m GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE ROSA V, WINTERBURN BOOK ONE SYSTEMATIC GRAMMATICAL TRAINING IN ORAL AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION 9 111 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE WINTERBURN'S GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE Book One. (a) On pages ii-v of the Appendix is a daily program of recita- tions for the first month's work; on pages v-x of the Appendix is a discussion on composition; on page x of the Appendix the notes for teachers begin. A person examining this language book should study carefully this program and this discussion on composition, and two or three of these notes, before reading, on page 4 the first material for the pupil. (b) An author cannot write a good text-book unless he has clearly in mind the results to be secured and the materia required to secure those results, and has a practical know] edge of the methods of pedagogy required for the proper arrangement of said material. In connection with these facts see references given above and the "Preface" and "Explana- tory and Suggestive." (c) When this book is being used as a regular text, its splendid arrangement of material and methods of instruction come into use naturally, and the essential lines of work are of necessity emphasized, thus making this book self-teaching on the most important points. (d) Teachers hold in memory more rules of grammar than do the members of any other profession. In practice, however, boys who operate the linotype machines in newspaper offices correct the communications received from the average teacher. It is the opinion of writers and editors that most of the language and grammar work done in the elementary schools of the United States instead of being beneficial is a positive detriment to pupils so far as learning to write is concerned. (e) Most language books require the pupil either to memorize the rules of grammar as he would the multiplication tables, or to read and discuss literary selections in the hope that he may, in some way, absorb a style and the ability to write. Both of these methods instead of developing the natural tendency of the child to learn about a subject and to tell orally and in writing what he has learned, discourage and stunt this natural tendency. (1) (f) Too much of our elementary language work assumes that the memorizing of tbe terms and rules of grammar is the end or result to be accomplished; whereas, these terms and rules should be considered tools for the correction of oral and written expression, and a pupil should not study one of these until he needs it for this purpose. (g) The pupil should receive the same kind of training received at some time and in some way by every writer of ability. The methods required to give this training and the order in which they should be employed are: (1) The pupil should first secure information about a subject, because he cannot tell anything about it unless he knows something to tell; (2) the pupil should have constant practice in telling orally and in writing all he knows about a subject, and this he should do even if at first his words and sentences violate the rules of grammar; (3) the pupil should have a definite knowledge of the principles of grammar required to correct and improve what he has written, and from the beginning he should be required to make these corrections himself. (h) Mrs. Winterburn's book consists entirely of the work out- lined in the paragraph above. In her plan this work is so definite, so clear, and so simple that the busiest teacher with the poorest preparation is sure to succeed. (i) Composition (oral and written) is the backbone of the Win- terburn book. In addition to numerous oral and written drills employed to correct habitual errors of speech and to illustrate the principles of grammar, two of every five reci- tation periods are devoted to oral and written composition. Like the boy who runs the linotype machine, the pupil "learns to do by doing." (j) The book contains forty pages of "Suggestions for Teach- ers." Language experts who have taught language and supervised its teaching, in both country and city schools, declare that these suggestions are by far the most valuable and the most practical ever prepared for the teaching of the English language in the elementary schools. (2) (k) A subject is presented again and again and again in differ- ent forms to show different phases; in the same form to serve as drill after drill; in steadily increasing depth and broadening knowledge to meet the growing maturity of the pupils. For examples see the following topics and refer- ences: Composition Pages 11 25 41 50 63 75 84 93 99 Adjectives Pages 117 131 140 151 162 171 179 185 199 Pronouns Pages 214 229 246 261 274 285 295 305 315 Sentence Structure Pages A r r f "\ 61 193 35 158 27 178 89 211 72 167 65 184 114 226 79 194 140 236 127 240 123 234 155 241 150 270 137 255 161 243 168 293 148 268 169 271 Paragraph Structure Verbs Pages Pages 28 f "" 6 108 ~ "\ 204 129 17 121 220 174 32 135 251 213 45 145 266 243 56 157 278 261 70 166 289 283 79 176 299 305 88 183 310 315 97 189 325 (1) For the Principles of Grammar studied in this book see "Summary" on pages 318-326. (3) THE AUTHOR The author, Rosa V. Winterburn, is a grad- uate of the University of Michigan, and has pursued graduate studies at Columbia Univer- sity and at the University of France. She has taught in all the primary, grammar and high school grades, her first experience being se- cured in a country district school. She has had much experience in supervising the teach- ing of language in the elementary and second- ary schools. Her last five years of supervision were in Stockton, California, just prior to taking up the graduate work referred to above. She is the author of "Methods in Teaching," published by The Macmillan Company, and of "The Spanish in the Southwest," published by the American Book Company. The methods and subject-matter in Mrs. Winterburn's book are neither new nor untried. She and many other California educators have done for years all the work therein outlined. Her book puts into simple and definite form nothing but what has been thoroughly tested in both country and city schools. (4) GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE BOOK ONE BY ROSA V. WINTERBURN FORMER SUPERVISOR OF LANGUAGE AND HISTORY, STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA. AUTHOR OF "METHODS IN TEACHING," ''SPANISH IN THE SOUTHWEST" DOUB & COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO 1908 All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1908 BY DOUB & COMPANY EDUCATION Electrotyped and published April> 1908 PREFACE Most newspaper editors condemn severely the results secured from the teaching of language and grammar in the elementary schools. Usually, they place the blame on the teachers. Many of _these^djtor&^L. tb.jt_ the boy' who runs the linotype machine can correct the commu- nication received from the average teacher so that its ap- pearance in the paper will not be a disgrace from the standpoint of language and grammar. This is true, they say, in spite of the fact that teachers can recite more rules of grammar than can members of any other profession, while the boy who corrects their manuscripts may never have looked inside a text-book on grammar. While this wholesale condemnation by editors and publishers of the language work done in the primary and grammar grades is too severe, there is no denying the fact that there is something radically wrong with that work. But the teachers are not wholly, nor even mainly, responsible for these results. To what then are these poor results due? They are due mostly to the two extreme methods which text-books and school officials have compelled teachers to follow. The older of these methods, as laid down in the text-book, made language and grammar work consist mainly of memorizing the terms and rules of technical grammar. No provision was made for real con- structive work in conversation and composition. The object was to have the pupil remember the dry facts of 54?415 grammar as he would remember the multiplication tables. This method caused the average pupil to despise the subject, and tended to suppress what natural power of expression he might possess. Instead of treating the principles of grammar as tools to assist in the expression of thought, thought was treated as though it existed for the purpose of being twisted to accommodate the dry, formal rules of grammar. The wide and severe criticism directed against the methods set forth in the preceding paragraph, caused the writers of grammar texts to go to the other extreme. In most of the texts that have appeared in recent years the principles of grammar are practically eliminated. The very names of grammatical terms seem to affright, and in fear they have been rechristened. Teachers are re- quested to use these new names, and not to permit the pupil to hear such words as adjective, noun and verb. The pupil is asked to write, write, write, with no real knowledge of correct forms or correct usage. This method, it is true, does cause the pupil to think and does develop the power of expression, but it does not give him the power to express his thoughts clearly and accurately, because nothing except a clear and definite knowledge of. the science or grammar of our language will give him that power. There is no good reason why pupils in the elementary grades should not receive the same kind of training re- ceived at some time and in some way by every writer of ability. The methods required to give this training and the order in which they should be employed are : (a) The pupil must first learn to study a subject, for unless a per- son is "full of his subject" he can neither talk nor write vi about it intelligently; (b) the pupil must have constant practice in telling orally and in writing all he knows about a subject, and this he must do even if at first his words and sentences do violate the rules of grammar; (c) after a pupil knows how to get information about a subject and can tell that information, he must have a definite knowledge of those principles of grammar required to correct and improve what he has written, and at the very beginning of his language work he must be taught how to make these corrections himself, and must be required to make them. A pupil should not learn a rule or principle of grammar until the complexity of his thoughts and his expression of those thoughts require the use of that "prin- ciple. In other words, the pupil must be led to see that grammatical terms and rules are tools to assist him in expressing his thoughts. By these methods, grammar be- comes a handmaid of expression, and the pupil's knowl- edge of the science of our language is a constructive growth from grade to grade. This book is an attempt to give a practical outline for this kind of work. For a more detailed discussion of the points involved see "Explana- tory and Suggestive" on the next page. ROSA V. WlNTERBURN Los Angeles, California April, 1908 vii EXPLANATORY AND SUGGESTIVE Assistance for the Teacher. In the appendix are many pages of little talks or suggestions for the teacher. These are not of a general nature. During her years of supervising language work in the primary and grammar grades, the author has become acquainted with many of the difficulties and discouragements of teachers and pupils. The suggestions deal specifically with the points that give the most trouble, and are intended to be of direct and practical value to the teacher. Throughout the body of the text, specific references are made from the more difficult phases of the work to the suggestions in the appendix. Technical Grammar No apology is made for what may at first glance appear to be too much technical gram- mar. The pupil is not required to study grammar for the purpose of memorizing its dry rules. He studies no grammatical principle until he needs it as a tool for cor- recting and improving his oral and written composition. It is the use and not the learning of technicalities that is emphasized. No words or expressions are substituted for grammatical terms they are called by their right names. When the pupil completes the eighth grade he will be master of the practical part of technical grammar; he will have learned the science of his language inductively, and to him it will be full of life and beauty. viii Formal Rules and the Best Usage. When rules of grammar as laid down in the text-books conflict with the best usage, the latter is followed. Examples of this will be found in punctuation and in the placing of modifiers. The general rule that no mark of punctuation should be used unless it makes the thought clearer is followed (see "Summary" at the end of the fifth grade). At the pres- ent time in the United States, the ablest editors and writers do not hesitate to "split" the infinitive if by so doing the thought is made clearer or expressed more smoothly. Method of Treatment The subject matter is divided into months, the work for eight months being arranged definitely, and additional material being given for those schools that maintain a ten-month term. In each month the discussion of one subject is completed before another is taken up. To illustrate: the formal study of capital letters is completed before a formal study is made in the same month of verbs or any other subject. Oral and written composition, however, is the backbone of every subject. In addition to the oral and written drills required to illustrate and apply what is learned about a subject (verbs, adjectives, adverbs), two language periods each week are to be devoted exclusively to oral and written composition. The principles of gram- mar learned are only those required by the pupil to cor- rect and improve his oral and written work. For further information on these points, see "Suggestions for Teachers" in the appendix. Reviews. The subject matter for a month is such as to secure a definite review of the important points studied during the preceding month or months. The ix object has been to arrange the work so that pupils will follow it with interest, and so that each subject will be developed logically and thoroughly. Incorrect Forms. Incorrect forms are plainly stated, because a child must know what he is to correct before he can correct it. The correct form is always given with the incorrect form and the reason for using the cor- rect form is explained. Many short oral and written drills are given, because the ear must be trained to recog- nize the correct and the incorrect expressions, and the tongue must be taught to use naturally the correct form. For What Grades Intended. Book One is intended for use in the third, fourth and fifth grades, but it can be used with almost as good results in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. Book Two will provide work for the re- maining grammar grades. Acknowledgments. The illustrations in this book were made from Brown's "Famous Pictures." There are many excellent pictures in this collection that are valuable for school use. The low price at which these pictures are sold places them within the reach of every school. CONTENTS PAGE Third-Year Grade I First Month 3 Second Month .16 Third Month 31 Fourth Month . . . . 44 Fifth Month 55 Sixth Month 69 Seventh Month 78 Eighth Month 87 Remaining Weeks of the Year 96 Fourth-Year Grade 105 First Month 107 Second Month 120 Third Month 134 Fourth Month 144 Fifth Month 156 Sixth Month 165 Seventh Month 175 Eighth Month 182 Remaining Weeks of the Year 188 Fifth- Year Grade 201 First Month 203 Second Month 219 Third Month 233 Fourth Month 250 Fifth Month 265 Sixth Month . 