Basal Reading

I think BASAL reading lessons are a bad idea, I know we worked a lot with them in class and that Tompkins outlines several ways we can implement them positively, but I still do not like agree with them. I think that they cause a teacher to become too dependent on pre-planned lesson plans and only allow a teacher to teach one way. I think students need differentiated literacy instruction and that not every child can learn through Basal reading. I think it is easy for many teachers to rely on this method of teaching, but that planning your own lesson with multiple ways to approach a text is the answer. Not only that, but the Basal readers I have witnessed in my CTs classroom only offer sections or excerpts of texts. How are the students supposed to be motivated to read and comprehend text when they aren't getting the whole story? My CT doesn't use Basal readers in his classroom, he has created his own methods to teach literacy, which I feel are more effective. He includes literacy in every aspect of his classroom and every lesson he teaches. Whether he is teaching literacy through prompts like
"What would you do if you woke up after sleeping for ten years?" or through Read Aloud and DEAR time, the students are motivated and comprehend more because of it.