iJ^bTJ THE NORMAL SCHOOL QUARTERLY Series 18 October, 1919 Number 73 THE READING ASSIGNMENT IN ELEMENTARY GRADES GRACE ARLINGTON OWEN Teacher of Reading DISCIPLIN: THE CULTIVATION OF SELF-CONTROL BY MARY A. BELL Training Teacher, Seventh Grade Enterd August 18, 1902, at Normal, Illinois, as second-class mail matter under Act of Congress of July 16, 1894 N. B. — Any (eacher in Illinois may get the Normal School Quarterly regularly by sending exact name and address, and by giving prompt notis of any change of address. When a vord has t vo authorized forms of spelling, the shorter form is used. (Printed by Authority of the State of Illinois) NORMAL SCHOOL QUARTERLY Publisht by the Illinois State Normal University, Normal, III. Series 18 October, 1919 Number 73 THE READING ASSIGNMENT IN ELEMENTARY GRADES Grace Arlington Owen Teacher of Reading WHAT DOES READING MEAN TO YOU? Suppose we talk together for a few minutes concerning this subject set down in all elementary courses of study. What is your first reaction when reading is mentioned ? Probably to some it means a delightful hour spent with a favorit book. To others it means making children pronounce with fluency the words of a school primer. This person thinks of methods — sentence, phonic, combination, or whatever holds the center of the pedagog- ical stage. That person identifies reading with reciting a "piece" before admiring or suffering friends. Stil others think of the subject as confined only to the schoolroom, many placing it only in the reading class where the recitation is chiefly oral; while some stil think of reading as teaching a child "his letters." Happily there are those who realize that reading is the gateway to education ; that wben you teach a child to read you are teaching him to think. Without this last view of reading, the subject passes quickly into ded formalism. Yet, on the whole, reading is not wel taught in the elementary school today. There ar deflnit and good reasons for this. Read- ing is a difficult subject to teach. The opposit opinion prevails, however, in many minds. You hear it said, "Anyone can teach reading." That is one of the troubles current today. Anyone and everyone, whether he has a vision or not, teaches reading. Why is the teaching of reading difficult, you ask? Because teaching a pupil to think demands not only that the teacher himself be able to think, but that at the same time he must be able to com- prehend the workings of the pupil's mind and lead him to grasp logically and clearly the main ideas first, and then the details of the subjectmatter under consideration. 2 The Normal School Quarterly Reading can never be an exact subject, as is mathematics, because the personal element must enter in when the teacher studies the individual pupil's mind. This brings about a difficulty in the reading class. What shal be done there? What shal the pupils study? To what end shal the work lead ? How shal the teacher know whether he is making progress with the pupil, or simply "putting in time"? Inability to answer these questions brings about lamentable results. PERSONAL CONFESSIONS During the years 1918-19 six hundred students in the Department of Expression at the Illinois State Normal University, all of them either teachers or prospectiv teachers, wrote as a part of the class-work in method their personal experiences in reading. The subjects wer such as "How I Lernd to Read," "How I Read Silently," "How I Use a Dictionary," "How I Use a Library," "How I Teach Reading." From these papers we take some of the comments. A country-school teacher of three years' experience wrote: "I never knew reading ment any- thing but reading aloud. I was so busy with all the different classes that when it came to reading I sent the children to the back of the room, told them each to read aloud a paragraf , and I sat at my desk and corrected arithmetic papers." A fourth-grade teacher in a large town said : "I don't know what to do in reading class. The children can read some, but ar not interested. All I can tel them is to 'take three pages in advance for tomorrow.' ' A high-school graduate who had taught one year in the upper grades made this statement: "I didn't do much of anything in reading. There didn't seem to be anything to study. We never did anything but look up a few words, and not many of them." Dozens of students wrote they never wer taught anything about silent reading ; they did not know that was a part of reading. Many said, "I don't like to read because I don't like to look up words." An outstanding feature of a majority of the 600 papers was the view that reading in the elementary school is confined to reading aloud from a reader. Apparently there was no conception of reading as thinking, as study. Neither did the idea obtain that reading must be done in all sub- jects and should be pusht beyond the narrow limits of the classroom. In our normal-school classes we ar obliged to spend hours teaching students how to get the thought from simple selections. This ability should have been theirs at the end of the eighth grade. The Reading Assignment in Elementary Grades 3 From experiments and experiences such as the foregoing, and from our own efforts to teach reading to every age from grade one to the members of the Teachers College, we believ teachers need help particularly with the assignment. THE ASSIGNMENT THE CRUX OF THE READING PROBLEM Perhaps you may never hav considerd just what this term assignment, which rolls so glibly from our lips in school, means. Literally it means designating to another person something definit to do. There is our key word, definit; and yet reading is generally taught in a blindly indefinit manner. The assignment must possess certain characteristics. It must arouse the enthusiasm of the child for his lesson. It must giv him some concrete things to do in the preparation of that lesson, and it must require that he think. Not long ago a normal-school student, upon being askt about the assignment given to a class visited in the training school, said : "They did not hav any assignment. There wer no questions written on the board." Thus he showd his understanding of the assignment. Naturally the assignment varies in the different grades and according to the materials used. THE ASSIGNMENT IN THE PRIMARY GRADES In the primary grades the necessity of teaching the child that oral speech can be represented by writing and printing causes us to spend the greater part of our time in teaching what is commonly cald "the mechanics of reading." The best possible way to establish this association between speech and the written or printed forms is thru oral work. Therefore the reading lesson in the first three grades becomes a study-recitation, and the assignment is the teacher s questions and directions. Hav you ever herd a primary reading lesson conducted in this manner: "Susan, read the first line. Read the next line, Mary. That was very good, Mary, read it again. Read the next line, Charlie." And so on thruout the lesson? Un- fortunately many lessons ar taught in such a manner. This poor method of assignment is due to the teacher's lack of educa- tional vision. He does not grasp the great fact that the child is mastering this association between sound and symbol in order to enter the gateway to education. Nothing could be more stupid or mechanical than teaching, "The windmill went round and round," "I see Kitty," or, "I am Jack," to six-year-olds, if it wer not for the illuminating truth that the child is gaining a power that wil open to him continually thruout life avenues of thought. This stage of reading is a necessary means to an end. The child 4 The Normal School Quarterly is lerning to use the tool, as it wer, with which he wil work. If this view of reading is not held by teachers, the reading work is dry, uninteresting and often becomes memorized renditions of primer or reader that has been red over and over. Altho different methods of teaching reading ar in vogue, the tendency is towards a combination of the sentence, the word, and the phonic. How- ever, methods come and go, and children lern to read by them and in spite of them. The problem of the assignment remains no matter what particu- lar method is used. Pre-Primer Work. — In order to question and direct the children in a beginning reading lesson so that they wil be working mentally during their study-recitation, the teacher must be prepared. In the case of some rather technical method requiring manual, charts, and cards, the teacher should master the form of presentation devised and giv the method a chance; for there is no possibility of judging a method justly unless it has been given a fair trial. But the majority of teachers in Illinois have no books requiring a certain particular method. Accordingly we suggest the following pro- 1. An oral study to giv the child such associations as wil cause the words to take on meaning. 