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Spelling; Drawing.

half oral and half written. But spelling exercises should be conducted chiefly in writing, as soon as pupils are sufficiently expert with a pen to write legibly, in the usual time for a recitation, ten or fifteen of the more difficult words in the lesson.* As the pupils become more ready in the use of the pen, the number of words may be increased. Oral exercises in spelling should not be entirely dispensed with in any of the grades.

Written exercises in spelling should in all cases be regarded as lessons in penmanship as well as in orthography, and examples of carelessness in writing should be charged as errors.

In the 1st, 2d, and 3d grades, written exercises in spelling should be put in suitable blank books, and preserved for the inspection of the School Directors, and others. Every word misspelled should afterward be rewritten correctly by the pupil, in his manuscript speller. See, also, § 2.

§ 80. Drawing-Special attention should be given in this grade to the principles of drawing, preparatory to map drawing. Pupils should also have lessons in drawing various mathematical lines and

* "Spelling by writing, when the pupil can write, appears to have great advantage over spelling orally. In the business of life, we have no occasion to spell orally, and thousands of cases have made it certain, that the same person may be a good speller with the lips, who is an indifferent one with the pen."— Mann.

"The orthography of a language should be taught by writing; an opinion, we believe, that is now pretty well established, but not sufficiently put into practice."-London Quarterly Journal of Educa tion.

Fourth Grade.

figures, architectural figures, etc., and in copying pictures from books and other sources.* See, also, 33 and 714 Writing.-See § 3.

§ 81. Arithmetic.-Teachers should be careful to secure a thorough acquaintance with the principles of notation and numeration. As soon as pupils are able to add figures together, the teacher should dictate several numbers to them orally, requiring them. to place units under units, tens under tens, etc., and add them together. Examples of this class should be made more and more difficult, as the pupils are able to write them, embracing from five to ten numbers cach, some of them extending to trillions or quadrillions, and containing more ciphers than significant figures, so that the pupils will frequently be left to fill whole periods and parts of periods with ciphers. These exercises will furnish a valuable review of addition, and a still more valuable review of notation and numeration.

Rapid exercises in adding long columns of numbers. See § 71.

References. 81. Northend's Teachers' Assistant, letter 17; Holbrook's Normal Methods; Davies' Logic of Mathematics.

*Linear Drawing, which supplies the deficiencies of descriptive language, is another acquirement indispensable to the instructor. It may be made a most useful instrument of teaching, even in the humblest school. In the exact, the natural, and the experimental sciences, especially, he who has a command of this art is never at a loss how to render the most intricate details clear, intelligible, and interesting to his auditory."-Marcel on Language.

Arithmetic.

Recitations in arithmetic require constant watchfulness on the part of the teacher, to secure fullness and accuracy of expression. The following are illustrations of common faults:

1. "If one cord of wood cost $5, six cords will cost 5 times 6," instead of "6 times $5."

2. "If one cord of wood cost $5, six will cost.6 times 5," instead of "six cords will cost 6 times $5." [Two errors.]

3. "In 36 of a dollar, there are as many dollars as 9 is contained in 36," instead of "as many dollars as the number of times 9 is contained in 36," or 66 many dollars as 9 is contained times in 36."

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4. "To subtract one fraction from another, reduce the fractions to a common denominator and subtract the numerators," or 66 subtract one numerator from the other," instead of "subtract the numerator of the subtrahend from the numerator of the minuend." See, also, §§ 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

THIRD GRADE.

[GRAMMAR DEPARTMENT.]

REGULAR COURSE.

Oral Instruction.-Historical sketches; air and water; electricity and magnetism; minerals; morals and manners; familiar exercises in grammar, embracing the parts of speech and construction of sentences. The time devoted to oral instruction each week, tc be equal in amount to fifteen minutes a day.

Geography, through United States, with map drawing.

Third Grade.

Grammar to the verb, with lessons in the use of language-to follow oral exercises in grammar.

Third Reader (or corresponding number of the series) completed, and first third of Fourth Reader, with punctuation, definitions and illustrations, and elementary sounds.

Written and oral spelling, with definitions, from speller and from reading lessons.

Writing.

Mental arithmetic continued, with thorough reviews. Slate arithmetic to addition of denominate numbers, and reviewed. Rapid exercises in adding columns of figures. Extemporaneous exercises in combining series of numbers. See § 5.

Declamations and recitations.

Physical exercises from two to four minutes at a time, not less than three times a day. See § 105.

DIRECTIONS.

Oral Instruction.-See §§ 8 and 18.

§ 82. History.-Brief sketches of prominent characters and events in history, both ancient and modern Babylon, its walls and hanging gardens; Pyramids of Egypt, Trojan War, Homer, Founding of Rome, Alexander, Demosthenes, Virgil, Julius Cæsar, Mohammed, the Crusaders, Columbus, Washington, Franklin, Napoleon, etc.

§ 83. Air and Water.-Component element of air; of water. Proportion of oxygen and nitrogen in the air. Relation of oxygen to life; to combustion; most abundant of all known substances. Properties of nitrogen; of hydrogen, weight of hydrogen.

$84. Electricity and Magnetism.-Illustrate the

References.- 82. Mansfield's American Education.

§ 83. Norton & Porter's First Book of Science, part 2; Sci. ence of Common Things, index; Reason Why, index.

Minerals; Geography.

production of electricity, and properties of attraction and repulsion, by a piece of dry paper rubbed briskly with a piece of india-rubber. Conductors and non-conductors, lightning and lightning conductors, Franklin's kite.

Properties of the magnet. Magnetic needle, mariner's compass, horseshoe magnet, telegraph.

§ 85. Minerals.-Oral exercises on the following topics, with illustrations as far as specimens can be obtained:

Common quartz, quartz crystal, common limestone, marble, coral, gypsum, soapstone, anthracite coal, bituminous coal, slate, clay, loam, gravel, etc., together with various stones used for ornament, as agate, topaz, carnelian, amethyst, emerald, and some. of the compound rocks, as granite, sandstone; kinds of stone employed in buildings, sidewalks, etc.; bricks, quicklime, mortar.

§ 86. Geography." In the progress of every suecessive lesson, the teacher should call in the aid of association, by naming the products and staple commodities of the several States, historical facts, remarkable curiosities, high mountains, manufactories,

References. § 84. Child's Book of Nature, part 3; Norton & Porter's First Book of Science, part 1; Science of Common Things, index; Reason Why, index; Barnard's Object Teaching, art. 4; Brande's Cyclopædia.

§ 85. Fireside Philosophy, index; Mayo's Lessons on Objects; Brande's Cyclopædia; Webster's and Worcester's Quarte Dictionaries.

§ 86. Northend's Teacher's Assistant, letter 16.

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