Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

IX. ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL.

As a matter of efficiency and economy the library should be the center for all illustrative material.

(a) Lantern slides. These should be filed in a special case and a collection of these should be made to meet the needs of the English work, e. g., reproductions of Rackham's charming illustrations of Rip Van Winkle, scenes from Ivanhoe, Shakespeare's plays, Stratford, etc. For information concerning slides and lantern or projectoscope see departments of visual instruction: University of the State of New York, lbany, N. Y.; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. For a classified catalogue of lantern slides for school work see The World Visualized. New York, Underwood & Underwood. $1.00. (List of slides for English work selected by J. F. Hosic.)

(b) Pictures, mounted or unmounted.-These may be secured at little expense and are of value in awakening interest. In addition to the well-known pictures, Perry, Cosmos, Brown, etc., sold for a cent or so, high schools make use of illustrations from magazines and books too worn to bind. The Mentor Magazine furnishes in a year's subscription many pictures which may be used to good advantage in English.

As illustrating what a rich mine the magazines form for this collection, we mention the Maxfield Parrish pictures of Milton's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, Abbey's illustrations for Shakespeare's plays, for Deserted Village, etc. For picture collections see:

Dana, J. C. The picture collection. Modern library economy. White Plains, N. Y., H. W. Wilson Co. 35 cents.

and Coult, Margaret. High-school aids-pictures and objects. White Plains, N. Y., H. W. Wilson Co. $1.00.

Contains an article on the use of pictures in English in the Barringer High School, Newark. Lists dealers in pictures, lantern slides, etc., and best pictures for Ivanhoe, Silas Marner, Julius Caesar, etc.

Ward, C. C. Manual for the use of pictures in the teaching of English. Newton, Mass., University Prints Co. 25 cents.

For use of pictures in teaching literature see the following:

(1) Illustrative helps for the De Coverley papers. English Journal, 4: 529–530, October, 1915.

(2) Coleridge. Ancient Mariner. Illustrated editions and pictures. English Journal, 4: 673-674, 1915.

(3) Pictures for Ivanhoe, and Irving's Sketch Book. English Journal, 4: 274-280, April, 1916.

(4) List of print catalogues and post-card publishers. English Journal, 4: 672-673, December, 1915.

(c) Post cards.-These may be used in a lantern with proper attachment, and even where there is no lantern they can be used to advantage for many years if protected by celluloid post-card holders (Gaylord Bros., Syracuse, N. Y.) when passed around in class or posted on bulletin boards. Where these holders are used, friends of

teachers and pupils will often lend or give post cards to the school library. Especially valuable in English work are the "Little Phostint Journeys," by the Detroit Photographic Co.; the French post cards illustrating the French Revolution; cards from Stratford, Westminster Abbey, and from the Scott country; Library of Congress cards for Comus, Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley.

These cards should be arranged by subject in drawers or trays in the school library.

For information as to sources for illustrative material see: Crawford, Mary. The laboratory equipment of the teacher of English. English Journal, March, 1915. pp. 145-151.

X. USE OF LIBRARY RESOURCES OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL BUILDING.

As a committee we recommend that the library make the largest possible use of all outside agencies that may further its work. The secret of the successful high-school library to-day is in a knowledge of the work of these educational agencies and cooperation with them. The high-school library can no longer afford to be sufficient unto itself.

(a) Public library.-There should be the fullest possible use of the larger resources of the public library and close cooperation between public library and school library. Students should be given library work which requires the constant use of the public library and should be trained by librarian of school and public library to use books and library aids intelligently. Excellent use can be made of traveling libraries from the public library, and there should be a definite scheme by which books wanted for only a few days for special work in the school library may be sent by the public library or by a school messenger without the formality of a traveling library. In some cities from 300 to 500 books a year are borrowed in this way by the high-school library and kept on school shelves from September to June for home circulation.

For the small town or rural high school the county library or the State library often is the source for the same kind of help that the public library renders in the city.

(b) State aid.-In most States there is aid and counsel for the small high-school library in the State university library, the normal school libraries, which are often in charge of public-spirited librarians interested in the whole school-library problem, in the State library commission, or the State superintendent of school libraries, as in Minnesota.

(c) National aid.-The library of the United States Bureau of Education can often be of great service to the small high school, especially in supplying lists of references on topics of special interest

in high-school work, e. g., self-government, vocational guidance, school gardens, etc.

Much valuable printed matter for debate subjects may be obtained free or at little cost from the Superintendent of Documents.

XI. INSTRUCTION OF STUDENTS IN THE USE OF A LIBRARY.

As a committee we feel that a most important work of the school library is to train pupils for the intelligent use of any library-school, college, or public. We recommend that in the final report on the course of study in English there be included from four to eight lessons as a minimum requirement in definite training of high-school pupils in the use of reference books, encyclopedias, standard large dictionaries, year books, indexes to periodical literature, to ordinary books, to sets of books, etc., also instruction in the use of a card catalogue and some knowledge of the classification commonly used in libraries. We urge that this instruction be given by the school librarian or English teacher, or, if more feasible, by the librarian of the public library and that credit be given by the English department for this work.