2. Play the story, dramatize it simply, so that action and word wil be suited to each other. 3. Develop on the board words, phrases, and sentences so that the child may acquire skil in realizing that the crooked marks hav meaning. This pre-primer work wil take several days. The exact number must be determined by the proficiency of the children and the demands of the supervisor and the county superintendent. In many schools of Illinois chil- dren ar given a book the first day, and reading is attempted thru a garbled, memorized effort. They should not be given a book until they ar ready for it, and then only for short periods so that it may not lose its charm. The sentences used for pre-primer work may be taken from the primer and reshaped somewhat, but keep to the vocabulary of the book. Attention to Difficult Words. — The teacher should look over the first thirty or forty pages of the primer and make a word-list (if one is not found in the book), keeping strict watch on the varying difficulties of the different words. Naturally action words and names of objects ar always the easiest. Such words as was, here, some, is, and any word about which. a clear, child- like association cannot be bilt ar the hard ones. These require constant dril by means of devices that thru an appeal to the fanciful, the whimsical, or the instinct of play make the word mean something to the child. Two The Reading Assignment in Elementary Grades 5 examples may suffice to illustrate this point, one showing how to fail, the other showing how to succeed. In each case the difficult word was some. Upon entering a classroom we found a young woman nervously trying to teach a large group of beginners a so-cald reading lesson. Dril on words was in progress. The teacher was pointing to a word and saying in a high- pitcht voice, "Now, children, what is this?" "Come," "some," shouted the children. "No, no, children, how many times must I tel you this is not come, this is some. Children, this word is some, over there is come. Now remember, and don't say come for some. Now what is the word again?" "Come" , "some" , "come" , replied the children. If utter confusion had been desired, the mode of teaching would hav been perfect. In another classroom, one day, a little girl said, "May I giv you some paper?" In a few minutes another child announst, "We ar going to make some pictures of Peter Rabbit." Then the teacher said, "The children want to tel you a joke." Thereupon a member of the C class said, "We didn't know some, so today we ar using it all the time. We ar trying to see who can use it the most." Summary of Pre-Primer Procedure. — The first point in the pre-primer work, the oral story, must be given by the teacher, and then the children should tel it to her and to each other until the thought becomes one with that of the child's. The story need not be long. Often it is only a rime or a jingle. But it must be communicated to the children thru speech first. They hav the sounds of the words. Next comes action thru play or dramatizing the little story which is for the purpose of stil more strengthen- ing the associations with the spoken form. The last step is the development on the board of sentences, phrases, and words. This is where actual oral reading begins. It can be seen that in pre-primer work, we hav (1) sound, the appeal to the ear; (2) action, an appeal both to the ear and the power of doing; (3) visualization. True, one may not linger the same amount of time on each step, but the three ar present in all early work. At times steps (1) and (2) may be reverst, action coming first, and sound, or speech, second ; but visualization remains the third step. How the Third Step Divides. — Within a few days the idea of the association of speech with the written forms is establisht, and then the need is for constant practis in recognizing, or interpreting, the sentences, words, and phrases as symbols of ideas and thoughts. The sub-divisions of step three ar — 1. Teaching the recognition of the sentence in the story. 6 The Normal School Quarterly 2. Having the sentences red in answer to the teacher's questions. 3. Teaching recognition of phrases and words as parts of sentences. 4. Reading the story as a whole. Visiting the first grade one morning in early winter we found the children reading this lesson : One day there was a big windmill. It went round and round. It gave water to the horses and the cows. It gave water to the sheep, too. One day it said, "I will stop ! I will not go round and round." So the windmill was still all day. the horses the sheep the windmill the cows a wind The children had come to school for the first time in September. The teacher presented the lesson in the following manner : She told the story of the windmill that grew tired and would not work. The story was written on the board and she called brief attention to the sentences as she told it, saying, "Now think of what you are going to hear." Pictures of the horses, the cows, and the windmill wer shown. Then a lively game ensued when the pictures wer placed under their names, "the horses," etc. One boy playd he was the wind and blew with all his might, and he found wind on the board — a hard task. From this linking of action with visualization much enthusiasm was created. It was easy to dramatize round and round, and with the class thoroly arousd the more difficult words and phrases such as It, One day there was, One day it said, "I will stop" wer taught. Then the children wer redy for the books and the third step, that of visualizing sentences, words, and phrases from the story. Due to the board work there was not much difficulty in recognizing the sentences in the story. They red in response to the teacher's questions, "What was there one day?" "What did it do ?" "What else did it do?" "Did it give water to some- things else?" "What did it say ?" "What happened?" After this there was a short dril. The teacher pointed to a word or phrase on the board and the children found it in their books and told her what it was. She then red the entire lesson with much animation, thus leaving it as a whole in the children's minds. In this lesson all the steps mentiond can be seen. However, it should be understood that these steps ar developt gradually and then united. Be- ginning teachers ask so frequently, "What shal I do the first day in teach- The Reading Assignment in Elementary Grades 1 ing reading? What shal I do the first week?" The difficulty is not with the first day or first week, but it is with the stedy work week after week, which demands that the same thing be done over and over but in different ways. Silent Reading frojn the Beginning. — Silent reading is nothing but the way an individual gets thought from printed or written forms. From the very first the child's ability to read silently should be cultivated. His response to action words written on the board is one of the simplest methods of teaching silent reading. Then, too, he should be encouraged to tel in his own words what he has red. There should be conversation enuf for the teacher to know how thoroly the child is making