vocabulary and McGuffey question

[Michelle O. in MO]

Hello all,

I use the McGuffey 3rd reader with my 9yod. For each chapter we read, I choose four vocabulary words for her to look up in the dictionary and then copy down in her best cursive handwriting. She doesn't have to do all four words in one sitting. These words are difficult words. This week they included 1) asylum 2) consternation 3) precipitately 4) aperture. She can find them in the dictionary with some assistance from me and copy them easily, but she is not remembering their meanings (I'm not remembering the definitions either). Here's my question: should we spend time on vocabulary that she doesn't use on a regular basis? We read a lot of Ambleside literature recommendations so we come across these words from time to time, but not every day. Should I give her the option of choosing the words she doesn't understand? I want to use our time wisely and productively. My dd is comfortable at this point using the dictionary and she does very well with her copy work no matter what it is. So it is vocabulary content that I'm concerned with.

Thank you for reading through this long post!
Michelle in Missouri

[Myrtle]

Hello all,

I use the McGuffey 3rd reader with my 9yod. For each chapter we read, I choose four vocabulary words for her to look up in the dictionary and then copy down in her best cursive handwriting. She doesn't have to do all four words in one sitting. These words are difficult words. This week they included 1) asylum 2) consternation 3) precipitately 4) aperture. She can find them in the dictionary with some assistance from me and copy them easily, but she is not remembering their meanings (I'm not remembering the definitions either). Here's my question: should we spend time on vocabulary that she doesn't use on a regular basis? We read a lot of Ambleside literature recommendations so we come across these words from time to time, but not every day. Should I give her the option of choosing the words she doesn't understand? I want to use our time wisely and productively. My dd is comfortable at this point using the dictionary and she does very well with her copy work no matter what it is. So it is vocabulary content that I'm concerned with.

Thank you for reading through this long post!
Michelle in Missouri

It's my understanding that McGuffey 1 corresponds to grades 1 &2
McGuffey 2 corresponds with grades 3 & 4
and McGuffey 3 corresponds to grades 5 & 6

So it sounds like your daughter is really advanced. I give my kids vocabulary words that they don't hear every day but I try to overuse them in humorous ways through the day to reinforce it. I bombed with 'swain', 'goldenrod', and 'pollster' though.

[Michelle O. in MO]

I didn't know that. :o Dd is an advanced reader, so I thought book 3 would challenge her just enough w/o boring her. Thank you for the insight...I'm going to have to re-think this. And thank you for the idea to use the word (s) throughout the day!

Michelle

[Sasha]

I wish I'd seen this thread earlier! I just ordered the McGuffy Primer for my youngest (to grow into, he's not reading yet), the Second for my 6 year old, and the Third for my 8 year old.

I didn't realize that the books didn't coincide with grade levels.

[Alana in Canada]

Just to throw in another monkey wrench: WTM recommends starting oral reading the McGuffey 3 in second grade.

As for the vocabulary: you'll have to get her to write sentences with it if you want the meaning to stick. Perhaps you can choose words she could fashion into a little story?

He walked precipitately toward the asylum, anxious to visit his friend. He was going to take a picture of him. But, much to his consternation, when he got there, he discovered the aperature settings on his camera were too low to get a good picture without extra light.

[Myrtle]

I used McGuffey with my older son and what was going on in the lower levels was not so difficult for him, but it became unmanageable later on due to the abstract nature of the themes intended for older students.

Somewhere online, and I can't remember the link, a teacher from the turn of the century said that most of her students didn't make it out of the fourth level (8th grade). That makes sense with what I have read..that only about 5% of students ever graduated high school at about that time period.

To lurkers: Nonetheless, I have really enjoyed these readers and you can read them all online for free (illustrations included) here. (http://books.google.com/books?q=McGuffey&um=1&as_brr=1)

[Michelle O. in MO]

I like your ideas for the vocabulary words. This discussion is very helpful. I may just slow things down a bit considering my dd's age and the difficult level of the material. I'll also choose more carefully which chapter's we read so they fit more closely with her abilities.

[LunaLee]

If so, according to the info from Mott, the second reader is for grades 3-5, the third is 6-8 and the fourth is for high school, although it could be used for an advanced middle schooler.

I would say that the vocab in the 3rd reader is way too much for a 9y/o, even an advanced one. If it were me, I'd talk about the words as they are used in the stories, but use something else for a vocabulary program.

BTW-I'm using the second reader with my 3rd grader and the third reader with my 8th grader.