277 Seventh Month 288 Eighth Month 298 Remaining Weeks of the Year 309 Summary 318 Suggestions for Teachers i Index xli THE WIND I saw you toss the kites on high And blow the birds about the sky, And all around I heard you pass, Like ladies' skirts across the grass O wind, a-blowing all day long, O wind, that sings so loud a song! I saw the different things you did, But always you yourself you hid. I felt you push, I heard you call, I could not see yourself at all O wind, a-blowing all day long, O wind, that sings so loud a song ! O you that are so strong and cold, O blower, are you young or old? Are you a beast of field and tree, Or just a stronger child than me? O wind, a-blowing all day long, O wind, that sings so loud a song ! Robert Louis Stevenson THIRD-YEAR GRADE TO THE TEACHER The author of this book has had much experience in teaching language, and in supervising the teaching of language, in elementary and secondary schools. Most of her work as a supervisor of the subject has been in primary and grammar grades, and an intimate acquaintance with the needs and limitations of teachers and pupils has given her a somewhat detailed knowledge of their difficulties and discouragements. Her chief aim has been to help teachers in their efforts to develop in the pupil the power to think systematically and to express his thoughts in good English. This she has endeavored to do by sympathetic advice and by the introduction of simple, constructive methods. It is her desire to give to the teachers who may use this book some of the beneficial results of the experience of the teacher and the supervisor. This has been done by placing in the appendix suggestions and advice on almost every point that has given her teachers serious trouble. The author requests and urges that these suggestions be studied carefully by the teaoher, for she considers them one of the most important features of the book. Specific reference is made to each suggestion by the use of Arabic figures in the body of the text. FIRST MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS CAPITAL LETTERS First word of a sentence Names of persons Initial letters I and O PUNCTUATION Period at the end of a sentence and after initial letters Interrogation point after a question COMMON ERRORS Double negative VERBS Development of the four forms of write, break, do, give Frequent drills on those forms in which mistakes are usually made COMPOSITION Oral reproduction Written reproduction Original writing Corrections At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE CAPITAL LETTERS 1 Open your reader to any story. Where are the capital letters? They seem to be scattered over every page, but in reality they are all in their places. Look at the different sentences. How do they begin? It is always with a capital letter, is it not? Every sentence begins with a capital letter. Remember that. Copy a paragraph from the reader, taking care not to leave out a capital letter. Write a little story about a picture in your reader, beginning every sentence with a capital letter. Here is a boy's name John Henry Mason. Do you notice the capital letters? Write the names of several boys and girls whom you know. They should all begin with capital letters. This is true of the names of all persons. This name may be written, John H. Mason; or it may be written, J. H. Mason ; or the letters J. H. M. may be written in place of the name. These are the initial letters of this name. Each one is a capital, followed by a period. Write the full names of nine boys or girls in the room, using a capital letter to begin every name. Write them again, using the initial letters for the first and second names. Use initials for all the names. Remember the capitals and periods. Write the full name of your father, mother, brother, sister, an aunt and an uncle. Write the initials of every name. Whenever you are writing about yourself, as J, a GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 5 capital must be used. O is a capital when used alone in a sentence. Write five sentences about yourself, using /. PUNCTUATION 2 My desk is low. My desk is in the middle of the room. It was my brother's desk last term. My books are under my desk. Somebody has cut my desk. Several things have been told about the desk. Every statement stands by itself in a sentence, and every sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period. Is your desk low ? Is the desk in the middle of the room ? Was it your brother's desk last term? Are your books under your desk? Has anybody cut your desk? These are questions, asking what was told in the other sentences. Notice the difference. Every sentence still begins with a capital, but it has an interrogation point at the end. Here is something to remember: If a state- ment is made about anything, that is, if something is told about it, the sentence ends with a period. If a question is asked about anything, the question ends with an interrogation point. Tell three things about the window. Write these statements, using a capital letter at the beginning and a period at the end. Ask three things about the window. Write these questions, using a capital letter at the beginning and an interrogation point at the end. 6 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE You have been writing two kinds of sentences. What are they? COMMON ERRORS 3 We often hear a boy or a girl say, "I ain't got no pencil." It is much better to say, I haven't a pencil, or, I have no pencil. Give ten sentences, using either one of these two forms in place of the incorrect one given first. VERBS 4 WRITE Many words in our language express action. We say: the boy runs fast; the girl sews neatly; my brother writes plainly. These words are verbs. If the verb is left out of a sentence, the meaning is left out. Every sentence that we speak or write has in it a verb. Many persons make mistakes in the use of verbs; but it is easy to avoid such mistakes if you learn when children to use verbs cor- rectly, one at a time. In this book you are going to learn an easy way to use verbs correctly. We often hear the incorrect form, "I have wrote my lesson," in place of the correct form, I have written my lesson. Both wrote and written come from the verb write, and you can learn when to use each word. I have the chalk in my hand and write some words carefully on the board. How shall I say what I am doing? I write the words carefully. Perhaps, I put them on the board yesterday; how shall I say that? I wrote the words carefully yesterday. If I say, I am , how shall I GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 7 finish the thought? I am writing the words carefully. If the words are all finished, how shall I express that thought? I have written the words, or the words are written. We have used only four forms of this verb. They can be written in the following way, so that you can see what they are : PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM write wrote writing written You will probably make no mistakes in using write and writing; but wrote and written are the forms that are not used correctly. Wrote is used in the past time, often with some word or words like yesterday, last week or this morning. Written is nearly always used with some word to help it express the meaning ; as, is, are, was, were, have or has. Here is a sentence with the past tense, that is, the "second form : I wrote a letter to my mother yesterday. Write ten sentences using wrote, putting in some word that means in the past, like yesterday, last week, this morning. Here are some sentences with written: I have written two letters today. My letter is written. Write ten sentences with written, using have, has, had, is, are, was, were. BREAK Can you find the four forms of break? If you know them you should never make a mistake in using this word. I am breaking this stick now, this minute; what do I say? 8 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE I break the stick. Yesterday I broke the stick. The third form is always the one that ends with ing, so what will it be with this word*? Breaking. Now, for the fourth form, used with have, has, had or some other helping word. John has broken his stick. Write these four forms under those of write, as follows : PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM write wrote writing written break broke breaking broken It is again in the use of the fourth form that children, and many grown persons, make mistakes. So, to become well acquainted with this troublesome word, make ten sentences like these two, using broken: My doll is broken. Jack has broken his bicycle. 8 Be careful not to say, my doll is broke, nor Jack has broke his bicycle. For then, you see, you will be using the second form with has and is; and with have, has, had; is, are, were, was, the fourth form should be used. To learn to use these words, broken and written, say them many times in this way: I have written a letter We have written a letter He has written a letter You have written a letter She has written a letter They have written a letter I have broken a glass We have broken a glass He has broken a glass You have broken a glass She has broken a glass They have broken a glass DO Can you find the four forms of do? What is the one that means right now, this minute*? I do the work GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 9 for mother. What would you say if you used yesterday in the sentence 4 ? I did the work yesterday. Give the third form, the one ending with ing. Doing. To find the fourth form put have or has into a statement. I have done my work. Write these four forms in the following way, under write and break, for it is convenient to have them there : 6 PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM write break do wrote broke did writing breaking doing written broken done Is there one word there that you do not know very well? \t\sdid. Give a sentence with yesterday and the second form. I did my drawing yesterday. But many persons say, "I done my drawing yesterday." That is wrong. Putting done in the past tense in place of did is the most common mistake in the use of this verb. To get rid of it let us have many sentences with did. GIVE PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM give gave giving given Is there one word here that is not very often used? It is gave. Make a sentence with gave. James gave me his top last night. What is often said in place of gave? "James give me his top last night." Do you see how queer this is? The first form, the one that means now, this minute, is put into the past time, where it means yesterday or some time in the past. You will have to work faith- 1O GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE fully to correct this error; because, for some reason, it is one of the hardest to get rid of. Another mistake is made with this word. What do you often say when you put have into the sentence 4 ? "I have give you my ink- stand." Is it not queer? There is the first form used again where it does not belong. Let us have the correct sentence. I have given you my inkstand. You will have to work hard with this verb unless you have learned all about it in the second grade. Here are some sentences that will help you use gave and given correctly: I gave you my dog yesterday We gave you a rose He gave you his dog yesterday You gave him a rose She gave you her dog yesterday They gave him a rose I have given him his ball We have given her a doll He has given me my ball You have given her a doll She has given me my ball They have given her a doll With these to help you, think out many sentences with one or the other of these words, gave or given, and write at least ten. Remember that when talking about something that is past you should say gave; and when using have, has, had, is, was, are, were, you should use given, as in the following sentences : My book was given to me. Harold's doves were given to him. Who gave you that flower? Miss Pearson gave it to me as I was coming to school. Who wrote the lesson? Myron wrote it and gave it to me. Write, break, do, give, all show action. Words that show action are called verbs. Write the verbs studied this month in a list like the following: PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM write wrote writing break broke breaking do did doing give gave giving GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 11 FOURTH FORM written broken done given Say these over until you know them by heart, think- ing especially about the right words. The mistakes made are usually in either the second or the fourth form, some- times in both, as in give. Write the four forms of all these verbs five times. COMPOSITION 7 Write the story of one of the poems read or learned during the month. Write the story of the science talk for the week. Write part of the story told the class by the teacher. Here is the word whispering. What does it make you think about? Has anything happened that makes you laugh when you see it? Write about it as naturally as you would talk about it to some one. What do you think of when you see the word kite? Do you remember watching a kite? Tell about it in writing, just as you would in talking. Perhaps you can imagine a story about a kite. Tell it, but make it short. Short stories are easy to write. Did you ever see a blackbird on the lawn just after the sprinkling had been finished? What was he doing? How did he walk? Did he look at you? What do you think he was trying to say to you? Write it as you would tell it. Did you see him hunting his break- fast? Perhaps you have seen his nest. Write about any one of these thoughts, and enjoy telling your story. FRANK PATON PUSS IN BOOTS GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 13 How do you think you would feel if you were a dog or a donkey? Write about it. Look at the picture on the opposite page, "Puss in Boots." Does it make you think of your kitten or one that you know? Do you think that this is a. playful kitten? How could it get into a shoe? Why should it go there? Is this a big shoe? Do you think the kitten will go to sleep in such a place? Write a story about this kitten. Take one of your papers, read it over, and see if you can find any mistakes. Correct them before the teacher reads the paper. You can look out for capitals, periods, commas, question marks and many other points for your- self, but you are very liable to forget some of them when you are writing. You do not have to leave them for the teacher to find, however; find and correct them yourself. Many children do not know how to put their sen- tences together. They use "and," "and," "but," "but," "now," -^now," "then," "then," until one is tired of the words. It is easy to avoid this. Either leave out these words or put two or three sentences into one. See in how many ways you can put these sentences together : My home is in a city. It is a large city. My home is on a shady street. My home is in a large city on a shady street. My home is on a shady street in a large city. My brother has a dog and he is big and black. My brother has a big, black dog. There was once a man. The man was good. His name was Jacob. The man Jacob said, "I must have a barn. I must have a good barn. I must have a new barn." 14 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE Jacob built a barn, and the barn was large and the new barn was also very beautiful but the barn was empty. Jacob said, "My barn is large and it is beautiful but it is empty and I must buy some wheat to put into my barn." So he bought some wheat. He bought much wheat. It was fine wheat. And he put the wheat into the barn that he had built. In some of the above groups the sentences can be put together. In others, and and but are used where they are not needed. See if you can write them in better form by putting two or three sentences into one, or by making other changes. Here are some papers written by third-grade pupils. Can you do as well? BERNICE TREANOR This is Bernice Treanor that I am going to talk about. Bernice has golden, fluffy hair hanging down her back. Her eyes are brown, and she has rosy cheeks and light complexion. Bernice has on a dainty green dress with a little bow tied in front for a sash. She has a little rufHe of chiffon around the bottom of her skirt. Bernice has an evening dress. She is saying good-by now, and is waving her hand. She has on some little tan shoes and white stockings. She has on a little white embroidered skirt. I hope she will be glad to get a mama. Would you think that this was a doll? A little girl had dressed her daintily to give to a dear little friend. She brought Bernice to school, and all the girls wrote about her. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 15 The following story, suggested by a snow-storm, was written by a third-grade pupil: A SNOW-STORM I used to live in the mountains where the snow used to fall very thick. There were some little children that lived near us who had a sleigh. When it snowed they used to slide down hill. They used to take turn about. One of the boys fell on his back and hurt himself. All of the boys ran down to pick him up. They put him on the sleigh and took him home as fast as they could. They sent for a doctor as soon as they could, and the doctor said that he had sprained his back. He could not go out for many days afterward. Can you improve this paper in any way 4 ? In the first paragraph used to is found four times. Are there any other unnecessary repetitions? This is a letter written by a third-grade girl : 215 S. Van Buren St., Stockton, California Dec. 14, 1907. Dear Sibley : Please come over to our house Tuesday. Come to dinner, and we will go to Concordia Hall in the afternoon to hear Dr. Twist lecture. Your friend, Emma Longman. SECOND MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS See, come, eat, bite QUOTATIONS PUNCTUATION The punctuation marks required by the quotations used The comma in a series, and to set off yes, no and the names of persons addressed OPPOSITES AND SYNONYMS Words in common use COMMON ERRORS 'them in place of those REVIEW LESSONS COMPOSITION Oral reproduction Written reproduction Original writing Corrections Sentence structure Paragraph structure At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 17 VERBS 8 SEE Find the four parts of see. I see a horse and car- riage. Yesterday I saw the man. What is the form ending with ing? Seeing. When we say, I have the man three times, what is the word we should use? I have seen the man three times. So these are the four parts : PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM see saw seeing seen What mistake is often made in using this verb? Saw is never used by some children. What do they use in its place? Make a sentence and see if you can find out. I saw your books in the yard. How many times we hear, "I seen" in such a sentence. This is wrong. Which form is used in the past time? Put yesterday or last week into a sentence, and see if you can tell what form to use. The second form, is it not? I saw you in church yesterday. You saw me last week as I was looking out of the window. Write ten sentences with saw. Write ten with have seen, has seen or is seen. Remember that seen is used when have, has, had, is, are, was and were help out the verb; but that in past time saw is used. COME PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM come came coming come i8 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE If you say, I to school early this morning, what form should be used 4 ? Do you not often say, "I come to school early this morning? " Look at the four forms and see what should be said. / came this morning. Say over to yourself many sentences with came, using last week, this morning, day before yesterday. EAT PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM eat ate eating eaten What is often used in place of ate? When speak- ing about breakfast what do you hear? "I et breakfast at seven o'clock this morning." You hear the same word with have. "I have et my breakfast." What is the past tense of this verb? Think out some sentences like the following in which ate is used, and say them over to yourself several times: Who ate my apple? The cow ate it; I saw her. At what time did you eat dinner yesterday ? We ate at six o'clock. I ate an apple We ate some melon He ate an apple You ate some melon She ate an apple They ate some melon Eaten is the form used with have, has, had, is, are, was, were: Have you eaten your nuts yet? Yes, I ate them last night. My nuts have been eaten. Who ate them? The squir- rels have eaten your nuts and some of mine. Have you eaten your lunch yet? No, I haven't eaten it yet. Write five sentences with ate: five with eaten. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 19 BITE By thinking what you say when you mean now, this minute, make a sentence in which the first form of bite is used ; as, I always bite my thread. If you are speaking of last night, what do you say? I bit my tongue last night. The easy form, ending in ing, is biting. The fourth form, with have, you must be careful about. We often hear, "The dog has bit the child," but this is wrong. It is, the dog has bitten the child. Before giving any sentences for this verb, write its four forms under those of -write, break, give, eat, as follows: FOURTH FORM written broken given eaten bitten Say these over several times. Do you notice that the fourth form of all of these verbs ends with en? This will help you remember them, and will help you learn to use the two new words, eaten and bitten, and get rid of "et" and "bit" with have or has. Here are sentences in which eaten and bitten are used : Has any one eaten his sandwich yet? The parrot has bitten my thumb. The rat has bitten my cat. Write ten sentences with bitten. Write ten with eaten. Write ten with given. Write ten with broken. Write ten with written. PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM write break wrote broke writing breaking give gave giving eat bite ate bit eating biting 2o GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE QUOTATIONS 9 Tell something said by one of the boys. Harold said, "I can't learn that poem." Tell something that your father said. He said, "Come home early." See how these sentences look when written out in full : Harold said, "I can't learn that poem." Papa said, "Come home early." Can you tell by a look what Harold said and what papa said? Why is it so easy to tell quickly? Because what each said is set off by itself. There are marks around it that frame in the very words used by Harold and papa. These sentences may be given in another way. Harold said he could not learn that poem. Have we here the words that Harold used? No. So there is no "frame," for it must always be around the very words spoken by some one. Give sentences like the following, having in them exactly what some persons have said: Lucy asked the teacher, "May I get a drink?" The teacher said, "Yes, you may get it now." Papa said, "Where are your books ?" Do you notice anything else about the way these sentences are written? It is like writing one sentence within another, and that is exactly what is done. The quotation (or "saying") is begun with a capital and ended with a period or question mark, as if it stood by itself. Are commas used inside the "frame" ? Yes, as if GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 21 the quotation stood all alone. Is the quotation separated from the rest of the sentence in any way? Is there any- thing between, Lucy asked the teacher^ and "May I get a drink?" Yes, there is a comma. Let us see what has been learned. A quotation means the very words spoken by some one. It has a "frame" around it, or quotation marks. It is like a sen- tence within another sentence, for it has a capital letter at the beginning, and a period, comma, question mark or mark of surprise (exclamation point) at the end. It is set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma. There is much to learn about quotations and how to use them; but you already know something about them from the second grade, and they are not hard to under- stand if you remember to use what you know. Let us have some short quotations. Tell what some of the boys and girls have said. 1 Suppose this is one of your sentences: James said that he was coming over tonight. Is this a quotation*? No. Why not? We want the very words that James said. Think how James looked into your face, and then say exactly what he said, "I am coming over tonight." Now write the whole sentence : James said, "I am coming over tonight." Here we have the words used by James. This quo- tation (or "saying") is commenced with a capital letter, it has a period at the end, a "frame" around it, and it is separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. Look at it. Can you see quickly the words spoken by James? In the following sentences tell why the quotation 22 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE marks are used in some sentences and not in others, and explain the punctuation : Julia said that she had broken her doll. Julia said, "I have broken my doll." I told her I was sorry. I said, "I am sorry, Julia." Mary said that her mother was sick.. Mary said, "Mother is sick/' The doctor asked, "How is your mother today?" "Are you going to be at home?" Mary asked. "How long before you are going to school ?" John asked. "Go home !" I said to my dog. "Come here !" Mary said to the baby. THE COMMA Look around the room and mention three or four things that you see. I see a window, a door and the stove. What fruit have I here on my desk 4 ? You have an apple, a peach and a pear. Sometimes and is put between these words : I have an apple and a peach and a pear. When and is left out in such a series, a comma takes its place. Notice the following sentences: Give me the chalk, the eraser and a pencil. Hang up your coat, hat and lunch basket. Here are your ball, your hat and your bag of marbles. There are two other uses of the comma that are very easily learned. Look at these sentences: Children, where are you going? John, will you close the door? Mary, take your lunch today. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 23 Here, James, I have your books. Where are you going, Jennie? Notice that every name is set off by a comma. So also is children. We may speak in the usual tone of voice, but it is as if we were calling these persons. We address what we have to say to some one, speaking his name somewhere in the sentence. No matter where the name of the person addressed is put, it is set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma, or two if necessary. Use the name of one of the boys, telling or asking him something. Write the sentence, setting off the name by a comma. Write five such sentences, putting the name in different parts of the sentence, at the beginning, at the end or in the middle. Notice these sentences: Yes, I will come tomorrow. No, I will not go with you. Yes, I will come if you want me. Tes, no, really answer some question. Tes or no might be enough without the rest of the sentence. They are so independent that they are set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma. Write ten sentences, using either yes or no, setting them off by commas. OPPOSITES AND SYNONYMS 11 This room is light. How is it in the closet? Dark. That is the opposite of light, is it not? The room is light;. the closet is dark. My pencil is long. How is 24 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE yours? Mine is short. Long and short are opposites. My glass is whole; yours is broken. My cup is full; yours is empty. Give the opposites of the following words: glad cold coming sour bare heavy cruel unhappy tardy old The day is dark. In place of dark can you give a word that has almost the same meaning? Cloudy, gloomy. This flower is pretty. Can you give a word that means about the same as flower? Blossom. Give words that mean about the same as the following : glad pretty kind cruel shut fierce strange fast angry shape COMMON ERRORS We frequently hear such a sentence as, "Give me them books." "Where are them boys? " In both these places, and many others where them is used, we should have those. Give me those books. Where are those boys? Use the following in sentences: those birds those girls those boys those men those books those horses those flowers those sticks those houses REVIEW LESSONS Think of some of the short "sayings" that you have heard recently; something that your father, mother, one of the boys or one of the girls has said. Write this quota- tion, putting before it the name of the person who said it. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 25 Remember to use the "frame," the capital letters and the right punctuation. Write five statements, or "telling sentences," about some object in the room or in the yard. Change these to questions, or else write five questions about the same object. Remember the punctuation. Write nine sentences, using yes or no. Write nine sentences, in each one calling the atten- tion of some person to tell him or ask him something. COMPOSITION 12 Did you ever think about the waste-paper basket*? Is it not very patient to permit all sorts of old papers to be thrown into it? Suppose it could talk, what do you think it would say about the boy who was waiting at the teacher's desk, and kicked the basket just because it happened to be standing there? Write about it. Tell about your bag of marbles. How many have you? Where did you get them? Which ones do you like best? Why? What a hole in this apron ! How did it come here? Who is going to mend it? When? Write about it, as you would talk of it to your mother. The letter-carrier went past a few moments ago. Tell the real story of his day, as nearly as you can. Tell where he gets the letters, where he goes, what he does in rainy weather, and any interesting things that you can about his day's work. Tell the story of one of your lessons orally, and then tell it in writing. FROM PAINTING BY FERRIER LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 27 Tell the story of a poem learned or read, and then write the story. Cut a picture from a newspaper and bring it to school. Tell a story about it, and paste the picture on the paper as an illustration. You all know the story of Red Riding Hood, do you not? The picture on the opposite page shows the little girl as she meets the wolf in the forest. Does the wolf look fierce? Do you think he looks hungry? Which do you think he would rather eat, Red Riding Hood herself, or the things in her basket? Tell how Red Riding Hood met the wolf in the forest and what he said to her there. After writing a paper, read it over and see if you can cut out and, but, now or then anywhere. There are usually too many of these words. Can you put any two of your sentences into one? Above all, see that you have not put two or three thoughts into one sentence. A sentence should have but one complete thought. SENTENCE STRUCTURE 13 Put together some of the following short sentences by using who, which or that: A large wolf led the pack. He soon became known as Lobo, the king of the wolves. Once upon a time there were some frogs. They lived in a pond with green grass around it. My mother had a letter this morning. The letter-carrier brought it to her. I have a beautiful cat. He is large and white. 28 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE" You have been trying to learn to put one thought into a sentence. In doing so, have you noticed that there are often several sentences about the same thing? They seem to belong together very closely, and they do. These sentences should be put into a group by themselves. Such a group is called a paragraph. It is not always easy to tell what sentences belong together; but, by being watchful, you will learn to paragraph your stories very well. See if you can tell why these sentences are put together in paragraphs : There was once a man who was traveling. At last he came to a beautiful house that was as large as a palace. "Perhaps I can stay over night here," said the man, and he went into the yard before the house. In the yard was an old man who was splitting wood. "Good evening, father!" said the traveler. "May I stay over night here?" "I am not the father of the family!" answered the old man who was in the court splitting wood. "Go into the house. Go to the kitchen. You will find the father there. He will tell you if you may stay over night." The traveler went into the house. He went to the kitchen, where he saw an old man. He was very old, older than the man who was in the court splitting wood. This old man was making a fire. "Good evening, father !" said the traveler. "May I stay over night here in your house ?" "I am not the father of the family!" answered the old man. "Go into the dining-room. You will find my fatker there. He is sitting at the table eating." Tt was some time before the traveler found the "father of GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 29 the family," a very, very old man, who told him that he might stay over night in the big house. These divisions are paragraphs. Can you tell why the sentences are grouped together? The first paragraph has two sentences. Why do they belong together? Why are those in the second paragraph put together? Why are those in the fifth paragraph put together? Do these give you some idea about a paragraph? Study a story in a reader or a story book, and see if you can find out why certain sentences are put together in one paragraph and others in another paragraph. Then write a little paper of your own, having one thought only in a sentence, and several sentences that belong together in a paragraph. Some good subjects to write about are two or three of your pets; your plants in the garden; two or three friends with whom you like to play and visit. The next day after you have written the paper, read it over to see if you succeeded in making good sentences and paragraphs. There follows a paper by a third-grade child. The class had been trying for some days to describe things orally "so that the teacher could see just how they looked." At last they were permitted to try in writing, choosing their subjects from those that had been talked over in class. A WALK ON THE BEACH As I was walking along the beach off in the distance I could see the pink and blue clouds of the morning. I could hear the gentle splashing of the waves or hear the seaweed popping under my feet. Oh ! everything was beautiful. Sometimes I would stop 30 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE and pick up some of the little shells, put "them to my ear, and hear the roaring that sounded like the sea rushing through them. 15 Here is another paper by a third-grade child: IN THE WOODS IN SEPTEMBER One day I went out into the woods with my lunch to spend the day. I chose a pretty spot by a stream. The leaves were knee-deep, and the squirrels and birds were getting in their winter stores. The river banks were covered with moss and ferns. Fish were jumping out of the water. The trees were reflected in the water like a mirror, and all was beautiful. THIRD MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS Review those of the past two months Speak, go, take, teach, bring, keep CAPITALS AND PUNCTUATION PRONOUNS POSSESSIVES Singular possessives Plural possessives where necessary PLURALS REVIEW LESSONS COMPOSITION Oral and written reproduction Letters Original stories Corrections At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. 32 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE VERBS 16 SPEAK Find the four forms of speak. Do they remind you of the four principal parts of another verb*? Can you tell what mistake is most commonly made in using this verb? Is spoken a word that you hear or use very often"? What word is used in its place"? Write the four forms under those of break. See how much alike they are. PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM break broke breaking broken speak spoke speaking spoken As spoken, like broken, is a word that is not known by many persons, but that should be used with have, has, had, is, are, were, was, let us have some sentences with it : Have you spoken a piece this term, Lena? Yes, I have spoken twice. Harry has not spoken in school since last term. He shall speak for us next week. Here are also a few with broken: Are there any pencils broken? Yes, we three boys have broken ours. The window is broken. How was it broken? How many windows have been broken this term? John has broken one, and I have broken two. Here are a few sentences with spoke and broke. What form of the verb is each? Did you speak to the Chinaman for me ? Yes, I spoke to him this morning. Some one spoke out loud then. Who was it? Harry spoke to me. He spoke about the spelling- lesson. Who broke this j^r? The dog broke it last night. He knocked it over and broke it. