I can see this book being used all at once with the entire class, allowing them to pick from their interests and pursue a project from this reader. It would be an excellent source of beginning information and lead them straight to the actual source. In this way, I think of the Basal Readers much as I do the encyclopedia. It is a wonderful place to begin looking for basic information and providing a pathway to the more focused, quality sources. These readers could be used as a source of what is and is not good literature.
People can learn just as much from watching someone's mistakes as their successes.
This was my first experience in the 2nd Grade at St. Stans Elementary. Basically, I observed the children reading silently and listened to a few students read aloud to me. This was an interesting experience. One boy, used a book that was made up of letters that represented the first sound of every word and sometimes the last. This early phonemic development was accompanied with picture cues.