the printed thought his own. As the children gain power over the printed language and ar able to use their books, the reading lesson may be said in a general way to con- sist of — 1. Word drils, both review and new material, 2. Silent reading, 3. Oral work, both reproduction of what is red and actual reading of the story. Some Ways of Arousing Enthusiasm. — Beyond question it is the assignment, that is, the questions and directions of the teacher, that determins the enthusiasm of the children. Drils can be made most lively and profitable if they ar arranged as games and with the spirit of competi- tion. One instance wil suffice. For some reason not discoverd, the word little was not easy for some pupils of the first grade. But the difficulty was soon conquered, for, as one said, "that word belongs to Frances and me. We ar keeping count to see how many times we know it when we see it, and I am aneaci." Again, when phonic work was started much was done by placing on the board lists of words beginning with the same initial sound. The chil- dren gave these words out of their own experience and after dril on them, all of each word except the first letter was erased and dril on the simple phonogram followed. In this way the step from the word to sounds of individual letters may be bridged. It is often advantageous to keep a list of words on the board, either the entire vocabulary that the children know by both sight and sound or the difficult words of the working vocabulary. Word dril is necessary to make the child so familiar with the mechanics of reading that he is able to giv his chief attention to the thought. In word drils, exact pronunciation should be insisted upon and also a pleasing tone of voice. The dril may be — 1. On uncombined words, 8 The Normal School Quarterly 2. On words in sentences, 3. A skipping about from word to sentence. Write the words in different places on the board. Let them be in hand-writing of different sizes, so that the association of place or special form may not be cultivated. In writing, care should be taken to hav the letters of fair size and clearly made in a good, round hand. There is no special reason for printing unless you can print faster and more legibly than you can write. A Working Basis in Phonics. — Turning to phonics we find that the child really needs but a few phonic facts as a working basis for his early reading. If we ar not following a set phonic outline, and therefore hav the organization of the phonic work ourselvs, we should take care to see that the phonograms we teach ar usable in our reading material. The State Course of Study makes excellent suggestions as to the phonograms suitable for first and second years. We should organize our phonic material — 1. According to the phonograms needed in our reading book, 2. According to the difficulty of the phonograms. We begin with single consonant phonograms, first working them out from words in which they ar the initial sounds. Among the easiest conso- nants ar /, r, s, m, t, I, p. These ar easy because the vocal organs must assume definit position in order to make them. Then, too, these consonants occur over and over in the simple words of the primer vocabulary. Phonograms should be given clearly and distinctly whether pronounst in the word or not, and after two or three single phonograms hav been lernd, some such as at, ing, an, ake, ag, and ight should be taught. These, too, should be taken from words. In conducting the phonic drils we should do wel to keep this outline of procedure in mind : 1. Oral exercizes to train the child to hear the sounds, 2. Oral exercizes to train the child to say the sounds, 3. Association with the symbols, 4. Recognition of words by sounds and sound symbols, including redy recognition of the sound-group, or compound phonograms. Above everything, the teacher should take time to hav the early steps in phonics understood thoroly. A large number of teachers fail every year in teaching reading because they do not take these facts slowly and teach the children to use them in working out new words. We come around once more to our original statement that when we really teach a child to read we ar teaching him to think. If we keep this ideal before us we shal do away with many of the evils in our reading class ; particularly shal we come to see that "nothing can be more dedly to natural- The Reading Assignment in Elementary Grades 9 ness and thought than the common practis of pointing out a sentence word for word." WHAT NEXT? We ar constantly told in all our books and papers about the character- istics of each grade. We know that the children must, during the first and second grades, hav much dril on the association of sound with symbol, and that the third grade is supposed to gather up and complete this phase of reading. Some one coind, years ago, the terms "learning to read" and "reading to learn," using the first to denote the mastery of the symbol and the second to denote the use of this power. True it is, that the child must understand what the symbols or crooked marks mean, if he is to become educated. This knowledge is the child's tool to use in all his future study. We should not give him a saw, a needle, a broom, an egbeater, or any implement and not teach him how to manipulate it, if we expect him to use it intelligently. Yet we do exactly that in reading. The children, thru the study-recitations that form our present early plan of teaching reading, arrive at a stage where they hav more or less proficiency in understanding the printed page. "They can read", we say; and often at this point in school, be it the third or fourth grade, there is a slump in the reading. "The children ar not interested, they do not like it," we hear. Now why is there such a condition ? Henry Adams, in his significant personal study of American life, cald The Education of Henry Adams, says education is "the mastery of tools, and we need so few tools". How true that is in the subject we ar considering. Undoutedly when the child does not care for reading, it is because he does not know how to use his tool, the mastery of the symbol. Let us see what can be done for him in the assignment as he passes from the primary age and grade. ABOVE THE PRIMARY AGE AND GRADE Enthusiasm Arousd by the Oral Approach; Vivid Imaging; Vital Association. — In presenting pre-book work, we strest the first step as oral in the telling of a story that might be short or long. Indeed, we believ that in every reading lesson the appeal should be made first to the ear. This appeal varies. In assigning a lesson, the teacher should seek always to point out some phase that wil serv to arouse the pupil's enthusiasm for that which he is to study. This may be a comment on the attractiv pictures, upon the title, a few words of explanation or reference to some previous lesson that has been enjoyd. Often the second-grade pupils hav been askt to look for a moment at the story they wil read next and see how the title looks. One day, their spirits rose indeed when they discoverd that the next lesson 10 The Normal School Quarterly brought them the picture of the story of the witch with a long nose. In the third grade, upon coming to the poem, "The Leak in the Dyke", refer- ence was made to a Dutch picture that hung in the room and the little folks wer reminded of the supplementary reader they had once red that told about the land of windmills. Also in the fifth grade, the poem of "The Sandpiper" was explaind to the children by fascinating pictures of the sea beach and reference to water birds. In this connection it is interesting to note that a class of normal school students recently gave their association with this poem, which occurs so frequently in elementary-grade reading books. Of the ten persons in the class, all but one confest that they thought the poem beyond the compre- hension of children. Upon inquiry it was found that all had had it in the grades. The majority said they just red it with no explanation. One even said that she had had no idea what a sandpiper was and did not hav until years after her first acquaintance with the poem. All said that at the time of their first reading of the poem, they had not even been familiar with a small lake, and in the case of only one had a beach been visualized. This one student told of the great enthusiasm her teacher had arousd in her for the poem and that all thru her later years of childhood she had wonderd about the safety of the birds upon a stormy night. Again, a class of twenty-one students in the summer school, all teach- ers or to begin teaching in the following September, wer about to read some poems of Tennyson. In the assignment, the teacher mentiond a few sig- nificant facts about the noted English poet, and seeing no responsiv look on the faces before him askt if anyone there had ever red any poem, at any time, by Tennyson. Each one of the twenty-one said he had not. The name evoked no associations. Yet, upon investigation it was found that every one in the class had red, and some admitted having taubht The Charge of the Light Brigade, another selection found in almost all readers. Now we do not hold a brief for teaching the author's name and date of birth and deth, as was once the custom, but we do say that with national and international figures it is wel to bild up associations so that what is red may become vital and intimately related to the world in which we liv. Often when suggestions upon this feature of the assignment ar made to young teachers, they reply instantly that they hav so many classes and ar so busy they cannot gather information about selections. We realize that teachers ar busy, but our point is that all of us must keep mentally alert and grow or we shal fall into a set, mechanical way of teaching that duls the spirit of pupils and teacher. We ar attempting to indicate ways in which the teacher may prepare herself on the reading lesson she is to teach to boys The Reading Assignment in Elementary Grades 11 and girls. We believ firmly that the teacher's lack of knowing how to pre- pare reading lessons is back of a large share of the poor results that come out of the elementary schools today. Thought Getting. — So far 'we hav discust but one point in the inter- mediate and grammar-grade assignment, that of arousing enthusiasm for what is to be studied. We turn to the chief business of reading, the getting of thought. The steps in this ar simple and definit. We should teach the reader ( 1 ) to select in order and be able to giv in his own words the main points of what he has red; (2) to work out carefully the details of the selection. The test of one's ability to get the thought is his ability to giv it in his own words in definit, logical order. However simple this may sound hundreds upon hundreds of children pass thru our elementary schools and cannot giv to another person the gist of what they hav red in an article. Example after example could be drawn from normal-school classes, where hours ar consumed in overcoming this difficulty. A graduate of an accredited high school was askt to giv a brief resume of three chapters of an unusually interesting and easily red English novel. At the end of forty minutes he had described haltingly the rosebush by the gate and the hat of the heroin. Neither description had any special bearing on the movement of the story. He gave as his excuse, that he did not know what to pick out to tel, and there was too much to memorize. The elementary school should hav taught him to read silently. He was a student of average ability, but had not receivd his due mesure of instruction in the elementary school. In teaching classes of fifth-grade and sixth-grade children within the last three years, the first exercizes in silent reading reveald the inability of the children to answer the questions askt. The lesson was conducted upon this plan : 1 . Direction by teacher. 2. Silent reading of the lesson unit as a whole. 3. Silent reading paragraf by paragraf. 4. Questions to test the thought-getting. 5. Oral reading. As the material was particularly appealing to the children and had an easy vocabulary there was no difficulty in speeding up the silent reading; but the responses to the questions showd a disposition to read as an answer any phrase, clause, or sentence that met their eyes and had any words sug- gestiv of the question. It took days of definit questioning based upon the subject-matter to teach these pupils how to connect the thought of the printed page with the questions. In the end excellent results wer attaind. We ar too prone to consider that because the child has some mastery 12 The Nor?nal School Quarterly over symbols, he can get the thought himself. Too many persons take the view of this "settled crystallized" primary teacher who said to us once, "It is never too early to teach good habits, therefore I insist upon my first grade pupils studying their lessons." When askt how she taught them to study, she said, "I giv them their books and tell them to study." She was most complacent and saw no fault with her way. An excellent plan to use, when silent reading is becoming a larger part of the school program, is that of letting the pupil read a few paragrafs aloud and then giv the main points, and later the details. A little practis of this kind wil be an introduction to silent reading and wil help to do away with verbatim memorizing. Oral Expression One Test of Silent Reading. — Dr. Hiram Corson, the unusual teacher of literature at Cornell University, used to demand as entrance test for certain of his Shaksperean courses that the aspirant read aloud to him from Shakspere. Upon the reading Dr. Corson made his decision as to whether the individual was wel enuf equipt for the course. Many students, reading with much flourish and noisy execution wer amazed to be refused, but Dr. Corson made oral reading to be the mesure of the understanding of the poet. Good oral reading demands, first of all, good silent reading, and is invariably a test of the thinking. The test is not made generally by teachers or there would not be so much slovenly oral reading. Written Assignments. — As we come to the time when written assign- ments ar given to the children, we should see that they follow the steps we hav mentiond for getting thought. Assignment carries with it the idea of definitness, and our questions and directions should hav this quality. They should not only help the child get the meaning of the story or poem red but should endevor to push the lesson beyond the schoolroom and into the everyday work. During the study by a fourth-grade class of the story, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, questions wer askt to develop the idea of the crafty cunning of the Oriental character. This was, of course, after the main outline of the story had been masterd. Various instances, drawn by the children from the adventures of Ali Baba, were given to show traits of character such as shrewdness, kindness, deceitfulness, generosity, and the like. Then they were askt for their personal opinions on Ali's character. They wer to prove their assertions by references to his deeds. There was much interest and amusement over his exploits and Ali was being made quite a fascinating story-book hero, when a young man of ten arose and said, "He was dishonest and a liar. He would be cald a crook today." Instantly there was a heated discussion. Nearly all the members of the class hastend The Reading Assignment in Elementary Grades 13 to say they did not believ people should act now in the way that Ali did, but that was the way the people did then. To this the young man replied, "It was very wrong anyway and he was a thief, too, just as much as the robbers. They had stolen the stuff he found in the cave. What business had he to take it for himself and his relativs?" The others retorted that Ali Baba did not know, nor did anyone, to whom the welth belonged. "What could he do with it but take it?" said one child. The answer was illuminating : "He could