CONVERSATION AND DRAMATIZING

The Wind.

How did the wind blow?

Choose a child for the wind.

Blow, "Oo-00-000," like the wind.

The little plant moved when the wind blew,—show how.

The Sun and the Rain.

How did the sun speak to the little plant?
Whom did he ask to help?

Choose children for the sun and the rain.

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The sun and the rain gave the little plant a friendly hand to help her grow, show how.

Let the pupils playing the sun and the rain give the child playing the little plant a hand, and lift her slowly to her feet.

While the above questions occupy considerable space, the points that they cover, and others that will be suggested, can be brought out very rapidly in an oral exercise for which teacher and pupils are thoroughly prepared, and which is conducted with spirit and animation. Dawdling, either of pupils or teacher, will spoil the exercise and leave it unfinished at the end of the language period.

All is now ready for the first dramatization of the story. The children who have been chosen for the several parts should be allowed to carry it out as they conceive it. Encourage and commend freedom and originality in action and conversation. Each one should be true to the character of the part he is playing; he will be so the more easily if

he makes no effort to remember the exact words that were used in the story.

When the play is completed, discuss with the children briefly the merits of it, encouraging each one to form discriminating judgments concerning its merits and defects. Make up quickly another cast, with suggestions from the children, and have it played again. The second group of players will, of course, try to improve upon the performance of the first. If there is time, a third and even a fourth group may dramatize.

Reread the suggestions about dramatizing made in connection with the dramatizing of Grand Tusk and Nimble (p. 14). The dramatizing of stories need not be limited to the formal language period. Nothing will better serve for a few moments of relaxation, when that is needed. By introducing dramatizing in this way, every child may have frequent opportunity to take part, and every story dramatized is kept fresh in the children's minds. Care must be taken to improve the performance by repetition, to make it more spontaneous and natural, to give it new touches of interest; if this is not done, it will become mechanical and perfunctory.

IV (30). Oral Reproduction of the Story of the Linden

First, have the story dramatized as effectively as possible, that the actors and events may be brought vividly and in order to the mind of each child.

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The story should be reproduced from beginning to end, if possible without interruption. One child may reproduce it entire, or each part may be reproduced by a different child. Let the first reproduction be undertaken by a child, or children, who can do it well.

Discuss the reproduction with the children, training them to discriminate the good and the weak points. Perhaps it will be agreed after the first reproduction that the events were related clearly and in the right order, and that the several actors were made to say what they should, but that the distinctive characteristics of these actors, as the weakness and earnestness of the little plant, the strength of the oak, the scorn of the crow, the cold roughness of the wind, and the warm sympathy of the sun and the rain, were not adequately represented by voice and manner. The next child to try the reproduction must aim consciously to reproduce the events and the ideas of the conversation just as well as was done at first, and to bring out the characteristics of the little plant, the oak tree, and the rest, better. When he has finished, all the listening children must be able to tell whether, and to what extent, the child succeeded in his effort, and wherein he failed. Perhaps he maintained the first satisfactory reproduction of the events and the ideas of the conversation, and brought out well the characteristics of all the actors except those of the mocking crow

and the rough wind. Let the next child try to equal all the good points of this performance and to represent more adequately the characters of the crow and the wind.

So with every reproduction. The child who is giving it must try consciously for a definite, superior result; the listening children must judge the success of this definite effort. Never allow a single reproduction in which the child is reproducing merely because you have told him to reproduce. Never call on a child to improve a reproduction already given until it is perfectly clear to that child and to all the children just wherein the improvement is to be attempted.

V (31). Telling True Stories

As essential truth is necessary to the story of the imagination, so imagination is necessary to the true story; both truth and imagination are indispensable to all real stories. The truth of the one is generic, of the other concrete; both live in the imagination.

The study and appreciation of both types of stories is necessary to the fullest enjoyment and use of either. Rightly handled, there is not the slightest danger that this will lead to confusion of fact and fancy in the child's mind.

Study with the children the suggestive questions in their book and help them to weave their experiences which these questions suggest into connected

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narratives. These stories might work out somewhat as follows:

1. One day I had a package of radish seeds. I planted them in my plot in the school garden. I helped the little seeds to grow by making the ground soft. I pulled up all the weeds. I watered the seeds. After a while my radishes were grown. I pulled them and took them home. We had them for supper.

2. One day as I was coming to school I met a little girl about three years old. She was crying. I asked her, "What is the matter?" She said, "I can't find my mother." Then I knew she was lost. So I took her home and then ran all the way to school, for I did not want to be late.

The above are merely suggestions of the form and simplicity of scores of stories that children are — or may easily become - capable of telling; they have only to learn to command their own experiences, to read the stories in their experiences, much as they are learning to read the story in a picture. You must help them, much as you help them to read pictures; you must help them to become conscious of their story material. You must help each one to appreciate and use his own story material-different from that of any other; this will give a wealth of individuality in the stories.

Numerous, varied, and suggestive questions will help every child to recall something from his own experience that may serve for the basis of a story. For example, if the thought of the story is to be helpfulness, ask questions such as the following: