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ENGLISH 
 IN THE GRADES 
 
 BY 
 THOS. C. BLAISDELL, Ph.D. 
 
 <•%) 
 
 NEW YORK-:. CINCINNATI. {.CHICAGO 
 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
 
STEPS 
 IN ENGLISH 
 
 These books meet modern conditions in teaching 
 Elementary English as explained in this pamphlet. 
 
 They teach the child how to express his thoughts 
 in language rather than furnish an undue amount of 
 grammar and rules. 
 
 From the start, lessons in conversation are 
 employed simultaneously with those in written 
 language. 
 
 Picture-study, study of literary selections and 
 Setter-writing are presented at sufficient intervals. 
 
 The books mark out the daily work for the 
 teacher in a clearly defined manner by telling him 
 what to do and when to do it. 
 
 Many unique, mechanical devices, such as a 
 I'cbor-saving method of correcting papers, and a 
 graphic system of diagramming, are provided. 
 
 American Book Company 
 
ENGLISH IN THE 
 GRADES 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS 
 
 THOS. C. BLAISDELL, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of English in the Fifth Avenue Normal High School 
 Pittsburg, Pa. 
 
 NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI .:• CHICAGO 
 
 AMERICAN .BOOK COMPANY 
 
UBRARYof aONGHtSS 
 
 Vwo Oooies rta;«vtsu 
 
 JUN 14 1905 
 
 vouyneiii tiiuy 
 
 COPY e. 
 
 Copyright, 1905, by 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. 
 
 LI). .. . 
 
 ENGLISH IN THE GRADES. 
 W. P. 1 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The school world to-day generally agrees to 
 the correctness of the following propositions 
 concerning the teaching of language : 
 
 1. The chief ends of language teaching are 
 (dC) facility in the verbal expression of one's own 
 thought andfeelijig; (b) accuracy ift the use of the 
 spoken and written forms of one's native tongue. 
 
 2. Power to speak and to write conies only 
 through speaking and writing under proper 
 guidance. 
 
 3. Oral expression should precede written work. 
 
 4. Language work should be based upon the 
 child's experie7ice. 
 
 5. The study of English grammar at the 
 proper age and in the proper manner has great- 
 value. 
 
 The author believes that the proper applica- 
 tion of the foregoing propositions will make the 
 work of the teacher easier and better. He fur- 
 ther believes that the following are the most: 
 effective exercises to arouse the child's interest 
 and to lead him to <?r<^/ and written expression: 
 
 (a) Observation lessons, based upon things a 
 child does, sees, and enjoys, (b) Picture studies ^ 
 suggesting not only stories, but also acts and 
 3 
 
4 FOREWORD 
 
 incidents that appeal to children, (c) Stories 
 and poems, so treated that children will not 
 only appreciate them, but will also talk and 
 write about them. (d) Letter writing, as a 
 simple and natural form of written expression, 
 (e) Dictation exercises. 
 
 For the above exercises the school year may 
 be best divided into periods of several weeks 
 each. The pupil should be kept at one kind 
 of work until he has attained som_e degree of 
 skill and proficiency in it. 
 
 In the third, fourth, and fifth years each 
 week's work should consist of four lessons in 
 construction and one in the mechanics of writ- 
 ing or the simplest forms of grammar. 
 
 In the sixth, seventh, and eighth years there 
 may be three daily lessons in composition each 
 week and two in grammar. 
 
 This book has been written to present prac- 
 tical methods for carrying into effect, in the 
 daily work of the schoolroom, the propositions 
 stated and the exercises suggested. 
 
 The author wishes to acknowledge his in- 
 debtedness to the writings of the late Dr. 
 Emerson E. White for the statement of many 
 of the principles involved. To Professor L. A. 
 Sherman, of the University of Nebraska, he 
 is also indebted for many suggestions concern- 
 ing the application of these principles. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foreword . 3 
 
 I. Observation Lessons 7 
 
 Self. Outline. The Dog. Suggestions. 
 
 II. Picture Studies 27 
 
 III. Stories and Poems 39 
 
 A Prayer. Robert Bruce. The Flag 
 Goes By. 
 
 IV. Letter Writing 58 
 
 V. Composition Work in the Sixth, Sev- 
 enth, AND Eighth Years . . .61 
 Observation Work. Pictures. Literature. 
 
 VI. Grammar in the Grades . - • - 7Z 
 Diagrams. Parsing. The Correction of 
 Written Work. 
 
I 
 
 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 I. SELF 
 
 First Lesson. — An interesting subject for 
 every child is himself. By means of questions 
 such answers as the following may be elicited 
 from various members of almost any class : 
 " My name is Minnie Jones." " I am eight 
 years old." " I weigh sixty-eight pounds." 
 "I am three feet seven inches tall." **The 
 color of my hair is dark brown." "My eyes 
 are blue." " My cheeks are rosy." "My 
 father is a doctor." "I live in a brick house 
 on Willard Street." " I walk a mile to school." 
 " I like this school because there is a gym- 
 nasium in it." "I like to play every kind of 
 game." "Oh, I like to play 'Jacks,* 'House,' 
 'Hide and Seek,' and 'Store.'" "We play 
 'Store' this way: — " 
 
 ,7 
 
8 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 A skillful teacher will get answers to such 
 questions from many pupils, thus giving every 
 member of the class an opportunity to talk dur- 
 ing a lesson of at least twenty minutes. (See 
 Steps in English^ I, p. ii.) 
 
 Second Lesson. — In a second lesson suitable 
 questions will call forth such answers as the 
 following : " I like to help mamma do things 
 about the house." " 1 like to sweep, and 
 dust the chairs." '' I like to help mamma 
 make the beds, wash the dishes, and cook." 
 " I like to sew and knit." " I like to read 
 storybooks about birds, wild animals, Indians, 
 and the people of other countries." " I like 
 to take care of the horse." " My papa pays 
 me for keeping the walk clean." " I like to 
 mow the lawn." 
 
 Each pupil may be asked in turn about the 
 things he likes to do. It will be necessary 
 sometimes for the teacher to draw out correct 
 answers to her questions. Care must be used 
 that pupils tell things clearly. The teacher 
 should not criticise, but should continue until 
 she gets a satisfactory reply to a question. It 
 
SELF 
 
 9 
 
 is often well to write an exceptionally satisfac- 
 tory answer on the board, thus calling attention 
 to the thought, the capital letters, the terminal 
 punctuation, and the spelling. 
 
 Third Lesson. — The third lesson may be de- 
 voted to what the pupil does during vacation 
 when he visits grandpa or Uncle John, or dur- 
 ing Christmas week ; or it may deal with the 
 pets, toys, and games that he plays ; or it may 
 be devoted to written work covering special 
 phases of the first two lessons, following the 
 plan suggested on pp. 14-15. 
 
 Fourth Lesson. — The fourth lesson should be 
 written. The pupil may be asked to write a 
 brief account of himself, may write of the 
 games he likes, or of some particular vacation 
 experience. In the lower grades written work 
 should usually be done under the guidance of 
 the teacher, as is suggested on pp. 14-15. 
 
 Occasionally the written work may take the 
 form of a brief note or letter. 
 
lO OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 2. OUTLINE 
 
 Upon entering school at the age of six the 
 child is already using oral language to express 
 his thoughts. So, too, he understands the 
 thoughts of others, even when expressed in 
 words that he has not yet learned to use. He 
 has a somewhat clear notion and free use of 
 perhaps five hundred words, and a growing 
 sense of a thousand or more. He has also ideas 
 to which these words relate. These ideas are 
 more or less clear according to his home sur- 
 roundings. But even though vague, they form 
 abundant material for future language work. 
 
 The main object of the school during the first 
 year is to acquaint the children with the printed 
 and written forms of words they already know 
 and use, and to furnish them with a com- 
 mon and minimum vocabulary upon which the 
 succeeding years of school life may safely build. 
 
 As children are taught to read, they add to 
 their power over language. Accordingly, as 
 opportunity offers, they may be permitted to 
 
OUTLINE II 
 
 talk freely, not formally, about things that in- 
 terest them, — their toys, games, and pets, as 
 well as the many things they do and see at 
 home, on the street, and in the school. 
 
 In the second year this work should have a 
 definite place, the children being given special 
 opportunity to express their thoughts and feel- 
 ings about things of interest in their lives. 
 
 Third Year. — By the third year pupils are 
 ready for more formal language work. Long 
 before this, stories have been told them, and 
 this new exercise may begin with a story, which 
 should be brief and clear, but short. 
 
 First Models. — It is to be a model, and the 
 mark must not be set too high. Suppose the 
 teacher intends to have the children tell what 
 they saw on the way to school. She might 
 first tell her own story, covering points like 
 these : When she started. The weather. The 
 poultry noticed about the house. The cat or 
 the dog. The road. Sunshine or rain. Birds. 
 Squirrels. Passing travelers. A stop beside 
 the brook. Water clear or muddy. Trees in 
 leaf or bare. Flowers or fruit. Grain fields 
 
12 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 or pasture. Joins children at door or on the 
 road. 
 
 The story should be orderly and true to 
 nature. The teacher should not make it up, 
 but should merely select the telling points of 
 a walk and give them in simple, direct lan- 
 guage without explanation or digressions. 
 
 Having told her story, let her say : " Now, 
 pupils, I wish each one of you to tell me about 
 something you saw when coming to school this 
 morning. Martha, you tell me about something 
 you saw." 
 
 Oral Work. — If the teacher's story has been 
 well told, and if the children are made to 
 feel that what they tell will be of interest, 
 they will each talk freely, and a beginning 
 will have been made in constructive work. 
 The early efforts should not be criticised, but 
 should be commended where possible. The 
 first thing to be done is to get the children to 
 say something. 
 
 Corrections. — Gradually the attention of pupils 
 may be called to the faults that are found in 
 their everyday speech, such as slang or mis- 
 
OUTLINE 13 
 
 used words, but they should not be discour- 
 aged by fault-finding or by sarcasm. Their 
 efforts should be praised, because it is by con- 
 tinued effort that success is attained. This 
 exercise should occupy not less than twenty 
 minutes. 
 
 The second lesson, and even a third or 
 fourth, may follow similar lines. In every case 
 the sample story given by the teacher should 
 be her own experience and should be of a kind 
 that every child may have. Our lives have 
 much that is common to all, and these first 
 oral lessons should be along lines that are 
 easy for children. 
 
 Things of Interest. — If the school is in the 
 country, the children will have seen a bird's 
 nest, a squirrel, a rabbit; and although they 
 would, without aid, fail in the attempt to de- 
 scribe any one of these, each can tell circum- 
 stances and incidents connected with some 
 particular nest, squirrel, or rabbit. If the 
 school is in the city, the children's home life 
 within doors is much the same, but their external 
 experiences are very different. They see birds, 
 
14 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 trees, and flowers in the parks. They know 
 streets, horses, and carriages of all varieties ; 
 they see policemen and firemen. Their ideas of 
 nature are more limited ; their ideas of man 
 and his works are broader. Subjects should 
 be selected that most of the children know 
 something about. Something cannot come 
 from nothing. Children as well as adults fail 
 to talk when they have no clear ideas of the 
 subject-matter to be treated. 
 
 The Child Mind. — Again, even the Apostle 
 Paul learned that when he was a child, he 
 "thought as a child and spake as a child." 
 The child of to-day does the same thing. He 
 can neither think, talk, nor write the thoughts 
 of an adult. The spoken and written thoughts 
 of children in their first efforts, if genuine, 
 will be childlike. These efforts should be 
 judged, not by high literary standards, but 
 simply as to whether they are the record of 
 real thinking. If they are such, the first 
 step in constructive work has been taken. 
 
