Kittens and Children (Level E Workbook), Basic Reading Series: Classic Phonics Program for Beginning Readers, ages 5-8, illus., 96 pages

The workbooks for the BASIC READING SERIES contain material with which children can practice their decoding skills independently of teacher direction. The decoding experiences thus provided increase the children’s opportunities to discover sound-spelling relationships and to develop automatic word recognition. The workbooks also can be an aid to vocabulary, word-meaning, and concept development, as they lead children to associate words with appropriate visual images and challenge children to deal with the meanings of words, phrases, and sentences. Finally, the workbooks are a useful tool with which to evaluate the children’s decoding progress.

The workbook for Level E has nine sections of exercises, which correspond (in their sound-spelling patterns only) to the nine sections of the Level E reader (Kittens and Children). The exercises are not tied to the story content of the reader, however. Each section is identified by numbered tabs in the margins of its pages. Each section begins with word charts that present the new words for that section of Level E. Each section progresses from simple exercises based on single words and phrases to more complex exercises involving sentences and short stories.

Dr. Donald Rasmussen became fascinated with the work of renowned linguist Leonard Bloomfield as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois. After many years as a college professor, he became principal of the Miquon School, a small teacher-parent cooperative near Philadelphia. There, during the 1960s, Dr. Rasmussen and co-author Lynn Goldberg put Bloomfield's theories into practice by developing the BASIC READING SERIES, a whole-word phonics program originally published by Science Research Associates (SRA), later by McGraw-Hill, and now in its 6th edition.

Lynn Goldberg (1931-1976) was a public school teacher in Philadelphia and reading specialist at the Miquon School during the 1960s, where she and co-author Donald Rasmussen developed the BASIC READING SERIES, a whole-word phonics program that involves the teaching of sound patterns. In the 1970s, Mrs. Goldberg successfully adapted her reading method to the Philadelphia School District's Parkway Program, a remedial program for high school students. She lectured on beginning reading at numerous universities and reading conferences, and her writings were published in professional journals.