School Reading by Grades: Sixth Year

James BaldwinProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 329K words
Chapters: 33

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.School Reading by Grades: Sixth Year by James BaldwinAuthor: Baldwin, James, 1841-1925,Language: English, Class: PE: Language and Literatures: English, Release Date: Jul 26, 2011

Editor's review

As a graded English reader for sixth-year pupils, this book reflects a distinctly classical educational approach: the selections balance rhythm and narrative, the language advances step by step, and both oral reading practice and comprehension are cultivated. The author, James Baldwin, was a nineteenth-century American educator; his selections are mostly drawn from fables, historical stories and passages by famous writers, short in length but complete in structure, making the book a transitional reader for English learners. For Chinese readers its value lies not in literary novelty but in offering a comparable sample of basic English education: one can observe how an English textbook from over a century ago organized vocabulary, sentence length and moral themes. It is best read as material for both language history and educational history, not merely as a collection of children's stories. The electronic edition comes from the public domain, is plainly formatted, and suits either printing or on-screen reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Primary and secondary students with basic English reading ability who wish to consolidate their feel for the language
Teachers of English who want to understand how classical graded readers were organized
Enthusiasts of language history interested in nineteenth-century English teaching materials

Not a good fit for

Absolute beginners who need Chinese annotations
Readers expecting modern children's-literature appeal and contemporary themes
Readers of novels who want long plots and complex character development

Reading tips

Read one piece aloud each day: first read through without notes, then look up unfamiliar words, training the flow of speech.
Read in groups by theme, such as fables and historical pieces, and compare word choices.
Keep a notebook of recurring sentence patterns and vocabulary, making a simple frequency summary.
If used for teaching, select short pieces and have students rewrite them as modern English dialogue.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read directly?

Not really for absolute beginners. Although the selections are at sixth-year level, the wording and sentence patterns carry nineteenth-century features, and some expressions are distant from modern English. It is better to read after acquiring basic vocabulary and sentence patterns, or with a dictionary and teacher guidance.

Does the electronic edition include illustrations or annotations?

As is common for public-domain e-books, this volume is mainly plain text, plainly formatted, and usually contains no modern annotations or teaching aids. Readers need to prepare their own dictionary or consult other materials for background.

Can it be used to prepare for English exams?

Its training value lies mainly in reading fluency, basic sentence patterns and narrative comprehension, not exam techniques. If exams are the goal, use it as supplementary extensive reading, not as a substitute for targeted practice with past papers.

Comments

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About the author

James Baldwin Author · American · 1841–1925

James Baldwin (1841–1925) was an American educator, textbook editor, and writer of books for young readers. Born in Indiana, he served for many years as the state's superintendent of public instruction. He devoted his career to retelling history, mythology, and literary classics in clear, simple stories suited to young readers, and produced a substantial body of work; ten of his books are held in this collection. His representative works include The Story of Siegfried, Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Old Greek Stories, Hero Tales, Four Great Americans, The Book-lover: A Guide to the Best Reading, Fifty Famous People, and Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to Chaucer. His writing is known for clear narration and plain language, combining instruction with readability, and his books circulated widely in American and British education and leisure reading, helping to popularize classic literature and historical knowledge.