"In 1930 William S. Gray, a renowned educational psychologist and reading authority from the University of Chicago became a senior co-author with William H. Elson in creating the Dick and Jane series, first issued as the Elson Basic Readers in 1930-31. This was the first reading series to enforce strict vocabulary control over selections. Dick and Jane appeared in the pre-primer, but not in its original title. In 1934 the pre-primer was retitled Dick and Jane and a second pre-primer, More Dick and Jane Stories, was added. Two years later a further revision was done and the series title changed to the Elson-Gray Basic Readers, to acknowledge Gray’s true role in the series design" (Venezky, 1990b, p. xxiv). |
Playing the Story, a dress-up game inspired by the Elson-Gray Basic Pre-Primer story, "A Funny Baby" (Gray, 1936, p. 147). |
"The progenitors of the Dick and Jane series … were the Elson readers, which began in 1914 with the Elson-Runkel Primer, and continued over the next few years with a complete reading series to complement on the primary and early elementary levels the Elson Grammar School Readers which had already been published for grade 5 through 8. The Elson readers included the first pre-primer ever published and also and an extension or supplementary series entitled the Child Library Readers. This series was highly successful and continued to be revised through the 1920s. In 1927, a mechanical revision brought in the first pupil workbooks" (Venezky, 1990b, pp. xxiii-xxiv). |
Elson, William H. and William S. Gray. 1930. The Elson Basic Readers. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, and Co. |
Gray, William S. 1936. Teacher's guidebook for the Elson-Gray basic readers. Chicago : Scott, Foresman. (Teachers' manual for The Elson Basic Reader, pictured at left.) |
Elson, William H. 1923. Child-library readers. Primer, [Book one-]. Chicago : Scott, Foresman. |
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Elson, William H. and William S. Gray. 1930. The Elson Basic Readers. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, and Co. |
Elson, William H. [1914-1915?]. Elson-Runkel primer. Chicago : Scott, Foresman. |
