The Open Court Reading Program is a core Language arts/English series used in a large number of

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s classrooms. It was one of two reading programs adopted for use in California schools when textbooks were last chosen in 2002. The other was

Houghton-Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Boston Financial District. It was formerly known as the Houghto ...

Reading. For the 2008 Edition, Open Court Reading's name was changed to Imagine It!. The series is published by

McGraw-Hill Education McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

. There is both praise and criticism of the program among educators. Proponents of Open Court Reading believe that its focus on

phonics Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing to beginners. To use phonics is to teach the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language (phonemes), and the letters (graphemes) or groups of letters or syllables of the written ...

and

reading comprehension Reading comprehension is the ability to process written text, understanding, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Reading Comprehension of spoken language, comprehension relies on two abilities that are co ...

strategy use, both taught with very explicit instruction, benefit children. Some critics dislike the explicit nature of instruction, suggesting that it leaves little room for child exploration or teacher creativity, as constructivist models of reading instruction such as

whole language Whole language is a philosophy of reading and a discredited educational method originally developed for teaching literacy in English to young children. The method became a major model for education in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and ...

References

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External links

Official website of SRA/McGraw-Hill
Open Court Reading publisher.
Open Court Resources.com
largest collection of free Open Court Reading Resources on the internet created by and for Open Court Reading teachers
A Yahoo Discussion Board
created by teachers of Open Court Reading to share ideas for teaching the program. * US Department of Education, What Works Clearinghouse, WWC Intervention Report, August 2012, "Adolescent Literacy: Open Court Reading", http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/interventionreport.aspx?sid=568 * Borman, G.D., Dowling, N.M. and Schneck, C. (2008) ''Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis'', 30(4), 389–407. Phonics curricula

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Basal readers Reading (process)