hav used it for everybody in the town, not just for his own family." "How?" interrupted a boy. "Well, he could hav bilt a swimming pool, or Y. M. C. A. or a library." Shouts of laughter from the unthinking greeted this statement. Un- daunted, the speaker continued, "I know they didn't hav those things in the Arabian Nights but he could hav used the money and jewels for whatever they had then that was for everybody." The class capitulated before this vision of community spirit and we venture to say that this was rather a successful lesson for any grade, and to hav achievd it in fourth grade was wel worth doing. At another time the fifth-grade class wer hearing poems red to them by their teacher. The poems wer of stirring adventure and more difficult than the fifth grade would be able to read for themselvs for some time. The teacher red the most dramatic parts of the poem and told in her own words the remainder. She prefaced her reading with adequate explanations and incidentally used the reading as a means of disciplin. The children enjoyd the poems intensely. Whenever their lessons wer wel-prepared and moved quickly she red at the end of the period for a few minutes. She did not tel the children her device but intuitivly they discoverd it and strong efforts wer made to hav "good lessons." The poem, Herve Riel, by Browning had been red and told. This poem falls into clear-cut divisions most easily. It had been like a continued story and much speculation had occurd as the out- come. You may remember that Herve Riel was a Breton coasting-pilot who was able to save the French fleet because he knew every rock, inlet, and channel of the bay upon which he had spent most of his life. In Brown- ing's poem Herve Riel is told to name his own reward, ask of France any- thing. He asks leave to go home and see his wife and child. This he askt and this he got, Simply this and nothing more. 14 The Normal School Quarterly Great was the disapproval of the children who had pland all manner of glorious rewards. Soon, however, one boy said, "I think it was a good deal to go home. It would be if you had ever been away to war and didn't know when you could come back." This quieted the class and all agreed; but when another member of their number arose and said, "I don't think he did so much after all, that he ought to be rewarded. He did just what he ought to hav done. He didn't need anj r thing for it," there was a tumult of indignation. Discussion caused this second boy to explain his opinion with the following illustration, which certainly shows thinking. "I mean he did what he ought to hav done. Suppose a boy drives a grocery wagon and drives a grocery wagon for a long time. One day some- body needs him to drive that grocery wagon because something has hap- pened. It isn't any harder for him to drive the grocery wagon that day than any other day; and yet if he hadn't driven it his best every day, he couldn't drive it wel when he is needed to do it for something special." Unpoetical ? Yes ; but the very essence of the poem had been translated into terms of the boy's life. Driving a grocery wagon in a small Illinois town lookt to a fifth-grade boy as quite a job for summer vacations. But enuf of illustrations. Reading in the schools exists for such pur- poses as hav been described. Not all children wil like the same story, the same poem, the same subject any more than all people like one business or profession. Yet all children like to read when they read to make judgments about the conduct of life. All the processes of the reading lesson ar for this end, to teach the child to make judgments. It is a crime when thru ignor- ance or carelessness we let this matchless tool, reading, become useless. If your class cannot read, if they do not like to read, begin with yourself. Reading is a personal subject ; you can not depend on the answer in the book, but upon the answer in the mind of the child. Word Mastery. — Perhaps it may hav occurd to you to wonder why we hav said nothing so far about the meanings of words when so many persons think looking up words the only possible assignment in reading. We wel remember visiting an eighth grade where no other assignments wer given from day to day but such as, "Look up the third word from the end of line 39." No wonder that reading was a failure in that room. Word mastery offers one of the most instructiv and attractiv features of the reading lesson. It should hav a definit place in the recitation period, be taken up, discust and then used in thought-getting. The pernicious habit of reading a line or two and stopping to ask about the meaning of the word should be eradicated just as we would dig up weeds in the garden. The Reading Assignment in Elementary Grades 15 The teacher and the children should discuss the new words and the mean- ings, learning how to work out meanings from the use of a word. Then efforts to use the words in conversation and oral and written composition should be made. When the time comes that a reading book with a glossary is used, this should be explaind to the children before they ar told to use it. Over and over, grown students tell us, "I never had training in using the dictionary or in looking up words." Consequently we should early make the mastery of words plesant to the child. There is a time when keeping a notebook or making lists is a novelty. The children like to do it because it makes them feel older. These feelings should be used when we plan our devices. An excellent device that we saw working in the second grade was a notebook, made and bound in bright red paper for handwork. It was cald a dictionary but in it wer kept growing lists of words that wer being studied for meanings and spellings. The delight of the children over this scheme for word mastery was unusual and it was soon apparent that the books wer a successful device. "In human language all words, except proper names and some excla- mations are signs of generalized ideas, cald notions." In teaching children words, let us as teachers use our dictionaries and look up ordinary words for which we hav only one of its meanings. This may seem radical to some teachers who hav exprest themselvs to us as not owning a dictionary, or as looking up only new words. Too often we let the children go with imper- fect meanings for simple words because as we sometimes say for an excuse, "We know the meaning, but no good synonym for the word." We do not know the meaning of a word unless we do know a synonym for it, or can express its meaning in some way. Recently an entire normal-school class faild to giv any adequate meaning for the simple word bleak. A harder word, but one used with widely differing meanings, disciplin, was defined by a group of teachers as "spanking a child when he is bad in school." There wer twenty-eight in the class where this definition was advanst. No objection to it could be secured until a timid voice said, "I hav herd of military disciplin, what would that mean?" The inherent meaning of the word, training, had never been reveald to any one there, yet some in that class had been employd in the schools of the State for fourteen years. Knowing the meaning of a word, using it correctly, and of course pro- nouncing it accurately ar essentials of word mastery. Dictionary , Card Catalog, and Encyclopedia Work. — "The only direc- tion I ever had was look it up in the dictionary.' I did not know how to use the dictionary, and when by chance I found the word I wanted I did not know which definition to take or how to pronounce the word from the 16 The Nonnal School Quarterly re-speld and diacritically markt word." This was the written statement of an excellent student who had masterd the use of the dictionary herself during high-school days and realized the handicaps she had sufrerd while in the grades. Perhaps no greater servis can be done a child in our elementary grades than to teach him how to use a dictionary effectivly. He should lern first the principle of alfabetizing thoroly, the use