 Written Work. — Written exercises should 
 seldom be assigned to primary and interme- 
 
OUTLINE 15 
 
 diate pupils until two periods have been de- 
 voted to oral work. During these two periods, 
 however, the teacher should place on the board 
 all new or difficult words, calling attention to 
 their spelling, and to such answers and sug- 
 gestions from pupils as she may select for com- 
 mendation and for use as models. Attention 
 should be called to the capital letters used and 
 to the terminal punctuation. At convenient 
 times these sentences, having been erased, may 
 be dictated to the class. 
 
 Aid to Pupils. — On the third day a half dozen 
 of the best pupils may be sent to the board and 
 the rest may write at their desks. The teacher 
 may ask questions already used in oral work, 
 and have each pupil write a complete answer. 
 No attempt should be made to have the answers 
 uniform ; in fact, pupils should be encouraged 
 to write wholly original answers. While they 
 are writing, the teacher is moving about the 
 room encouraging backward pupils, calling 
 attention to misspelled words, to omitted capi- 
 tals, to wrong terminal punctuation, and to 
 sentences that are too long. Later, pupils may 
 
l6 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 be asked to write several sentences, then a brief 
 description, then an account of a suggested 
 experience. A careful examination should be 
 made of work written on the board, using it as 
 a basis for lessons in accuracy of statement 
 and of form. The written work may often 
 take the form of letters or of brief notes. 
 
 Care should be taken not to discourage pupils 
 by too free or too severe criticism ; it is better 
 to praise the good than to condemn the bad. 
 Errors should be pointed out in the manner 
 suggested on pp. 92-94, and pupils should be 
 compelled to make their own corrections. The 
 teacher should never correct tJie eiTors^ as to do 
 so deprives the child of the practice and drill 
 that will teach him to avoid his individual 
 mistakes. 
 
 3. THE DOG 
 
 As the dog is one of the most common of 
 household pets and as almost every child likes 
 dogs, no better subject can be used to show the 
 methods of dealing, in observation work, with 
 
THE DOG 17 
 
 pets, with domestic animals, and with the com- 
 mon wild animals familiar to children. 
 
 Four lessons of twenty minutes each may 
 profitably be devoted to the study of the dog, his 
 form, his habits, his intelligence, his obedience. 
 
 Kinds of Dogs. — The first lesson may begin by 
 the teacher's saying : " Children, we are going 
 to talk to-day about the dog. Now, there are 
 dogs of many kinds. Who will tell me the 
 names of some.-*" 
 
 A number of hands are at once raised. James 
 says, " I know two kinds, the rat terrier and 
 the bulldog." " Who knows another kind ? " 
 Elizabeth knows two other kinds, fox terrier 
 and greyhound. A dozen hands are now up to 
 tell the different kinds each one knows. John 
 knows the Spitz and water spaniel. Sarah 
 knows the Newfoundland and mastiff. Wil- 
 liam knows the foxhound and the shepherd. 
 Harry knows the poodle, the setter, and the 
 Saint Bernard. Other pupils will likely know 
 still different kinds and will be glad to name 
 them if given an opportunity. 
 
 Pupils may now be asked to give a general 
 
 ENG. GRADES — 2 
 
l8 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 description of dogs of several kinds, after which 
 the teacher may ask, ''William, which kind of 
 dog do you like best ? " ** I like the fox terrier 
 best." After the teacher has found from several 
 of the class the kind of dog each likes best, she 
 may then ask, " Has any one in the class a 
 dog ? " Several will raise the hand. 
 
 The teacher then asks, "Joseph, what kind 
 of dog have you .'' " " I have a fox terrier." 
 " Why do you like your dog } " *' I like him 
 because he likes me." "How do you know he 
 likes you ? " " Because when I go home from 
 school, he makes such a fuss about me." 
 " What does he do .'' " " Oh, he jumps up on 
 my lap. I talk to him and ask him if he has 
 been a good dog while I was at school, and he 
 turns his head toward my face and looks right 
 at me and sticks out his tongue and tries to lick 
 my face. Then I ask him if mamma scolded 
 him while I was away, and he turns his head 
 round again and tries to lick my face ; nearly 
 every time I speak kindly to him he tries to 
 lick my face." 
 
 Name. — " What do you call your dog ? " " I 
 
THE DOG 19 
 
 call him 'Jack,* and he knows his name, too, 
 because when it is bedtime, I say, * Now, Jack, 
 it is time to go to bed ; come on ; all good dogs 
 should be in bed.' If Jack is lying on the 
 carpet before the fire, he will get right up and 
 go with me to his bed." ** Where is his bed ? " 
 ''It's in the laundry." "What kind of bed 
 have you for him .? " "I have a nice box near 
 the furnace with a carpet in it, and when Jack 
 gets into the box, I have a piece of old quilt 
 that I put over him and tuck it in around his 
 back so that the cold can't get in. Then he 
 sleeps till morning, but as soon as he hears me 
 in the morning he jumps out of bed and begins 
 to bark and coax to get upstairs from the 
 laundry." 
 
 Habits. — ** Does he ever go with you to 
 school ? " " No, but when I go out on the road, 
 he jumps up on the lounge in the Hbrary and 
 puts his fore feet on the window sill and looks 
 out of the window to see where I am. If he 
 sees me, he barks and howls, and jumps down 
 from the lounge, and runs and jumps against 
 the door to push it open, and if he can't get 
 
20 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 out, he makes a great noise till mamma has to 
 open the door ; then he runs to me and jumps 
 up on me and is very glad that he got out." 
 
 Familiar Facts. — Probably no one pupil will 
 talk to this length about his dog ; in fact, it will 
 usually be wiser to get various facts from a 
 number of different pupils. Often too it will 
 be necessary for the teacher to encourage pupils 
 by questions. They do not realize that facts 
 familiar to them will be of interest to others. 
 
 Each pupil in the class may now be asked to 
 tell about his own dog or about a dog of which 
 he knows, using the remainder of the time given 
 to the recitation. It should not be difficult for 
 a teacher of ordinary skill and ability to hold 
 the interest of the class in this or a similar man- 
 ner for twenty minutes. (See Steps in English , 
 I, p. i8.) 
 
 Description. — For the second lesson the 
 teacher may ask each of the pupils, so far as 
 time will permit, something about his own 
 particular dog that has not been told. " John, 
 what kind of dog have you.? " " I have a water 
 spaniel." " What kind of coat has he t " " He 
 
THE DOG 21 
 
 has a thick coat of long, black hair." *' What 
 kind of ears and tail has he ? " " He has a 
 long, bushy tail and long, hanging ears." 
 " What kind of play does he like } " " He likes 
 to run after sticks when I throw them into the 
 water. He will jump in and swim after them 
 and bring them back to me. I would not do 
 with my dog what I see some boys do with 
 their dogs." " What do you mean ? " " They 
 throw stones into a pond or a stream, and when 
 the dog swims out to where he thinks the stone 
 is, there is no stone there ; then he swims all 
 around hunting it When he can't find it and 
 gets tired and out of breath, he gives it up and 
 comes back to the shore. The boys think it 
 is great fun to make a dog do that." 
 
 With the average teacher this will be quite 
 enough for one lesson, if she encourages each 
 of the pupils to tell what he knows, either about 
 his own dog or about a dog he has seen or 
 of which he has heard. 
 
 In the third lesson pupils may be encouraged 
 by questions to tell further facts about a dog, 
 thus: 
 
22 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 " How tall is he ? " " He is about a foot and 
 a half high/' " How much do you think he 
 weighs ? " " I think he weighs about forty 
 pounds." "How can you tell when he is 
 pleased ? " " I know he is pleased by the way 
 he wags his tail, and plays, and jumps, and 
 barks. Sometimes when I scratch his back, he 
 makes beUeve that he is cross and growls, and 
 takes hold of my hand with his mouth, but he 
 doesn't bite at all; he hasn't any notion of 
 biting." 
 
 Traits. — = In this lesson also bring out through 
 questions anything relating to the courage, 
 watchfulness, and gentleness of the dog; the 
 kind of food he likes best, and other facts of 
 interest about him. 
 
 The fourth lesson may be written work along 
 the lines previously indicated, often in the form 
 of notes or letters. 
 
 4. SUGGESTIONS 
 
 The family furnishes a topic that is well known. 
 Several exercises may be devoted to the home. 
 
SUGGESTIONS 23 
 
 The children may talk or write about the home 
 food, and its sources, as known to them. The 
 bread may begin at the baker's shop, or pro- 
 ceed from the flour which came from the store, 
 or from the mill, or from the wheat fields, ac- 
 cording to the knowledge or the location of the 
 class. The uses of water, as well as its sources, 
 may be considered. Then tea, coffee, or other 
 drinks may be taken up. 
 
 The House. — The house itself will furnish 
 material for a number of interesting language 
 exercises. Is it of stone, brick, or wood ? What 
 is the lowest part called ? How many rooms 
 are there ? What use is made of each ? How 
 is the house covered .'' How many chimneys 
 are there .'* Porches ? Where does it stand, — 
 on a hill or in a valley ; near the road or street, 
 or far away ^ What trees are near it ? Are 
 there any shrubs, vines, or flowers ? 
 
 If a house is being erected near the school, 
 it will furnish a topic of great interest to 
 children, and one from which many interesting 
 lessons may be drawn. The children will be 
 especially interested in various phases of the 
 
24 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 work. How was the cellar made? What did 
 the stone masons do? What tools did they use? 
 What did the carpenters do? The plasterers? 
 The brick layers ? The plumbers ? The painters ? 
 What tools did each use ? 
 
 The various kinds of fuel and their uses will 
 be found of interest and of value in the language 
 work. The children will talk or write freely of 
 wood, coal, or gas, as the case may be. They 
 will tell how it is used in cooking, washing, or 
 ironing; how it is used to heat the house; 
 whether furnace, steam, grate, or stove is used, 
 giving the details. 
 
 Animals. — Any animal with which a child is 
 familiar will furnish an ideal subject for ob- 
 servation work. The lesson will begin with 
 immediate interest on the part of either indi- 
 vidual pupils or the entire class, particularly 
 if the animal happens to be a pet. There will 
 be a number of things which the child wishes 
 to tell or write. A little skillful direction or a 
 few well-selected questions will set the children 
 to seeking other information easily within their 
 reach, and lay the foundations for careful, sys- 
 
SUGGESTIONS 25 
 
 tematic habits of observation and investigation. 
 Thus, if the horse is the subject, a pupil may be 
 asked to tell the difference between a horse's 
 foot and a cow's. Should no one be able to do 
 this satisfactorily, the class may be instructed to 
 investigate the matter and! report the following 
 day. Or the teacher may announce that she 
 will ask the class to tell at the next lesson just 
 how a horse's shoes are fastened, and direct the 
 class as a whole, or some particular pupils, to 
 investigate and report. An animal, a bird, or 
 a fish, whichever may appeal most strongly 
 to the interest of a particular class or pupil, 
 will furnish abundant material for language ex- 
 ercises. (See Steps in English, I, The Dog, 
 p. 18; The Duck, p. 90; The Horse, pp. 20 
 and loi ; The Rabbit, p. 84, etc.) 
 
 Fruits and Grains. — The fruits or grains will 
 also be found to furnish timely and valuable 
 material for observation lessons. Children in 
 the country have seen corn growing. They 
 can tell how it is planted, and when ; describe 
 its cultivation ; give the shape of the leaves, the 
 height of the plant, where the ears grow, how 
 
26 OBSERVATION LESSONS 
 
 they are covered, the tassels, the silk. They 
 know and will gladly tell or write about where 
 corn is stored, what is done with it, what ani- 
 mals eat it. City children will probably not 
 have this information, but they can tell some- 
 thing of the uses of corn, its appearance as they 
 know it, or describe pop corn. (See Steps in 
 English, I, p. 1 58.) 
 
