Basal Readers

1930

Basal readers were grounded in behaviorist psychology. The children were to build associations in reading. Children were expected to learn the words by means of repetition. The vocabulary in the readers was scientifically controlled. As time passed, the number of words children were expected to learn was gradually reduced. While the goals of reading instruction were more broadly conceived, they still taught a scope and sequence of skills. Dick and Jane were the most widely known basal readers of this time, but other companies also began to create similar readers with the same content. These readers were later criticized for only featuring a white, middle-class, male-dominated family.