of indexes, a sufficient supply of diacritical marks as the keys to the sounds, the guide words, what is given about a word in the dictionary, and how to use the information. Knowledge of the alfabet (since the alfabet is necessary for using the dictionary, card catalogs, and indexes) should be part of the child's in- formation when dictionary work is started in either the fourth or fifth grade. If notebooks ar kept for word lists, they may be alfabetized and thus the children wil lern to arrange and locate by alfabetical position. In this way, it is often possible to teach the diacritical markings by arranging a notebook alfabetically and by writing in the various markings of each vowel and consonant with illustrativ words taken from the reading ma- terial. Preparation, such as this, makes dictionary lessons clear. See that the children buy good-sized dictionaries, of recognized merit, from the pub- lishers of either the Standard or Webster dictionaris. See that the books hav type large enuf to be red easily and ar of the last edition. In order to familiarize the pupils with their new book, dictionary races may be made full of life and information. These ar conducted in the fol- lowing manner: the class sit in position, their dictionaries closed on the desks before them. At first a letter may be written on the board and the first row opening to that letter with the least turning of leavs, wins. This exercise soon teaches the children what letters ar in the first quarter of the book, in the second quarter, and so following. After they can open rapidly, with no aimless turning of leavs, to any letter, try words, developing them a letter at a time as g-i-r-a-f-f-e. This brings the arrangement of the words on the page to their attention. Then the other features of the dictionary may be taught gradually. Just as with phonics the secret is to giv this in- struction slowly, stedily, and thoroly. Also, let the children examin the large dictionary and become familiar with it as a friend not as a book suggesting drudgery. In the intermediate grades is the place to teach the mechanical arrangement of a book. It is absurd to see high school graduates who ask "What page?" insted of using the index to find an assignment subject. A study of books found in the average classroom wil furnish much valuable information. A sixth-grade class made booklets in their drawing hour. Into these wer put stories, the product of the language periods. Desiring to make these booklets as per- The Reading Assignment in Elementary Grades 17 feet as possible the pupils examind all the teacher's desk copies, brought books from the library and from home and, as a result of their efforts, made illustrations, put in a glossary, an index of chapters, wrote chapter hedings, titles for illustrations, made a table of contents and wrote a dedication. Such exercizes ar informational and interesting to intermediate-grade chil- dren. Later on, we see endless waste of time because this mechanical information has not been gaind. Acquaintance with an encyclopedia and with a card catalog should begin in the intermediate grades, and by the time the eighth grade is com- pleted the boy or girl should hav a working knowledge of such elementary helps in finding material. Types of Reading Material. — During the fourth and fifth years of school the reading ability of the child should widen gradually until as he approaches the upper grades, his reading material is both of a literary and an informational character. The former wil include the poems and selec- tions and books from the relm of literature that he reads. The latter wil embrace special articles, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, books of a supplementary typ£, stories of adventure, invention, biografy and current activities. An upper-grade class that had lagd behind in their reading work became deeply interested in making airplanes in their manual training work. The resourceful teacher seized upon this interest, had them bring all the articles they could about airplanes, searcht the library for magazine articles, dipt newspapers, and had a most enthusiastic reading class that soon brought their work to the average needed for the grade. Often when advising young teachers to encourage the use of all sup- plementary, informational material, and especially when urging the need for knowing how to use the dictionary, the cyclopedia, the index of a book and a card catalog, we are told: "There is no library in our town." A library is not a bilding, it may be the small number of worn books on one's window sill; but the knowledge of how to use the books any school has leads to a wider use of books, for the fundamental principles ar the same in all volumes of reference. Frequent neglect to use the material before us is a common fault, and we should know and understand our equipment — not do as was done in one school which we visited last year, namely put the dictionaries in a dark, dusty hall closet because they took up so much room on the teacher's desk. ORAL READING There is no reason for reading aloud except to read for a purpose. This purpose may be to communicate an idea, a description, the details of a pic- ture, to suggest a character, to prove a point, to convince and to entertain. 18 The Normal School Quarterly Notwithstanding this fact, which is as obvious as that talking should be for the purpose of saying something, much oral reading is permitted in the school that has no reason back of it. This should never be. The pupil should be askt or told to show or do certain definit things in his reading. One of the best oral reading lessons in the upper grades that we ever heard was one in which the children had imagind the selection to be a motion picture, had divided it into reels, and wer reading aloud the different flashes of each reel. This had taken thought on the part of the teacher, but it had paid. The reason that dramatization is such an aid to oral reading is because it demands characterization and makes the reader imagin. He has a definit problem to solv by his reading. If we would keep in mind when having an oral reading lesson that the pupil should do two things, 1 . Read to some one, and 2. Read for a definit purpose which he has in mind, we should not hav great difficulty in accomplishing good results by our efforts. Reading to some one wil demand that posture, position of book, look- ing at your hearers and making them understand you, be considerd. The point, reading for a known, definit reason, we hav dwelt upon, but if we think of it in terms of a problem that is to be set before the pupil, we wil never say, "Read on," that fatal direction of such frequent recurrence in our classrooms. Insted, we wil say, "Read so that I may see just how that cottage lookt" ; "Read so I shal be frightend" ; and similar statements. Undoutedly comments from the class ar one of the chief factors in an oral reading lesson. Pupils should be traind to criticize. They should lern that true criticism is not fault-finding, that it is the pointing out of the strong and weak places in the reading and suggesting how the reading may be improved. Neither pupil nor teacher should ever make such general, indefinit statement as, "Some of it wasn't very good." "I think he could read it again and do better." "I thought it was good." "I didn't see any- thing the matter with it." Insted, listen to a few constructiv comments gleand from different grades : Second grade. — "The witch's part wasn't red so that she was ugly enuf, and the princess was not made pretty enuf." Third grade. — "She was not sorrowful enuf when the mouse said, 'I lost two of my children last night.' " Fifth grade. — "I could see just how the page lookt and that was why I liked the reading." Seventh grade. — "You should makg us see Arthur pulling the sword out at once because he is the true king." Not long ago we visited an intermediate-grade where oral reading was The Reading Assignment in Elementary Grades 19 in progress. Each child