ORIGINAL WRITTEN COMPOSITION

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Have no class discussion of the exercise - this will tend to produce sameness and monotony rather than originality and variety in the pupils' work but go from desk to desk, as pupils think and write, and help individually by questions and suggestions adapted to each one. The chief thing to impress upon each one is that he write something that will be really interesting

Perhaps some children will have great difficulty in making a beginning. Such might be questioned somewhat as follows:

When is your birthday?

What would you like best to do at that time?

(The season will determine many things that can be done to best advantage.)

Is there any place you would like to visit?

Whom would you like to go with you?

What would you do there?

What would you like for birthday presents?

If you had some money given you for a birthday present, how would you spend it?

Would you like to have a birthday party? Where would you like to hold it? Whom would you invite? What would you do to entertain your guests?

Such questions as these and many others that will suggest themselves cannot fail to start any child thinking. But perhaps this will not always be sufficient; perhaps with the mind full of interesting things to write, some children's difficulty may consist in the actual putting on paper of the first

sentences. Do not hesitate to give such just the help and all the help they need. This is much better than scolding or prodding or leaving them të flounder helpless and discouraged and finally marking their exercise a failure. A failure under such conditions should be charged up to the teacher rather than to the pupil.

Helping a pupil in the condition described to make a beginning will often suffice to turn an imminent failure into a decided success. Perhaps the

beginning needed is as simple as this:

My birthday comes on March 16. If I could do just as I would like on that day, I would

IX (208). How the Months Were Named: a Study and Writing Exercise

This is a lesson for you to talk over with the pupils, explain to them, and make as interesting as possible. It is not at all necessary that pupils commit to memory by formal study the sources of the months' names nor the Indians' way of designating months or "moons." The lesson will serve to build up about the names of the months interesting associations, which the pupil may use in speech or writing on occasion. Should he forget some of the facts here given him, he will know where to turn for them.

MEMORIZING QUOTATIONS

X (210). A Written Exercise on the Months

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The written work required of pupils should be discussed and corrected with them individually, so far as possible while they write.

XI (210). Study of Quotations about the Months

The quotations given for the different months have been selected with great care. Each one is especially appropriate; it not only expresses the most characteristic associations of the month to which it refers, but it awakens as well intimate feelings to which that month's experiences have given birth. To realize the full worth of these selections they must be read-read intimately, deeply, sympathetically, expressively, effectively.

Read them over and over with the children, trying with each reading to bring out more and more of the meaning. As an aid to the reading, study the selections as the questions in the pupils' book suggest. Several lesson periods may be profitably devoted to this chapter.

XII (217). Memorizing Quotations

Before the pupils begin studying the quotations to memorize them, find out which one each has chosen to memorize. See that every quotation is taken by at least one pupil. Have each pupil read his chosen quotation aloud to you, so that you can

determine whether he fully appreciates its meaning and feeling. Read it to him if necessary.

Keep these quotations in review by calling for a repetition of them from time to time. Call for them by months, having some pupil respond who has learned the quotation for the month called. If the quotations are well rendered at each exercise of this kind, in a surprisingly short time you will find that most of the pupils can repeat most of the quotations. They may vie with each other in the number they can repeat.

It will be worth while to have each pupil write from memory one or more of these quotations each month. Keep Keep each child's papers together and toward the end of the year or term let him make them into a booklet. He might illustrate each poem, and decorate the booklet cover.

XIII (218). Picture Stories

(Dead fawn picture, p. 219)

Some children in one class worked with enthusiasm, for several weeks on stories growing out of this picture. According to their conceptions, the pet fawn belongs to the little princess. One day she and her brother find the fawn dead. From the mark on the arrow, they know that the king's huntsman has killed the fawn. The huntsman is brought before the king and confesses that he killed the fawn, thinking it a wild one. The king gives

MORE PICTURE STORIES

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him one year in which to search the world and find a fawn, exactly like the one killed — the same age, size, color, with the same number of spots placed in the same way—in everything exactly like. If within that time the huntsman returns with such a fawn, he will be pardoned; if he fails, he shall no longer be the king's huntsman.

The children wrote on The Quest for the Fawn, relating the huntsman's adventures, etc.

Here are other suggestions that may be helpful.

I. The castle is besieged by an army on the farther side; the defenders within are starving; the boy kills the deer; he and his sister manage to get it to the starving ones in the castle, among whom is the children's father, and so save their lives.

2. The boy kills his sister's fawn by accident; he is moved by the sufferings of the dying creature; he throws away his bow and arrows (he no longer carries them in the picture) and promises never again to harm an innocent creature.

3. Fawn shot by hunters escapes and falls wounded near children's home; children care for it, restore it, and keep it as a pet.

XIV (220). More Picture Stories

(Girl in wood surrounded by animals, p. 221)

The different names given to the picture in the children's book suggest different stories. Encourage the children to think of other suitable names. Write their suggestions on the blackboard. Then let each one select a title either from the list on the board or from that in the book and write a story appropriate to the title.