Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Noah Webster
Dictionary Day
Reading Comprehension for October 16
When you want to know what a word means, you look it up in a dictionary. What do you think people did before there were dictionaries? Noah Webster was a man who loved America. He wanted Americans to have their own form of the English language. To help them with that, he made the first American dictionary.
Noah Webster was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, on October 16, 1758. His father farmed and worked as a weaver. Noah and his two brothers helped with the farm work, but most of all Noah loved learning about things. When he was 16 he started attending Yale College. His time there was interrupted by the Revolutionary War. Noah finally graduated in 1778. He wanted to go on and study law, but his parents could not afford to send him. To earn the money he needed, he began teaching school.
In those days, American schools were not well supplied. There were sometimes 70 children in all grades in one room with one teacher. There were few books and very few desks for the children to work at. Noah knew this was no way for children to learn.
