Daniel Willingham--Science & Education
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Basal readers lack non-fiction.

3/19/2012

 
As I’ve emphasized numerous times, reading comprehension depends on knowing at least something about the subject matter of the text one is reading. Adults read mostly for information, and so they must acquire a broad base of background knowledge to be competent readers. Yet much of the material students read in school is narrative fiction. Previous analyses (e.g., Venezky, 2000) of elementary reading materials have shown that kids spend most reading instructional time goes to stories.

There are few plausible contributors to this trend. First, there's a likely underestimation of the importance of background knowledge to reading. If you think of reading as a pure skill that can be applied equally well to any content, then the content with which one trains is irrelevant. Second, some seem to be believe that students need to read about things that are familiar to them, as illustrated by this opinion piece in Education Week, an opinion that is hard to square with the enthusiasm kids show in learning about ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, the natural world around them, etc. Third, basal readers may emphasize fiction because it is easier to create fiction that is non-controversial, and likely to anger no one on a school board or the PTA. Diane Ravitch’s book, The Language Police, documented the extent to which education publishers are frightened by controversy.

 A new study (Moss, EDIT--I mistakenly said this was a 2012 study--it was published in 2008) of basal readers used in California indicates that things might be getting a little better on this front, but we are still not where we ought to be. Barbara Moss analyzed the two most recently adopted basal programs in California to determine the percentage of selections in grades one through six that are devoted to different types of prose.

Here are the results

Picture
She also reported the percentage of pages--important because selections obviously vary in length and depth. A teacher might spend two lessons on a half-page poem, for example.
Picture
There is much more to the paper, but these tables present the most important conclusion. These two basal reading programs offer more non-fiction than many have in the past: For example, Moss and Newton (2002) reported the figure was about 20% non-fiction for the programs they examined. There is fair variability in the numbers in different studies, as individual programs do vary. Still, the overall figure for non-fiction is never all that high.

The author compares the observed percentage to that recommended by the NAEP: about 50% in fourth grade, increasing to 55% in eighth grade and 70% in twelfth grade. I’m not crazy about setting our standards by the demands of a standardized test, even one as good as the NAEP. That’s the tail wagging the dog. Rather, we should construct our tests to reflect our educational goals.

In the case of reading, most adults read texts that are mostly informational. To enable comprehension, schooling should provide a wide foundation in the sort of knowledge that these texts demand. That knowledge need not come exclusively from reading—indeed, in early grades, it cannot. But given that most instructional time in early grades goes to reading, it’s important that the reading content support the goal of building background knowledge.

Moss, B. (2008). The information text gap: The mismatch between non-narrative text types in basal readers and 2009 NAEP recommended guidelines. Journal of Literacy Research, 40,  201-219.

Moss, B., & Newton, E. (2002). An examination of the informational text genre in basal readers. Reading Psychology, 23, 1–13.

Venezky, R. L. (2000). The origins of the present-day chasm between adult literacy needs and school literacy instruction. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4, 19–39.
Kathryn Wilson
3/19/2012 05:07:56 am

"(I)t’s important that the reading content support the goal of building background knowledge. "

It seems to me that is the crux of the matter. The fiction vs. non-fiction argument may be misplaced.

EB
3/20/2012 01:43:16 am

Indeed. The problem with reading too much fiction is that most of it is focused on the interpersonal drama you can find in the current lives of kids and teens. This type of fiction doesn't add to their store of knowledge. Other types of fiction (historical, adventure, even some types of science fiction) convey lots of useful information.

RudyM
4/27/2012 06:48:55 am

Sure, fiction can convey useful information, but how do you check its accuracy? Ultimately, unless you know in advance, once you've finished a work of fiction and learned something from it, you have to ask: "is it true?" And you wouldn't consult other fiction to answer that question.

Also, in my opinion (though I don't have much of an argument for this), fiction doesn't deal well in representing larger systems (for instance, the forces at play in economic and political systems beyond individuals).