 Wheat may be taken in a similar manner. 
 The teacher can readily adapt her questions to 
 the knowledge or environment of the pupils. 
 She may ask how wheat is sown, what it looks 
 Hke when it comes up, what change of color 
 takes place when it ripens, where the grain is 
 formed, what covers the grain from sight, how 
 wheat is harvested, and how the straw is sepa- 
 rated from the chaff. Or she may ask for the 
 various uses of wheat. So the apple may be 
 taken, or the orange, always selecting, if pos- 
 sible, some object which may be brought to 
 school and placed before the class for careful 
 examination. 
 
II 
 
 PICTURE STUDIES 
 
 Kind of Picture. — One of the best devices 
 for inducing a child to speak and to write is 
 picture study. Success in this requires a pic- 
 ture which portrays something associated with 
 the child's own life, and which suggests a story 
 of interest to a child. 
 
 Object. — Such a picture, placed before any 
 class and properly handled, will set each child 
 to thinking, to talking, to writing. When the 
 child is once thinking, talking, or writing freely, 
 the task of training him to think, talk, or write 
 correctly is well begun. When he is thoroughly 
 interested, when he has something which he 
 ivishes to say, it becomes a privilege rather 
 than a hardship for him to say it; for expres- 
 sion is not only the natural outcome of im- 
 27 
 
28 PICTURE STUDIES 
 
 pression, but it is one of the most alluring and 
 fascinating forms of mental activity. 
 
 Example. — Let us take as an example the 
 picture "His First Ride," — a lad holding a 
 goat by the horns, while a mother steadies a 
 small child seated on its back. (See Steps in 
 English^ I, p. 30.) It should be placed where 
 it may be carefully examined by every member 
 of the class. Each pupil may be permitted to 
 study the picture for a few moments in order 
 to discover its meaning as far as possible for 
 himself. Then one pupil may state to the class 
 something that he sees in the picture. Another 
 pupil may follow, either with something dis- 
 covered independently or with something sug- 
 gested by what the first pupil has said. 
 
 Original Ideas Best. — The child's own dis- 
 coveries are best, and if not hampered too much 
 by directions or abashed by criticism, he will 
 soon learn to speak what is in his mind with 
 perfect freedom. During early work a few min- 
 utes' talk will probably exhaust the first im- 
 pressions of the class. Then the teacher, who 
 of course has mastered the picture by careful 
 
PICTURE STUDIES 29 
 
 Study, should suggest other points by asking 
 appropriate questions. The children should be 
 enabled to discover each feature by means of 
 guiding questions. 
 
 Questions. — Thus, if the pupils have not al- 
 ready brought out the point, one may be asked 
 to tell what the woman is doing. It will add 
 interest and develop power for the teacher to 
 follow simple questions of fact with those asking 
 for reasons. Thus a pupil may be asked why 
 the woman is holding the child and what she 
 is probably saying. 
 
 Real Purpose. — It must be constantly re- 
 membered by the teacher that the real purpose 
 of the drill is to secure freedom of expression. 
 The facts that may be brought out are mere 
 material. The aim should be to get each child 
 to the point where he has something which he is 
 eager to say. Let him say it in his own natural 
 way. Later lead him gradually and tactfully to 
 correct expression. The important thing is to 
 maintain interest^ the latent interest that is 
 present with every pupil who has an appealing 
 picture before him. 
 
30 PICTURE STUDIES 
 
 Interest. — If this interest is preserved, culti- 
 vated, and directed, free expression will inevi- 
 tably follow, and from free expression to correct 
 expression is but a step. The kindergarten 
 method of making a correction by the sug- 
 gestion, " We say it this way," is very effec- 
 tive. 
 
 Children will be especially interested in ques- 
 tions that set them hunting for an answer. 
 Thus the questions, "Who probably owns the 
 goat ? " or " How does he like being used as a 
 horse ? " or " How does he show this ? " will 
 give the pupil something to think about. With 
 the discovery of the answer will come a thrill of 
 pleasure. That the answers of different pupils 
 may be entirely different, or may be incorrect, 
 regarded as mere fact, is of minor importance. 
 They have served their purpose as an exercise 
 in expression. 
 
 Children are always deHghted to discover 
 more in a picture, a story, or a poem than they 
 at first saw. Thus the question " What is the 
 feehng of the child ? " followed by the question 
 " How does he show this .'' " will develop addi- 
 
PICTURE STUDIES 3 1 
 
 tional ideas, some of which will fairly cry out 
 for expression. 
 
 Help to Teacher. — A teacher who has not 
 tried the experiment can scarcely realize the 
 keenness of interest that may be developed in 
 a class by the study of a good picture, nor 
 can she realize to what degree such interest will 
 lighten her work. The experiment is so easy, 
 however, that any one may try it. The inter- 
 est reconciles children to the less attractive 
 features of language work. 
 
 After the simpler features of a picture have 
 been brought out by the pupil's own effort or 
 by the teacher's questions, it is well to lead up 
 to more difficult features that have as yet es- 
 caped attention. Thus the question, "What 
 kind of floor has this room } " prepares for 
 the next question, "Is this a wealthy family?" 
 and probably suggests to the children other 
 replies to the query, "What makes you think 
 so ? " 
 
 Order of Work. — It is always well to begin a 
 picture study with the simplest and most obvi- 
 ous points, gradually leading up to the more dif- 
 
32 PICTURE STUDIES 
 
 ficult ones. It is also wise to let questions about 
 things that may be actually seen in the picture 
 precede questions about things that may be 
 inferred. The teacher must guard against the 
 pupil's inclination to tell stories suggested by 
 a picture, before he has mastered the actual 
 details. 
 
 Oral Work. — In graded schools about twenty 
 minutes may be given to each day's lesson. 
 In ungraded schools the teacher must be guided 
 by the size and number of classes. The amount 
 of time given to each pupil will depend, of 
 course, upon the size of the class, and must 
 be left to the teacher's judgment. It will be 
 found advantageous to treat each phase of a 
 subject orally before requiring pupils to write. 
 Oral expression is easier and more natural, the 
 difficulties of spelling, punctuation, and capital- 
 ization being absent. 
 
 Models. — The oral questions should be so 
 distributed as to give each pupil an opportunity 
 for expression and to bring out the different 
 ideas of each. The answers of one pupil will 
 suggest new and different thoughts to others. 
 
PICTURE STUDIES 33 
 
 From time to time the teacher should call atten- 
 tion to answers and suggestions that are reason- 
 ably satisfactory, and should use them as models 
 to encourage pupils who are less successful in 
 expression, often writing the models on the 
 board. Pupils will be found ready to accept 
 hints and suggestions. The fact that one of 
 their own number has done the thing required 
 will encourage the others. 
 
 By following such a plan the teacher will 
 soon find that the language exercise has ceased 
 to be drudgery, and has become a delight, as 
 the pupils will have more that they are eager 
 to say than the time given will permit. This 
 is not mere theorizing, but is the general experi- 
 ence of teachers who have used picture studies 
 properly. 
 
 Week's Work. — After the studies suggested 
 above, the children will have a fund of informa- 
 tion about the picture. A second day's work 
 may be the oral statement, by various mem- 
 bers of the class, of different features previously 
 brought out; as "This mother is giving her 
 baby a ride on the goat's back." Then several 
 
 ENG. GRADES — 3 
 
34 PICTURE STUDIES 
 
 statements or sentences about the picture may 
 be secured from each pupil. On the third day, 
 if it has not been done before, a brief, complete 
 oral description of the picture may be required 
 of several pupils. Or, if preferred, the pupils 
 may tell of some experience of their own sug- 
 gested by the picture, gradually working toward 
 a complete story, given orally first, and then 
 in written form. These should, of course, be 
 brief and simple at first, the teacher helping 
 slow and backward pupils by questions suited 
 to their needs. She should also call attention 
 to the many things in the child's experience 
 which are suggested by the picture and of 
 which he can talk or write. Children are at 
 first as slow to see that their own lives furnish 
 material about which to talk and write as they 
 are afterward eager to tell of their experiences. 
 The fourth day the pupils may be permitted 
 to tell or to write little imaginary incidents sug- 
 gested by the picture, as how they think the 
 goat was obtained or what use is made of it. 
 Or each child may tell or write of a ride he 
 once had on a horse or a bicycle, or in a wagon, 
 
PICTURE STUDIES 35 
 
 a sleigh, or a boat ; or he may tell something 
 about a goat or a baby, or something his mother 
 has done for him, or give a brief description of 
 a room in his own home. Such written work 
 may often be cast in the form of a letter to a 
 friend. 
 
 The alert teacher will, of course, follow the 
 lines of greatest interest either for the class or 
 the individual pupil. One feature in a picture 
 may interest a city class or a particular pupil, 
 while a different feature will appeal to a coun- 
 try class or another pupil. 
 
 Written Work. — Great care must be taken 
 to prevent pupils from becoming self-conscious 
 over their written work. They should be in- 
 troduced to its difficulties gradually and in such 
 a way as will not cause them to lose interest. 
 The plan suggested on pp. 14-15 will be found 
 helpful. 
 
 Experience has shown that four days' exer- 
 cises, or the language work of one week, may 
 be given profitably to one picture study, and 
 to the suggestions growing out of it. Not less 
 than two of these should be oral. The oral 
 
36 PICTURE STUDIES 
 
 work should always precede the written exer- 
 cises and should largely predominate in the 
 earlier classes, gradually giving place to written 
 exercises. 
 
 Text-book. — If for any reason a text-book 
 giving selected and graded picture studies is 
 not available for the use of each pupil, the 
 teacher may secure one for her own use,^ or 
 she may select her own pictures. 
 
 The value of a picture as a language study, 
 however, is in proportion to the amount of 
 interest it arouses in the children. If it creates 
 in their minds a desire to tell somethings it is 
 a good picture for language purposes ; otherwise 
 it is not. 
 
 Advanced Work. — As pupils advance in age 
 and in ability they may be led to talk and to 
 write of the deeper suggestions of life and 
 character which pictures contain. For example, 
 in the picture "The Doctor" {Steps in Eng- 
 lish, I, p. 200) the question, " Who is the man 
 sitting by the table } " will give the key to the 
 study. If deftly questioned, the pupils will 
 
 1 Steps in English, American Book Company. 
 
PICTURE STUDIES 37 
 
 tell in turn why the doctor is there, and why 
 they think so ; what he is thinking about ; how 
 long they think the child has been ill ; why the 
 doctor is looking so intently ; whether they 
 think there is any hope for the child's recov- 
 ery. Then their attention may be called by 
 means of questions, if necessary, to the man 
 who is standing. When they have told who 
 he is, where his hand is resting, who the woman 
 is, what she is doing, why, and how many chil- 
 dren there are in the family, they will have 
 had abundant and pleasant exercise in expres- 
 sion, and incidentally will have arrived at some- 
 thing of a realization of the story and feeling 
 of the picture. 
 
