Peter Viney's Blog

Garnet Oracle Readers

Peter Viney: series editor, and author of some titles

Storylines / Streamline Graded Readers are in new editions by Garnet Education, with sixteen titles at four levels as the initial part of the series. The links on the titles take you to full details of the title at the Garnet Education site.

The grading system has been revised and updated, along with the headword count. New titles (The Case of The Dead Batsmen and Zoo Diary) have been added. Popular titles from the earlier series have been redone. The many, many fans of The Locked Room , the best-selling reader in the original series, will be able to stop e-mailing us requesting copies!  The older readers have been revised to the new scheme and in many cases rewritten and extended. Teachers will find a more satisfactory and clear division between level two (past tense, but no present perfect) and level three (present perfect added).

In December 2014, three additional titles were added, all retold classics, as Oracle Classics. (see link). The series will continue to distinguish between original stories (Oracle Readers) and retold classics (Oracle Classics).

ORACLE 1 (400) is Early Elem on the Extensive Reading Foundation  Level scale.  It’s more tightly graded than others, so it’s more like other 300s. It has no past tense at this level. Note that the Extensive Reading Foundation scale is based on Headword count only without including structural controls.

ORACLE 2 (700) is Mid + High Elementary on the scale. Broadly, this Oracle level uses the past simple, but NOT the present perfect.

ORACLE 3 (1000) is Early Intermediate on the scale. It has the present perfect and a wider range of modals.

ORACLE 4 (1250) is Mid Intermediate. It has the past perfect, used to, and type two conditionals with would.

ORACLE 5 (1500) is High Intermediate / Early Upper Intermediate. That has more complex reported speech, type 3 conditionals, perfct form of modals (must have done). The only titles at this level will be in the Oracle Classics series.

The readers are physically slightly larger and longer than the earlier editions, and less cramped with more ‘white space’ at the end of chapters. Exercises appeared in the first edition (Streamline Graded Readers) but were only available online for Storylines. In the rewritten editions, exercises have been incorporated again after advice from teachers who use readers. Many extensive reading specialists prefer not to do detailed exercises, but the exercises can be ignored, or set for self-study if desired.

Oracle Classics, which are longer stories, have additional exercises interspersed to check theta the story has been fully understood before moving forward,

Follow the link to a page on ORACLE READERS ILLUSTRATIONS

The Case Of The Dead Batsmen was a finalist in the 2013 Extensive Reading Foundation Language Learner Literature Awards.

Wuthering Heights was a finalist in the 2015 ERF Awards.

Level one (400 words)

Zoo Diary – Peter Viney
The Collector – Peter Viney
The Locked Room – Peter Viney
The Watchers – Jennifer Bassett

Level two (700 words)

The Visit – Tim Vicary
Underground – Peter Viney
Casualty! – Peter Viney
Strawberry & The Sensations – Peter Viney

Level three (1000 words)

African Adventure – Margaret Iggulden & Julia Allen
Life Lines – Peter Viney
Sunnyvista City – Peter Viney
Milo – Jennifer Bassett
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, retold by Peter Viney

Level four (1250 words)

The Case of The Dead Batsmen – Peter Viney
The Hitch-Hiker – Tim Vicary
A Tidy Ghost – Peter Viney
Space Romance – Peter Viney
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, retold by Peter Viney

Level 5 (1500 words)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronté, Retold by Peter Viney

The first sixteen all-original Oracle Readers are also available in a 16 volume set (with or without audio)