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 33 GO PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM go went going gone Are you using the fourth form correctly? First, let us use the second form. It is very easy. Who went to the park this week? We went yesterday, but it was cold there. Who went into the garden last ? It was Jennie ; she went there at noon. Use have, has, had, is, are, was and were in sentences, with the proper form of the verb go. TAKE PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM take took taking taken As with many other verbs, the mistakes are usually made with the fourth form ; so look at these sentences with taken: Who has taken my umbrella ? Martha has taken it home with her. Have you taken your music lesson yet this week? Yes, I have taken two. All the man's money was taken by a burglar. Has the sick man taken his medicine? Yes, he has taken two bottlefuls. Have you taken your cat home yet, Myron? Papa has just taken her with him. Here are a few sentences with took, the second form : Who took my books from my desk? Kate .took them, Miss Jenkins. We took the Sixth Street car to church. We took the boat to the city. I took cold yesterday. I have taken cold three times this month. In order that you may not forget how to use took correctly, write five sentences in which it is used. 34 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE TEACH, BRING PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOTRTH FORM teach taught teaching taught bring brought bringing brought These words are so easy and so much alike that you can study them together. You must be careful, however, to notice the difference in spelling. It is au in taught, and ou in brought. Write ten sentences with taught. Write ten with brought. KEEP This, also, is a very easy word to use. Almost every one uses it correctly, but sometimes children have not learned that there is such a word as kept. Be careful to say kept, not "kep." PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM keep kept keeping kept Give ten sentences with the second form. Give ten with the fourth. CAPITALS AND PUNCTUATION Write a letter to your mother, telling her something that happened in school. Write it as you may tell it to her tonight. Be careful about the capitals and punctu- ation, especially in the heading. The following heading shows how -to use them : 1919 West Eaton St., Los Angeles, California, My dear Mother: October 25, 1907. Write a .letter to. one of your friends, telling how GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 35 you dropped your lunch basket in the mud this morning and spoiled the lunch. Write a letter to your grandmother, grandfather, aunt or uncle, telling how you are going to spend Thanksgiving. 17 PRONOUNS If we are talking about John and have said "John" several times, what word may be used in place of the name'? As, John went to the city, where John saw the city hall. We can put he in place of John, and every one will understand that we are still talking about the same boy. John went to the city, where he saw the city hall. If we are talking about Julia, we can use she. If I am talking about myself, I never use my name, but say I. We use we, you, they, instead of names. What other words can we use for John, Julia and other persons? I am here You saw me John is here He is here I You saw him j Julia is here She is here t You saw her ( We came You heard _us You came We heard you They came We heard them These underlined words in the above list are pro- nouns. In talking about myself I may use / and me; about John, he and him; about Julia, she and her; about two or more of us, ice and us; about you, it is always 36 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE you; about two or more, not including myself, they and them. But where I use I, me should not be used. It is the same with other pronouns; each one has its place. You should learn about these right places and, like many other language facts, it is not difficult to do so. The trouble is, you may forget. That is why you have so many drills on a correct form, saying or writing it over and over, until you remember it whenever you are talk- ing. You probably learned something about these words in the first and second grades, but you can understand more about them now. Notice the pronouns that take the places of the names in the following sentences: John is here He is here (Yourself) I am here Put both into one sentence : H e and I are here." Some children say, "Him and me is here." Is it not strange"? Of course we say he is here, no matter how many other persons we talk about at the same time. You would never say, me am here, for that is absurd. You say, / am here. Put the sentences together correctly, He and I are here. Sometimes children say, "John and me came." Is it right? Mention each person alone giving the complete sentence: John came. / came. Then put the two sentences together. John and I came. Out of courtesy we always put the other person's name first. Make combinations of the following sentences, put- ting the names of two persons, at least, into one sentence : I am coming We are coming He is coming You are coming She is coming They are coming GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 37 He and I are coming. She and I are coming. You and he are coming. You and she are coming. You and they are coming. He and she are coming. He, she and I are coming. You, he and she are coming. Write six more sentences like those above, as: I am sick We are sick He is sick You are sick She is sick They are sick Make many combinations of these sentences. Write six more, then combine in many ways. POSSESSIVES You say, "John's ball," and we know that John has a ball. You say Jennie's doll, mama's hat, Miss Ball's basket, expressing correctly what you mean, without stop- ping to think how to do it. You know so well how to say it that you speak unconsciously; but did you ever notice how many times you write such an expression incorrectly^ That is because you have not yet learned to write it so easily and naturally as you speak it. You were trained to say it correctly when you were very young; you can train yourself to write it correctly, now that you are older. As you have noticed in reading, and as you began to learn in the first and second grades, ownership and possession are shown in writing by putting V after a name, as in the following: John's ball Hilda's dress mama's pony Louis' birds the girl's doll the man's trunk the bird's song James' pencil Mary's book Myron's ink the horse's tail Charles' pen 38 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE Notice that in writing Louis' birds, James' pencil, Charles' pen the apostrophe only is added. You will see why if you try to say Louis's. How awkward that is. It is because these names end in s and a second s cannot be pronounced easily after it. If you could write the possessive form as often as you speak it, you would learn in a week's time always to write it correctly. Write it a large number of times, over and over, using different names and objects. Write the name of every pupil in the room, with something that he possesses; as, Harry's new coat, Mol lie's broken doll. Write the names of ten persons that you know, with something possessed or owned by them. Write the names of several of your relatives, with something owned by them; as, father's boots, my aunt's parrot. Write the names of animals with something that they have. Keep up this exercise until you write the 's just as readily as you speak it. PLURALS 19 Long ago, as little children, you learned how to speak of one object and of more than one. If you saw a cat, you said cat\ if you saw two, you said cats. It was the same with dog, dogs; boy, boys; ball, balls. It took longer to learn to say man, men; child, children; goose, geese; but you have learned to use correctly the names of most of the things around you. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 39 First of all, let us have the correct words to use in speaking of these changes, for that is more convenient. When speaking of one thing, we say that the word is in the singular number; if speaking of two or more things, we say that the word is in the -plural number. Singular, in this sense, means alone, single, one. Plural means more than one. Copy the words below, and where the singular is given, put the plural in the opposite column; where the plural is given, write the singular in the opposite column. SINGULAR PLURAL book hats flower bird child grasses trees oxen Write in both the singular and the plural the names of ten objects around you. REVIEW LESSONS Notice some of the things that you say or that you hear said. Can you find among them ten expressions like these: "ain't got no dog," "ain't done nothing" or "hain't got no pony" ^ Write them correctly. Write nine sentences using those in place of them in such expressions as "them boys," "them books." Write five sentences with broken. Write five sentences with spoken. Write five sentences with written. Write three quotations. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 41 COMPOSITION 20 Do not try to write very much at a time; one loses interest by getting tired. Write for fifteen minutes, fin- ishing one part of the story in that time. Another part can be written the next day. Tell the story of the history lesson in your own words. Tell the story of the science talk for the week in your own words. Tell some story that you have heard recently. What eager looking puppies in the picture on the opposite page! What are they waiting for? Do you think they are really hungry*? Do they look as if they usually had plenty to eat? What do you think they will have for breakfast? Who may feed them? If you could have one of these puppies for your own, which one would you choose? Why? Write about these puppies and their breakfast. Write a letter asking a friend to come to an after- noon party. Tell what the party is for, at what time it begins, and when it ends. Write this in your own lan- guage, as you would tell it to your friend in school. Write a letter telling one of the boys that you are going skating, fishing or hunting. Ask him to go along. Tell him what to bring. Say anything else about the trip that you think he should know. Write about something that you have seen lately. It may be a deserted bird's nest, torn and ragged. Per- haps the nest is in good shape. Do you think the birds 42 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE will use it again next year"? How was it made"? Could a boy make one like if? Did you ever try to help a bird build her nest by giving her something to work with? Write about some accident that you have seen. Has some one had a fall from his bicycle"? Has a swing broken when a child was in it*? Have you stumbled when you were carrying something 4 ? If you write your paper in the morning, take it in the afternoon and find how many mistakes you made. You know that every one makes mistakes, especially if very interested in what he is writing, for then he may- forget commas, and even capitals and periods. He does not use the right word in the right place, or, later, he can think of a better one. Sometimes he finds that he might put two sentences together and make the whole sound better; or he should leave out something that does not belong to the thought or the story that he is telling. Every one has to read over what he has written to see if he can make it better. See what you can do with your paper every time you write one. You will be surprised to find how much you can improve it and how you will enjoy making the changes. The teacher of a third grade, in Stockton, California, told her class the story of Miles Standish, taking it from Longfellow's poem. She was a good story-teller, who gave the interesting parts of the poem in "word pictures" that were a constant delight to the pupils. The children wrote what they could remember of the teacher's stories. The following is a paper written by one of the pupils in this class: 11 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 43 MILES STANDISH In a little log cabin Miles Standish walked to and fro in a room where his war things were. With his hands behind him, he was buried in thought. He paused now and then to look at his glittering musket. Miles Standish was a short man, and broad-shouldered, deep-chested. Miles Standish had a reddish brown beard. Miles Standish wore short trousers to his knees and boots of Cordova leather. At a pine table by the window John Alden his friend and household companion sat. John Alden had blue eyes and light hair and he was tall. John Alden was the youngest grown-up man that came along with the Pilgrims. Now I shall tell you something that Miles Standish said to John Alden as he looked at his weapons. "See how they glitter. It is because I did it. When you do a thing yourself it is well done." FOURTH MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS Arrangement of all the verbs of the preceding months Know, grow, throw, blow, fly, draw PLURALS Many common nouns, listed according to the way in which the plural is formed QUOTATIONS SYNONYMS AND OPPOSITES REVIEW LESSONS COMPOSITION Reproduction Original writing Corrections At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 45 VERBS Before taking up the new verbs that we are to study this month, let us write and arrange the four forms of all that we have studied so far this year. Do you know all these forms'? More important still, do you use them correctly^ It is of little use to know the right form of a verb if you do not use it correctly. Below are the four forms of all the verbs that you have studied. Those that are alike have been arranged together, because it is easier to remember them that way. Copy the present form of all these verbs and then write the other three forms without looking at the book. After you have done this, write all four forms until you know them perfectly. FOURTH FORM broken spoken written taught brought given eaten seen bitten taken done gone come kept The new verbs for this month are: throw, blow, grow, know, fly and draw. They are so much alike that PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM break broke breaking speak spoke speaking write wrote writing teach taught teaching bring brought bringing give gave giving eat ate eating see saw seeing bite bit biting take took taking do did doing go went going come came coming keep kept keeping 46 GRADED LKSSONS IN LANGUAGE they can be learned more easily together than if taken one at a time. Before studying the list given below, see if you can give the four forms of each of these verbs: PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM throw threw throwing thrown blow blew blowing blown grow grew growing grown know knew knowing known fly flew flying flown draw drew drawing drawn Do you know what mistakes children and man} older persons make in the use of these verbs? Perhaps you have heard some one say, "The wind blowed," for the wind blew; or, "He throwed his hat on the ground," for he threw his hat on the ground; or, "The child growed fast," for the child grew fast. In which form are these mistakes made? In the second, or the past tense. Did you ever hear any one say, "The wind has blowed all night," instead of the wind has blown all night? Other mistakes are made with these verbs, but we will now drill on correct use. As most mistakes are made in the second and fourth forms, you should study them carefully. Give many short sentences like the following:" The wind blew a tree down. A bird flew over my head. He grew fast. I knew that he would come. You blew my card off the desk. A robin Hew into the room. The bird has flown high into the air. He has known me for a year. You htive grown two inches since T saw yon last. The wind has never blown so hard. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 47 PLURALS 2 ' As you know already, there is more than one way of forming the plural. We say: boy, boys; box, boxes; child, children; goose, geese; sheep, sheep. So there are five ways of forming the plural. They are: by adding s; by adding es; by putting an ending to the singular form; by using a different word; by using the same word for both forms. On paper or on the board have five columns, one for each form of the plural, like this: boy boys box boxes sheep sheep child children goose geese Write the plural of twenty-five words, being sure to have some words in every column. You will soon see that there are many more words to go in some columns than in others. QUOTATIONS 24 Here is a sentence that was used when you last studied quotations: Papa said, "Where are your books 9 " You have learned to write it correctly in this way, but you know that you often change your sentences around. Change the one just used to, "Where are your books? " said papa. Has the meaning been changed? Not at all. Are the same words used by papa? Exactly the same. Has the quotation still its "frame" of quotation marks? Cer- tainly, for every quotation must be inclosed by quota- tion marks. Then what is the difference? The sentence 48 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE is arranged differently, and the punctuation is changed. In the sentence Papa said, "Where are your books'? " the interrogation point is at the end of the whole sentence ; but that is because it belongs to the quotation, and the quotation is the last part of the sentence. In "Where are your books *?" said papa the quotation comes first in the sentence, so a period is at the end, after papa said. In the first sentence there is a comma after papa said, to separate those words from the quotation; but in the second sentence the interrogation point at the end of the quotation is all that is needed to separate the two parts of the sentence. These are merely common-sense changes. Arrange the following sentences in different ways, making the necessary changes in punctuation: Harold said, "Where are my gloves ?" Mary cried, "You will be too late !" James said, "I am not going today." Still other changes can be made. The teacher said, "Yes, you may get it now." "Yes, you may get it now," said the teacher. "Yes," said the teacher, "you may get it now." The meaning is the same in these three sentences, but the arrangement is different. The first and second sentences are arranged like the quotation just studied.. In the third sentence, said the teacher is in the middle of the quotation. See what happens. Of course, all that the teacher says must be inclosed with quotation marks, but there must be nothing inside of them except the words of the teacher. This means that yes must have its "frame," that said the teacher must be left out of GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 49 the "frame"; and that you may get it now must have its "frame" of quotation marks. All that this means is that two sets of quotation marks are necessary to inclose all of the quotation, and that two commas are used, one after yes and one before you may get it now. The quo- tation has been broken into two parts, and each part should be treated like a complete quotation. "Yes," said the teacher, "you