 Outline. — ■ The special work for each day for 
 these advanced classes may follow the plan al- 
 ready outlined, or a different one. The pupils 
 will gradually become more expert in the 
 method of studying pictures. Each new pic- 
 ture will bring in the interest of a fresh sub- 
 ject, and will draw upon an entirely different 
 set of the child's experiences. They may, in 
 the above case, talk or write of some illness of 
 
38 PICTURE STUDIES 
 
 their own or of a member of their family. It 
 will, of course, be wise to guide the class to the 
 expression of the more cheerful and sympa- 
 thetic sides of this and other subjects rather 
 than to the opposite. A child may speak of a 
 playmate who came to see him when he was 
 ill and who brought a flower or an orange. Or 
 he may speak of some service done for him, or 
 by him, preferably the former. Or he may tell 
 of going for the doctor, of playing doctor, or 
 of riding in the doctor's buggy, or of what he 
 saw in the doctor's office. Every child has some- 
 thing of this kind stored away in his memory. 
 He will not, of course, express it fully at first, 
 but will perceptibly improve by following the 
 hints from the teacher and from members of 
 the class. 
 
 Value. — Picture studies of this sort not only 
 serve as one of the greatest aids that a teacher 
 can have in the task of securing complete ex- 
 pression, but they also lay the foundation for a 
 genuine appreciation of art and of pictures, 
 which may prove of inestimable value in later 
 life. 
 
Ill 
 
 STORIES AND POEMS 
 
 The love of stories is inborn. Stories enter 
 into our lives, molding character, stimulating 
 patriotism, consoling grief, moderating resent- 
 ment. The Prodigal Son, Bunyan's Pilgrim^ 
 Defoe's Crusoe, and Doctor Hale's Man 
 without a Country are realities potent in their 
 influence. 
 
 Power of Stories. — Stories stimulate the 
 imagination ; they set us to thinking and in- 
 cite us to conversation. Hence they are of the 
 greatest value in the teaching of language, fur- 
 nishing abundant and delightful material for 
 oral and written constructive work. 
 
 Nor are these facts any less true of poems. 
 
 Scots, wha hae zvi' Wallace bled thrills the 
 
 heart of every Scotchman and of every patriot ; 
 
 The Marseillaise sets a-tingling the blood of 
 
 39 
 
40 .STORIES AND POEMS 
 
 both Frenchman and friendly foreigner ; y^//;^ 
 Brown s Body or Dixie carried many a worn 
 soldier over long and weary miles ; The Battle 
 Hymn of the Republic to-day quickens the pulse 
 and brightens the eye of every American. 
 
 Order of Work. — When a story or poem is 
 presented to a class as the basis of a language 
 exercise, it is well to let the pupils read it first 
 by themselves, without comment or question by 
 the teacher. It is but fair to the author to let him 
 have the first opportunity to interest the pupil. 
 
 As the next step, the teacher may listen to 
 the reading of the story or poem by two or 
 three members of the class. She will thus 
 learn whether the pupil has a general apprecia- 
 tion of it. Even if the story or poem is read 
 with reasonable expression, the probabilities are 
 that most of the class have failed to grasp im- 
 portant parts of it. The teacher herself must 
 not depend upon the inspiration of the moment 
 to teach even poems or stories with which she 
 feels quite familiar. A recent knowledge of the 
 thing taught always adds a vital spark that 
 otherwise will be absent. 
 
STORIES AND POEMS 41 
 
 Besides the steps already mentioned, the gen- 
 eral outline of a literature study of this kind will 
 include, first, well-directed questions intended to 
 make the pupils understand the author's fullest 
 meaning, and second, other questions aiming 
 to make the child remember and tell of ex- 
 periences suggested by the literature being 
 studied. 
 
 Suggestions. — These latter questions will 
 probably call for more thought than will the 
 ones designed to disclose the meaning of the 
 story or poem. Children are inclined, particu- 
 larly in school, to be diffident about talking of 
 acts and incidents that they have had part in or 
 have seen, fearing that they will be laughed at. 
 But a little thought on the part of the teacher 
 will discover, in every piece of child's literature, 
 a host of suggestions that will bring forward 
 experiences about which the children will talk 
 or write with delight, if they are only suitably 
 encouraged. And this talking and writing that 
 comes as a result of studying the poem are 
 really more valuable than the study itself. For 
 language lessons are intended primarily to give 
 
42 STORIES AND POEMS 
 
 pupils power to talk and write of their own 
 experiences. 
 
 Outline. — As a concrete illustration of the 
 method suggested a brief poem will be consid- 
 ered. Four exercises of not less than twenty 
 minutes each will be outHned, the fifth lesson of 
 the week being devoted to something along the 
 mechanical side of language training. (See 
 Steps in English, I, Lesson V of each week.) 
 
 I. A PRAYER 
 
 Father, we thank Thee for the night 
 And for the pleasant morning Hght, 
 For rest and food, and loving care, 
 And all that makes the world so fair. 
 Help us to do the thing we should, 
 To be to others kind and good. 
 In all we do, in all we say. 
 To grow more loving every day. 
 
 (See Steps in English, I, p. 57.) 
 
 Why give Thanks? — After the pupils have 
 been given an opportunity to read this poem, 
 first to themselves and then aloud, the teacher 
 may, by the use of questions, endeavor to de- 
 
A PRAYER 43 
 
 velop the idea of thankfulness or gratitude. 
 The basis of this must be in the child's life, — 
 his own feeling of thankfulness to parents and 
 friends for favors received. Questions such 
 as the following will be helpful in developing 
 this idea: 
 
 What do you do when mamma gives you a 
 suit of new clothes .-' (A new dress .'' A new 
 hat or cap I A pair of new shoes ? ) What do 
 you say to her ? What do you do when your 
 papa brings home for you a fine new knife ? (A 
 new sled ? A pair of new skates } A fine dog ? 
 A white rabbit .'') What do you say to him ? 
 Why do you say this ? What do you do when 
 your papa and mamma tell you that they are 
 going to take you to an exhibition in the city, 
 or to grandma's ? What do you say to them ? 
 What do we call the feeling that makes our 
 hearts so light and causes us to be so happy 
 when any of these things are done.-* 
 
 The children should be encouraged to tell of 
 other definite experiences they have had for 
 which they have been grateful. Various things 
 done for them by relatives and friends when 
 
44 STORIES AND POEiMS 
 
 they were ill, when they were away from home, 
 when they were disappointed, may be called 
 forth, such as a ride in a carriage, an invitation 
 to a friend's home, an opportunity to see the 
 circus or the pantomime, a bunch of flowers, etc. 
 If desirable, they may be made to see that there 
 are many things for which they should be thank- 
 ful, but of which they have never thought, — 
 home, school, food, clothing, although this may 
 be delayed till a later lesson. 
 
 The Poem Proper. — This idea of thankfulness 
 having been fully developed, the second lesson 
 may take up the poem proper. The idea of thank- 
 fulness to people naturally leads to that of thank- 
 fulness to God. Ask who is meant by the word 
 " Father.'' For what do we thank him in the 
 first line of the poem ? Why should we thank 
 him for the night .'^ What does it bring to us 
 that we need much more than we need skates 
 or trips to the city } Have we ever thought 
 how needful the night is ? What would it mean 
 to live in a place where we had to sleep by day ? 
 (Here brief reference to the long summer day- 
 light of northern lands may be introduced.) 
 
A PRAYER 45 
 
 How should we show our thankfulness to God 
 for the night ? (By thanking him in words or 
 by acts.) When should we do this ? 
 
 Rest. — What other things are mentioned for 
 which we are thankful ? Why is the morning 
 light called " pleasant ' ? Is it welcome ? Why ? 
 Why should we thank God for rest ? Why 
 should we be thankful for food? Why is it 
 not enough to be thankful to our parents for 
 food ? 
 
 Who gives us loving care ? Are we thankful 
 to mamma and papa for this care ? Why should 
 we be thankful to our Father in heaven ? Does 
 he ever care for us when our parents cannot ? In 
 storms ? In crowds ? Tell of some of the most 
 beautiful things in nature. Who gives them to 
 us ? (Bring out the beauty of spring, of autumn, 
 of the rainbow, of sunrise and sunset, of land- 
 scapes, of the seashore, of the mountains, of the 
 flower-covered prairie, etc., by means of ques- 
 tions, which should always relate to things 
 within the child's experience.) 
 
 What to Do. — A third lesson may begin with 
 the fifth line of the poem : What are the things 
 
46 STORIES AND POEMS 
 
 we should do ? What at home ? At play ? At 
 school? At church ? How can we be kind to 
 our playmates ? How to our younger brothers 
 and sisters ? How to our parents ? How to 
 the teacher ? How to the neighbors ? How 
 to grandma ? What is it to be loving ? (Bring 
 out the idea that love can be manifested only 
 by what we say or do.) What are some of the 
 loving things that we can say ? Tell of some of 
 the loving things that you have heard said within 
 a day or two. (Show that in the most loving 
 things said the word *' love " probably will not 
 occur.) What is it to grow more loving .'' Can 
 we do this every day ? 
 
 Memory Work. — A fourth lesson may include 
 the writing of the stanza from memory (it may 
 " have been written earlier from dictation) ; or 
 the lesson may be devoted to answering certain 
 questions in writing, following the plan suggested 
 on pp. 14-15 ; or it may be devoted to a written 
 account of a loving deed children have seen, 
 occasionally in the form of a letter, or to the 
 writing of a story about a child who is always 
 doing kind things. 
 
ROBERT BRUCE 47 
 
 2. ROBERT BRUCE 
 
 The story of Robert Bruce and the Spider is 
 familiar. (See Steps i7i English, I, p. 128.) 
 A series of questions by the teacher may be 
 made to bring out answers somewhat similar to 
 the following : 
 
 Outline. — " Robert Bruce is the hero of the 
 story." '* The king of England was trying to 
 drive him out of the land." "Out of Scotland." 
 " He was king of Scotland." " The king of Eng- 
 land had the larger army." "The armies had 
 fought against each other six times." " Bruce 
 had finally been defeated, and his army had been 
 scattered." " Bruce had been obliged to hide in 
 a cave." "He felt as though he were tired of liv- 
 ing." " He saw a spider trying to weave a web." 
 " The spider failed six times." " The spider's 
 final success gave Bruce courage to try again." 
 " He collected his army and defeated the Eng- 
 lish." " The EngHsh king was glad to hurry to 
 England." " Bruce never forgot the lesson 
 learned from a spider." 
 
48 STORIES AND POEMS 
 
 Whole Story. — The incidents having been 
 drawn from various pupils, the whole story may 
 be told. One pupil may be asked to tell the 
 story without prompting, and when he is partly 
 through, another may be asked to continue it, 
 and later a third to finish it. 
 
 Soldier Life. — A second lesson may be de- 
 voted to the soldier idea of the selection. Many 
 children can tell something of father's, grand- 
 father's, or uncle's experiences in the Civil War 
 or in the Spanish-American War, or in the cam- 
 paigns in the Philippines. Others will be able to 
 tell of something they have seen or heard during 
 an encampment of the state militia ; others will 
 tell of parades they have seen in which soldiers 
 marched; others will know something of old 
 battle flags. Many of the boys and some girls 
 have played soldier, have had " play '* parades, 
 have had snow forts with snowball fights, have 
 played games with lead soldiers. Other experi- 
 ences will be suggested by the talk in the class, 
 and a period of twenty minutes can easily be 
 filled with work that will suggest itself to the 
 teacher having reasonable ingenuity. 
 
ROBERT BRUCE 49 
 
 The Cave. — A third day may take up the 
 fact that Bruce was obHged to seek refuge in a 
 cave. What is a cave ? Tell of one you have 
 been in. Tell of a tunnel in a great drift of 
 snow. Tell of playing in the sand and making 
 sand hills and digging little caves in them. 
 Tell of digging a cave in the side of a bank. 
 Tell of a visit to the woods when you saw a 
 kind of cave under a great projecting rock. 
 Tell what you imagined about Indians having 
 once lived in that cave. Tell something you 
 have heard or read about Mammoth Cave or 
 any other wonderful cave. Tell of a visit to a 
 coal mine. Every child will be able to tell of 
 something here suggested. The teacher should 
 talk as little as possible. Occasionally, at the 
 beginning of an exercise, she may tell of an 
 experience of her own, — a real experience; 
 otherwise it will sound false — and thus afford a 
 model for the children. But even this should 
 ordinarily be omitted, after it has been done a 
 few times. 
 