advanst to the front of the room and red. At the close of each reading, a forest of hands waved. Then came comments such as these : "He said the instead of a" ; and dozens of other trifling criticisms wer made with no reference to thought. How any one could hav red aloud under such conditions, is hard to imagin. The teacher, who conducted twenty minutes of such a nerv-racking performance, made this excuse: "I know that isn't a good way to teach reading, but that is the only way I can keep the children stil. They behave so badly." Surely the price paid for "keeping them still" was entirely too high. Articulation, Enujiciation, and Pronunciation. — An outgrowth of the primary phonic problem is found in the problems of articulation and enuncia- tion. These matters should be considerd as drils and like all drils should be kept away from the reading proper. The function of a dril is to remove me- chanical obstacles from the reading, and drils should occur before the silent or oral reading begins. Drils for review may occur at the end of a lesson. If mechanical difficulties wer always removed before reading aloud we should hav an end of grown students stopping before a word and saying, "I don't know how to pronounce it." Such a performance is disgraceful, and yet it is evidently permitted or there would not be such a widespred preva- lence of the fault. Good oral reading on the part of the teacher in every grade of the elementary school wil accomplish far-reaching results with the pupils. Authorities agree that the greatest aid in lerning to read that a parent can giv a child is to read aloud to him. So in school, the teacher should read to the pupils, regularly and from varied material. He need not read long at a time but he must consistently establish good standards of reading. CONCLUSION Reading is at the base of all studies; it is such a glorious gateway to mental development and improvement that we should be delighted to hav the privilege of helping boys and girls pass thru into "relms of gold." Our aim should be to send them from the eighth grade of the elementary school traind to read silently, accurately, and efrectivly; traind to read the first books of reference ; equipt with information about the mechanics of a book ; able to read aloud plesantly their mother tung and by that marvelous gift, the human voice, communicate the thought of the printed page to others. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Where there is no vision, there wil be no reading taught. The way to make readers of our students is to begin with ourselvs. Reading demands scholarship, the thoro understanding of one's subject, the wide acquaintance with many subjects, 20 The Normal School Quarterly because reading is not confined to one study but is a part of all studies. There was never a time when America needed her children wel taught as she does today in this period of reconstruction. The boys and girls of this country must be taught to think, and the teachers must be students them- selves, if they ar to meet the opportunity that is theirs. Disciplin: The Cultivation of Self-Control 21 DISCIPLIN: THE CULTIVATION OF SELF-CONTROL* Mary A. Bell Seventh-Grade Training Teacher Fellow Teachers: — My first impulse after I had been requested to talk to you on disciplin was to go to the library and read on the subject. But on second thought I decided that the basis of what seems to you to be a success in my school government goes farther back than pedagogical and psychological principles. It is found in my interpretation of fundamental laws of life itself ; and my interpretation of these laws depends upon three things: inheritance, experience, and pedagogical training. My presentation to you therefore must be from personal experience. I shal state a few of these laws and giv concrete illustrations of ways in which I use them in my daily work. One of these fundamental laws of life is The way of the transgressor is hard, and the wages of sin is deth. I firmly believ this. And I preach it every week of the year — often every day if opportunities arise ; but not in these words to be sure. I shal giv a few illustrations to show how I teach children the meaning. I often say to my class at the beginning of the year, "I make but one rule." Of course the class is pleasd. I then explain that rule, "Do right," and sometimes keep it on the board a week or so. Then I explain my mean- ing by saying that they hav perfect freedom as long as they do not abuse the privilege. I let them leav their seats, leav the room, or whisper, as long as they do right and use good judgment. When they do wrong in these lines — as they do many, many times — I try to get them to see the wrong, then giv them another chance; for in my room ignorance does excuse one. If a child after knowing, again does wrong in these ways, his privilege is taken away. Sometimes because of the wrong doing of one or of a few, a privilege is taken away from the whole class. This brings out another fundamental law of life : The innocent suffer on account of the guilty. I tel them it does not seem fair, but it is a law that works all through life as truly as the law that all that goes up must come down. I get them to see that their fathers, good men and true, are taxt to support criminals in jails and penitentiaries; they also ar taxt to *Owing to her evident success in disciplin, Miss Bell was requested to explain to the faculty of the Training School how she got such results. Her colleags hav per- suaded her to permit the publication of the paper just as it was red to them, believing it will be of great value to the many teachers who read the Normal School Quarterly. 22 The Normal School Quarterly pay the sheriff and policemen to make bad people behave. Children redily see this, and soon begin to blame the wrong doer insted of the teacher. When that happens, the teacher's troubles in disciplining children lessen greatly because group disapproval helps much. It is a mighty factor in be- havior with children just as it is with adults. I try in other ways to get the class to see that the way of the transgres- sor is hard and the wages of sin is deth ; for example, if a child does not work, and lern, the punishment for this wrong is self-inflicted. His pun- ishment comes because he does not know, does not hav the approval of the group, does not hav the plesure of carrying home a good grade card, does not find school plesant. I need not inflict punishment if the child sees he is punishing himself. Every day in school there ar cases that wil illustrate this principle if the teacher thoroly believs in it and gets the children- to see it. It takes much explaining, to be sure, but one can "get it across" to almost every boy and girl. If a boy misbehaves while I am out of the room, I try to show him and the class that he thinks he was having a good time, thinks he was happy; but he punisht himself, for he wasn't really having fun, wasn't really happy. It is the boy who workt and lerned while I was out of the room who was really having the good time, was really happy. Sometimes I ask for a vote — "Who was happier while I was out of the room — Richard, who was studious, and wil thereby lern, get good grades, please his teacher and mother, and grow up to be an intelligent man, or John, who was naughty, pulled the hair of the girl in front of him, and lost all of these things?" It is sometimes surprising how soon the class can get the point. Sometimes I hav heard a boy say something like this: "But Richard didn't laugh, and John did." Then must come an explanation that real happiness does not always make one laugh. Neither does laughing always indicate true happiness. Then I ask him if an Indian is happy when he tortures a white man. "But he laughs. Would you laugh? No, you know more. You ar more civilized. But would Richard laugh if he pulled a girl's hair and made her cry? No, he knows more. He is too civilized." After an explanation of this sort no external punishment by the teacher is