may get it now." Notice that a capital letter is used at the beginning of the quotation, but not for the first word of the second part. Break the following quotations into two parts, using the quotation marks and punctuating as needed: John said, "I shall go today and you may come to- morrow." "We are coming home because father is sick," Willie wrote. "I can get up if you will help me," said the girl. SYNONYMS AND OPPOSITES Find words that mean about the same as the itali- cized words in the following sentences: He was in great haste. The bird was Hitting through the branches. He was looking at his dog. The flowers are fading. You can close the door easily. He is interested in the story. Take five words from the reader, and see if you can think of five other words that have about the same meaning. Find words that mean the opposite of those itali- cized, in the following sentences: 50 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE That is an interesting story. This peach is soft. Do you like to hear the frogs croak? The railroad train moves quickly. REVIEW LESSONS 25 Write a statement (a telling sentence) about your father. Ask a question about your father. Write an exclamation about your father, saying that he is hurt, sick or has surprised you. What punctuation mark have you used at the end of the statement? of the question? of the exclamation? COMPOSITION Write the story of one of your lessons. Make it as interesting as you can, but try to tell it as you read it or heard it. A poem is often a story told in rhyme. Think out the story in some poem that you like, and write it as you would prose. Thoughts are turned around sometimes in poetry, but you can tell them in your paper as you would if they were in a story. Copy one or two stanzas of a poem that you enjoy, looking out for the lines and capital letters. It is a fine thing to be able to tell what we have read or heard told; but it is still better to be able to give our own thoughts in good language, for then both the thoughts and the wording of them are our own. To tell anything, we must first have something to tell. Did you ever notice how many interesting things can be said of many GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 51 subjects'? Think of some of the subjects that follow. Write your thoughts as naturally as you would speak them. The next day read the paper over to see if you can improve it anywhere, or to find out if you have made any mistakes in spelling, capitals or punctuation. Have you a pet animal at home a dog, bird, horse or goat 4 ? What can he do 4 ? Why do you like him? Has he a good temper 1 ? Does he love you 4 ? Who cares for him? If you tell us these things about your pet, it will surely be interesting reading. Look at the picture on the next page. Did you ever blow soap bubbles'? How do you do it*? How do you prepare the water? What kind of a pipe should you have? Why do most children, and some grown persons, like to blow soap bubbles? Do you like to? Tell about blowing soap bubbles, or else tell about this interesting picture on the next page. When does Christmas come? Do you like to receive presents? Do you like to give them? What else do you enjoy about Christmas time? Here is a letter written by a third-grade boy: 524 W. Newmarket St., San Francisco, Cal., Dec. 26, 1906. Dear Lawrence : I have received a watch that you sent me. I wanted a watch. I will wear it all the time and take good care of it. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Your loving 1 friend, Fritz Handel. SOAP BUBBLES ELIZABETH GARDNER GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 53 In a third-grade class the teacher said, "Close your eyes and listen to me. On Christmas eve, when the house was still There she stopped, told the children to think out the rest of the picture, and to make a story of it on paper. Here are some of the stories, almost as they were handed in by the children; they were written in eight minutes, but every child had in mind a picture to describe: On Christmas eve when the house was still Santa Claus came over the house. He stopped and looked at his book that had the names of all good children. The child that lived here was good all the year, but when Santa Claus got down the chimney he began to feel hot. When he got down a little farther he got warmer still ; and when he got down just a little farther his coat began to burn. So he got quickly to the top of the house and found that he had taken the wrong chimney. He took the chimney that went to the furnace instead of the one that went to the grate. Got is used too frequently. What words can you use in its place 4 ? On Christmas eve when the house was still there was a low whisper in the sitting-room. I looked, and there was Santa Claus and near him was a little mouse. This is what they said : "What are you going to bring the children?" asked the mouse. "I am going to bring the boy a drum and the girl a doll," said Santa Claus. Just then I showed my face in the sitting-room door, and Santa Claus disappeared up the chimney. I looked up the chimney after him, but a big chunk of soot came tumbling down and I wished that I had never tried that experiment. 4 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE Here is a letter to Santa Claus, written by a third- grade boy: Linda Vista, Cal., Dec. 14, 1906. Dear Santa Claus : It is about time for you to come, so I thought I would write you a letter. I have two sisters but I have no brothers. I hope you will come to our house, but if you come down the chimney you will fall into the stove, so come in the window. Will you please bring me a horn, also a drum. Then I want a cabinet for my birds' eggs and a magic lantern. I am eight years old and my big sister is five years old. My little sister is three years old. My sister wants a little stove, a doll, some doll clothes and a set of dishes. My little sister wants a doll, a story book and a new dress. My father wants some clothes and my mother wants a new dress. I must close my letter now because I have nothing else to wr ite. Donald McAllister, 1409 East Hope St., Linda Vista, Cal. FIFTH MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS Buy, eat, dig Present participles PUNCTUATION Names of business firms Use of hyphen POSSESSIVES CAPITAL LETTERS With proper nouns ADJECTIVES ADVERBS REVIEW LESSONS COMPOSITION Reproduction Picture stories Word pictures Sentence structure At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. 56 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE VERBS 2 " BUY PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM buy bought buying bought Are these the forms that you are using? Do you know of any mistake that is made in using this verb? Children often say, "I buyed it," because they have not yet learned that there is the word bought. Older persons often make the same mistake. Of what other verbs does it remind you? Here is a list of those you know that are alike in the past tense: PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM bring brought bringing brought buy bought buying bought teach taught teaching taught EAT What is the second form of this verb? Are you using it? What are you saying when you use have, has or had? You have not gone back to "have et," have you? Finish the following sentences by using ate or eaten: My apple is - . I have - - my piece of pie. Have you your cake? Yes, I it at noon. Write five sentences with the word ate; five with have or has eaten. What is the fourth form of bite? With what seven words can we use it? Write seven sentences to show that you can use them all correctly. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 57 What is the second form of give? Write five sen- tences using that form. What words can we put in to show that we mean something that happened in the past^ What is the fourth form of give? Write four sen- tences using it. DIG PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM dig dug digging dug Do you see what mistake is often made in the use of this verb? Not every child knows that there is such a word as dug. There is, and it is used in the past tense, and with have and has in the fourth form. Give several sentences using it. PRESENT PARTICIPLES 27 The third form of a verb always ends in ing, as you know. It is called the present participle. So far, little has been said about this form, but it is one of the pleasant parts of a verb to use, for it often adds a great deal to the way of arranging a sentence. If you still have your list of all the verbs studied this year, look at it. Take the third forms of the verbs and make sentences in which you can use them. See how many ways you can use one word, as: The bird was flying. I saw the flying bird. I saw the bird flying in the air. Flying was hard in the strong wind. Try this with growing, knowing, writing, eating. It is worth much to be able to use one word in many differ- ent ways. 58 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE PUNCTUATION Have you ever noticed how the names of business firms are written*? You know that two or three men are often together in business, but have you ever looked to see how they write the name of their firm? Are any periods used*? Are any commas used? Is and written out or is the sign & used? Where are the capital letters? Are the names of firms written in the same way in news- papers as over the doors of business houses? Look and see, and then write out the names of a half dozen firms. If possible, think of a firm of three men. You can find many firms with two names, and perhaps one or two firms with four names. Write these in this way: Wing & Little. Jones, Hanner & Menton. HYPHEN When we are writing, we often find that there is room to begin a word on a line but not to finish it there. In such a case, it is all right to divide the word, but this must be between syllables. Look in your reader, or any other book, to find words that are begun on one line and finished on another. Notice the little mark at the end of the line. It says that a word has been broken in two. This short line is called a hyphen. It is put after the part of the word at the end of a line, never before the part at the beginning of a line. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 59 Divide the following words into syllables, putting in the hyphen: win-ter com-ing go-ing ear-ly morn-ing story lesson paper lately earning little robin sometimes away before waiting fingers mother father composition Take twenty words from your reading, or any that you can think of, and divide them into their syllables. One word may have many syllables. A word should never be divided except between its syllables. POSSESSIVES I see John. I see John's hat. Look around the room and notice some pupil. Write a sentence using that pupil's name with something owned by him. As, / see John's hat. Write five sentences about pupils and something that they possess. Write five sentences about persons you know, who are not pupils, using the possessive. Write three about some of your pets, using the possessive. CAPITAL LETTERS 28 You already know some uses of capital letters. There are others that you are now going to learn about. Read over the following sentences, noticing the capital letters: What is John doing with his pony ? He is going to ride him to San Francisco. When will he go? He will go Tues- day or Wednesday. It is too warm in September to ride so far. I would go if I had a pony. 60 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE John is the name of a certain boy. San Francisco is the name of a certain city. Tuesday and Wednesday are the names of certain days of the week. September is the name of a certain month. All these words begin with capital letters, because they point out a special boy, city, day or month. Pony does not begin with a capital let- ter, because we use that word of any pony. But suppose we ask, What is John doing with Dick, his pony? Dick is now the name of this special pony, and it, too, begins with a capital letter. / is always a capital when it stands for me, myself. Even first-grade children learn that the first word of every sentence and of every line of poetry begins with a capital letter. Copy a stanza of a poem, noting capitals. There is another use of capital letters, but it is so much like some of those already learned that you will have no difficulty with it. When you think of Thanks- giving Day does it seem like all the other days of the year? Of course not. Does Christmas? Or Fourth of July? Certainly not. Each day stands out by itself, one of the great days of the year. Can you mention any other important holidays of the year? Labor Day, Dec- oration Day. All these mean a certain day of the year, and cannot mean any other, so they are always begun with capital letters. Can you think of any other words that point out special things, and must have capital letters? The names of streets Main Street, Broadway, Center Street, Ninth Avenue. The names of steamers Captain Weber, Transport, Lusitania. Write ten sentences, each one having the name of GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 61 some special person or day or object, and begin each name with a capital letter. Read a paragraph in one of the readers, and tell why certain words have capital letters. ADJECTIVES 29 We often wish to describe objects and persons. There are words for this purpose, and you probably know many of them. Use some descriptive words (adjectives) with the following names of objects (nouns) : doll friend watch fountain-pen tree fur sewing-box present spoon wagon piano photograph girl boy dog river A pretty little doll. A nice new sewing-box. A beautiful river. Every one uses pretty, nice, beautiful, so here they are in these three sentences. See if you can use other words in their places. Pretty, nice and beautiful are good words to use, but we hear them so many times a day that it is a pleasure to learn others. Here are some a tall, graceful girl; a deep, mirror-like river. An excellent way to learn new adjectives, as these descriptive words are called, is to notice them in reading, make a list of them and give sentences in which they are used. Use the following adjectives: interesting queer pitch-black lonely savage purple soft silk cool pleasant curious polite Can you think of ten other adjectives? Use them 62 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE in sentences, the only place where we get their full meaning. ADVERBS 30 Here are some of the words that you have just been using to describe persons, objects or things: soft queer curious polite beautiful pleasant savage cool nice pretty Let us see if we can use these words to describe actions ; that is, to tell how we do anything. It is not correct to say, she writes beautiful. We should say, she writes beautifully. The dog barked savage-/}/. The woman spoke pleasant-/} 1 . She plays the piano soft-/}'. The man spoke polite-/}'. The bird is singing beautiful-/}'. How nice-^ you write. Her doll is dressed pretti-/}'. He treated the man cool-/}'. That horse acts queer-/} 1 . He looked at us curious-/}'. In every sentence this word that we want to use takes ly. That is because we use it to describe an action. It describes a verb, and is called an adverb. Nearly all adverbs end in ly. Use the following words in sentences to tell how something is done: sweetly loudly neatly frequently slowly easily plainly severely quietly fast often kindly The following words are like those above, except that ly is dropped. This changes them to adjectives: GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE - 63 sweet loud neat frequent slow easy plain severe quiet fast kind Use these adjectives to describe objects. You see that an adverb can often be changed to an adjective by dropping the syllable ly. REVIEW LESSONS Do not say "kin" for can; "gettum" for get them; "pome" for po-em. Notice how you talk, and bring into class five of these childish, careless pronunciations. You need not feel sensitive about doing this, for nearly every one has some of these careless habits of pronunciation. Try to find out what yours are, and get rid of them as rapidly as possible. COMPOSITION REPRODUCTION Tell the story of the science lesson. Tell the story of the history talk. Tell the story of a poem. PICTURE STORIES 3 ' Choose a picture in a paper, story-book or magazine, and tell the story that you see in it. Never mind what some one else has told about it. See in it the story that you would like to tell, and then write it easily and naturally. G. H. SW1NSTEAD MORNING GREETING GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 65 In the picture on the opposite page a girl is going out early in the morning. What has she in her hand 4 ? Where do you think she may be going? Why does the calf come up to her? Does it seem afraid? Doe's it seem to like her? What do the geese want? Do they look as if they are talking to her? What can they say? What do you think they try to tell the little girl? WORD PICTURES tormenting. As I write this word I see a picture. Do you? What do you see, or think about? Write it. Dog, cat, ran. Do these three words suggest a story? Write it as you see it. Popcorn. This word immediately tells me two or three stories. Can you write one about it? SENTENCE STRUCTURED Children often write very short sentences, or else they put their thoughts together with and, but, then. Older persons, who have learned more about speaking and writing, make longer sentences, but they are well fastened together. Some of your thoughts are now long and interesting, and you must be learning to express them in well-made sentences. You have learned that every sentence should have one thought only, but notice these two sentences: My brother came home last night. I was at my aunt's when he came. Here are two thoughts, each in a sentence by itself. Suppose we express these two thoughts this way: My brother came home last night while I was at my aunt's. 66 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE Are both thoughts in this last sentence*? Yes, but they are no longer two thoughts. They have become one. How"? Because the second thought has been woven into the first in such a way that it has become part of it. This was done by using the word -while, thus fitting the sen- tences together. Put together the sentences given below in pairs by using one of these words : while, when, because, for. The dog ran away from home yesterday. He did not like to be tied up every night. I wrote my spelling five times. I wrote it in school. My language was not written well. I had to write it over. The boy went to college. He learned a great deal in college. Sometimes we can put sentences together by using who, which or that. Do this with the following sentences : The flowers were in the vase. They were very pretty. The man is blind. He has a dog. The beggar has a dog. The dog is big and cross. Clark has a new knife. His father bought it last night. Mary's aunt lives in San Francisco. Her aunt is a very rich woman. My ball is lost. It is big and red. My bird is gone. My father gave me the bird. Here are some letters and papers written by third- grade children : 214 E. Lindsay St., Stockton, Cal., Jan. 14, 1906. Dear Bernice : I am going to a lady's house this afternoon, will you come GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 67 with me? There was a cloudburst up in the mountains, that is why the river is so full. I am going home to San Francisco next month. I will close now. Your friend, Edna Menton. 