McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson CXXXVII · Part 13: Washington, Wordsworth and Mont Blanc

143. A Definite Aim in Reading (Noah Porter)

Goal: Your student can explain Porter's advice to read with a purpose and make a reading plan.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 6 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook and pen
  • A dictionary

What's in the book

From Noah Porter's Books and Reading: advice to read with definite ends and purposes. The heading is partway down the page, after the end of Timrod's poem.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    Look over the notes and definitions printed at the end of the lesson before you start, so names and hard words don't trip up the reading.

    Your student picks three unfamiliar words, guesses each meaning from the sentence, then checks a dictionary.

  2. About the author

    The book says Porter was born in 1811 in Farmington, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale in 1831. He became a minister, then a professor of moral philosophy at Yale, and was its president from 1871. His best-known work is The Human Intellect, and he edited the 1864 edition of Webster's Dictionary.

  3. Read aloud

    Read it a paragraph at a time.

    Listen for these lines:

    In reading, we do well to propose to ourselves definite ends and purposes.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhy does Porter say we should read with a definite aim?

    SayWhat purposes for reading does he mention?

    SayWhat happens to people who read without any aim?

    SayThink about this year's reading in this book. Which lesson stayed with you most?

  5. Narration

    Your student explains Porter's advice in their own words.

  6. Make a plan

    Together, write a short reading plan for the next three months: one aim, and three books that serve it.

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