For references on the value of this instruction, outline courses, etc., see the following:

Hopkins, Florence M. Methods of instruction in the use of high-school libraries.
In National Education Association. Proceedings, 1905. p. 858-864.
The place of the library in high-school education. Library Journal, 35:
55-60, February, 1910.

Mendenhall, I. M. Training of high-school students in the use of the library.
Library Journal, April, 1913. p. 189-192.

Wooley, E. C. Student's use of the dictionary. Educational Review, 1912. p. 492-501.

Outlines of Courses and Aids in Instruction.

Gilson, M. L. Course of study for normal-school students on the use of a library. White Plains, N. Y., H. W. Wilson Co., 1909. (Modern American Library Economy. Pt. V, sec. 2.) 75 cents.

The first four lessons are adapted to high-school use.

Hopkins, Florence M. Allusions, words and phrases that should be known and where to find them. Detroit Central High School. Pub. by the author. 35 cents.

Reference guides that should be known and how to use them. Detroit, The Willard Co. $1.50.

Sold also in sections at 35 cents each.

Outlines and reference problems for eight lessons for high school pupils. Detroit Central High School. Pub. by the author. 4 cents.

Ward, G. O. Practical use of books and libraries. 2d ed. Boston Book Co., 1914.

$1.

Teaching outline to accompany the above, 50 cents.

See also outlines in

Madison, Elizabeth. A high-school course in orary use. English Journal,

March, 1916.

We recommend that there be appointed in every State a trained and experienced librarian as supervisor of school libraries, as in Minnesota and in New Jersey. In order that this may be brought about and the development of high-school libraries be encouraged in every way possible we urge the appointment in each State of a standing committee on high-school libraries to be made up of representatives from State teachers associations and State library associations. Teachers of English and history are especially urged to serve on such committees and to form such committees.

The members of the Committee on the Library and its Equipment wish to express their indebtedness to many teachers and librarians for the help so generously given in compiling this report. We are particularly indebted to the following for their careful reading of the preliminary draft of the report and their constructive criticism and valuable suggestions: Prof. Allen Abbott, Teachers College, Columbia University; Mr. Gilbert O. Ward, Cleveland Public Library; Mr. W. H. Kerr, State Normal School, Emporia, Kans.; Miss Irene Warren, School of Education, Chicago University, Chicago, Ill.; Miss Martha Wilson, State Supervisor of School Libraries, St. Paul, Minn.; and Miss Edna Pratt, State Superviser of School Libraries, Trenton, N. J.

XIV. ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS.

The reorganization of the English course must ultimately be effected by the administrative and supervisory officers of the schools. In order to give definite point to this obvious fact a series of brief summaries of the principal problems that are peculiarly administrative has been prepared by the committee. In the bibliography under appropriate heads. will be found sufficient references to make available the best current thought and information on each subject.

1. ARTICULATION WITH THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

Much attention has been given for many years to the problem of college admission. Unfortunately, the relationship of the elementary-school course in English to that in the high school has not received commensurate attention, although the most casual observation revealed the fact that there was little or no correlation between these two principal parts of public-school education. To assist in meeting this difficulty the National Council of Teachers of English appointed, in May, 1912, a committee to make an investigation and offer recommendations. At the annual meeting of the council in November, 1913, the committee, through its chairman, Ernest C. Noyes, of Pittsburgh, offered a report based upon about 300 replies from all parts of the Union.

The principal conditions commented upon in the report are summarized by the committee as follows:

First, a study of the courses of the elementary school indicates that much more is being called for on paper than can possibly be accomplished. The requirements are too many, too heavy, and too vague. Such different types of work as grammar, oral composition, written composition, rhetoric, spelling, word study and dictionary work, reading, literature, and memorizing are all required at the same time; and so general are the recommendations made and so large is their content that individual teachers must become bewildered. Definite, detailed, printed courses of study reasonable in their prescriptions are the great desiderata of the grammar-school work in English. At present there seem in most cases to be no irreducible minima that must be attained under individual heads. The result is heterogeneity in instruction and in accomplishment.

1 Among the best printed courses which have fallen under the eyes of the committee are those of Everett, Mass.; Brookline, Mass.; Worcester, Mass.; Washington, D. C.; Paterson and Plainfield, N. J.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Decatur, Ill.; Muncie, Ind.; State Normal School, Farmville, W. Va.; "The Teaching of Elementary Composition and Grammar," State of New Jersey, Department of Public Instruction, and especially Boston, Mass., School Document" No. 8, 1909.

[ocr errors]
« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »