FURTHER STUDY OF QUOTATIONS (b) The period at the end of a statement. (d) Quotation marks. (e) Their, there; to, too, two. 141 Apply these questions not merely to your class as a whole, but to every individual in it. If they can be answered affirmatively for every individual, you need not worry about the class; if any question must be answered negatively for any child, it does not help that child that the same question can be answered affirmatively for all the other children. Try to locate and to correct individual weaknesses. I (117). Further Study of Quotations; Capital I Study with the children the lesson in their book; supplement the questions there given by such others as may be necessary. In every sentence have the pupil tell the quotation, the rest of the sentence, and how these parts of the sentence are separated, like this: She said, "Who will plant this wheat ?" The quotation is, Who will plant this wheat? The rest of the sentence is, she said. The quotation is separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. To avoid confusing the child, no suggestion is made in the pupils' book of exceptions to the rule, "The first word of a quotation begins with a capital letter." Care has been taken throughout the book to introduce no exception to this in matter given for the pupils' study. Should a pupil call attention to a quotation, the first word of which does not begin with a capital, such as may be found in the pupils' book, pages 140, 157, and elsewhere, it may be explained briefly that single words, or a few words that would not make a complete sentence if they stood alone, are begun with small letters when quoted. No other exception to the general rule is likely to be met or noted by the pupils. As they advance in their language study, and with the general rule fixed, they will easily grasp and apply the exception. II (120). Copying to Learn the Writing of Quotations and the Capital I Do everything possible to encourage accuracy and neatness in the pupils' work. Try to make sure that pupils do think to themselves the reasons for the use of marks of punctuation, quotation marks, and capitals, as they make them. Help pupils to avoid mistakes. Have the mistakes that are made -in spite of your efforts and the efforts of the pupils-corrected at once by the pupil after giving the reasons for the correct form. In the correcting follow carefully the directions given in Chapter Five (p. 116). Save the pupils' papers. Add to them the papers written on the remaining parts of the story, as these PUPILS' STUDY IN PREPARATION FOR DICTATION 143 are studied. When the story has been completed, each pupil's papers may be bound into a little booklet, for which the pupil may make and decorate a suitable cover. III (121). Pupils' Study in Preparation for Dictation While the pupils are studying this lesson, go from one to another -especially among the poorer pupils—to see that every one is really studying intelligently. You must know what each one's weaknesses are and what difficulties he is likely to have. Perhaps one is not telling himself the reason for the use of the capital to begin the word Who, second sentence, because he has forgotten. By questions and suggestions help him to remember that the book has told him already the reason for this, and help him to turn back in his book until he finds it (p. 118). Similarly, help other pupils to find out from some previous lesson why I is a capital, why the comma is used, and why the question mark is inside the quotation marks. In all of this, do as little for the pupil as possible, get him to do all he can for himself. Of course it is much easier—and it takes far less time to tell the pupil at once what he seems to need, to call upon some other pupil to tell him, or to refer him to the exact place in his book where the desired information. is given; but this is not training the pupil to help himself, to rely upon himself, to command and to use what he has learned and the book in which he has learned it-it is doing just the reverse, encouraging dependence on others. You will often find that a pupil really does know what he seems not to know, what he thinks himself he does not know; you will find also that many, perhaps most pupils, are not using their books, but merely reading in them what they are specially told to read. Now here are two of the most important lessons that any pupil can learn in school, two of the most valuable habits that any one can acquire, the habit of using what one has learned and the habit of using books; these habits are of vastly more moment than the knowledge of any number of mere facts, rules, or principles of language or of any other subject. The process of teaching and learning language and every other subject must be such as to insure the establishment and development of these habits. Fortunately, the process of teaching and learning that will accomplish this is, in the long run, the most effective that can be employed, considered merely from the standpoint of the mastery of any given subject. After the pupils have studied by themselves for ten or twelve minutes, you may take up the last two or three sentences for class study aloud. TESTING AND TEACHING THROUGH DICTATION 145 IV (122). Testing and Teaching through Dictation A dictation exercise that has any value is given, not because dictation is a good way to teach language, but because that particular exercise, rightly used, is suitable for the teaching of certain definite things. That a dictation exercise may be effective, the teacher must have clearly in mind the specific things which may be taught through that exercise; then she must conduct the exercise in a way to teach those specific things. Part Two of The Little Red Hen, which is to be dictated at this time, may be made to test and teach almost every conventional written form that pupils have thus far studied: Capitals to begin the first and principal words of a title. to begin the first word of a sentence. to begin the first word of a quotation. for the word I. A period at the end of a sentence that is a statement. A question mark at the end of a sentence that asks a question. A comma to separate a quotation from the rest of the sentence. Quotation marks to inclose a quotation. For the purpose of anticipating mistakes, it will be well to question pupils on these matters just before beginning the dictation. Dictate full sentences, even though the sentence, like the second, may seem long. Better repeat, and have pupils repeat after you, two or three times, than to break the sentence in the dictation. For further suggestions regarding dictation, see page 50. It should hardly |