Reducing the number of reading skills activities in the elementary classroom

A series of three studies was conducted, the first two at the intermediate grade level and the third at the primary grade level. The purpose of these studies was to investigate the effects of an experimental classroom reading program in which students who passed pretests on basal skills were excused from subsequent instruc-tion and practice on these skills. Most students were able to pass pretests on reading skills before the skills were covered in the basal reader program. Without instruc-tion their performance on end-of-book skill tests remained high. Results suggest that it may be possible to excuse many students in the elementary grades from many of the skill activities in the basal reader program and that students ' attention could be directed, instead, to other reading activities. Three studies were conducted to investigate elementary students ' performance on basal skills. The purpose of these studies was to determine how well primary and intermediate grade students performed on skill pretests and to examine the effects of skipping "mastered " skill work on students ' end-of-section or end-of-book skill test scores. Elementary students typically spend a considerable amount of the reading pe-riod on basal reader skill activities (L. Anderson, 1984; R. Anderson, Hiebert