604 E. Market St., Los Angeles, Cal., Dec. 12, 1906. Dear Adeline : I am writing you this letter to let you know that I am sick. I have quite a bad cold, that is why I have to stay out of school. What did I get in arithmetic yesterday? What are you going to do in your vacation? I guess I will spend mine taking care of my little sister. Your schoolmate, Alvina. MY RIDE On Sunday I went out for a ride with my father in his automobile. We went to a picnic. We went five miles into the country and we came to an oak tree where we stopped for dinner. After dinner we went fishing and then we played hide- and-seek in the bushes. After that we told riddles. About four o'clock we got ready and came home. In this last paper can you change the third sentence so as not to use "and" 4 ? Put in some word that will fasten the sentence together better. MY CAT I have a cat and he is five years old. I call him Joe. He lives out in the country. I haven't seen him for three weeks. T am going out Friday night to see him. I have a baby 68 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE buggy and he lies in it every day. I made it when I was up in the country last. Can you change the first sentence and get rid of "and"? Can you change the next to the last sentence also so as to leave out "and" ? SIXTH MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS Stick, catch, shine, hide CAPITAL LETTERS PLURALS PUNCTUATION and Oh PRONOUNS REVIEW LESSONS COMPOSITION Reproduction Original writing At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. /o GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE VERBS Find the first form of stick. What is the second form, the one used with yesterday, last night? How does the third form always end? What do we say when we use have, has or had? See if the four forms that you have found are like the following: PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM stick stuck sticking stuck Find the four forms of these verbs : catch, shine, hide. Write them in columns, and then see if you have found them as given below : PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM catch caught catching caught shine shone shining shone hide hid hiding hidden Caught is very much like what other verbs'? They are teach, bring, buy, are they not? Put caught into the list with these words. Think of five sentences with stuck; five more with have stuck or is stuck. Sometimes a child says, "I kin ketch it." What do you suppose he means to say? It is, / can catch it, is it not? Perhaps you heard that same boy say, "I ketched the ball." What do you think he meant then? I caught the ball. Will you work hard with this verb? It is one that is very often used incorrectly. Sometimes, out on the playground among the pupils, it seems as if we never hear GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 71 anything but "ketch" and "ketchcd"; and it should be catch and caught every time. Think of. sentences in which these words are used, and write ten. If you say "ketch" and "ketched," think of the cor- rect use and pronunciation every day until you always say catch and caught. Here is an easy way to give a great many sentences: I caught the ball We caught the ball He caught the ball You caught the ball She caught the ball They caught the ball Give six more such such sentences, using caught, as follows: I caught cold last night You caught cold last night Finish the six. In the same way give six with have caught. Give six for the other three verbs teach, buy, bring? PUNCTUATION Do you ever have any trouble in telling when to use and Oh? Probably you do, for many persons who are older than you make mistakes in writing them. Oh is used when we are hurt, surprised, amazed, angry or very happy. We cry out, Oh ! and then stop, many times without another word; or, after saying it, we explain what has happened. Oh ! 'You hurt my finger ! Oh, close the door! It is cold! Oh! What made you say that? Oh, yes, I know that I shall go ! 72 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE We are not so much surprised when we say O. Nor do we stop so decidedly after it. Usually, we say something else with it, as: O dear, I wish that I could go. O Harry, how could you do that? O how sorry I am for you ! Do you notice that after Ok we use an exclamation point? That is because the surprise is so great. If the Ok stands off by itself, that is if we stop short there, we put the ! right after the word Oh! But if we stop for a second only, and then say what is the matter, we put a comma after Ok, and the exclamation point at the end of the sentence, as in the sentence, Oh, close the door! on page 71. Perhaps a question mark is used at the end, as in the third sentence: Oh! What made you say that*? Notice in your readers every time O or Ok is used and try to find out why. Copy such a sentence, putting in the punctuation. REVIEW LESSONS Are you still trying to use 7, he, she, me and they correctly, or have you forgotten these pronouns that tell us about some one who is doing something? Use / in a short sentence; as, I am going to play in the barn. Use he in place of I; as, he is going to play in the barn. Put the two sentences together ; as, he and I are going to play in the barn. Before writing the sentences asked for on the next page, think what you will say. Do not use I for me, nor me for I; do not use he for him nor him for he. That is, be sure you have the pronouns in the right places. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 73 Write five sentences about some of the boys and girls in the room, using the pupils' names. Put yourself in the same sentences. Do not say "me and Mollie" but remember / should come after the name; as, Mollie and I. Write five sentences, using he and I. Write five, using the names of a boy and a girl; then put he and she in place of the names. Write five, using they. Write five, using you and he. Write five, using you and I. Write five, using he and Martin, or some other name in place of Martin. Write five, using she and Jennie, or some other name in place of Jennie. Write sentences, using the following words : don't saw doesn't John and me went was seen you and me has broken has gone you and I John and I spoken Write a short letter to your brother or sister, telling of some game you have been playing recently. Write a sentence mentioning three children you saw this morning, using commas wherever necessary. Write the names of six business firms. Write the names of five streets near the school build- ing, sometimes writing Street in full, sometimes using the letters that stand for it. Every day make a list of the names in your lessons, IN DISGRACE GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 75 and form the plurals. Put these nouns into columns, writing together those that are alike. COMPOSITION REPRODUCTION Tell the story of one of your lessons, and then write the story. Tell, and then write, the story of a poem. ORIGINAL WRITING Think of some person that you like very much. Who is it*? Why do you like him? What has he done for you? What can you do for him? Does he know that you like him? Tell on paper about this person, writing about him as you would talk. Where have you been lately? Have you been to some city, or made a visit somewhere? Have you been down town shopping? You must have been somewhere and enjoyed yourself. Tell what you saw and did on such a trip. Write it. Does a story come to you when you think of whistling? Write it as you think it. Write one about singing. About playing. Did you ever watch a bird getting its breakfast? How did it do it? Was it happy? Was it watchful? Did it seem afraid of anything? Write about it. In the picture, "In Disgrace," on the opposite page, tell what you think is the matter with the little girl? What does "In Disgrace" mean? Why is the little girl not playing? Why is she sitting on the stool? Who 76 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE probably told her to sit there? Is any one sorry for her? Tell the story of this picture. Here are two reproductions by third-grade boys of stories told by the teacher :** WAHB Wahb was an orphan bear. When he was a cub his mother was shot. He then wandered around and slept in hollow logs. He thought every one was his enemy for he was chased many a time up a tree and sometimes narrowly escaped with his life. When he was eight years of age he stood nearly nine feet high. He was called a grizzly giant. He killed three men in his time, an Indian and two Americans. Every one that saw him was afraid of him and thought they had better let him alone. LOBO The cattle in the corral had been disappearing for some time and the cow-boys had searched the country daily for them, until one day a cow-boy reported that he had seen a large wolf with six followers. The large wolf who led the pack soon became known as Lobo, the king of the wolves. Finally, a thousand dollars were offered to the person who could trap the large wolf. At last Mr. Ernest Seton-Thompson arrived and tried to poison Lobo, but it was all in vain. When Mr. Thompson found that his poison was doing the wolves no harm, he sent for some steel traps, in which he caught Blanca, the mate of Lobo, and Lobo feeling very sad, fell into another trap and was caught too. Can you find and correct any of the mistakes in the two papers given above? GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 77 Here is an attempt at a description by a third-grade boy: A SQUIRREL TOWN 35 A few miles from a town named Franklyn was a squirrel town. The air was cool and the squirrels were giving calls to each other. Sometimes you could see four or five squirrel heads poking out of large holes. Near this squirrel town was a large wood. At the edge of this wood was a low birch tree. All the boys were acquainted with this tree. When the boys in Franklyn had a vacation they would always go to this tree to watch the squirrels. SEVENTH MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS Strike, beat PRONOUNS QUOTATIONS Simple and broken PUNCTUATION SYNONYMS AND OPPOSITES REVIEW LESSONS COMPOSITION Reproduction Original writing At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 79 VERBS PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM FOURTH FORM strike struck striking struck beat beat beating beaten Strike and beat are easily learned. What is the most common mistake in using these two words ? Is there one word in their principal parts that you do not know very well*? Is it not beaten? Make a sentence with have, has or was, and beaten. Would you say naturally, he has beat the carpet"? It should be, he has beaten the carpet. PRONOUNS 36 Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with he or I: Harry and made a sail for our boat. and James took a ride in the boat. Who are going in the boat today ? Father and . Mama and - - take care of our baby. Here are two sentences that you can put into one: He gave you an apple. He gave rne an apple. Here they are put together; fill out the blanks: He gave and an apple. Put the following sentences together in the same way: He gave him a ball. He gave me a ball. He gave and a ball. The man gave her a pear. He gave him a pear. He gave me a pear. He gave - , - - and - - a pear. 80 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE Let us put together in columns these pronouns : I me he him she her we us you you they them The pronouns in the first column are used when some one is acting; as, they are playing ball. Those in the second column are used to finish a thought; as, the man saw them. We have to be careful not to say me where we mean /, nor him or her where we mean he or she. Nor must we say us where we mean we, nor them where we mean they. Like everything else in language, this is not hard to learn; but it is hard to re- member to use it. The reason why you are asked to say the correct form over and over again, in many different ways, is so that you will remember to use it almost with- out thinking. When you can do that, the wrong form will disappear from your conversation and writing. Suppose you and Harry bring in some wood, and I ask, "Who brought in the wood?" Do you say, "Us boys" ? A great many do, but this is not correct. Leave out boys, and give the whole answer: "We brought in the wood." You never say, "Us brought in the wood." Now put boys into the answer. "Who brought in the wood?" "We boys" or "We boys brought in the wood." Do you see that "us boys" is wrong? It is very easy to see it. Try to give the right pronouns in the following sentences: GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 81 Who swept the floor? - - girls. Who brought me these beautiful flowers? boys. - girls are going to the picnic. boys have a kite to fly. REVIEW LESSONS Listen to some of the things said on the playground at recess. Write some of them down, putting into each sentence the name of the boy or girl who spoke. If you put Harry said at the beginning of the sentence before the quotation, how many "frames" or sets of quotation marks do you need? How many if you put Harry said at the end of the quotation? How many if you put Harry said in the middle of the quotation? How do you separate Harry said from the quotation? Do you ever need more than one punctuation mark to do this? Write the following quotation in all three ways : Will said, "Lend me your air gun and I will show you how to shoot." Make up five similar sentences, writing them in all three ways. Mention three things that are in the room. Put them into a sentence, using commas in the right places. What four things are on the table? Write a sentence naming them all ; punctuate it correctly. Adjectives may be used before nouns that are in a series. Keep the noun and its adjective together, and put the commas after the nouns, as in the following sentence : 82 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE A red rose, a blue violet, a yellow poppy and a white carnation were on my desk. Make three sentences like the above, using adjectives with the nouns. Write the names of five boys or girls. Write them with one initial; with two initials; with initial letters for all the names. What punctuation mark do you put after every initial letter? Write five sentences using Oh! Have two of them questions. Give a word that means about the same as the italicized word in every sentence that follows: The mother-quail is shy. The man was very wealthy, but he was very cruel. The rich man gave presents at Christmas time. The poor man was sad because his child was very ///. What are the opposites of the italicized words in these sentences'? The quail is shy. The king was very wealthy, but he was very cruel. He walked home slowly. Use the following words in sentences: breaking beating blowing bringing shining lying growing fighting catching thinking flying drawing Can you use any of them in more ways than one, as : The sun is shining. The shining piece of metal caught MME. RONNER A FASCINATING TALE 84 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE my eye. Shining shoes is not an easy way to make one's living. Write out in full the words that these contractions stand for : don't can't aren't isn't doesn't wouldn't haven't shouldn't What does the apostrophe (') stand for in these words? COMPOSITION REPRODUCTION Has a story been told to the class this month? If so, tell it in your own language. Give the story of some of the science talks, telling the most interesting points. Have you read a poem lately or heard one read? Write about it. ORIGINAL WRITING Tell what happened this morning before you started to school. In the picture "A Fascinating Tale" on the preced- ing page, what are kittens watching? Do you see a tail in this picture? Whose tail do you think it is? It cer- tainly does not belong to any one of the kittens. What do the kittens think it is? Suppose it belongs to a rat, and all three kittens should try to catch the rat. What do you think would happen? Would anything be upset? Think of a story suggested by this picture and write it. Here is a reproduction of a story from Ernest Seton- GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 85 Thompson. The children who heard it were so interested in it and its reproduction that plenty of time was given them to tell the whole story of Johnnie. This took several days, for the children corrected their own papers and recopied, if