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A History of the American Reading Textbook

The modern basal reading series has evolved over more than 300 years, beginning with the single-sheet hornbook and the New England Primer. Although the typical modern series dwarfs its earliest antecedents in length and contains many components not included until the twentieth century, such as a separate teacher's manual, two common themes transcend the entire course of development. One is the construction of reading instruction around a selection of reading passages and the other is a conservative, narrow representation of society and the child's role in it. Changes in reading texts have occurred generally in response to changing attitudes in society toward childhood and toward the role of the school in imparting competencies to the young. Reading selections have also changed as society's image of itself has changed, passing through religious, moral, materialistic, and multicultural phases. Skill instruction was always present in reading texts, but systematic instruction in comprehension and in study skills is a relatively recent addition.