B. Titles from which selection for individual reading may be made Continued.

9. Doyle: Micah Clarke.

10. Duncan: Adventures of Billy Topsail.

11. Eastman: An Indian Boyhood.

12. Eggleston: The Hoosier Schoolmaster. 13. Fouque: Undine.

14. Hale, E. E.: A New England Boyhood.

15. Halşey: The Old New York Frontier.

16. Harris: Nights with Uncle Remus.

17. King, Capt. Chas.: Cadet Days, a story of West Point.

18. London: The Call of the Wild.

19. Lang: The Book of Romance.

20. Laurie, Andre: School Days in Italy; School Days in France (translated by Kendall).

21. Liliencrantz: The Thrall of Lief the Lucky.

22. Madden: Emmy Lou.

23. Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables; Anne of Avonlea.

24. Morris: The Sundering Flood.

25. Lincoln, J. G.: A Pretty Tory.

26. Parkman: Montcalm and Wolfe.

27. Pyle, Howard: The Story of King Arthur and his Knights; The Story of the Champion of the Round Table; The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions.

28. Rice: Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch.

29. Scott: Rob Roy.

30. Seaman: Jacqueline of the Carrier Pigeons.

31. Sharp: A Watcher in the Woods.

32. Warner: Being a Boy.

33. Wiggin: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

GRADE IX.

A. Titles from which selection for class work may be made.

1. Narrative poems such as John Gilpin's Ride, Tam O'Shanter, Lochin-
var, Michael, The Prisoner of Chillon, How They Brought the Good
News from Ghent to Aix, Herve Riel, Rossetti's The White Ship,
Morris's Atlanta's Race, Lowell's The Courtin'.

2. Lyric poems such as Shelley's To a Skylark, Wordsworth's Reaper,
Browning's Home Thoughts from Abroad, Emerson's Concord Hymn,
Burns' A Man's a Man for a' That, Rosetti's Up-Hill, Keats's On first
Looking into Chapman's Homer, Byron's On the Castle of Chillon,
Tennyson's The Merman, Whitman's My Captain, Garland's The
Wind in the Pines, Poe's To Helen, Beaching's Bicycling Song.

3. Short stories such as Poe's The Gold Bug, Hawthorne's The Ambitious
Guest, Hardy's The Three Strangers, Brown's Farmer Eli's Vaca-
tion, Wilkins-Freeman's The Revolt of Mother, O. Henry's The Cha-
parral Prince, Davis' Gallegher.

4. Bates: A Ballad Book.

5. Hale: Ballads and Ballad Poetry.

6. Scott: The Lady of the Lake.

7. Homer: The Odyssey (Palmer's trans.), Iliad (Bryant's trans. in part). 8. Dickens: David Copperfield.

9. Scott: The Talisman; Quentin Durward.

10. Kipling: Kim.

A. Titles from which selection for class work may be made-Continued. 11. Shakespeare: Julius Caesar.

12. Franklin: Autobiography.

13. Informal studies of current literature, plays, photoplays, etc. B. Titles from which selection for individual reading may be made.

1. Antin: The Promised Land.

2. Bates: The Story of the Canterbury Pilgrims.

3. Churchill: The Crisis.

4. Clemens: Tom Sawyer; Huckleberry Finn.

5. Cooper: The Spy.

6. Craddock: Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains.

7. Dana: Two Years Before the Mast.

8. Defoe: Robinson Crusoe.

9. Deland: Old Chester Tales; Doctor Lavendar's People.

10. Dickens: Oliver Twist; Old Curiosity Shop.

11. Doyle: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

12. Fox: Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come.

13. Homer: The Iliad (as done into English by Butcher and Lang). 14. Hughes: Tom Brown's School Days.

15. Irving: Tales of a Traveler.

16. Keller: Story of My Life.

17. Kingsley: Westward Ho!

18. Kipling: Selections from the Day's Work and Phantom Rickshaw. 19. Mitchell: Hugh Wynne.

20. Montgomery: Tales of Avonlea.

21. Marshall, N. E.: English Literature for Boys and Girls (Selections by teacher).

22. Moore: Stories of Tennessee.

23. Parkman: The Oregon Trail.

24. Porter: Freckles; Laddie; Girl of the Limberlost.

25. Rideino, W. H.: Boyhood of Famous Authors.

26. Rolfe: Shakespeare, the Boy.

27. Scott: Guy Mannering; Woodstock.

28. Smith: Caleb West.

29. Stevenson: Black Arrow.

30. Stockton: Jolly Fellowship; Captain Chap.

31. Thompson-Seton: Wild Animals that I Have Known.

32. Vergil: Aeneid (in a good translation).

33. Wallace: Ben Hur.

34. Books contained in seventh and eighth year class reading lists but

not actually read in class.

VIII. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMPOSITION IN THE TENTH, ELEVENTH, AND TWELFTH GRADES (SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL).

I. PURPOSES OF TEACHING COMPOSITION.

The purpose of teaching composition is to enable the pupil to speak and write correctly, convincingly, and interestingly. The first step toward efficiency in the use of language is the cultivation of earnestness and sincerity; the second is the development of accuracy and correctness; the third is the arousing of individuality and artistic consciousness.

