Examines six basal series commonly in use in British schools and reveals that they give only brief attention to developing children's awareness of reading and its purpose. Provides a checklist for evaluating materials for their effectiveness in conveying the value of reading. (FL)

Argues that English reading should not be introduced to a primary school student with a limited command of English until that child can comprehend the syntactic and semantic structures in the text. Discusses ways of assessing a child's level of English competence and the structural level of the reading material. (FL)

Describes a technique for assessing children's free recall that is simple and quick and also provides important information for the teacher. (FL)

Suggests 10 questions teachers should ask themselves before buying materials to teach reading skills. (FL)

Notes that most textbooks used in teacher education classes fail to discuss adequately the issues of sex equity, sex bias, sex differences, and the social contributions of women. Offers a list of resources for providing sex equity in education. (RL)

Suggests sources which can guide schools in evaluating textbooks. (MKM)

Outlines the characteristics of a good mystery and then suggests titles that would be of interest to young readers. (FL)

Points out that sound assessment programs should (1) be a part of instruction, (2) use varied methods and instruments, (3) focus on a broad range of skills and knowledge, (4) occur continuously, (5) occur in a variety of contexts, and (6) be appropriate for age and level of development. Offers examples of practices based on these points. (FL)

Discusses a retelling performance checklist that uses elements of story grammar to help teachers assess comprehension in a meaningful way. (FL)

Presents suggestions from five contributors including how to develop middle school students' library skills, teaching early reading through materials from a fast food restaurant chain, and ways to conduct student evaluation of teachers. (FL)

Presents a checklist that was created so that parents, teachers, and others could obtain from vision specialists information necessary to ameliorate learning conditions efficiently. (FL)