necessary. The majority of the papers from the class were not rewritten, however, after being corrected by the writers. LITTLE JOHNNIE AND OLD GRUMPY Johnnie was a sick little black bear always howling. One of his feet was lame, so he always went around on three. Grumpy was his mother, and she was always ready to fight a big grizzly for Johnnie's sake. One day a big grizzly was eating at the garbage pile at Yellowstone Park, where Johnnie and Grumpy lived, just as they were coming. So old Grumpy told Johnnie to climb a tree, and he did. But he wanted to see the fight, so he climbed to the top and squalled while Grumpy drove off the grizzly. When Johnnie came down from the tree and saw his mother with a can of plum jam he wanted it. So he went to his mother and said, "I want that," and, of course, she gave it to him. Then he sat down and smeared one paw with the jam, and while he was licking the jam off of it he was smearing the other. After he had gotten all the jam out of the can he saw some syrup at the bottom. That was too good to lose, so he stuck his nose in the can, but he could not get it out again. Then he jumped up and down squealing worse than a young Pig. This made Grumpy frightened, and she got behind a tree, popping her head out on one side and then on the other. There Johnnie stood, scratching at one side of the can with his paw. After a long struggle he got it off, and then he smashed it flat with his paw. 86 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE One day when Johnnie and his mother were walking near the hotel he smelt some jam, for the cook was making tarts, and Johnnie wanted some, so he told his mother to go with him. When they got in sight of the hotel Johnnie saw the cat and her five little kittens, and he went up the nearest tree like a monkey, while his mother went on to fight the cat. They fought and tugged until Grumpy went running into the wood where Johnnie was and went up in the tree with him. Then the cat called her kittens and she walked around the tree while the kittens all sat in a row. Then the cat left and Johnnie and Grumpy went off to the wood. A third-grade class heard Mr. Ernest Seton- Thompson's lecture to the pupils of the city. The fol- lowing letter was written as a class exercise by a bright girl to her teacher who is supposed to be out of town: Stockton, California, May 21, 1901. My dear Miss Lottman: Last Friday I went to Mr. Ernest Seton- Thompson's lecture. You not being here I will tell you something about the man and his speaking. In the first place he is a large strong-looking man with large sparkling eyes, and a face full of character. You may think any man could study wild animals. But besides his study of animals he can sketch well, talk well, and paint well. That's what makes me think he is so great. One of the stories he mentioned was little Johnnie and Grumpy. And another was Lobo and Blanca. When he comes to your city surely go to hear him and the rest of his stones. Your loving friend, Lois. EIGHTH MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS Review and list of all the verbs of the year ADJECTIVES ADVERBS POSSESSIVES OPPOSITES SYNONYMS QUOTATIONS PLURALS COMPOSITION At least two of- the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE VERBS' 7 It is a pleasure to make a list of all the verbs that have been studied during the year, so as to find out how much we have learned about them and how correctly we are using them. Lay a piece of paper over the second, third and fourth forms of the verbs in the following list. Copy the first forms, keeping together the verbs of a group, and then see if you can fill out the other three forms without looking at them in the book. After you have made your list, compare it with the one in the book. FOURTH FORM written broken spoken taken forgotten bitten hidden given eaten beaten caught taught brought bought fought thought blown known thrown grown drawn flown PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM write wrote writing break broke breaking speak spoke speaking take took taking forget forgot forgetting bite bit biting hide hid hiding give gave giving eat ate eating beat beat beating catch caught catching teach taught teaching bring brought bringing buy bought buying fight fought fighting think thought thinking blow blew blowing know knew knowing throw threw throwing grow grew growing draw drew drawing fly flew flying PRESENT PAST THIRD FORM strike struck striking stick stuck sticking see saw seeing do did doing go went going shine shone shining lie lay lying sit sat sitting come came coming GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 89 FOURTH FORM struck stuck seen done gone shone lain sat come There are two new verbs here, forget and shine. Learn these as you have been learning the others. The verbs in the last two groups are not so much alike as those in the other groups, so you will have to be more careful about remembering them. Pick out for yourself those forms in the above list that trouble you most. Think sentences in which you use them, and write some to make sure that you can use these verbs correctly. ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS 38 Write a sentence about something that is playful; write one about something that is gentle. Use in senten- ces the words in the following list: playful strong tough gentle dirty neat bright graceful cruel My kitten scratched me playfully. The old cat cuffed the kitten gently. By using the following words tell how something was done: playfully strongly cruelly gently gracefully smoothly brightly neatly carelessly 90 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE OPPOSITES AND SYNONYMS Put in a second column the opposites of the words below. Write sentences in which you use the word itself, then change it to its opposite: ADJECTIVES ADVERBS dirty gladly sad politely high cruelly old honestly strong carefully difficult swiftly bright quietly honest crossly few softly We may divide a word at the end of a line. We may break a word in two at the end of a line. The words break in two in the second line take the place of divide in the first line. In the sentences that fol- low, use one word or more than one in place of the italicized words: Write a true story. Write an imaginary story. Write your complete name at the top of the paper. What is your father's business? REVIEW LESSONS Change the following indirect quotations to direct ones; punctuate and use the quotation marks: John told me to come home because he had a new wagon. I asked you where you were going". GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 91 Ella is asking if you have heard the news. The teacher said that we must be early this noon. Father told us to go and put. away the tools. The man cried out that he was hurt. The sentences below are in the singular; that is, they are about one person or thing. Write them in the plural; that is, about two or more persons or things. The boy threw his hat over the fence. The - - threw - - over the fence. The leaf fell to the ground noiselessly. The fell to the ground noiselessly. He has lost his knife. - lost (Four words must be changed in this sentence.) She gave me a rose. gave me a rose. The plant is growing finely. The pupil is playing marbles. Use in sentences the possessive forms of the follow- ing words: rabbit bird uncle Harry squirrel tree cousin Charles dog man father Jennie cat woman mother Francis horse boy brother Newton cow girl sister Mollie goat aunt baby Nellie donkey neighbor grandma Belle dove visitor grandpa Edith FROM PAINTING BY MEYER VON BREMEN 1813-1886 THE PET BIRD GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 93 COMPOSITION REPRODUCTION Tell the story of the reading lesson. Tell the story of a poem you have read this month. ORIGINAL WRITING Tell about some tree that you like. Tell about one that you know about its branches, leaves, roots, knots, fruit as you would talk about it if resting under it. What story is there in the picture, 'The Pet Bird," on the opposite page 4 ? The children are happy and inter- ested in watching their bird. Why do you think the old- est boy holds the bird? Why does not the youngest child take it? Do you think that the bird might be easily frightened or hurt? Do you think that the bird is per- mitted to fly around the room? Would it finally go back to its cage? Why? What is there for it in the cage? Write about this picture, or write the story that it tells you about these children and their bird. What ideas come to you when you see the word bonfire? Write them. What do you think about when you see the word strong? Does the word hungry suggest something for you to write? Tell about a vegetable wagon with its driver, horse and load. The following paper, just as a third-grade child 94 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE wrote it, is suggestive of the work that should be done constantly in sentence and paragraph structure: 39 THE PILGRIMS The Pilgrims lived in England. King James wanted them to worship God as he did. And they wanted to worship him in there own way. King James said that if they did not want to do it He would punish them severely. So they went to Holland and lived there eleven years and after a while the children began to talk Dutch and did not want to go to church. And they hired to ships the Speedwell and Mayflower. And they came to America. And they landed on Plymouth Rock in the middle of winter and it was very cold. The Pilgrims had a good lot of sickness and a good many of them died. In the summer the Indians came to show them how to plant corn. The Pilgrims had a Thanksgiving party and in- vited all the friendly Indians. The Indians played with the children. Can you correct any of the mistakes in the paper given above ? Here is a pretty little description by a third-grade boy: A WALK ON THE BEACH As I was walking along the beach I saw a little fish that had been thrown on the sand by a wave. It was laying in a shallow hole by a rock. I went up to it and picked it up. It was breathing yet, so I threw it back into the water. It began to swim, so I thought it would be all right. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 95 This is an excellent paper for a third-grade boy to write. It shows that he is thoughtful and observant. There are some mistakes, but it is easy to correct them. In the second sentence would you say laying? The paragraphs are good. Why*? REMAINING WEEKS OF THE YEAR SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS PUNCTUATION ABBREVIATIONS PLURALS SENTENCES HYPHEN COMMON ERRORS COMPOSITION At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 97 VERBS Drills on see, do, go, lie, sit, come, forget. Notice your own conversation and see if you make any mistakes when using the verbs you have been study- ing this year. List any mistakes that you find, and write sentences using the correct forms in place of these incor- rect forms. Give two or more sentences using each of these verbs : taught broken gone saw caught spoken written did brought given thrown ate thought eaten lain went bought bitten flown came forget forgot forgetting forgotten PUNCTUATION 40 How many places can you think of where you put a period? Write sentences showing that you can use the period in all these places. How many uses for the comma can you think of? Write sentences for these also. What is a quotation? How do you show it in writing? Where do you use an interrogation point? Where do you use an exclamation point? What is a hyphen? Where do you use it? Do you know of more than one use for it? How many uses for an apostrophe do you know? What is an apostrophe? How is it made? 98 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE What are quotation marks'? How are they made*? A punctuation mark should never be put at the beginning of a line. REVIEW LESSONS How many abbreviations do you know 4 ? Write them. How do you begin them 4 ? What do you put after them? Do not forget the abbreviation for your own name. Look at the names on many pages of your books to see if there are any nouns whose plurals you do not know. Make a list of these names; find out what the plurals are, and write them opposite their singular forms. Write five telling sentences (statements) about some birds, a dog, a garden, a tree or one of your friends. They may all be about one of these subjects, or about as many as you like. Write five questions about these subjects. Write five exclamations. Write sentences using the following words: who while which when that because for although What is a sentence 4 ? How many kinds of sentences can you write 4 ? Select from your reader ten words of more than one GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE cjy syllable. Write them, separating them into syllables by the hyphen, as: syl-la-bles hy-phen COMPOSITION Here are some letters written by third-grade pupils : 437 E. Main St., Sacramento, Cal., Dec. 13, 1906. My dear Sister: I expect to be up Christmas with mama. Papa will come too if he don't have to work. I think he can get off. We will come on the boat. Be down at the ferry to meet us. Your loving sister, Leah. This is a very natural letter. Leah probably ex- pected to go to San Francisco for Christmas. In the first sentence she uses "up" to express this. What mistake did Leah make in a word you have been studying to correct *? 119 East Lindsay St., Ventura, Cal., June 13, 1907. Dear Orpha : I wish you would come over, it is so lonesome. You could bring your dolls, and we would have lots of fun. How many perfect papers in arithmetic have you had? I think I have seven. I must close. With love, Grace. loo GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE The paper that follows shows what a third-grade boy had to say about a disagreeable day: A CLOUDY, DISAGREEABLE DAY It was a disagreeable day. Everybody seemed to stay in- doors. Dark, heavy clouds gathered overhead and it looked as if it would rain hard. It was dark because the sun was behind the clouds. The limbs of the trees cracked in the wind as if they would break. REPRODUCTION" Can you write the story of Washington's boyhood 4 ? Think what you would write. Make headings something like these: Washington's Boyhood The hatchet and the cherry tree Riding his mother's colt Training the boys to be soldiers Why do you think these three little stories about Washington are separated in this way? How would you separate them in your writing? Have they anything to do with paragraphs'? Take the story of a lesson that you like very much. Think what was talked about. Can you make little divisions like those about Washington in the story above? Will those be your paragraphs? After you have decided what to write, you do not need to be wor- ried about the paragraphs; remember to separate the thoughts by. making the first line of the new para- graph shorter than the other lines. We say that we indent the first line. Notice how it is done on this page. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE : -'roV ORIGINAL WRITING On the way to school this morning did you see some- thing that you turned to look at 4 ? Write about it. What game were you playing at recess 4 ? How did you play it 4 ? Why do you like it 4 ? Write about it. Can you see a story in these words : a brook, a row- boat, some lilies and water plants, a water snake, a swimming-hole 4 ? Use these words in a little imaginary story. Look at the picture on the next page. Do you see the name of it 4 ? It is "Anxiety." Do you know what it is to be anxious 4 ? It means to be troubled or worried about something. Why should the little child be anx- ious 4 ? Do you think she has anything in the dish in her hands 4 ? What makes her look at the dog in such a troubled way 4 ? Is she afraid the dog will bite 4 ? W T hat do you think the dog would like to do 4 ? Do you think it is milk in the dish 4 ? Do dogs like milk 4 ? Do you think the dog looks hungry*? Here are some papers written by third-grade children : MY RIDE One time a grocery wagon came to our house. Three of the girls ran over to the wagon and got on the back of it. Just as the man came out I started to get on and he started up too quick and I did not get on. After the girls rode about three blocks the man drove over a big bump. One of the girls came pretty near going out, so I was glad that I did not get on. The girl that wrote this story evidently did not have the ride, although her subject is "My Ride." This paper ANXIETY GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 103 was not rewritten, so there are some weak places in it. Can you change some of them? How many times is get (or got) used in this short paper? Can you think of other words to take its place, so that got- will not be used more than once or twice? In the last paragraph would you say, "After the girls rode about three blocks" or is it better to say had ridden? MY RIDE One Sunday my grandma and I went out to the cemetery. We went on a car. As we were coming home from the cemetery an automobile was in back of the car. The automobile tried to turn out of the way of the car. Another car was on the other side of this car that we were on. The automobile ran into a tree. It broke a man's leg. The lady in the automobile fainted. For a third-grade child this is a very exact descrip- tion. The sentence structure might be improved some- what. It would be better to make the description more complete by adding a few sentences, especially in the second paragraph. It is probable that the "man" and the "lady" referred to were both in the automobile, but the paper does not say so. It is the only place in the descrip- tion where the writer's meaning is not perfectly clear. MY PET My pet Pigeon's name is Snowball. He is white and not full grown. Whenever mama goes out of the house Snowball gets out of his box. I took Snowball from his mother before he was feathered. Mama has taken care of him for me. She feeds him on bread and water. I think