The Readers
The Elson Readers combine to make a complete reading curriculum for children from kindergarten to grade eight. Primer is intended for kindergarten age children and Books One through Eight are named for their respective grade level.
These readers are filled with wonderful stories from the world's greatest writers. The earlier volumes are simple stories for the introduction of reading in the very young child, adapted from fairy tales, folklore and stories about everyday life and illustrated with charming pictures. As the series progresses the stories are more fleshed out and, in the later volumes, there are full, uncondensed stories by authors such as: Shakespeare, Poe, Emerson, Tennyson, Longfellow, Browning, Masefield, Dickens, Webster, Kipling, Burns, Hawthorne, Twain, Audubon, Wordsworth, Irving, and Thoreau and by great American leaders like: Benjamin Franklin, Woodrow Wilson, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Paine and selections based on Herodutus, Homer, and Virgil. This is only to mention a few from the list of wonderful authors contained in these volumes.
The real beauty of these books is the kind of literature within their covers--wholesome literature that views the world of nature with awe and which uphold the ideals of service to others and our country and which encourage sound moral development in their readers.
His goals in selecting literature for these readers is best expressed by the author himself, William Elson, in his Preface to Book Five:
"This book offers a well-rounded course of reading covering all the types mentioned above. Especially by means of groups of stories and poems that portray love of home and its festivals, love of our free country and its flag, and unselfish service to others, this book makes a stirring appeal to good citizenship. Morevoer, it will be noted that wholesome ethical ideals pervade the literature throughout."
The series has a natural break in the type of instruction starting with Book Four. The Primer and Books One through Three emphasize "learning to read" or the essential skills required for reading; where Books Four through Eight emphasize "reading to learn," that is, reading for content.
The books are typically broken into sections such as (from Book Seven): The World of Nature with subsections: Animals, Birds, Flowers and Trees, Spring and Autumn; The World of Adventure with subsections: Stories of the Supernatural (two stories by Poe), Narratives in Verse, A Story of Christmas, A Tale from Shakespeare; The Great American Experiment with subsections: The Eternal Spirit of Freedom, America's Experiment in Free Government, Citizenship and Service; Literature and Life in the Homeland with subsections: American Scenes and Legends, American Literature in a Lighter Vein, American Workers and Their Work. Each major section is followed by a review section.
Primer through Book Two have "Word Lists" while Book Three through Book Eight have glossaries, with pronunciation guides which we have updated with current pronunciation marks--a tedious job, but one which will make these books even better learning tools.
- The Elson Readers -
William H. Elson with Lura Runkel and Christine Keck
- The Elson Readers, Teacher's Guides -
Michele Black, Cynthia Keel Landen, Lorri Driggers Phillips
and
Catherine Andrews, Mary Jane Newcomer
The Teacher's Guides
New Teacher's Guides are available for each book in the series. Our teams of teachers have created these new guides from the ground up, utilizing the original exercises as a base.
Our authors are experienced public school teachers, who also have extensive experience with homeschooling. They have striven to keep both the goals of public school requirements and the needs of homeschool parents in mind as they developed these guides.
All the exercises from the original readers have been reproduced and appropriate answers provided to help you guide your children through the readers. Additional exercises have been added to reinforce specific skills. Because these new exercises were not in the original readers we have provide copyable worksheets for handout to the students for these sections.
Florida Sunstate Standards (many other states use similar guildelines for their texts) have been kept in mind while producing these guides, and before each section an "Objectives" list is provided that outline the appropriate goals for each section of each reader.
We have also reproduced the glossaries or word lists from the readers for handy access to the teacher or parent. Also included are "Vocabulary Worksheets" in the guides to Books Four through Eight. In the guides to Primer through Book Three, the Tables of Content provide a listing of skills for that section; typically "Words", "Phonics", and "Concepts" appropriate to that section.