Reasoning & Reading
by Joanne Carlisle
Reviewed by Martha Robinson
Purchase details: Reasoning & Reading by Joanne Carlisle. "Beginning" (140 pages, $11.30), Level 1 (137 pages, $11.30), Level 2 (133 pages, $11.30), and their corresponding teachers guides (80 pages, $8.65 each) were reviewed. Please support HomeschoolChristian.com by buying this program from our Christian Book Distributors link.
The Reasoning & Reading series is built around the idea that "reasoning, language, and reading comprehension go hand in hand." The three workbooks are suggested for use during third to eighth grades.
Each of the Reasoning & Reading levels has the same four units: word meaning, sentence meaning, paragraph meaning, and reasoning skills. Each unit ends with an exercise on following directions. The beginning level has fewer exercises with more white space and basic explanations, while the other levels increase in complexity, depth, and quantity of work.
In the word meaning section, students consider how words relate to one another through exercises on synonyms and antonyms, words that are part of a whole, analogies, and definitions in context, among other activities.
The sentence meaning unit combines basic grammar and composition concepts with more advanced ideas needed for analysis of writing style. Finding the main thought of a sentence is discussed, followed by a group of activities that help the student understand how word order can affect the meaning of the sentence. Expressing relationships in a sentence is shown using cause and effect, time order, comparison, and examples. The presentation of information on generalizations prepares the student for the later study of syllogisms.
Unit three, "Paragraph Structure and Meaning," gives explanations and examples of paragraph unity and paragraph development through cause and effect, time order, and comparison. Aspects of good writing such as the topic sentence, supporting the main idea, and transitioning using "signal words" like "first, then, finally, on the other hand."
The final section, "Reasoning Skills," pulls together all of the concepts taught earlier in the books and provides the student with the tools to draw conclusions about what he has read. Discerning relevant information from the reading and differentiating facts from opinions are the first concepts presented. Exercises to distinguish inferences from stated facts in paragraphs teach students to look for "clues" and then draw an inference. The cause and effect section asks the students to explain whether paragraphs show good reasoning and why. Basic syllogisms are introduced, and deductive reasoning is briefly mentioned.
The answer keys reproduce each book in its entirety with the answers filled in in neat, handwritten manuscript.
Recommendation: Reasoning & Reading is a comprehensive critical thinking program that is an outstanding course to complete before moving on to informal fallacies or formal logic. The program progresses in a logical manner that makes learning the concepts easy. I highly recommend this program for improving reading comprehension, writing, and performance on standardized tests as well as preparing the student for logic studies and high school literature analysis.
If you choose to use Reasoning & Reading, I would recommend doing both Level 1 and Level 2, rather than just one year of the program. The beginning level is fine, but could be skipped if the family has time or budget constraints.
HomeschoolChristian.com resources related to this review:
HomeschoolChristian.com's Classical Education Section
Review of Analogies by Arthur Liebman
Review of Primary Analogies
Review of Ridgewood Analogies
Review of The Fallacy Detective
Review of The Thinking Toolbox
Review of Logic in 100 Minutes
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