to buy the worksheets? My group is hoping to negotiate with the publisher for the books only. We will then take the remaining money to purchase supplemental materials of OUR choice. Maybe you could do the same!

Let me know if you need anything else. I would be happy to help.