Non-fiction also tends to be constructed in ways that relate to how knowledge is formed, meaning, for instance, if you read a (non-fiction) book on the development of psychiatric drugs, you will learn about the process by which drugs are tested (or not), how tests are refined to address new questions raised by previous experiments. How often would fiction capture anything like that? If you read history, there is a good chance you will see references to evidence of some sort, with documents, for example, being quoted in the course of the text. Of course, I guess there are fair number of canned summary books on science or history, but once you get past that summary level you tend to get into the nitty-gritty of: how do we know this, anyway?

Cal
3/19/2012 07:10:17 pm

"The fiction vs. non-fiction argument may be misplaced."

Indeed. There's plenty of content knowledge in fiction. I didn't read Anton Beevor's Stalingrad until a few years ago, but when I picked it up, all I could think of was Colonel Klink's fear of the Russian Front. And now I know he was right to be worried.

Daniel Willingham link
3/20/2012 08:07:10 am

@Kathryn @Cal I agree. . .I think there's a reasonably strong correlation though--a lot of the stories in basal readers are pretty thin stuff.

Bonnie Daley
3/26/2012 09:56:51 am

As a science teacher, I have been lamenting the glut of fiction reading in elementary and middle schools, making it more and more difficult for students to read for information when they enter my class. I love the correlation with background information because that is a convincing argument for more non-fiction reading. Perhaps, some elementary teachers could use their basal readers as a jumping off point for reading more information about their favorite stories. And please don't suggest using the internet. Most search engines bring up far too much garbage and misinformation.

Barbara
3/30/2012 07:06:45 pm

Dan-The "new" Moss study that you reference was actually published in 2008. Additionally, the texts that she studied were anywhere from 3-5 years old, meaning they would be 7-9 years old now, hardly relevant with the current implementation of the Common Core Standards by many states. I am currently conducting a content analysis of the newly published 2012-2013 versions of the three most popular basals, and hope to publish my findings by the end of the year.

Dan Willingham link
3/31/2012 01:12:53 am

Barbara--You're right! I don't know how I got the year wrong. . .thanks for the correction! Please let me know when your analysis is complete.

Dan Willingham link
4/2/2012 02:21:34 am

I emailed Barbara Moss, and she told me that although the basals evaluated in this study are getting quite old, many are still in use, due to budget cuts in California. New adoptions will be along in couple of years, to align with Common Core.

Nisha
6/5/2012 05:47:46 am

Hi Barbara - I am doing a litte market research into the top basal reading programs as I am working on helping to create an online reading program for K-4. Are you able to tell me what the top 3 you have identified are? My guess is HCH "Trophies", Pearsons "Reading Street" and McGraw Hill "Treasurers". I'd love it if you can at least share with me the 3 you have identified :)

Many thanks
Nisha

RudyM
4/27/2012 06:34:04 am

Given that female reading preferences tend to run toward fiction over non-fiction (with the reverse being true for males), and given that education has tended to be a female-dominated field, I have to wonder if there is some sort of female bias in favor of fiction at work here.

But am I correct to say education has tended to be female-dominated? In terms of numbers of female teachers, I'm pretty sure it's true, but do men end up mostly calling the shots on curriculum?

There is a lot of ongoing hand-wringing about the lack of fiction reading, or reading for literary values in general, not particularly in school but in the general population. If it came to making a choice, I'd prefer to see more non-fiction, information and idea oriented reading. I was immersed in literature in my teens and early twenties (but poetry much more than fiction), and unfortunately I majored in English, when I should have been moving on due to my own changing interests. I see a lot of people who have a good background in literature or the arts and humanities more broadly, who don't seem to be helped by that fact when confronted with trying to understand political or economic realities.

Bar b
5/9/2012 04:40:18 am

Dan-I have also been in touch with the Ohio Department of Education, who reiterated Moss' claim that many older texts are still in use. The ODE Director of Curriculum predicts that many school districts will transition into newer texts, but it will take some time, due to budget constraints. I have a feeling that this is the situation throughout the U.S.

Dan Willingham link
5/9/2012 04:49:39 am

Really interesting, really concerning. . . so many people I talk to are assuming that districts will *have* to buy new texts to align with the Common Core. . .but many will not be able to afford it, and will, I'm guessing, do their best to cobble together something from what they have.


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