 Bruce was discouraged. Children are often 
 discouraged in school and in their home duties, 
 
 ENG. GRADES — 4 
 
50 STORIES AND POEMS 
 
 in their attempts to please their parents and 
 their teachers, in their attempts to build 
 " shanties " or to make dresses for the dolls. 
 
 Child's Trials. — Let the children tell of 
 something which they tried to do, but of 
 which they became very tired before they were 
 through, yet they persevered and accomplished 
 it. They have grown discouraged trying to 
 learn the multiplication table, to master long 
 division, to learn to spell; the boys have 
 thought the game was lost, but by great exer- 
 tion have won it; the girls have grown tired 
 cutting out a picture with a delicate outline, or 
 have been tempted, when sweeping down the 
 stairs or washing the dishes, to run out to play, 
 but have kept on and have finished the work. 
 Thus the story becomes full of real meaning to 
 the child, because he finds that he has had ex- 
 periences not wholly unlike those of the great 
 Bruce. 
 
 Written Work. — A fourth lesson may include 
 the writing of the story as the child remembers 
 it ; or, better, the writing of the story of something 
 in the child's own life that has been suggested 
 
ROBERT BRUCE 5 I 
 
 by the story itself. This may often take the 
 form of a letter. The teacher should pass 
 about the room, calling attention to errors after 
 the manner suggested on p. 15. But plenty 
 of oral work should precede the written exer- 
 cises. The children, too, should be urged to 
 use in their written work the same vocabulary 
 and forms of expression that they use in oral 
 work. They should often be warned against 
 closing sentences with the comma, — the so- 
 called *' child's error," — and should be urged 
 to write comparatively short sentences. 
 
 Spelling. — Spelling should be guarded by call- 
 ing attention to the new words and writing them 
 on the board, if possible making emphatic the 
 particular letter or letters that are likely to cause 
 error ; for example, call attention to the fact that 
 the second letter in scatter is c, and that the word 
 has two fs ; but do not mention that it might 
 be spelled incorrectly with k or with one t ; that 
 would spoil the good impression. In like manner 
 show that faihtre is merely the familiar word 
 fail with ure added. Such emphasis will tend 
 to fix the spelling. 
 
52 STORIES AND POEMS 
 
 3. THE FLAG GOES BY 
 
 " The Flag Goes By " (see Steps in English, 
 
 I, p. 205) is a poem quite different from the 
 
 stanza treated earlier, and it has features that 
 
 call for additional and important treatment ; for, 
 
 very early in the school course, the pupil should 
 
 begin to develop his power to see pictures with 
 
 closed eyes and to hear sounds suggested in 
 
 literature. 
 
 The Flag Goes By 
 
 Hats off! 
 Along the street there comes 
 A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, 
 A flash of color beneath the sky ; 
 
 Hats off! 
 The flag is passing by ! 
 
 Blue and crimson and white it shines, 
 Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. 
 
 Hats off! 
 The colors before us fly ; 
 But more than the flag is passing by. 
 
 Sea fights and land fights, grim and great, 
 Fought to make and to save the state ; 
 
THE FLAG GOES BY 53 
 
 Weary marches and sinking ships ; 
 Cheers of victory on dying lips. 
 
 Hats off! 
 Along the street there comes 
 A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums ; 
 And loyal hearts are beating high : 
 
 Hats off! 
 The flag is passing by ! 
 
 — Henry Holcomb Bennett. 
 
 After the poem has been read silently by each 
 pupil and then aloud by one, the teacher may 
 bring out by questions the fact that it pictures a 
 street scene and that a procession is passing 
 along, insisting that the pupil discover in the 
 poem definite lines or statements that make 
 known these facts. 
 
 The idea that is implied in the imperative 
 " Hats off ! " may next be developed. Ques- 
 tions will draw some such replies as the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 " Men usually take their hats off to ladies." 
 " They do this to show respect." "They take 
 off their hats to noted persons." " This also is 
 
54 STORIES AND POEMS 
 
 done to show honor to the persons." " A man 
 speaking out of doors to a crowd of people 
 takes off his hat." "He does it for the same 
 reason." "Sometimes men take off their hats 
 when they stand at a door talking to a person 
 inside." " Some persons take off their hats 
 when they pass a funeral procession to show 
 respect for the dead." " Men take off their 
 hats when they go into church, into a dwelling, 
 into a school, into almost any kind of meeting." 
 " This is done out of respect for some one." 
 
 The Flag. — The expression "'Steel-tipped, 
 ordered lines * shows that a body of soldiers is 
 passing." " * A blare of bugles, a ruffle of 
 drums ' shows that a band is marching ahead 
 of the soldiers." "The last line of the first 
 stanza shows that the flag is being carried in 
 the procession." " The first line of the second 
 stanza shows that it is * the red, white, and 
 blue.' " " The word 'over' shows that it is being 
 carried among the soldiers and not among the 
 musicians." "The author feels that we should 
 all honor the flag." " Because he feels this he 
 says * Hats off ! ' " 
 
THE FLAG GOES BY 55 
 
 "The flag is in great service in battle." 
 "Because soldiers love it and will go wher- 
 ever it is carried to prevent its being captured." 
 "It is also of value over schoolhouses." "Be- 
 cause it teaches boys and girls to love it and to 
 honor it." " I have read of battles where the 
 flag was present." " I have also read of sea 
 fights where the flag was present." "To see 
 the flag ought to make us think of famous sea 
 fights and of well-known battles." " We should 
 also think of the brave men that fought for the 
 flag in these fights." " * Grim ' means that they 
 were fierce." " * Great ' means that they helped 
 to free the nation and to make it strong." " Or 
 perhaps it means that a large number of men 
 fought on each side." "'The state' is our 
 country." "The battles in the Revolutionary 
 War were to make our state." " Those in the 
 Civil War were to save the unity of the state." 
 
 These questions should all be answered : 
 How does the last stanza differ from the first } 
 Why did the author make it so Hke the first } 
 What does he mean by "hearts" } By "beat- 
 ing high " ? By " loyal hearts " ? 
 
56 STORIES AND POEMS 
 
 Mental Pictures. — The pupils having been 
 given a fair understanding of the meaning of 
 the poem, they should be urged to try to see, 
 with closed eyes, " the steel-tipped, ordered 
 lines." Only a single hint is given to kindle 
 the imagination for this picture, but the habit 
 of always trying to see clearly the picture sug- 
 gested by a writer should be formed. So pupils 
 should try to see " a flash of color beneath the 
 sky," the musicians with the bugles, the tired 
 soldiers making the weary march, the sinking 
 ship. So they should be urged to hear, in 
 imagination, the bugles, the drums, the sound 
 of the marching soldiers, the commands of the 
 captain, the sound of the guns as the soldiers 
 are ordered to change their positions, the cheers 
 of welcome, the shouting of the crowd as the 
 procession passes. They should be urged to 
 try to feel as the spectators felt who watched a 
 body of soldiers pass by ; to feel as the weary 
 soldiers felt at the end of a long, hot day's 
 march ; to feel as the army felt at the moment 
 of victory ; to feel as loyal hearts feel when they 
 are beating high. 
 
THE FLAG GOES BY 57 
 
 Written Work. — The written work may in- 
 clude the writing of an account of anything 
 from the child's experience, or of a letter, or 
 the writing of the poem, or part of it, from 
 memory, or from dictation. 
 
 Pupils should never, however, be asked to 
 rewrite a poem in their own words. An occa- 
 sional prose exercise of this kind may be per- 
 mitted, but never one dealing with poetry. If 
 a poem is worthy of its name, it cannot possibly 
 be written in prose, and children should never 
 be asked to try to put it in prose form. 
 
 Such work with poems and stories as has 
 been suggested will help pupils toward appre- 
 ciative reading ; it will help to make them 
 understand that literature is made up of inci- 
 dents and experiences not entirely different 
 from those in their own lives ; and it will afford 
 a suggestive means to the very important end 
 of securing oral and written expression of their 
 own thoughts and feelings. 
 
IV 
 
 LETTER WRITING 
 
 Importance. — Letter writing should, of course, 
 be practiced regularly and persistently through- 
 out the school course. Even as early as the last 
 months of the first school year children may be 
 permitted to write a few brief notes, such as the 
 following : 
 
 " Dear Miss Hammond : 
 
 " After school I play with my doll. Her 
 name is Mary. She has a velvet dress. I like to 
 play with her. 
 
 "Louise Hart." 
 
 These notes should tell the parents of some- 
 thing done at school, should ask an absent friend 
 why he is not at school, should tell the teacher 
 what the child plays at home. Each should 
 come from the child's own thinking, and, of 
 course, from his experience, merely the subject 
 being suggested by the teacher. During the 
 58 
 
LETTER WRITING 59 
 
 second year similar notes may be written as 
 often as every two weeks, with an occasional 
 week when one is written daily. 
 
 Outline. — During the fourth year, perhaps 
 as early as the third, the child may be taught 
 to put in the heading. Care must be taken 
 that the child put in all the necessary items 
 from the first, including street and number, or 
 rural free-delivery route, post office, state, and 
 date. The name of the month and of the state 
 may be abbreviated, but the name of the city 
 or town should never be. Correct punctuation 
 between the items should be insisted on. 
 
 Drill. — Beginning with the third year, at 
 least once a week the written work should be 
 cast in the letter form. No matter of what 
 the child is writing, he can tell his mother or 
 friend about it, and thus have practice in the 
 letter form. It is very essential that he ac- 
 quire the habit of using the letter form cor- 
 rectly, with its necessary punctuation. 
 
 At least one letter should be written each 
 week. Further, during a month or more, three 
 or four letters should be written each week. 
 
6o LETTER WRITING 
 
 in order to emphasize the letter form, since it 
 is the one he will use most in life. 
 
 Each must deal with something of vital in- 
 terest to him, something within his experience. 
 
 Business Forms. — Not later than the fifth 
 year the child should be made familiar with 
 the full business letter form, the name and 
 complete address of the person to whom the 
 letter is written, as well as the heading, being 
 inserted at the beginning. 
 
 He should write orders to the grocer, orders 
 for papers, orders for a change of address ; 
 should ask the plumber, the piano tuner, the 
 carpenter to call ; should apply for a position ; 
 ask for catalogues. The boy will thus practice 
 many letters that the man will probably have 
 to write. 
 
 During the later years of school the weekly 
 letter drill should occasionally include the writ- 
 ing of postal cards, heavy paper or tag board 
 being cut the proper size. The writing of brief 
 Wanted, To Let, For Sale advertisements, and 
 the writing of telegrams, may also be included. 
 
V 
 
 COMPOSITION WORK 
 
 IN THE SIXTH, SEVENTH, AND EIGHTH 
 YEARS 
 
 Kinds of Exercises. — Composition in the 
 grammar school should follow the general lines 
 laid down for the earlier years. Exercises in 
 observation, in pictures, and in literature may be 
 regularly continued. Oral composition should 
 be a definite feature of the work, and the whole, 
 as before, should be based upon the child's ex- 
 perience. He will thus come to understand 
 that his appreciation of pictures and of litera- 
 ture rests largely upon the facts of life that he 
 has seen, had part in, or felt. 
 
