The Essential Guide to Selecting and Using Core Reading Programs

Peter Dewitz, Susan B. Leahy, Jennifer Jones, and Pamela Maslin Sullivan

Reading Guide to Program Selection—Your GPS for Evaluating Core Reading Programs

This online supplement for The Essential Guide to Selecting and Using Core Reading Programs has been created for schools and school districts to use when evaluating core reading programs they are considering for adoption. You can use this guide to evaluate the texts, the instruction, and the assessments in core reading programs, and the guide will take you through many of the procedures described in the book.

The Reading GPS includes evaluation forms that are specifically tailored for use by teachers, parents, and principals. The following evaluation forms are included for teachers:

• Reading Guide to Program Selection: Kindergarten
• Reading Guide to Program Selection: Grades 1–2
• Reading Guide to Program Selection: Grades 3–6
• Piloting a Core Reading Program

In addition, because some school districts require parent and community input, we include a form for parents to evaluate core reading programs materials:

• Evaluating a Reading Program: Parents and Community Members

Finally, the following observation checklists may be used as guidelines for principals when conducting classroom observations; the first checklist is to be used for informal observations and the remaining three for more formal observations:

• Reading Instruction: A Walk-Through Observation Guide
• Observing Reading Instruction: Kindergarten
• Observing Reading Instruction: Grades 1–2
• Observing Reading Instruction: Grades 3–6