#Mac wiki reader series

The content of the readers changed drastically between McGuffey's 1836-1837 edition and the 1879 edition. These goals were considered suitable for the relatively homogeneous America of the early- to mid-19th century, though they were less so for the increasingly pluralistic society that developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He interpreted the goals of public schooling in terms of moral and spiritual education, and attempted to give schools a curriculum that would instill Presbyterian Calvinist beliefs and manners in their students. McGuffey is remembered as a conservative theological teacher. The Readers emphasized spelling, vocabulary, and formal public speaking, which was a more common requirement in 19th-century America than today. He also listed questions after each story, for he believed that asking questions was critical for a teacher to give instruction. McGuffey believed that teachers, as well as their students, should study the lessons and suggested that they read aloud to their classes. In contrast, McGuffey used new vocabulary words in the context of real literature, gradually introducing new words and carefully repeating the old. Colonial-era texts had offered dull lists of 20 to 100 new words per page for memorization. Sounding-out, enunciation, and accents were emphasized. They used word repetition in the text as a learning tool, developing reading skills by challenging students using the books. McGuffey's Readers were among the first textbooks in the United States designed to be increasingly challenging with each volume. The fourth Reader was written for the highest levels of ability on the grammar school level. The third Reader taught the definitions of words and was written at a level equivalent to the modern 5th or 6th grade. It helped them to understand the meaning of sentences, while providing vivid stories which children could remember. The second Reader was used once students could read. The first Reader taught reading by using the phonics method, the identification of letters and their arrangement into words, and aided with slate work.

#Mac wiki reader series

Most schools of the 19th century used only the first two in the series of McGuffey's four readers.

The advanced Readers contained excerpts from the works of well-regarded English and American writers and politicians such as Lord Byron, John Milton, and Daniel Webster. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays, and speeches. He compiled the first four readers (1836-1837 edition), while the fifth and sixth were created by his brother Alexander Hamilton McGuffey during the 1840s. He completed the first two readers within a year of signing his contract, receiving a fee of $1,000 ($20,000 in 2021 dollars). He had been recommended for the job by longtime friend Harriet Beecher Stowe. In 1835, the small Cincinnati publishing firm of Truman and Smith asked him to create a series of four graded readers for primary level students. William Holmes McGuffey established a reputation as a lecturer on moral and biblical subjects while he was teaching at Miami University.