better than whole paragraphs hurried, mumbled, or slurred over, as they often are in our schools. Tax your ingenuity to make them interesting to your pupils. Multiply and vary questions and remarks, grammatical, historical, biographical, geographical, philosophical and moral, indefinitely. Let the intellect and the sentiments of your pupils be constantly in action, and draw from every lesson whatever it can contribute to their improvement. Reading exercises in school, are often tedious affairs to children. How can it otherwise be, taught and exercised as they are? At first they are taught a, b, c; and then b, 1, a, bla; b, 1, e, ble. Afterwards a class is called out, and they read round in dull, monotonous rotation, beginning at one end, and going straight on to the other, without question or comment, what few understand, and fewer are interested in. Thus conducted, the reading exercise cannot fail to be dull. See to it from the beginning, that you make it entertaining and instructive by the various and valuable information of which it is the medium. What a variety of questions the following sentence, for instance, may suggest. "Night is the time for care, Brooding on hours misspent; To see the spectre of despair Come to our lonely tent, Like Brutus midst his slumbering host, Besides all the inquiries about the meaning of words, their derivation, composition, and pronunciation; also articulation, accent, emphasis, tone inflection, pauses and cadence, we might ask, What is the cause of night?— and pass to a consideration of various astronomical phenomena. We might ask the uses and advantages of night. Why it so often proves a season of care rather than of rest, to many. And in this connexion, we might moralize on the importance of wholesome diet, vigorous exercise, and an approving conscience, as preparatives to quiet and refreshing repose. "Spectre of despair,❞— What form of speech is this? Do spectres and apparitions ever really appear? Is there any ground of anxiety or alarm about them? What is the difference between house and tent? Describe a tent. Point out its construction and use. Who was Brutus; and who Cæsar? Where and when did they live? What was their business? When, and where and how did they die? Why should Brutus be startled? Where is Rome?-and many others. One great hindrance to learning to read, is the want of suitable books for young pupils. I know of none more suitable for beginners than Gallaudet's and Worcester's Primers, and a small work by Miss M. T. Peabody; also, for training, the elementary works of Swan and Bumstead. For the more advanced classes, the whole series of Worcester's books seems to me to possess as high claims as any. Of the Young Reader by Pierpont, and the Mount Vernon Readers by Messrs. Abbott, I think highly. The former might be taken immediately after Worcester's Primer; and the latter, which, besides being a very good reading book, breathes an excellent moral spirit, would do admirably for a more advanced stage of education. For the most advanced classes in school, I should choose the National Reader, and Worcester's Fourth Book, in preference to most of the selections which I have seen. There are other and more recent productions which have very good claims: as the Village Reader, published at Springfield; and the First Class Reader, by B. D. Emerson. The author of Popular Lessons for Children has published some books which should receive more attention than they have. And the Eclectic Series published at Cincinnati, which I have had no opportunity particularly to examine, comes so well recommended, as to afford presumptive evidence of its value. Porter's Analysis, or Rhetorical Reader, contains some excellent pieces for practice, as well as valuable hints and rules for reading. And one of the highest recommendations to Worcester's series is the useful directions which accompany each lesson. But many of our school books are faulty, both in the selection of pieces, and in the arrangement of them. The pieces are too elevated. They should be more simple, conversational; they should have a nearer relation to every-day business, and matter-of-fact life. And they seem often to be thrown together on no principle of analogy or consecutiveness. It is easier, I know, to point out faults than to mend them; and the fact that so many have failed in the attempt to make good school-books, is evidence enough, that it is no easy matter. It is not, however, my object to tell how reading books should be made, but how they should be used. In a lecture on Reading, it may be expected that I should give some directions for teaching the art in its progress and higher advancement, as well as at the commencement and in the early stages. I have already said, 'Give as much variety as possible to your reading exercises; and in this way endeavor to make them interesting. For these and for all other ex ercises, make special preparation yourself. Store your minds with facts, geographical, historical and biographical, which may make clear and interesting the portion read. Yea, enliven the exercise with the narration of appropriate anecdotes. At one time assign the same portion to the whole class; at another, let each one have his distinct and reparate paragraph; requiring him, however, to have a general acquaintance with the whole, so far as facts and sentiments are concerned. Sometimes call upon the class to read where they have not studied, or a piece which they have not prepared,-in the newspaper for instance, or elsewhere. I know some are of opinion, that no particular assignments should be made for reading, but that scholars should be called upon to read what they have not studied. This, I think, is Mr. Palmer's opinion, the author of that valuable treatise, "The Teacher's Manual." This, it is true, is what all should aim at; for it is what all must practice in real life. We are often called upon to read aloud what we have not looked over and prepared. But this is a power to be acquired by practice and long continued training, rather than to be expected of beginners. Mr. P. objects also to scholars studying and preparing lessons in arithmetic. And upon this plan, it would be difficult to find any occupation for the pupils, except at recitations and recess. At one time, let all read the same chapter, section, paragraph; at another, let one read a whole chapter, or section, or lesson; and let the others be listeners without looking on the book. It is a good thing to be a good listener; almost as good as to be a good reader. This is a part of education, and a part very proper for the school-room. How many evils arise from the want of power simply to fix the attention! What contradictions! what discrepancies of testimony in courts of justice! what embarrassments and perplexities in business! And all simply from the want of power to fix the attention! Another advantage will arise from the practice of listening without the book. The reader must be sufficiently loud and distinct to enable the listeners to discriminate by the ear, without the aid of the eye, between combinations of letters very similar in sound, though it may be, very different in sense. The injunction so often repeated by teachers, 'Look on your book, and see whether he reads right,' it is not always wise to enforce. There is another which I would sometimes substitute for it,- Lay aside your book, and hear whether he reads right.' This will enable the listener to determine whether the reader has a clear utterance and distinct articulation. It will prepare him in after life to listen to the reader or speaker, as he must do, without the aid of book to help him understand or keep the connexion. In listening to a reader, the class should be guided, chiefly, by the ear; but with book in hand, they are often guided chiefly by the eye. They think they hear and understand; but it is rather see and understand. Perhaps a better way would be to allow, alternately, one half of the class to look upon the book, and the other half to listen without book. For sometimes readers read distinctly and loud, and make good sense, and yet leave out or put in words, or substitute other words for those in the book; a fault, which those listening without book, would not be likely to detect, and yet a fault, which as leading to habits of carelessness and inattention, calls for correction. |