Reading 4 (3rd Edition) Student Text provides age-appropriate selections in a variety of genres, including literature and informational text. The new edition is a substantial revision from the previous edition with a new title, new unit themes, and almost entirely new content (a few stories have carried over.) But the biggest difference comes in the teaching components of the text. The older text was basically a story anthology, requiring the teacher to explain literature concepts and expecting them to lead discussions focusing on comprehension and critical thinking. This version does more in the text with three new sections: the Before section introduces literary concepts, like genre, imagery, main ideas, etc.; there are small "During" text boxes throughout that encourage to ask questions of the story as they're reading; and the After Reading sections include comprehension questions and vocabulary words. Biblical discernment is an important component of the program, as you'll note when you read through the questions, as they ask students to compare concepts to Scripture. Finally, the new text gives students more background, with short author bios throughout.
The workbook provides helpful reinforcement of concepts and vocabulary from the text, but paired with the comprehension questions from the text, a lot of it may seem like busywork for many home school families.
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