McGuffey Readers were a series of graded primers for grade levels 1-6. They were widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th century to the early-20th century, and are still used today in homeschooling. The first Reader taught reading by using the phonics method, the identification of letters and their arrangement into words, and aided with slate work. McGuffey used new vocabulary words in the context of real literature, gradually introducing new words and carefully repeating the old.