Aim. A writer’s aim is his or her purpose, or goal. The aim of the Primer was education. As you read this selection, think about what it was trying to teach.
Couplet. A couplet is a pair of rhyming lines that express a complete thought. This selection is composed mostly of couplets, with one exception. As you read, try to identify the rhyme that is not a couplet.
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The New England Primer was the first textbook produced in America to teach reading. Evidence places publication of the first edition between 1687 and 1690. Since the New England colonies were founded for religious reasons, it was only natural that religion formed the basis of all education and therefore dominated the book. Its contents included the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, a series of moral and instructive sentences from the Bible, and an illustrated alphabet. The Primer was popular throughout the English colonies and was sold in the United States until the nineteenth century. The excerpt here is the alphabet from the 1727 edition of the Primer.
Make a chart like the one below to classify each rhyme by the subject area it deals with. (For example, the rhyme for C could go under the classification “Animals.”) Identify each class, and list the letters whose verses share the characteristics of that class. Some verses may fit under more than one class.
What do you remember learning from illustrated alphabet books with rhymes or pictures when you were younger?
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