greta_elisif Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 I have just finished analyzing the grade levels of all the reading books which are free to download, by William McGuffey, Charles Sanders, and Salem Town. I posted this information to the general board, but since I think these books are absolutely the best reading books for anyone, especially gifted students, I’m putting it here too. I believe these authors have assembled what are probably the most wholesome and ennobling (for those who haven’t seen them yet, check out the highest levels, like Sixth and Young Ladies,’ for example) reading books there are, and, contrary to my low expectations of modern reading curricula, I don’t doubt that they will raise any student to his or her highest potential. The reason I think they are particularly good for gifted kids is gifted kids are usually reading at a much higher grade level than they can otherwise work in. I had started to worry about my daughter, “If she keeps going at this pace, she’ll reach 9th-grade reading by 1st grade, and I can’t have a 6-year-old learning to write letters and who has never composed a paragraph in a high-school literature course…” Using these books, gifted kids can have a reading course each year, like kids normally do, but just at their reading levels, no matter how high they get, and they can move forward at their own paces. Also, since these books can be found free on the internet, you may want to use more than one of the books at a particular level, assigning all or most of the lessons when extra practice is needed, and skipping ahead whenever they get easy. We are doing something like that. Unfortunately, I have not figured out the differences among indications such as “Eclectic,” “Alternate,” and “Union.” To get the grade levels, I processed samples of the texts with the Lexile Analyzer. Since it accepts only one thousand words at a time, and because it takes awhile to clean up the text-recognition output, I analyzed, depending on the length of the lessons, somewhere between several lessons and several paragraphs of two lessons from the beginning and end of each textbook of progressive difficulty, and also, in the textbooks of non-progressive difficulty, parts of the middles for purposes of comparison to the rest of each book. Thus all of the results are approximate. The links are in the comment because this won’t all fit into one post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greta_elisif Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 William McGuffey Readers PROGRESSIVE DIFFICULTY Eclectic Primer: 1st grade 1st New Reader: 1st–2nd grades 1st Eclectic Reader (1885 edition) 1st Eclectic Reader (another version): 1st through 2nd grades Alternate 1st Reader: 1st–3rd grades 2nd Eclectic Reader: 3rd through 4th grades 2nd New Reader: 3rd–4th grades 3rd New Reader: 4th–5th grades Alternate 2nd Reader: 4th-7th grades 3rd Eclectic Reader: 5th through 6th grades 4th New Reader: 5th–6th grades Alternate 3rd Reader: 6th–8th grades 4th Eclectic Reader: 6th through 8th grades NON-PROGRESSIVE DIFFICULTY 5th New Reader: 6th–12th grades 5th Eclectic Reader: 7th grade through college-sophomore year Alternate 4th Reader: 8th–12th grades High-School Reader: 9th–12th grades Alternate 5th Reader: 11th grade–college senior 6th Eclectic Reader: 9th grade through college-senior year 6th New Reader: 12th grade–college sophomore (I lost the link; does anyone have it?) Charles Sanders Readers PROGRESSIVE DIFFICULTY First School Reader: About one-third into 4th grade, through end of 7th/beginning of 8th grade (690L–1060L). First Union Reader: End of 1st/beginning of 2nd grade, through end of 4th/beginning of 5th grade (340L–800L). Second School Reader (Google Books) Second School Reader (Internet Archive): End of 4th/beginning of 5th grade, through most of 6th (790L–980L) Second Union Reader (A few pages in the beginning are missing.): Last quarter of 5th/first quarter of 6th grade, through 7th grade (910L–1030L) Third Union Reader: End of 6th/middle of 7th grade, through end of 9th/beginning of 10th grade (990L–1020L) NON-PROGRESSIVE DIFFICULTY Third School Reader: 12th grade/college-freshman year (1250L–1330L) Fourth School Reader: End of 10th/middle of 11th grade, through beginning of graduate school (1180L–1500L) Fourth New School Reader: End of 7th/beginning of 8th grade, through college-sophomore/junior years (1030L–1380L) Fourth Union Reader (Google Books) Fourth Union Reader (Internet Archive): End of 5th/beginning of 6th grade, through college-sophomore/junior years 890L–1430L) Fifth School Reader (Google Books) Fifth School Reader (Internet Archive): End of 7th/beginning of 8th grade, through beginning of graduate school (1020L–1520L) Fifth Union Reader (Google Books) Fifth Union Reader (Internet Archive): Middle of 8th/9th grade, through beginning of graduate school (1090L–1510L) Rhetorical, Or, Sixth Union Reader (Google Books) Rhetorical, Or, Sixth Union Reader (Internet Archive): End of 5th/beginning of 6th grade, through college-senior year (810L–1470L) Young Ladies’ Reader: Middle of 8th/beginning of 9th grade, through 12th grade/mid college-freshman year (1060L–1300L) High School Reader: End of 6th/middle of 7th grade, through college-senior year (990L–1480L) Salem Town Readers PROGRESSIVE DIFFICULTY Child’s First Reader: level unknown First Reader, To Be Used in Connection with Any Speller: level unknown Second Reader: Middle of 4th grade, through middle of 8th/9th grade (740L–1070L) Progressive Second Reader: Middle of 5th grade, through middle of 6th/beginning of 7th grade (820L–950L) Third Reader: End of 10th/middle of 11th grade, through college-sophomore/junior year (1170L–1380L) Progressive Third Reader: Middle of 5th grade, through middle of 10th/11th grade (870L–1150L) Progressive Fourth Reader: About two-thirds through 5th grade, through middle of 10th/11th grade (870L–1140L) Progressive Fifth Elocutionary Reader: End of 12th grade/middle of college-freshman year, through one-third through graduate school (1300L–1530L) NON-PROGRESSIVE DIFFICULTY Fourth Reader: Middle of 6th/beginning of 7th grade, through college-senior year (950L–1470L) Grammar School Reader: Middle of 8th/beginning of 9th grade, through middle of 12th grade/college-freshman year (1070L–1280L) Fifth, Or, Elocutionary Reader: End of 10th/middle of 11th grade, through middle of college-freshman/beginning of college-junior year (1190L–1330L) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Thanks! If you want real books, the 1879 McGuffey series reprinted is generally cheap at Amazon, it's currently $37.77: http://www.amazon.com/McGuffeys-Eclectic-Readers-William-McGuffey/dp/0471294284/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257490888&sr=8-1 Also, while the older McGuffey books are generally at least $50, you can get the Sanders books at Alibris or ABE books for reasonable prices, I didn't pay more than $10 for any of mine and I have the whole Sanders collection. There are currently 31 Sanders Readers at ABE books for $10 or less. (Search for Sanders in author, Reader in title, years 1800 - 1900 in advanced search.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amber in AUS Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Thankyou! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harmony Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Greta, Thank you so much for posting the analysis of reading books. I was wondering about that and you just satisfied my curiousty at the right time. Thank you again! It is so kind of you! Harmony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skaterbabs Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 I am so happy to have found this thread! The info in the OP is wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYC Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Thank you so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted January 12, 2010 Share Posted January 12, 2010 Thanks:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschooltoone Posted January 12, 2010 Share Posted January 12, 2010 Wow! Thank You! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnia Posted January 12, 2010 Share Posted January 12, 2010 Wow - very helpful. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted January 13, 2010 Share Posted January 13, 2010 I looked over some of it. I was surprised by some of the levels.Do they seem too high to you? (the books seem simpler/easier than their ratings)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medieval Mom Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 If you want real books, the 1879 McGuffey series reprinted is generally cheap at Amazon, it's currently $37.77: http://www.amazon.com/McGuffeys-Ecle...7490888&sr=8-1 We love these! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greta_elisif Posted June 28, 2010 Author Share Posted June 28, 2010 Sorry I am not able to do a complete analysis—or one that wouldn’t take years. This is an informal one. Anybody who would like to improve on the research is welcome to. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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