A definite point of view must be kept in mind by the teacher if this general aim is to be realized; that point of view is that he must meet the needs of the individual pupil. The development of the expressional powers of the individual pupil should be the aim of the teacher rather than the teaching of specific form and rules. Each year of a pupil's life brings a broader outlook through added experience and more mature thought. Each year, consequently, there is need for an increased mastery of technique and of more mature forms of expression. Only from a realization on the part of the teacher of this growth of personality can an adequate course in composition be organized.

Such individual treatment requires that each pupil do much writing and speaking on subjects familiar to him. If material for oral and written work is taken from the experience of the pupil, familiarity with the subject will enable him (a) to give attention to correctness rather than to the mastery of the thought, (b) to write or speak convincingly by reason of his own interest, (c) to give some attention to the arrangement and presentation of his thoughts in a manner likely to arouse interest in others.

The classroom activities in teaching composition when arranged in the order of their importance are: (a) Letter writing; (b) relating of some simple incidents and explanation of familiar subjects; (c) analysis of pieces of writing; (d) reports; (e) literary composition; (f) debate.

Letter writing is placed first as being of most importance, since it is the form of writing the pupil will use most frequently. The pupil should be able to write a courteous letter according to the forms in general use, and of the degree of formality or informality appropriate to the occasion. Second in order of importance is exposition. The second aim, then, is to train the pupil to compose a

clear and readable paragraph or series of paragraphs on familiar subject matter, with due observance of unity and order and with some specific details. Third, is the ability to analyze and present in outline form the gist of a lecture or piece of literature, and to expand such an outline. The fourth aim comes when the pupil is more mature and has developed in power of expression. He should be able, with due time for study and preparation, to plan and work out a clear, well-ordered, and interesting report of some length upon his special interests-literary, scientific, commercial, or what not. These four aims should be kept in mind for all pupils. Other aims should be kept in mind for those who have special aptitudes; for those who have the argumentative mind, ability to arrange the material for a debate in an effective way; for those who have literary tastes, ability to write a short story or other bit of imaginative composition, with some vigor and personality of style and in proper form to be submitted for publication, and to arrange suitable stories in form for dramatic presentation.

The above aims have to do chiefly with content and the arrangement of the thought for effectiveness. It must be remembered also that correctness as to formal details is an aim throughout. These details are: A legible and firm handwriting, correct spelling, correctness in grammar and idiom, and observance of the ordinary rules. for capitals and marks of punctuation. These, however, being not specifically literary, but the essentials of good workmanship in all kinds of written work, are the concern of all teachers, and should be enforced in all classes by the authority of the principal. Beyond these general requirements the writer should, through his English work, make an effort to gain an enlarged vocabulary through reading, and to use a vocabulary in his written work suitable to his audience and the occasion. A concise and vigorous style may often be gained unconsciously by the reading of authors who possess these qualities, but mere imitation of style may result in "fine writing." A pupil may be set to work on the same project, however, that an author has worked out if there is no conscious effort to use phrases or words that are not his own. Firmness and flexibility in writing may be gained by reconstructing sentences and paragraphs of one's composition.

II. CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES.

Classroom activities in composition should be founded upon and should grow out of the experiences of the pupils. These experiences may be classified as follows:

1. Those that school life provides:

(a) School work.

(b) School activities, social and athletic.

2. Those that outside interests provide:

(a) Work-past, present, and future.

(b) Amusements, play.

(c) Interests in the home.

(d) Other interests, as travel and local industries.
(e) Reading.

School work itself furnishes a vast amount of material for composition. Heretofore there has been a tendency to base much of the theme work on the English classics. The introduction of the sciences and of vocational training, however, has made a great amount of material growing out of the actual experience of the pupils available. There is a growing tendency to use this material and to reduce greatly the amount of composition work based on the classics.

All theme work should be made as real and vital as possible. The following examples illustrate how school work may be adapted to this purpose and suggest methods of giving practice in different types of discourse. A pupil makes a field trip with his geography class; this trip furnishes more vital narrative material than "A visit to England at the time of Ivanhoe;" it is fresher material even than "Last year's fishing trip." Another visits a big chemical factory; extreme interest in the subject will tend to produce a good description of the factory. A third becomes interested in radium in the physics class. He reads all that he can find and assembles his knowledge in a good exposition. A senior has devoted some time to deciding what he will do after he leaves the high school. An argument in defense of his decision, whether for a certain college or for a certain vocation, has as its basis the mental experience of the pupil himself.

Outside interests-play, amusements, work, home activities, reading-will furnish a vast amount of material if the teacher is able to direct the pupils to it. For example, in the class is a boy living in a crowded section of the city who has taken a prize for having the best home garden. He tells how to have a successful garden. A boy whose father is assistant to the city forester has a collection of moths and writes well about these beautiful creatures. The list of such topics is well-nigh unlimited, and they are extremely interesting to the class. Moreover, the pupils feel that these topics are worthy of their efforts. Such exercises can often be presented before the entire school, sometimes with stereopticon views.

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The sports furnish good subjects; for instance, a talk on "Swimming" might be given by the boy who takes the prizes in the contests; or on How to win a foot race," by the boy who won a race in a field-day contest. In general, subjects should be suggested, not assigned.