the words beginning with the large capitals are the first and important words of the title.

It may be easily explained that the rules given in the pupils' book concern written not printed titles.

X (61). Giving Titles to Pictures

Prepare pupils to make good titles by studying with them possible titles of pictures in Chapters One and Two. Get the children to give as many titles as possible that they think suitable for these pictures. Write all titles given on the blackboard. Criticize each, rejecting the poor ones and retaining the good ones. For example, such titles as the following may be suggested for the garden wall picture:

THE BOY POINTING. (Poor, because it does not recall the picture as a whole, nor does it suggest any story that can be easily read from the picture.)

THE LADDER. (Poor, for reasons just given.)

THE GARDEN WALL. (Rather poor; suggests little.)

THE CHILDREN WHO CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE GARDEN WALL. (Better than the preceding, but too long.)

66

"O Look!" (Good; it arouses interest at once and suggests something of the story.)

SEEN FROM THE GARDEN WALL. (Good, for reasons just given.)

Let the pupils study the lesson in their book alone; it should not be too difficult for them after the picture stories they have told in preceding

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chapters. After the study, allow several to tell their stories in their own way, just as they have thought them out. Then you may offer suggestions for improving the stories. Probably suggestions will be chiefly needed to aid the children in putting their stories into better form.

Perhaps some stories will run something like this:

It was Christmas Eve. Will, Dick, and Lucy hung their stockings by the fireplace and went off to bed.

"Don't go to sleep," said Dick. "Let us go into the sitting room and wait by our stockings till Santa Claus comes, and then we can tell him just what we want for Christmas."

"Good!" said Lucy. "I want to tell him just what kind of doll I want."

"No," said Will. "Don't go. Santa does not like children

to watch for him."

But Dick and Lucy would not listen to Will. They crept softly into the sitting room and sat down before the fire to wait for Santa.

Perhaps the remainder of the story will answer the following questions:

How long did they have to wait?

At last what did they hear?

What did they say?

What did Santa say when he saw them?

("Ah, ha! There are Dick and Lucy waiting for me. I'll

go away and come back after they are asleep.")

What did Santa Claus do?

How did Dick and Lucy account for the noise they had heard? (The wind, snowslide, etc.)

What did they do?

When Santa returned what did he put in Dick's and Lucy's stockings to show them that he did not like them to wait for him?

What did he give Will?

Did the children ever wait up for Santa Claus again?

Supplementary Work

Have the Christmas story told from different standpoints. Let the children choose freely who they will be; then see that they keep to their chosen characters consistently in telling their story.

1. Let the little boy who watched for Santa tell his story next day to one of his friends.

2. Let the little girl tell her story to one of her friends.

3. Let Santa Claus tell the story as one of his Christmas adventures.

See that every story told is given a suitable title.

XII (62). More Picture Stories

(The monkey and the mirror, p. 65)

After the pupils have studied the lesson in their books alone for a few minutes, let several of them try to tell the story. Help them only as much as is necessary to bring their ideas into connected, progressive order.

Encourage all signs of originality. Work for brevity, life, point. If the children's stories soon get to be all alike and expressed in the same lan

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guage, you may be sure that they are not really telling their own stories, but merely parroting the stories of others. That must be stopped, even if, as a last resort, you have to stop the exercise to do it. As soon as the children's originality seems about exhausted, tell them this Æsop fable.

THE DOG AND HIS IMAGE

A dog with a piece of meat in his mouth was one day crossing a stream. Looking down into the clear water he saw his own image. The silly dog thought he saw another dog with another piece of meat. He made up his mind to get the second piece of meat, so he made a grab at, his own shadow. But, in trying to get the image of a piece of meat, he lost the real piece he already had.

This fable will serve as ȧ model. It will stimulate the slower, less imaginative children; it will show the more original how to arrange and present their ideas effectively. It will add a bit to the literary material that all children should be accumulating.

After this fable has been told, discussed, and compared with the stories suggested by the monkey and mirror picture, have several children- - particularly some of the slower ones - tell their stories of the monkey. Note the effect of the fable on their rendering.

Have every child give an appropriate title to his story. As an attractive or suggestive title is an important part of any story, it is worth while to spend a good deal of time in criticizing, modifying,

and comparing titles until the best one is found. Not all the stories, if they have any considerable individuality, should be fitted with the title, The Monkey and the Mirror; there might well be stories that such titles as these would fit better: The Greedy Monkey, The Two Monkeys, The Mirror's Trick, What the Candles Saw, He Will Know Better Next Time, He Will Never Do That Again.

XIII (66). Telling True Stories

Help children to make stories of their experiences suggested by the questions in their book. (See P. 44.)

XIV (67). A Class Exercise in Written Reproduction Tell the children the following story:

One night some Indian children saw a star fall into a pond. The next morning they found a new flower growing there. It was sweet and white. It had a golden heart like a star. was our first water lily.

Let the exercise proceed somewhat as follows:

Teacher: What would be a good title for this story?

This

The children are allowed to decide on one of several good titles that will undoubtedly be given by them, such as The Star, The Water Lily, or The First Water Lily; perhaps they decide on The Star.

Teacher: I will write the title on the board if you will tell me just how to do it. (Pupils must be required to be definite and exact.)