he will live and he will be a fine pet. T will tell you more the next time I write. AUTUMN LEAVES "Come, little leaves," said the wind one day, "Come o'er the meadows with me and play, Put on your dresses of red and gold; Summer is gone and the days grow cold." Soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call, Down they came fluttering, one and all; Over the brown fields they danced and flew, Singing the soft little songs they knew. "Cricket, good-bye; we've been friends so long! Little brook, sing us your farewell song; Say you are sorry to see us go, Ah! you will miss us, right well we know. "Dear little lambs, in your fleecy fold, Mother will keep you from harm and cold; Fondly we've watched you in vale and glade; Say, will you dream of our loving shade? " Dancing and whirling the little leaves went; Winter had called them, and they were content; Soon fast asleep in their earthy beds, The snow laid a coverlet over their heads. George Cooper FOURTH- YEAR GRADE TO THE TEACHER The author of this book has had much experience in teaching language, and in supervising the teaching of language, in elementary and secondary schools. Most of her work as a supervisor of the subject has been in primary and grammar grades, and an intimate acquaintance with the needs and limitations of teachers and pupils has given her a somewhat detailed knowledge of their difficulties and discouragements. Her chief aim has been to help teachers in their efforts to develop in the pupil the power to think systematically and to express his thoughts in good English. This she has endeavored to do by sympathetic advice and by the introduction of simple, constructive methods. It is her desire to give to the teachers who may use this book some of the beneficial results of the experience of the teacher and the supervisor. This has been done by placing in the appendix suggestions and advice on almost every point that has given her teachers serious trouble. The author requests and urges that these suggestions be studied carefully by the teacher, for she considers them one of the most important features of the book. Specific reference is made to each suggestion by the use of Arabic figures in the body of the text. FIRST MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS Review of see, eat, write, go, come, do, give, break NOUNS Plurals systematically arranged Possessives QUOTATIONS Simple and broken ADJECTIVES ADVERBS COMMON ERRORS USE OF A AND AN COMPOSITION At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. io8 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE VERBS Write the four forms of see, write, eat, go, come, do, give and break. See how they are written in the first month of the third grade. Then, in order to learn to use these verbs easily and correctly, give them in the following manner: I see you see he sees she sees we see you see they see I write you write he writes she writes we write you write they write Do you notice that with he and she the verb changes'? An s is added. Write several other verbs to see if it always happens. Here are two: I eat we eat I go we go you eat you eat you go you go he eats they eat he goes they go she eats she goes Notice the change when have is used: I have seen we have seen you have seen you have seen he has seen they have seen she has seen Write sentences using, I have seen, she has seen. See if there is any change in the past tense: I saw we saw I ate we ate you saw he saw she saw you saw they saw you ate he ate she ate you ate they ate Write five sentences using saw. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 109 In the following sentences, notice the use of had with the fourth form: I had seen the man twice before you told me about him. You had seen me before I saw you. He had seen us coming before I called. We had eaten our apple when you came. You had eaten your lunch. They had eaten a big piece of pie. Write five sentences using had seen. There is another form that we should be using cor- rectly. It is the one used to express future time, as to-morrow, or next week. It is called the future tense or future time. This is the way it is given : I shall go we shall go you will go you will go he will go they will go she will go The usual mistake in this verb is in saying / will or we will where we mean J shall or we shall. I will means that I am determined to do something; I shall means that I am going to do it. Let us try a few sentences: 1 I shall have to go home soon. I shall not be in school tomorrow. We shall hear the bell ring. We shall see Julia at the picnic. We shall take a lunch with us. If we put will into these sentences, it expresses the determination to do something. Shall means that these things are going to happen. When we are talking about other persons we usually say will, so there are not many mistakes with this word, as: Harry will drink this glass of milk tonight. The boy will fly his kite Saturday. James will carry the lunch for you. Put shall into these sentences and see how it changes no GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE the meaning. Harry shall drink this glass of milk, has a very different meaning. James shall carry the lunch, means that he has very little to say about it; he must do it. Put together what we have been learning about verbs this month: PRESENT TENSE I give we give you give you give he gives they give she gives PAST TENSE I gave we gave you gave you gave he gave they gave she gave FUTURE TENSE I shall give we shall give you will give you will give he will give they will give she will give FOURTH FORM (PRESENT PERFECT TENSE) I have given we have given you have given you have given he has given they have given she has given FOURTH FORM (PAST PERFECT TENSE) I had given we had given you had given you had given he had given they had given she had given GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE ill You will find it helpful to give in the same tenses all the verbs studied this month. In fact, you cannot make many mistakes if you know these forms thor- oughly. Giving all the forms of a verb is called con- jugating a verb. Write the second form (past tense) of eat, making complete sentences. Write the fourth form of eat, using have (present perfect tense) and making complete sen- tences. Do you see how these conjugations help you learn to use verbs'? Write five sentences using / shall or we shall. Write five sentences using ate. Write five with have eaten. NOUNS PLURALS Write the plurals of the following nouns: dish cup man child deer coach pupil woman ox sheep potato chair goose tomato eagle splash tree glass snake fox shoe box How many ways are there of forming the plural'? Add a few words to each of the above lists. POSSESSIVES Select ten nouns from any of your stories and les- sons, and use their possessive forms in sentences. Choose the hard ones, so that you will learn to write them cor- 112 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE rectly. Words that end in s are difficult to pronounce if another s is added for the possessive. The apostrophe is all that is added to such words, as : the princess' palace, Francis' hat, Louis' gloves. Here are some common, everyday words in the singular and plural forms. Put them all into the pos- sessive, as is done with the first three: SINGULAR PLURAL boy's boys' girl's girls' horse's horses' doll dolls dog dogs fox foxes cloud clouds Use in sentences the possessive form of any five of the nouns given above. Look around you and write the names of ten objects you see. Put them into the plural, and then put both the singular and the plural into the possessive. The plural possessive rarely adds anything but the apostrophe, be- cause nearly all plurals end in s. Some plurals do not end in s' 9 as, children. Then 's is added; as, the chil- dren's toys. You see the rule is the same for the plural as for the singular. Write ten plural possessives, so as to learn them quickly and easily, as: the two girls' dresses; the birds' nests. Write in the possessive form the names of six pupils in the room. Think of the names of ten persons you know out- side the schoolroom. Put these names into the possessive. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 1 13 QUOTATIONS Write the following sentences, putting in the quo- tation marks: Give me a cracker! cried Polly. Where did I put my hat? said father. Here it is, said mother, right on the chair. May cried, Oh dear! Oh dear! until her mother threatened to send her to bed. Come in ! said father, when the man asked, May I have a cup of coffee? In the third sentence, what did mother say? Is it all together? She said it all, however, so there must be quotation marks around it all; but as said mother comes in the middle of the sentence, there will have to be two sets of quotation marks. In the last sentence, how many quotations are there? Who said the first one? Who said the second one? Put quotation marks around each. (To the teacher: Tell the following story and have the children reproduce it, retaining as many of the quotations as possible.) Two little boys found a walnut under a big tree. Harry said, "That is my nut for I saw it first." "It is mine," said Robert, "for I picked it up." So they quarreled long and loud, for neither would give the nut to the other. Just then a young man came along the road. He heard them quarreling and stopped to see what was the matter. "Whose nut is it?" he asked. Both boys cried out, "It is mjne !" "Give me the nut," said the young man, "and I will settle the dispute." He took the nut from Robert and broke it into two pieces. 114 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE He gave half of the shell to Robert and said, "Here, Robert, is your half." He gave the other piece of the shell to Harry, saying, "Here, Harry, is your share." The two boys stood with the pieces of shell in their hands, and the young man said, "I will eat the kernel myself as the reward for my trouble." As he walked away he said, "People who quarrel over what they have deserve to lose it all." "It serves us right," said Robert. "After this we will divide our own nuts," said Harry. ADJECTIVES 2 The engineer was a brave man. He died a terrible death. Dense smoke rose above the burning building. The poor, lame old man is a beggar. That big dog is sick. The words in italics make a great difference in these sentences. Leave them out, and see how much meaning is lost. That is because they describe the nouns with which they are used. We know that the engineer was a man, but what interests us is to know what kind of a man he was. Suppose the sentence read, the engineer was a cowardly man. Everything would be changed. These words that describe the nouns are called adjectives, and much is added to our speech and writing if we are able to use them well. They should fit the noun and express the condition we wish to make plain. Select ten adjectives from your readers or story- books, and put them with nouns of your own choosing, making sentences. Select five nouns and put adjectives with them. Think about three of the pupils in the room and find adjectives to describe them. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 115 Think of five animals. Use adjectives to tell some- thing about them. Put them into sentences, every adjec- tive with its noun. ADVERBS I can see you very plainly. Can you hear me distinctly? You very kindly gave me your book. He ate his cake greedily. The man broke his ax suddenly. In the sentences given above, it is not the noun or the object that is described, but the verb or the action word. The words that are in italics tell how something is done, for they belong with the verbs. They are called adverbs because they are added to verbs. Take any five of the verbs from the lists that have been given, or from the readers. Think of fitting adverbs to use with them. Use them in sentences. Think of five things you can do. Tell how you can do them. Write these in sentences. COMMON ERRORS 3 The boys were late; they were all playing marbles. Write five sentences, using they were. Remember not to say "they was." A great many mistakes are made in the use of there are and there were. We hear: "There's two birds on the fence." "There was two boys at our house yester- day." What is the mistake in each sentence*? Put two birds first. TW birds are on the fence. We are talking about two things, so are should be used. Put two boys first. 'Two boys were at our house yesterday. Again n6 GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE we are talking about more than one, so we should use were, not was. There is often confusion in sentences when there is put first, but it is very easy to overcome it. There are two birds on the fence. There were two boys at our house yesterday. Give five sentences with there are. Five with there were. USE OF A AND AN You have learned about the "five little sisters," or vowels, that are so important in making the syllables of every word. They are #, ^, z, o, u. You know that when one of these letters begins a word, an must be used before it ; but if a word begins with a consonant, a is used before it. Here are a few words to show what is meant: an apple a bat an eagle a cow an Indian a ditch an orange a fish an upland Write many names, either from memory or from some of your books. Put into one column those that begin with vowels, and put into another column those that begin with consonants. Use a or an as needed. A word that begins with u will take an instead of a whenever u does not have its clear vowel sound. The teacher will help you if you are uncertain which to use. Pronounce : an umpire a union an upland a university an urgent reason Do you notice the difference in the sounds of u in GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 117 these two lists? The first is the vowel sound of u; it takes an before it. The second is the consonant sound of u; it takes a before it. COMPOSITION 4 Look out of the window a moment or two, and write about anything you see that interests you. There is a flock of blackbirds on the grass. Watch them for a few moments; then write about them. What picture or story or imagination comes to you from the words, "On a bright, sunshiny day" 4 ? Look at the picture "The Inundation." This long word means a flood. What has happened? Is it still storming? Does it look as if it may storm again? Where do you think these dogs were? Can dogs swim? Why do they not swim to shore? Do you think they are fright- ened? Does the old dog have any feeling besides fear? What are the dogs floating on? Does it look safe? Do you think it will hold together much longer? Is a dog's kennel usually so well made that it can stand such a trip? Do you think that the current of the river is strong and dangerous? Write what you see in this picture and the thoughts that it suggests to you. Do not be satisfied with answer- ing the above questions, but weave all your ideas together into either a well-connected, interesting story, or a de- scription of the picture. For one of the composition exercises correct your own paper. This should always be done before the teacher makes any corrections in it. The next day after writing the paper read it over carefully. You will notice GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 119 that some words are misspelled; commas are left out; but, and, then are used where they are not needed. You can change these for yourself, without having the teacher point them out to you. Perhaps you can make improve- ments. Two sentences may go together nicely by using -when, where, while, because, for; or who, which, that. You may have made a paragraph of only one sentence, where two or three sentences belong to the same thought. Put them together. Making corrections yourself is a very pleasant part of the writing. You feel that you know more about writing and that you write better after finding several of your own mistakes. Of course, there will be something left for the teacher to correct, for she knows more than you do about writing; but a pupil can find much to do for himself. Here are a few sentences written by fourth-grade children for practice in using while, when, because, as if, who, which: You stay here while I go see if they are coming. I will go while she stays at home. She is going while it is dark. I will go when you are ready. I am going to play when the cows come back. -"I told you when they would be here," she said. I wonder when she is coming. I went to work when he went out. I will go because you are going. Go and milk the cows because it is getting dark. You told me to look at it because it would be fine. She is coming because I told her to. He looked as if he had been hurt. He ran as if he did not hear me call. I'd like to know who it was that came. I will ask who will go. They told me who was after them today. I didn't know which one it was. They didn't know which way to go to school. I do not know which one I should take. SECOND MONTH SUMMARY OF SUBJECTS VERBS Catch, teach, bring, buy, fight, think PRONOUNS Subject (nominative) pronouns QUOTATIONS ADJECTIVES Use of the compared forms PRONUNCIATION Correction of common inaccuracies PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE COMPOSITION At least two of the five language periods per week are to be given to constructive work in com- position see suggestive program in appendix. GRADED LESSONS IN LANGUAGE 121 VERBS 8 Write the four parts of catch, teach, bring, buy, fight und think. PRESENT TENSE PAST TENSE I catch we catch I taught we taught you catch you catch you taught you taught he catches they catch he taught they taught The present tense is so easy that we need not think much about it except to pronounce correctly. Do not say "ketch." Think of nine sentences for catch or catches. Have you noticed that we say you taught for the singular and you taught for the plural also*? In some places verbs change from the singular to the plural; as, he teach