The Elson Readers - gebruikt boek

"The Elson Readers," "Books Four "through "Eight," are the culmination of a nine volume reader series from William Elson, well-known for his later creations "Dick and Jane" with whom many of us grew up as we learned to read. The structure of this series is designed so that the first books, "Primer "through "Book Three "are intended for "learning to read" as Elson put it, that is, they are intended for teaching the rudiments and mechanics of reading to young children. These early books contain literature for the young reader along with fables and folklore that have become part of the fabric of our culture and the books have the familiar look and feel of the later "Dick and Jane" books. Illustration are used profusely in the first books as visual aids for the young reader's understanding of the text. The book with which we have decided to begin with in our republishing efforts is "Book Four," followed by "Book Five "through "Eight "in sequence. Book Four serves as an important transitional book, moving the student into the "reading to learn" approach to literature, that is, the use of the skills built in the early books used to understand and interpret content-the aim, after all, of reading. "Book Four "is followed by books of increasingly complex literature and more complete and unabridged works of literature. These books rely on the quality of the literature itself to entertain and keep the readers interest, and illustrations are decreasingly used as the child's need for visual clues to story content decreases. The literature selected by Elson for this series not only has literary merit, but has been chosen with an aim to deepen children's appreciation of our American history andheritage and to encourage the development of virtues such as service to others, honesty, self-sacrifice, appreciation for the natural world, and yes, patriotism.