CONVERSATION AND DRAMATIZING

.III

ask the teacher to help them with any question that troubles them. If you are not getting at least a few requests for such help, there is probably something wrong. Find out what it is, and correct it.

III (98). Conversation and Dramatizing Conversation.

In this exercise the pupils are to be called upon to show the results of their study of the story, The Little White Flower. The questions in their book, which they answered to themselves, should be asked, yet this must not be made a formal exercise which serves merely to test their knowledge and the faithfulness of their study. Every one, teacher and pupils, should feel free to express his ideas, to ask questions, for the purpose of developing together clear and full conceptions of the characters of the story, to bring out what each of these characters said and did, and just how he said it and did it.

To insure this freedom, the teacher must be fully prepared for the exercise. She should know the story so thoroughly, she should know so well the questions that the pupils have studied in their book, she should be so ready with questions and suggestions of her own, that she will need no book before her, that she will have no time to use a book.

Above all else, the children must be given opportunity to show how they think the different things

in the story should be done, when it is played, and to ask to have different things shown, as they were directed in the latter part of their study lesson. Every child should take part in this, if possible, both by representing something himself and by calling for the representation of something. The teacher should be fully prepared to supplement the pupils' efforts and requests. Here are a few things that should be shown, some of which the children may not think of.

Show how little Tom stood while the men were telling of the gifts they had for the queen.

Show how Tom walked away from the market place.

Show how the wind fairies circled around the little plant.

Show how the wind fairies rushed.

Show how the rain fairies pattered.

Show how the sunshine fairies glided.

Show how the little bud had her face covered at first; how she opened one little petal; how she burst into full bloom; and how she laughed at the sun fairies.

Show how the men presented their gifts to the queen; and how they left her.

Dramatizing the story.

Show your confidence in your pupils by allowing them to do all they can unaided. Let them decide how many will be required to take the parts, and let them, under your direction, assign the parts.

After the story has been played once, and after the performance has been discussed, and definite

suggestions made for improvement, another set of children sufficient to take all the parts may be allowed to leave the room, assign the parts among themselves, return, and give the play before the teacher and the remainder of the class.

Read again suggestions for an exercise in conversation and dramatizing (pp. 11, 38, 67).

IV (99). Oral Reproduction

In the oral reproduction of the story, The Little White Flower, follow the directions given for oral reproduction of a story in Chapter Two (p. 42).

V (99). Quotations

This is the first lesson on quotations. This subject is not taken up thus early-earlier than most teachers or textbooks present it for the sake of extending the endless exercises that are wont to be given to it throughout the elementary school grades, and too often without satisfactory results, but rather that the children may learn the use of quotations, and fix the habit of writing quotations correctly, before they have blundered carelessly into the habit of writing them incorrectly. Presented simply and clearly, the subject is not difficult for third grade children to understand. And if these children are held rigidly from the first to writing quotations always correctly, as they learn how to write them,

they will soon fix the habit. Then it will be quite unnecessary to waste time in teaching over and over again, year after year, the proper use of quotation marks.

In their original work, pupils use direct quotations. They must be taught now how to write them correctly; it is easier to teach correct form at the outset and to insist upon its use than to correct errors later.

In studying this lesson in their book with them, make perfectly sure that the pupils understand from the beginning just what the quotation is, not by memorizing the definition, but by distinguishing in every instance exactly what the concrete quotation under discussion is, and who says the words of which it is composed. To secure this perfect understanding, supplement, if necessary, the questions in the pupils' book with questions that will bring the most detailed and definite answers possible. Your questions, at first, must be as definite, as this:

Is any one speaking? (Insist on the answer "yes" or "no.") Who is speaking?

What does he say?

Put your fingers around what he says.

What do we call those words?

What marks are around them?

Point to those marks and tell their name.

What mark is used to separate the quotation from the rest of

the sentence?

Put your finger on the comma.

QUOTATIONS

Find the comma in the next sentence.

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What does the comma do? (Separates the quotation from the rest of the sentence.)

Read the quotation. (This may be by class or by individuals. Have quotations read in different sentences until pupils respond promptly, read the quotation, the whole quotation, and not one word more.)

Read the rest of the sentence. (Give this command after the pupil, or pupils, have paused long enough at the end of the quotation to make it evident that they know that they have finished it.)

Have pupils go to the board and make quotation marks and commas.

In all this study with the pupils, work fast. Questions and answers must be clear, rapid, spirited, definite, to the point. Children must not be given time to dawdle. They need to think, but no long train of thought is needed to answer any question that should be asked. If kept awake and attentive by a sufficiently rapid fire of questions, they can answer every question almost instantly, if they can answer it at all. Five minutes' spirited, concentrated work will accomplish more than a half hour of dawdling.

Let one child be the cat and another the owl. Let these children read the quotations in the story, nothing more, each one reading his part.

The form for studying a direct quotation given in the pupils' book (p. 100) should be followed exactly, in this and in future lessons. Experience has proved this to be the most effective way of teaching children