Reading for Young Catholics, Comprehension series for grades 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 AND Thinking Skills series 4-6

Seton Press

Seton offers two reading skills series, one for comprehension and one for thinking skills, although there is a great deal of overlap between the two series.

Reading comprehension, analysis, and vocabulary are addressed in the comprehension series, with vocabulary work gradually increasing up through book 8. Reading selections are worthwhile writings of particular interest to Catholics: e.g., “What is a novena?” and “Homily of St. Bernard.” The question style varies from book to book; the younger levels feature more yes/no and multiple-choice questions than older levels, but they also require students to sometimes write complete paragraphs. Older levels require increasingly individualized answers. Some questions will even be for discussion rather than writing. Each workbook includes a separate answer key, but subjective answers will require personal attention.

Thinking skills books use stories of saints as reading material. Exercises then work on skills such as determining parts of speech, analogies, classification, identifying misfit words, synonyms, chronology, understanding context, and using Venn diagrams. Each workbook comes with an answer key.