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Excerpts from Parker's First Reader | ||
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Parker's First Reader You can see the cover and introduction from Parker's First Reader in our spelling section. This book was designed to be used following Webster's Speller. It has hyphens dividing words of more than one syllable to help beginning reading students trained in the reading of syllables through the use of Webster's syllabary sound out longer words on their own through this syllable division aid. Here are a few lessons from Parker's First Reader to show how this worked, and also to show what a First Grade student should be capable of learning when they are taught Webster's Way. As Parker himself says in Lesson IX: The si-lent let-ters which are used in spell-ing ma-ny words are ver-y puz-zling to lit-tle boys and girls, when they are learn-ing to read; but I hope that the good lit-tle boy or girl who is now read-ing this les-son will try ver-y hard to rec-ol-lect how all the words are spelt; and that the teach-er will re-quire ev-e-ry pu-pil to be a-ble to spell ev-e-ry word that is read. By so doing, the pu-pil will learn to read much fast-er, and in a short time hard words will cease to trou-ble him. Lesson VI. You have seen the pic-ture of a horse, and the pic-ture of a cow, and of a dog, and a cat, and a house. Did you see a sound? No, I did not see a sound. I can-not see a sound. A sound can-not be seen. I can hear a sound, but I can-not see a sound. Can you smell a sound, or can you eat a sound, or drink a sound, or taste or feel one? No, a sound can-not be smelled, nor can I taste a sound, nor feel nor drink one; but I can hear a sound and know when a sound is made. Can you make a pic-ture of a sound? I do not think a pic-ture of a sound can be made. O yes, it can; and this book is full of the pic-tures of sounds. The pic-ture of a horse looks like a horse, and the pic-tures of a house and a cow look like a house and a cow. Does the pic-ture of a sound look like a sound ? No, the pic-ture of a sound does not look like a sound. We can-not see a sound, and do no know how a sound looks. How, then, can we make a pic-ture of a sound, if we do not know how a sound looks? I will tell you. I have just told you that this book is full of pictures of sounds ; and I will show you one of these pic-tures. What is this? f This is an ef. But what do you mean by an ef ? An ef is a let-ter. And what is a let-ter ? A let-ter is what is in books. There are a great many let-ters in books. And what are let-ters put in books for ? Let-ters are put in books for us to read. Do you know what you were told of let-ters in the first part of the book ? O yes, I was told that let-ters are only pic-tures of sounds ; but I do not know what that means. It means that let-ters are marks of pic-tures of sounds that we make when we speak. You told me that large let-ter on the last page of this book is an ef. That is the name ofthis let-ter, but it is not the sound or pic-ture for which it stands. Now here are three letters f a t and what word does f a t spell ? It spells fat. But f does not spell fat, does it ? And a does not spell fat. Nor does t spell fat. But f a t spells fat. What does f spell ? I do not know what it spells. But does not f stand for a sound ? Oh yes ; f stands for the sound [Here the teacher must fill up the sentence by making to the pupil the sound for which f stands in the word fat, by pronouncing the sound of f without the a t.] You see, then, that the let-ter f stands for a sound, or is the pic-ture of a sound, such as we make when we speak. It does not look like a sound, for sounds have no looks ; but it is the mark or pic-ture that we see in books ; and when we read books we make that sound when we read words that have an f in them. Lesson VIII. Do you know what a hy-phen is? I told you that a hy-phen is a short mark, like the mark next to the y in hy-phen. Now, you will find ma-ny hy-phens in this book; and you must try to re-mem-ber that the hy-phen is used to show you the parts of the same word. You have just read a word that has three parts: the first part is re, and the next part is mem, and the third part is ber; and then there were two hy-phens, one next to the part re and one next to the part mem; and now I wish you to tell me what the word is, when you put all the three parts to-geth-er. Here is the word, re-mem-ber. And here is the word without the hyphen; can you tell me what the word is? remember. Now I wish you to re-mem-ber when you see a hyphen, that the use of it is to show lit-tle boys and