 I. OBSERVATION WORK 
 
 Character Hints. — The observation work of 
 the sixth school year may take a somewhat 
 6i 
 
62 COMPOSITION WORK 
 
 wider range than it has heretofore taken. The 
 child should now be taught to observe con- 
 sciously the actions of his schoolmates and of 
 the people he sees from day to day. This he 
 has been doing subconsciously since baby- 
 hood. He has been liking and disliking people 
 because of what they said or did, and for no 
 other reasons. Of this he should now be made 
 conscious. 
 
 The Teacher»s Story. — The teacher may 
 make the first lesson a brief, direct account of 
 something she has recently seen, as : 
 
 " When I was going home from school last night, I 
 saw a number of little boys and girls playing in the 
 snow. A roughly dressed workingman came along, 
 and they called, ' Do you want a winter apple ? ' 
 
 " He said, ' Yes, a dozen of them ! ' and smiled at 
 the children. They at once began to throw snowballs 
 at him. He kept laughing as the balls hit his body. 
 All at once he stooped down and picked up a double 
 handful of soft snow. Then he ran up to the little 
 children and threw it at one of them. Then he picked 
 up more snow and threw it at others. But I noticed 
 that he was careful not to let any of it strike them in 
 the face or on the neck or hair. He was laughing 
 
OBSERVATION WORK 63 
 
 loudly all the time and seemed to have as much fun as 
 any of the children. After a while he ran away as fast 
 as he could, still laughing. 
 
 " Now children, would you like to know this man ? 
 If you would, who will tell me why ? " 
 
 By this plan the teacher may induce her 
 pupils to tell little incidents that make them 
 like, as well as those that make them dislike, 
 people. It will usually require some persever- 
 ance to make pupils realize that they have seen 
 such incidents, their attention not having been 
 especially directed to them. Soon, however, 
 they will find themselves seeing events about 
 which they will be eager to tell or to write. 
 
 Subjects from Life. — After the oral work 
 each child may be asked to write an account, 
 perhaps in letter form, of something he has 
 seen. Such a written lesson may be given every 
 week or two during the grammar school years. 
 At first the pupils should be told that they 
 will be expected to write upon a given sub- 
 ject at a prescribed time, and asked to watch 
 for incidents. Thus they will become accus- 
 tomed to seeing actions that reveal character, 
 
64 COMPOSITIOxN WORK 
 
 and will be led to understand and interpret 
 their meaning. Further, they will begin to 
 scan with a clearer eye their own acts, and a 
 change in the behavior of many pupils will 
 often result. 
 
 Seventh Year. — During the seventh year the 
 observation work may follow yet broader lines. 
 The child may be taught now to observe actions 
 that make known f eeUng. Again the work may 
 be begun by the teacher's story : 
 
 " Yesterday afternoon I saw a little girl standing at 
 a window. She was looking down the street. All 
 at once she began to smile. Then she disappeared 
 from the window. In half a minute the front door of 
 the house flew open, and the little girl hurried out and 
 ran as fast as she could down the street. In a moment 
 she jumped into the arms of a man who was coming 
 up the street. I soon passed them, and I heard her 
 say to the man, ' It was so good of you, Uncle John, 
 to send me that lovely doll for my birthday.' " 
 
 Mood Hints. — Questions will then follow as 
 to why the girl was at the window, why the 
 smile, why the door flew open, why the girl 
 ran, why she jumped into the man's arms. 
 
OBSERVATION WORK 6$ 
 
 The answers must bring out the different 
 feelings or emotions that prompted the various 
 acts. Then the question may be asked, " Sup- 
 pose it had been a boy at the window, who 
 was watching for his father, knowing that he 
 w^ould be punished by him as soon as he 
 reached home. What would have been his feel- 
 ings, and how would he have shown them ? " 
 
 Work of this kind, both oral and written, 
 may occasionally be given during the eighth 
 year as well as during the seventh, often using 
 the letter form. 
 
 Description. — During the seventh year and 
 the eighth the observation exercises should also 
 be made to include conscious recognition of the 
 few details that show how one room, land- 
 scape, or street differs from every other. This 
 work may begin with a bit of description : 
 
 " It was a comfortable old room, although the 
 carpet was faded and the furniture was plain ; for a 
 good picture or two hung on the wall, books filled the 
 recesses, chrysanthemums and Christmas roses bloomed 
 in the windows, and a pleasant atmosphere of home- 
 peace pervaded it." (See Sfeps in E?iglish, II, p. 298.) 
 
 ENG. GRADES — 5 
 
66 COMPOSITION WORK 
 
 Here the mention of the faded carpet, the 
 plain furniture, the books, and the flowers 
 (notice how much better the particular names 
 are than the general word " flowers ") not only 
 makes us see the room, but also helps us to 
 know a number of things about the people 
 who live in the room, — that they like flowers 
 and pictures and books. 
 
 Written Work. — A written description of a 
 room may follow, the child picking out the 
 five or six individualizing details ; so with a 
 description of winter or spring, of a business 
 street or a residence street, of a neglected yard 
 or store and of a neat one, of a storm, or of a 
 party. The teacher must never forget that a 
 paragraph of the child's own thinking is far 
 better than thrice as much rewriting of the 
 thought of another. Let all compositions be 
 brief, unless the child is anxious to write at 
 length. The letter form will be found both 
 interesting and profitable. 
 
 Observation work of this sort should be em- 
 phasized throughout the eighth year. This 
 final year of the grammar school should in- 
 
PICTURES 6y 
 
 elude all that the preceding years have de- 
 veloped, but with much more accurate and 
 exact results. The value of particular words 
 may be emphasized, — of chrysanthemums in- 
 stead oi flowers ; the afternoon dragged 2\ox\%y 
 instead of went slowly ; the flies were buzzing 
 about the room, instead of flying; the boy 
 stamped out of the room, not walked heavily. 
 
 2. PICTURES 
 
 Character in Pictures. — The study of pictures 
 during grammar school years will of necessity 
 follow in general the lines pursued during the 
 earlier years. Naturally, more complicated 
 pictures may be examined, and more mature 
 experience appealed to. As the pupil begins 
 to recognize actions in life that reveal charac- 
 ter, he may be taught to recognize them also 
 in pictures. He may be shown how the well- 
 known picture by Gerome, " The Gladiator 
 Condemned" {Steps in English, II, p. 334), 
 makes known the cruel character of the Roman 
 people nineteen hundred years ago ; how Luke 
 
68 COMPOSITION WORK 
 
 Fildes's " The Doctor " {Steps in English, I, 
 p. 199) makes us like the doctor because of 
 the gentle and unselfish character that we feel 
 is suggested ; how the widely known " David " 
 {Steps in English, II, p. 322) makes known the 
 young man's noble character ; how " Breaking 
 the Home Ties " (Steps in English, II, p. 300) 
 shows the character of the lad and of his parents. 
 So, too, the pupil may be shown that feeling is 
 frequently portrayed in pictures, as is done in 
 each of those above mentioned. 
 
 Child's Life. — But the important thing in 
 picture study, as language work, is to make it 
 draw out the child's observations and experi- 
 ences so that he will talk and write about them. 
 '' The Gladiator " may suggest an account of a 
 wrestling match or a race that he has chanced 
 to see ; may suggest a visit to the circus, or 
 playing circus ; may suggest an account of the 
 man who walked the tight rope above the 
 village street ; and from each of these experi- 
 ences will arise many others. The same picture 
 may bring from the teacher an account of the 
 vestal virgins and their duties, and this may 
 
PICTURES 69 
 
 suggest a long series of experiences in charity 
 work, in helping mother or grandma, in doing 
 something for others. ** Breaking the Home 
 Ties " may suggest various kinds of trips from 
 home, with their accompanying experiences and 
 adventures, real or imagined; may suggest expe- 
 riences of a city boy on the farm or of a country 
 boy in the city ; may suggest stories about the 
 fidelity of dogs; may suggest descriptions of 
 rooms and rides and places seen. *' David " will 
 suggest for a boy, hunting experiences ; for a 
 girl, experiences with pets ; may suggest experi- 
 ences when alone in the house or woods, with 
 the accompanying emotions ; may suggest trips 
 with a friend into remote parts of the city or 
 into the country ; may suggest the search for 
 the missing brother or sister of tender years. 
 " The Doctor " will suggest childhood experi- 
 ences of playing doctor and playing house ; ex- 
 periences when ill, or when mother or sister 
 was ill ; experiences going for the doctor. Every 
 picture has its appeals to the definite experi- 
 ences of each child. The teacher, however, 
 must point out to the child the possibilities of 
 
70 COMPOSITION WORK 
 
 the picture, as he himself will not be equal to the 
 task. 
 
 Caution. — It will be well for teachers to 
 remember that the study of a painter's biog- 
 raphy and the learning of a list of his famous 
 paintings is not the study of pictures. That 
 information may have its value, but it does not 
 teach the child to think; and independent think- 
 ing should always be the aim in picture study. 
 Nor is a composition on the life of the artist 
 nearly so good an exercise as is a composition 
 dealing with an incident in the writer's own 
 experience. One is simply memory of facts 
 given by the teacher, with a little original 
 arrangement. The other is independent think- 
 ing. 
 
 3. LITERATURE 
 
 Appeal to Feelings. — The study of stories 
 and poems in the grammar school should 
 emphasize the fact that literature is primarily 
 an appeal to the feelings. Nor is it now too 
 early for the child to learn that the literary 
 artist has but two general ways of appealing to 
 
LITERATURE 71 
 
 the feelings of his readers, — by details and by 
 suggestive words. 
 
 Character in Literature. — The child has 
 learned to recognize in Hfe those details that 
 show character and those that make known 
 feeling, as well as those that describe. He 
 now must learn to recognize them in literature, 
 and to understand them. In the reading 
 lessons, in the history, and in the study cf biog- 
 raphy the teacher should never let the pupil 
 pass clearly indicated details showing character, 
 and the same is true of acts showing feeling, 
 — the feeling suggested must be consciously 
 recognized. 
 
 In Ivankoe Scott wishes to make the reader 
 know the Palmer and like him : 
 
 "While Isaac thus stood . . . looking in vain for 
 welcome or resting place, the pilgrim who sat by the 
 chimney took compassion upon him, and resigned his 
 seat, saying briefly, ' Old man, my garments are dried, 
 my hunger is appeased ; thou art both wet and fast- 
 ing.' So saying he gathered together and brought to 
 a flame the decaying brands which lay scattered on the 
 ample hearth ; took from the larger board a mess of 
 
72 
 
 COMPOSITION WORK 
 
 pottage and seethed kid, and placed it upon the small 
 table at which he had himself supped." 
 
 We cannot read this without feeling the un- 
 selfishness of the Palmer and without liking 
 him. Nor is it possible for us to read the fol- 
 lowing passage without' feeling the deUght felt 
 by the crowd over the rescue of a boy from a 
 burning building : 
 
 *' Then such a shout went up ! Men fell on each 
 other's necks and cried and laughed at once. Strangers 
 slapped one another on the back with glistening faces, 
 shook hands, and behaved, generally, like men gone 
 suddenly mad. Women wept in the streets." 
 
 Emotions. — Children unconsciously get much 
 of the deeper meaning here. They get more of it 
 if they consciously recognize the crying, laugh- 
 ing, slapping, the glistening faces, the hand shak- 
 ing, and the weeping as details showing, not the 
 character, but the feelings of the people. They 
 should be shown that they do similar things, 
 and should be asked to write and tell about 
 them. 
 
VI 
 GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 It is now generally conceded that Professor 
 Whitney is right in his contention that it is not 
 the function of English Grammar " to teach the 
 art of speaking and writing the Enghsh language 
 with propriety." Taught alone, grammar fails 
 to give faciUty and accuracy of expression. 
 And facility and accuracy, in the order given, 
 are surely the purpose of Enghsh teaching in 
 the grades. 
 
 In the reaction, however, which has followed 
 this conclusion, there has been some tendency 
 to forget that grammar has a legitimate function, 
 and that it has a clearly defined value in the 
 grades. 
 
 Value. — The value of the study of grammar 
 is threefold: (i) It gives a standard for the 
 correction of errors in oral and written expres- 
 73 
 
74 GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 sion of thought ; that is, it gives us a means of 
 knowing when we are right ; (2) it develops 
 power to understand the exact meaning of 
 sentences; and (3) it trains the power of ana- 
 lytic judgment. A subject aiming at such im- 
 portant ends must have a place in the grades. 
 But that place is very limited in the early years 
 of the school course, and by no means exclusive 
 in the later years. To omit technical grammar 
 will greatly lessen both the practical and the 
 disciplinary value of school work. 
 
 Mechanics of Writing. — In the first two years 
 the grammar, or the mechanical side of lan- 
 guage study, will include only the capitalization 
 of proper names and of the first word of a sen- 
 tence, and the terminal uses of the period and 
 interrogation point. To these will be added, in 
 the third year, the other uses of the period ; the 
 absolute uses of the comma (see Steps in 
 English, I, p. 239); the additional uses of 
 capital letters; the apostrophe in contractions 
 and to show possession ; the hyphen at the end 
 of a line betwee^i syllables ; and the simple uses 
 of quotation marks. 
 
GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 75 
 
 These mechanical points in writing may best 
 be taught, probably, by frequently calling the 
 attention of the pupil to them as they occur in 
 his reading, and by insisting that he insert them 
 regularly in his written work. 
 
 When he fails to use them properly, a pupil 
 should have his attention called to the error by 
 means of a mark of some sort, preferably a 
 number referring to a rule, ^ and he should be 
 required to correct the errcr himself. 
 
 Correcting Papers. — For the teacher to make 
 ordinary corrections is a waste of time, as it 
 fails entirely to make the pupil think. Even if 
 he is compelled to make a correct copy of his 
 written work in an exercise book, his attention is 
 not called to the principle involved, as is done 
 when he makes the correction himself. 
 
 Division of Work. — At least four out of five 
 exercises in language during the early years 
 should be primarily oral or written constructive 
 work involving the child's experiences. The 
 fifth may be a formal lesson along the line of 
 
 1 A simple and effective method of correcting papers will be 
 found in Steps in English, I, p. 237 ; II, p. 343. 
 
ye GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 the mechanical side, consisting of dictation 
 work, of punctuation exercises, of work in 
 abbreviations or in letter forms. But the 
 prime object of the work must be the develop- 
 ment of facility. 
 
 Fourth Year. — During the fourth school year 
 one lesson each week may be given to a kind of 
 formal grammar, the aim during the whole year 
 being to teach the child to distinguish the sub- 
 ject, the predicate, and the complement. 
 
 Subjects. — Beginning with a sentence of 
 two words, as '' Boys run," the teacher may 
 ask, " Who is spoken of in this sentence } " 
 From the answer the child may be taught that 
 the word telling who or what is spoken of, or 
 that of which something is said, is called the 
 subject. He may be drilled in selecting the 
 subjects of many such sentences. 
 
 Next a group of words may be taken as 
 the subject, as " Boys and girls run," or *' The 
 little boys run," and he may pick out such 
 groups. 
 
 Predicates. — In a similar way he may be 
 taught to select predicates. So he may be 
 
GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 77 
 
 taught the use of is and are by such sentences 
 as " The boy is running," and " The boys are 
 running." The modified subject and predicate 
 may next be introduced, but with no mention 
 of adjectives, adverbs, or phrases ; as, " The 
 Httle boy is running in the field ; " ** The girl in 
 a blue dress ran across the street." 
 
 Phrases. — Simple phrases may now be taught 
 consciously, first as modifiers and then as sub- 
 jects ; as, " Running races is good fun ; " " To 
 honor the flag is patriotic." Next the clause 
 may be introduced as subject; as, "What the 
 boy said is not known." Then will come 
 attribute complements, followed by object com- 
 plements, showing in very simple sentences how 
 words, phrases, and clauses are used in these 
 relations. 
 
 Of course no attempt should be made to 
 teach these subjects exhaustively. The purpose 
 is to give the child additional power to get the 
 meaning of what he reads, power to determine 
 what is expressed in a sentence. 
 
 To do this he need be taught only the tech- 
 nical terms subject, predicate, object, phrase. 
 
yS GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 and clause. Nothing need be said about the 
 parts of speech. They may be taken up during 
 the fifth year, not earlier. 
 
 Fifth Year. — As in the earlier years, the 
 greater part of the fifth year, at least four 
 lessons out of five, should be devoted to oral 
 and written constructive work. 
 
 Parts of Speech. — The fifth lesson, however, 
 may deal with the parts of speech. Here, 
 again, the study should not be exhaustive. 
 Naturally the work will begin with nouns. 
 These may be followed by pronouns, as these 
 two parts of speech furnish subjects. Com- 
 mon and proper nouns will be distinguished, 
 and something of gender, number, and case 
 will be taught. Thus the work becomes prac- 
 tical, as the child learns of the case forms of 
 pronouns and of the possessive forms of nouns, 
 and he gains a standard by which to judge the 
 accuracy of his work. 
 
 It is probably unwise at this time to do much 
 more with verbs than to show that their princi- 
 pal parts must be properly used, and to make 
 clear that they show either past, present, or 
 
GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 79 
 
 future time. Any discussion of mode is unwise 
 with children of this grade. Much work in the 
 proper use of the principal parts likely to be 
 misused should, of course, be introduced. The 
 drill in adjectives and adverbs will occupy 
 but Httle time if the work of the fourth year 
 in modified subjects and predicates has been 
 effectively done. The child will easily grasp 
 the idea that single words modifying the subject 
 are adjectives, and those modifying the predicate 
 are adverbs. 
 
 Why Early Grammar. — If all children re- 
 mained in school throughout eight years, or 
 even throughout six, it would probably be wise 
 to postpone all study of grammar proper until 
 after the fifth school year. But as it is, with 
 many children compelled to leave school at the 
 age of eleven or twelve, it seems wise to devote 
 a single lesson per week during the fourth and 
 fifth years to a simple study of the important 
 principles of grammar. Such a study gives the 
 boy who leaves school at twelve a simple stand- 
 ard by which to judge oral and written expres- 
 sion, gives him vastly more power to grasp the 
 
8o GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 thought of the printed page tharx he otherwise 
 would have, and gives him a training in analytic 
 thought processes that will be of definite value 
 to him throughout his life. The teacher who 
 regularly devotes four recitations each week to 
 oral or written constructive work, making her 
 pupils correct their own errors after she has 
 indicated them, according to the plan suggested 
 on pp. 92-94 or a similar one, will find that a 
 single lesson each week in the grammar work 
 here outlined will not be an unpleasant change 
 for the pupils, will help somewhat toward the 
 accuracy that should go hand in hand with 
 facility, and will in no way detract from the far 
 more important language work that aims to give 
 facility of expression by making the child talk 
 and write of the experiences that come to him 
 in his everyday life. 
 
 Sixth Year. — Grammar in the sixth year 
 should still be subsidiary to language work, 
 the proportion being perhaps two lessons in 
 grammar to three in composition. In the 
 seventh and eighth years the ideal course will 
 provide a recitation in each subject daily. But 
 
GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 8 1 
 
 time for this will not be found in many schools. 
 Such an ideal should be approximated as nearly 
 as possible, but where only a single period a day 
 can be afforded for English, at least two periods 
 each week should be given to composition, — 
 perhaps three in the seventh year, the same 
 as in the sixth. 
 
 The grammar work of the sixth year should 
 be begun with the idea that the child knows 
 practically nothing of the science, and a much 
 more complete study may now be under- 
 taken. 
 
 The Sentence. — Logically the work must be- 
 gin with the sentence rather than with the word. 
 The sentence is the unit of complete expression. 
 With it thought is conceived, and with it is 
 given expression. 
 
 The general plan already outlined must be 
 employed. The kinds of sentences as classified 
 by use for affirming, asking, and commanding 
 should first be taught. Then the study of sub- 
 jects and predicates ; of independent elements, 
 such as the introductory there, yes, no ; words of 
 address; and words in apposition. Then will 
 
 ENG. GRADES — 6 
 
82 GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 follow a drill in the recognition of the parts of 
 speech and of modifiers. This, with a generous 
 amount of drill work and the composition work 
 suggested (see p. 6i), will go far toward filling 
 the time that can be devoted to Enghsh in the 
 sixth year. 
 
 Some teachers will deem it wise to include 
 in the sixth year the drill in complements and 
 indirect objects. Others will prefer to postpone 
 this until the seventh year. 
 
 Seventh Year. — Comparatively few teachers 
 will object to beginning a study of grammar at 
 this time with the complete sentence, and teach- 
 ing consecutively subject, predicate, the parts 
 of speech, modifiers, and complements in the 
 seventh year. Many feel, however, that next 
 should be introduced the classifications, in- 
 flections, and relations of the various parts of 
 speech, supporting their contention with the 
 argument that such study helps toward accuracy. 
 They contend that a lad cannot know what 
 form of pronoun to use after a preposition, 
 what form of noun to use to show possession, 
 what form of verb to use to make known a de- 
 
GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 83 
 
 sired time, or what a relative clause is, unless 
 he has studied these subjects. 
 
 Were it true that the lad gets this knowledge 
 from grammar alone, this view might be ac- 
 cepted. But he gets this knowledge from prac- 
 tice far more than from theory. Hand in hand 
 with his grammar is going regular composition 
 work, if the plan suggested on p. 4 is followed. 
 The serious errors in his written work are being 
 pointed out by the careful teacher. He is learn- 
 ing by practice to use the proper form. The 
 theory to test his accuracy may well be post- 
 poned, especially as its introduction at this point 
 seems logically inconsistent. 
 
 Infinitives, etc. — It seems more reasonable, 
 having begun with a study of the sentence and 
 its elements, to complete that subject before a 
 different one is begun. Therefore it is probably 
 wiser to follow the study of subject, predi- 
 cate, modifiers, parts of speech, and comple- 
 ments with the study of infinitives, participles, 
 phrases, and clauses. For infinitives, participles, 
 phrases, and clauses are words or combinations 
 of words that are used as parts of speech, and 
 
84 GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 without a knowledge of them the study of sub- 
 jects, predicates, complements, and modifiers 
 cannot be completed. 
 
 Clauses. — That infinitives, participles, phrases, 
 and clauses really do the work of parts of speech 
 is a fact on which too much emphasis cannot be 
 placed. Many children find here a difficulty 
 which they nev^er surmount. Much drill, there- 
 fore, should be given on every possible use of 
 the infinitive, the participle, the phrase, and the 
 clause. No book can furnish in itself sufficient 
 drill for this work. The exercises in the text- 
 book should be supplemented by many exercises 
 culled from other books, as well as by much 
 drill in selecting these elements from prose and 
 poetry, and in determining their use. 
 
 Constructive Work. — Further, the construc- 
 tive side of this work should be emphasized. 
 The class may be given the infinitive to run, 
 and told to use it as a noun : (<^) as subject, {b) 
 as complement, (c) as attribute complement, 
 (^) as appositive ; to use it as an adjective ; to 
 use it as an adverb ; to use it as a part of, or as 
 the implied predicate {a) of, the subject (For 
 
GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 85 
 
 him to run is a delight), and {b) of the object 
 complement (He wishes the boy to run). Many 
 infinitives may be given for such practice, and 
 the result will be a far more practical under- 
 standing of the infinitive as a part of speech. 
 Similar work may be done with the participle 
 in its various uses (not forgetting its use in the 
 independent, or absolute phrase), with the phrase, 
 and with the clause. 
 
