McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXXIII · Part 4: Thinking hard and speaking kindly

33. The Echo

Goal: Your child reads a story about an echo and explains the lesson about kind and angry words.

⏱ About 20 minutes · 7 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook or lined paper and a pencil

What's in the book

A long list of words and a story: Robert hears an echo, thinks a boy is mocking him, and his mother explains what an echo teaches.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Warm up

    If you can, find a place with an echo (a stairwell, a tunnel, a big empty room) and call out together.

    SayWhat is an echo?

  2. Words and meanings

    Point to the list of words at the top of the lesson:

    proving foolish thicket harshly toward cross echo wrath whence mocking Bible rambling angrily instantly

    Read them together a few at a time. Clap the syllables of the long ones. The book prints these words without meanings.

    Explain a few: wrath means great anger; a thicket is a place full of bushes; whence means from where.

  3. Read it aloud

    Your child reads. Let them shout Robert's "Ho, ho!" and then read the mother's explanation calmly.

    Here is a line from it:

    As Robert was one day rambling about, he happened to cry out, "Ho, ho!"

    Then let your child reread a favorite part, more smoothly.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhy did Robert get angry?

    SayWhat did his mother tell him an echo is?

    SayHow is the way people answer us like an echo?

    Then talk about the lesson of the reading:

    "A soft answer turneth away wrath." Kind words bring kind words back.

    Let your child look back at the page to find answers.

  5. Tell it back

    Close the book.

    SayTell me the story of Robert and the echo, and what his mother taught him.

  6. Copywork

    Your child copies this from the book in their best handwriting:

    A soft answer turneth away wrath.

    This is an old Bible saying. Turneth is an old way of saying turns.

    Check capitals and marks together.

  7. Spelling

    Say each word, use it in a sentence, and have your child spell it aloud, then write it: foolish, cross, echo, angrily, toward.

    Check together and fix any mistakes right away. Keep missed words for tomorrow's warm-up.

Afterwards

Reread the lesson aloud tomorrow before starting the next one, and review any missed spelling words.

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