CHAPTER FOUR

THE careful preliminary study and comparison of the work provided in this chapter with that already given in preceding chapters - a study which should invariably be made before entering on the work of any chapter with the children - should impress you, among other things, with the following:

1. The different kinds of exercises, once introduced, are kept up from chapter to chapter. Instead of becoming monotonous they become more interesting as children gain in power in originality and independence. As examples, note the varied stories, fables, and myths, all intensely interesting, that furnish material for conversation, study, dramatizing, and reproduction; the use of riddles (Chapter Two) in the study of questions, statements, and their marks of punctuation; and the game of names (Chapter Four) in teaching the writing of proper names.

2. Increasing originality and independence is expected of the children in all the exercises-reading, study, dramatizing, reproducing.

3. The distinctly new work consists of the following only:

(a) The use of capitals in the writing of proper names. (b) The use of their and there; of to, too, and two.

STUDY AND ORAL REPRODUCTION

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I (71). Study and Oral Reproduction of the Fable, "The Four Oxen"

This is a lesson for the pupils to study carefully in preparation for the oral reproduction. In their book, they are told, in considerable detail, how to study the lesson. It is of the utmost importance that they study it systematically and carefully, as directed. Probably many of them will need some help, a hint, a word of encouragement, a bit of stimulus. This help should be individual; it should be just sufficient - not too much-to enable the pupil to do for himself.

It

Just because this lesson culminates in the oral reproduction of the story, do not fall into the grievous and common error of accepting - even of encouraging — the memorizing of the words by repeated reading, by concentrating attention on these. is quite possible for a child, with two or three minutes' study, to reproduce this story glibly, without having really read it, without having constructed the picture in his mind at all. It is even possible for the same child to answer the questions asked in his book, and other similar questions. He does this merely from word memory. This possibility will become actuality in many cases, and that, too, with the most capable children, if the teacher permits it.

Does a child hesitate and grope for a word? Do you help him by giving him a word, the next word?

Does he, for instance, recite the first two sentences of the story of the four oxen and the lion in the words of the book? Does he start the third sentence, "But whenever " and stop; do you, or does some pupil, help him out by saying, "the oxen"? Words, words, words! Such an exercise is worse than a waste of time and opportunity; it is positively pernicious. It is training the child's mind to carry on its processes with forms that lack substance, with husks that cover no kernels; it is starving instead of feeding the mind; its end is mental vacuity, at best, or at worst, the ability to talk without saying anything.

In a word, there is little or no value for the child — there may be positive harm—in memorizing and reproducing the words of this story. There is much value in studying the story as the child's book directs. By such study, the child is learning really to read, to form in his mind the thoughts, the pictures, which the words describe; to hold those pictures in mind, to examine, to analyze them freely; and, finally,. to describe the pictures in his own fitting words.

When it comes to the recitation, this must be conducted in harmony with the study that has preceded. Encourage pupils to use their own language; commend originality of expression. Insist, only, that the essential facts of the story be observed. Encourage free and full expression, but put no premium on verbosity. Do not commend a child for much speaking, but for speaking effectively.

THEIR AND THERE

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Study again the suggestions and directions given in previous chapters for conducting exercises in oral reproduction (pp. 16, 42, 63). In the criticism, be especially careful that every child knows just wherein his work was good and wherein it should be improved. In In every effort at improvement, whether of his own previous performance, or of the performance of another, make sure that the child has a clear conception of what he is trying to do.

Supplementary Work

Let the children study in a similar manner and reproduce any short, suitable story. Some of the stories already given in their book may be used, as The Blind Men and the Elephant (p. 18), or The Trees and the Woodcutter (p. 58).

II (73). Their and There

Study this lesson with the children. Just before they copy the sentences, filling the blanks, give them several sentences, orally, containing their and there, and have them tell which word is used, spelling the word and giving the reason for its use. For illus

tration:

Teacher: The naughty kittens have lost their mittens.

Pupil: Their, t-h-e-i-r (spelling); because in that sentence their means belonging to the kittens.

Teacher: Look up, little kittens, there are your mittens. Pupil: There, t-h-e-r-e; because in that sentence there means in that place.

Have pupils correct their written sentences as a part of the exercise. Let them give the reason for every correction before making it, as already directed (p. 49). For example, if a child has used their in the second sentence, he will say, when he discovers his mistake, "I should use there in this sentence, because it means in that place," and make the correction.

Supplementary Work

1. Additional sentences, with blanks to be filled with there or their, may be written on the board.

2. Pupils may make original sentences, using there or their in each. Teacher may assign subjects about which to make these sentences, as, boys and marbles, girls and hoops.

This work must be carefully done and rapidly corrected. Neglect of the correction makes pupils careless of errors, and their repetition fixes the habit. If you have not time to see that these exercises are done correctly, do not give them. They cannot be safely used to "keep pupils busy "; it were far better to let the pupils go out to play. These exercises should never be required of pupils who already have the habit of using these two words correctly; no improvement is possible, so such exercises are a waste of pupils' time at best.

At worst, they invite careless work, and foster the formation of bad habits; they make too little demand on the pupil to hold him up to his best.