 Whether ninning in certain uses shall be 
 called a verbal noun, a gerund, a participle, or 
 the infinitive in -ing, and whether to rim, when 
 used in a certain construction shall be called 
 an infinitive or a verbal noun, are matters of 
 very slight importance. If the pupil thoroughly 
 understands their distinctive uses and can with 
 accuracy determine their various functions in a 
 sentence, he knows the important thing. 
 
 Drill. — In the teaching of infinitives and 
 participles it is also of the utmost importance 
 that the pupil be made to understand clearly 
 that each of them retains its verbal power. 
 This is shown by the active infinitives and 
 participles of transitive verbs requiring com- 
 
S6 GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 plements. This fact is especially difficult for 
 the pupil to master, and it will require much 
 drill. It can scarcely be emphasized too much. 
 If it is neglected, the child will often fail to 
 understand the construction of the word serving 
 an infinitive or a participle as complement. 
 
 This careful and detailed study of infinitives, 
 participles, phrases, and clauses, together with 
 the closely alHed subject of simple, complex, 
 and compound sentences, will fill the time that 
 can wisely be given to the study of grammar 
 during the seventh school year. Of course, 
 the composition work, the really practical side 
 of all school work in English, should occupy 
 at least half the time given to EngHsh during 
 this year. 
 
 Eighth Year. — The grammar work of the 
 eighth year, the last year of the grammar 
 school, will include the parts of speech with 
 special regard to their classification, inflections, 
 and relations. Much of this work is really 
 simpler and more easily mastered than is the 
 work suggested for the seventh year. There 
 is, however, far more of it, and it will really 
 
GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES Sy 
 
 occupy more time than the work called for in 
 the seventh year. Therefore, if during this year 
 but a single period can be given daily to Eng- 
 lish, three periods weekly should be given to 
 grammar and two to composition. But nothing 
 should prevent at least two periods weekly 
 being given to the valuable drill that comes 
 from oral and written exercises. It is the heart 
 of all English work. Without it the study of 
 English is mere dry bones, a skeleton without 
 flesh and blood. 
 
 Aim. — The work of the eighth year is really 
 a study of the principles with which the pupil 
 has been becoming practically familiar in all 
 his preceding composition drill. Its aim should 
 be to give him the power of testing his own 
 work for accuracy. The brunt of the language 
 exercises, therefore, should bear on those sub- 
 jects in which error is likely. For example, in 
 studying the noun, stress should fall upon pos- 
 sessive forms and upon the meaning of a col- 
 lective noun as a basis for determining the 
 verb form that shall follow it, rather than upon 
 gender and number, in which error is unlikely. 
 
S8 GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 Syntax. — The use of the pronoun forms 
 should receive far more time than the classifi- 
 cation of pronouns. The proper and consistent 
 use of tenses and of the principal parts of irreg- 
 ular verbs is more important in the study of 
 verbs than is the power to determine person. 
 So, too, in the study of the verb the progres- 
 sive form of the conjugation should receive 
 more consideration than is usually given to it. 
 We very seldom say, " I write," or " He writes" ; 
 we say, ** I am writing," and '* He is writing." 
 In Uke manner we say, " I was writing," and 
 " I have been writing," more frequently than 
 we use the so-called regular forms. Pupils 
 seldom master this fact from the theoretical 
 side, and consequently are Hkely in writing to use 
 the " regular " rather than the idiomatic forms. 
 
 Adjectives. — In the study of adjectives it is 
 more important to make the child understand 
 the use of the comparative degree with two, 
 and of the superlative with more than two, and 
 the exclusion of the thing spoken of, than it is 
 to drill him on the comparison of irregular ad- 
 jectives. He knows the latter from use; he 
 
GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 89 
 
 does not know the former, as he has probably 
 been making these errors all his life. 
 
 The Aim. — The principal thing, therefore, 
 during this year is for the teacher to select the 
 important practical points in the study of each 
 part of speech, and to emphasize them. 
 
 Caution. — In all grammar teaching care 
 must be taken not to emphasize the unimpor- 
 tant. Time spent in trying to decide disputed 
 points, in trying to parse idiomatic words, and 
 in trying to analyze idiomatic constructions is 
 time wasted. Teachers should ever be ready to 
 say, " This is a construction that does not come 
 within the regular principles of grammar, and 
 we should not spend time with it." This is far 
 better than to feel that every word and construc- 
 tion must be minutely examined and labeled. 
 
 The power to get the meaning of a sentence 
 lies in the mastery of subject, predicate, com- 
 plements, and modifiers ; the power to know 
 what is correct comes from the study of the 
 parts of speech in their inflections and relations ; 
 the drill in analytical judgment comes from all 
 the study of grammar. 
 
go GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 I. DIAGRAMS 
 
 Whether the diagram shall have a place in 
 the school of to-day is a question that has been 
 widely and often acrimoniously discussed. The 
 writer of this book believes thoroughly in its 
 value, provided it is made a means to an end, 
 rather than an end in itself. To him it seems 
 that the faults which have been ascribed to the 
 diagram lie in its misuse. 
 
 Value. — The diagram is of value to the 
 teacher because it enables her to see quickly 
 and exactly whether the pupil knows the con- 
 struction of a given sentence. This knowledge 
 the teacher can gain far more quickly from a 
 diagram than she can from either oral or written 
 analysis. It is of value to the pupil, (i) because 
 it gives him a concrete representation of ab- 
 stract knowledge ; (2) because it holds his inter- 
 est ; (3) because it saves his time. Making 
 diagrams is far more interesting to the average 
 child than making written analyses or pre- 
 paring written parsing, and it serves the same 
 purpose. 
 
PARSING 91 
 
 Form. — The sentence and the diagram 
 should be developed together. As the various 
 parts of the sentence are learned the diagram 
 should be introduced to picture the relation of 
 these parts to each other. 
 
 The particular form of diagram is of no great 
 importance, provided it is simple and graphic. 
 The form used in Steps in English meets these 
 conditions and may be readily applied to all the 
 different kinds of sentences. 
 
 2. PARSING 
 
 Value. — The question of parsing is hardly 
 less mooted than that of diagrams. That pars- 
 ing is a valuable exercise both from a practical 
 and from an educational standpoint is undoubted. 
 It is also true that in the past needless time has 
 often been given to this subject. 
 
 Form. — In general it is probably wise to 
 require considerable parsing, but to require it 
 in a much briefer form than that often used. 
 A form of parsing that tells the part of speech 
 and its use in the sentence seems more valuable 
 than a form that calls for anything more. 
 
92 GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 3. THE CORRECTION OF WRITTEN WORK 
 
 Plan. — That the child should learn to avoid 
 ordinary errors in written work is both desirable 
 and necessary. That this has not been accom- 
 plished by the methods in use in the past is 
 evidenced by the errors made by most graduates 
 of grammar and high schools, and even of 
 colleges and universities. The men who can 
 write a page of accurate English are probably a 
 small minority of those who must write. 
 
 For the teacher to correct the errors on the 
 child's paper is worse than useless ; it wastes 
 the teacher's time and does the child no good. 
 In order to avoid errors the child must learn to 
 recognize the errors to which he is prone, and 
 he must learn to think ; but he learns little or 
 nothing by glancing hastily at a number of blue 
 marks on his paper. 
 
 How to Mark. — Written work should never be 
 corrected by the teacher. It should be marked 
 either with signs or with numbers referring to 
 a list of principles ; numbers are preferable, as 
 
THE CORRECTION OF WRITTEN WORK 93 
 
 they enable the teacher to be more exact and 
 the pupil to understand more clearly. The 
 paper being returned to the pupil with these 
 marks, he must find the error, understand the 
 principal violated, and make the correction. 
 He is thus learning to recognize his individual 
 errors, and is learning to think. The objection 
 usually made to such a method is that it requires 
 too much time. The answer is that results 
 rather than quantity must be aimed at. Per- 
 haps only one paper in three can be marked 
 and corrected. The results will be far more 
 satisfactory from this than they will be if all 
 papers are corrected by the teacher. The child 
 must make the corrections. 
 
 Illustration. — To make the suggestion more 
 concrete, the child hands in the paper reading 
 thus : 
 
 in school to-day we had a speUing mach. i 
 was on Mary piper's side and we won. I like 
 spelling maches 
 
 When returned by the teacher it is marked 
 thus: 
 
94 GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 in school to-day we had a spelling 5 a-4-^g 
 mach. i was on Mary piper's side 5 d 
 and we won. I like spelling maches 4-6 a 
 
 The numbers on the right refer to a series of 
 rules (see Steps in English^ I, p. 238 ; II, 
 p. 343), and call attention to the use of capitals 
 to begin sentences and proper names, and for 
 the word /; to a request to spell correctly ; and 
 to the use of a period at the end of a sentence. 
 
 Value. — Practical teachers at once see the 
 value of the child's finding where the error is 
 and making the correction himself. If the 
 teacher is using a book containing no such 
 method for the indication of errors, she can 
 readily prepare a set of rules for herself, putting 
 it on the board or mimeographing it for the 
 children. 
 
 Of course the teacher must see that the cor- 
 rections are properly made, but the value of the 
 plan warrants the use of time for its full accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 This plan is used in some schools as early as 
 the last third of the first school year, the only 
 
THE CORRECTION OF WRITTEN WORK 95 
 
 rules being those for capitals and for terminal 
 punctuation. Here, as well as in higher grades 
 when the writing is done in school, it is wise for 
 the teacher to pass along the aisles while the 
 children are writing. Her eye is on their work, 
 and as she detects an error she merely places a 
 number on the margin and leaves to the child 
 the task of discovering and correcting the mis- 
 take. 
 
 Errors. — Of course where errors are numer- 
 ous, only the worst should be pointed out in 
 this manner. In some cases, as in that of chil- 
 dren of foreign-born parents, the method must 
 be supplemented by much personal work by the 
 teacher ; but such cases really call for individual 
 rather than for class instruction. 
 
 Oral Accuracy. — An effective method for 
 securing oral accuracy is to keep on the board 
 at all times two or three expressions for which 
 incorrect expressions are frequently used. Per- 
 haps three minutes each day may be taken for 
 chorus work, the class repeating these forms of 
 expression. Thus the tongue becomes habitu- 
 ated to the correct form and ultimately adopts 
 
96 GRAMMAR IN THE GRADES 
 
 it. Examples of such expressions are : he 
 doesn't, she doesn't, it doesn't; he isn't, she 
 isn't, it isn't; I'm not, you're not, they're not. 
 Oft repeated, these correct contractions will 
 take the place of ain't and don't. Any teacher 
 can easily add to the list. (See Steps in English^ 
 I, pp. 5-8.) 
 
Steps in 
 English 
 
 By A. C. McLean, A. M., Principal of 
 Luckey Schools, Pittsburg j Thomas C. 
 Blaisdell, a. M., Professor of English, 
 Fifth Avenue Normal High School, 
 Pittsburg ; and John Morrow, Superin- 
 tendent of Schools, Allegheny, Pa. 
 
 BOOK I . 245 pages . Price, 40 cents 
 
 For Third, Fourth, and Fifth Years 
 
 Daily Exercises ,in Language and 
 Elementary Grammar 
 
 BOOK II .352 pages . Price, 60 cents 
 
 For Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Years 
 
 A Simple, Brief, yet Complete Grammar 
 A Practical Composition 
 
 AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 
 
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 Boston Atlanta Dallas San Francisco 
 

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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 022 152 206 
 
 
 
 
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