McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader

Excerpt from opening lines: This First Reader may be used in teaching reading by any of the methods in common use; but it is especially adapted to the Phonic Method, the Word Method, or a combination of the two. I. Phonic Method.-First teach the elementary sounds and their representative, the letters marked with diacriticals, as they occur in the lessons; then, the formation of words by the combination of these sounds. For instance, teach the pupil to identify the characters a, o, n, d, g, r, and th, in Lesson I, as the representatives of certain elementary sounds; then teach him to form the words at the head of the lesson, then other words, as nag, on, and, etc. Pursue a similar course in teaching the succeeding lessons. Having read a few lessons in this manner, begin to teach the names of the letters and the spelling of words, and require the groups, "a man," "the man," "a pen," to be read as a good reader would pronounce single words.