Evaluates four middle school geography textbooks to examine readability levels, knowledge forms, intellectual operations, instructional objectives, and activities associated with before-, during-, and after-phases of instruction. Finds the texts to be generally inconsiderate of poor readers and to be dense with factual information. Discusses…

Evaluates four commercial reading programs at the second, fourth, and sixth grade levels with respect to main idea instructional practices and readability of text. Evaluates the type of main idea tasks and main idea statements, as well as placement of explicit main idea statements in the text. Discusses implications for practitioners meeting…