girls how to read long words. The parts of words which are sep-a-ra-ted by a hy-phen are called syl-la-bles. Now, the word syl-la-ble is a hard word for you to un-der-stand; but I think you will be a-ble to un-der-stand what the word syl-la-ble means, now that I have told you that a syl-la-ble is part of a word. Now, can you tell me how ma-ny syl-la-bles there are in this long word? beau-ti-ful-ly. Beau is one syl-la-ble, and ti is an-oth-er, which makes two, and ful is an-oth-er, which makes three; and ly is one more, which makes four. Beau-ti-ful-ly, then, is a word of four syl-la-bles; and when you are a lit-tle old-er and can read oth-er books, you will find a great ma-ny words as long as the beau-ti-ful-ly, which you will be a-ble to read with-out the hy-phens to show you the parts of the word. Lesson IX. I told you that a syl-la-ble is a part of a word. Now, can you tell me what a let-ter is? If you do not know what a let-ter is, I must tell you. A let-ter is the pic-tre of a sound such as we make when we speak or read; and that sound is a word, or a part of a word. But I have told you be-fore that it is not such a pic-ture as a pic-ture of a horse, or the pic-ture of a cow or of a house; be-cause the pic-ture of a horse looks like a horse, but the pic-ture of a sound does not look like a sound. It is more prop-er to say that it is a mark which stands for a sound than to say it is the pic-ture of a sound; but I call it a pic-ture be-cause I think you will un-der-stand it bet-ter. Now, I wish you to look at the words which you read, and see that some of them have but one part, or syl-la-ble, and that some of them have two, three, four, and more syl-la-bles. And if you look at the syl-la-bles, you will see that some of them have but one let-ter, some have two let-ters, some have three, four, or more let-ters in them. And one thing more I wish you to see, when you read in this book, or when you read any-thing else; and that is, that some of the let-ters which be-long to some syl-la-bles do not stand for any sound in the word, but that the word is pro-nounced as it would be with-out such let-ters in them. The word which is spelled s e a is pro-nounced as if it were spelled se ; but it al-ways must be spelled with an a, al-though the a is silent, or has no sound in the word. And the word which we call det is spelled d e b t ; but the b is not sound-ed, and there-fore it is called a si-lent letter. Now, if you will try to re-mem-ber what I have told you a-bout these si-lent let-ters, I think you will be able to read ver-y well, in a short time; and I suppose you will be ver-y glad when you are a-ble to read pret-ty stories in books. The si-lent let-ters which are used in spell-ing ma-ny words are ver-y puz-zling to lit-tle boys and girls, when they are learn-ing to read; but I hope that the good lit-tle boy or girl who is now read-ing this les-son will try ver-y hard to rec-ol-lect how all the words are spelt; and that the teach-er will re-quire ev-e-ry pu-pil to be a-ble to spell ev-e-ry word that is read. By so doing, the pu-pil will learn to read much fast-er, and in a short time hard words will cease to trou-ble him. Lesson XX. No good lit-tle boy will ev-er go to bed, at night, without say-ing his prayers to the great and good God who made him. Some lit-tle boy, per-haps, does not know how to pray, nor where to look when he is say-ing his prayers. If he keeps his eyes o-pen when he is say-ing his prayers, he will be think-ing, per-haps, more of what he sees than of the great God to whom he says his prayers. Now, if he shuts his eyes, he can see noth-ing ; and he will be more like-ly to think what he says in his Prayers to Al-might-y God. If you, my dear lit-tle boy, or lit-tle girl, who are read-ing this book, do not know a-ny-thing bet-ter to say, when you go to bed at night, here is a short prayer that man-y lit-tle boys and girls have re-peat-ed, and which, per-haps, will do you good, if you will re-peat it ev-e-ry night, be-fore you go to sleep. Now I lay me down to sleep, And here, al-so, are two hymns, one for morn-ing, and one for the e-ve-ning, which I hope you will learn to re-peat : MORNING HYMN. A-wake, my soul, and with the sun Lord ! I my vows to thee re-new ; Glo-ry to thee, who safe hast kept, Di-rect, con-trol, sug-gest, this day, Search, try, oh God, my thoughts and heart, EVENING HYMN. Glo-ry to thee, my God, this night, For--give me, Lord, for thy dear Son, Teach me to live that I may dread O, may my soul on thee re-pose, When in the night I sleep-less lie, May I at last in end-less day | |
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