given. It is not necessary. I seldom punish, but get the boys and girls to see that the punishment comes to them regardless of what I do. Children sometimes feel that if the teacher punishes them, they, in some way, hav atoned for their sin. But I want them to see that their punish- ment comes in what they hav lost, to see that the wages of sin is deth, and the way of the transgressor is hard. They cannot get away from this any Disciplin: The Cultivation of Self -Control 23 more than they can get away from the law of gravity. A ball wil come down if it goes up. So wil the transgressor find his way hard sooner or later. There ar many ways to impress this on the minds of boys and girls, and it must be imprest from many angles. My next principle is As a man thinketh in his hart, so is he. Again, let me say I truly believ this. I am wholly sincere when I teach this to my children. I try to get them to see that if they ar good because I am watch- ing or because I may punish, they ar not good at all. I am the one who should receiv credit for goodness, not they. If they want to be bad, but ar afraid, then they ar bad, altho others may not know it. That is the differ- ence. They ar bad, but ar keeping it a secret from others, or think they ar. The child must behave from the inside out, not from the outside in, in order to get self-control. In other words, the kingdom of God is within one, not outside. If you can get children to see this, each wil be his own policeman, and the teacher wil be free from much (tho not all) of police duty, and can devote the whole time to teaching. I want my class to see distinctly the difference between police duty of a teacher and teaching. To get them to see this I say, "You ar not being your own policeman today, so I shal hav to be one. But I cannot teach wel if half my mind is on police duty." There ar times when I purposely do absolutely no teaching. I assign lessons thus : "Take the next two pages." I answer no questions. At recitation time I giv no explanations. I keep my entire attention on police duty, and I assure you there is order — military order. A little of that is sufficient for a class. They soon see the difference between policing and teaching. I also say to my class, "If I hav to watch you while I teach the other class, you ar allowing the other class just half a teacher. Is that fair?" They get the point. Each child must think rightly in his heart; then he is his own policeman. For a child, like a man, becomes what he thinks. My next principle is also an old, old one. It is / am my brother s keeper. Every child has a right to be traind to see that he really 'is his brother's keeper. Children must be taught not to try to beat each other, but to try to help each other. This brings in the big question of competition. If we ar always going to try to beat, what shal we do when there is no one to beat ? If we work hard during Good English Week to beat, what shal we work for in English next week, and the next, and the next ? I know some of the benefits carry over; with very intense competition, however, I fear we get the golden egg but kil the goose. We hav much competition of one kind or another in our room, so you see I am not wholly opposed to it. We hav row competition one day, girls against boys the next day, A Class 24 The Normal School Quarterly against B Class the next, etc., but usually with student teachers to help the slow ones. By changing the various groups that compete day by day, we prevent intense desire to beat. Children lern that advancement by beating themselvs deservs more praise than beating a room, that "70" for one is more creditable than "100" for another. But the point I want to make is that if we ar our brother's keeper, we shall want to help, not beat our brother. I know competition is a natural instinct; so is self-preservation, the first law of life, a nativ instinct. But how proud we all wer when the men in the Titanic disaster controled this instinct with "Women and chil- dren first !" So with the instinct of competition. If we ar going to teach the affirmativ answer to that age-old question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" we must use competition discreetly and teach children to help, not defeat their weaker brothers. Let me illustrate. Some time ago we found at least twelv pupils who could not write large numbers, or subtract if the minuend had many zeros in it. I gave a test, and twelv or more faild. I said, "I cannot teach you these simple things. You must get help outside of study periods." I said I would giv another test in a few days. A number of the previous failures made 100 on that test. As I read these grades of 100 receivd by pupils who before had receivd zero, various pupils stood, radiant with plesure, and told how they had helpt others to improve. It was hard to tel which was hap- pier, the child who had taught or the child who had been taught. I believ that teachers often hav all the happiness in the schoolroom; and because they render most of the servis and do most of the achieving, nothing is left the child but the doing of set tasks. Children should be given opportunity to help one another, and had I time, I could giv many illustrations of ways in which children can help each other. Occasions come when student-teachers ar with their pupils in the recitation room, in the offis, and in the rest room. The teacher must of course use judgment here as in all things, so as not to allow this work to interfere with regular work. Before I pass on let me giv one more illustration of how a child can be his brother's keeper. One recess Marion came to me radiant with happi- ness, saying, "Oh, come see what Robert has done!" When I went into the recitation room, I found Robert, Marion's pupil, just as happy as his teacher, for he had succeeded in the great achievement of writing 5,000,- 000,000,000.001 correctly. Both boys were happy because they had satisfied two of the fundamental laws of human happiness; namely, achievement for Robert, and rendering servis to another for Marion. But you ask what has this to do with disciplin, which is my topic? Everything, I answer, for do you think these boys would misbehave when school cald if their lessons and Disciplin: The Cultivation of Self-Control 25 their teacher wer even half interesting? No, because they ar in harmony with some of the fundamental laws of human happiness, for love of servis and love of achievement ar much stronger than love of competition. One more principle: Cooperation is civilization. You no doubt recognize the source of this principle. I thoroly believ in it. We do every- thing possible on the cooperativ plan. We hav a Board of Health, an English committee, team work in gymnastics, group work for many lessons, group work in gardening, etc. Thru these devices the class ar lerning many things which they must practis in adult life, such as the majority rules, all must obey orHsers, offisers must do their duty. Many occasions arise for the practice of cooperation. The children ar lerning to sacrifice their own desires at times for the good of the group, etc. The class vote upon and decide everything that they hav judgment to decide. I always giv aid in helping the class see the points of advantage and disad- vantage when they ar preparing to vote on a question. All of this coopera- tion and group work makes the room a democracy insted of an autocracy. The best civilization means democracy. But the teacher must watch the pulse of her class as a skilful surgeon watches the pulse of his patient to see that democracy does not overstep the line and become anarchy. Better an autocracy a thousand times than chaos. I hope you do not feel I hav not held close to my subject of disciplin. But I interpret disciplin in its broad sense to mean all training. Disciplin as punishment seldom enters into our room. I say very harsh things, but do little punishing. When it is necessary, I lash a pupil with my sharp tung, which is like a two-edged sword ; but I do little else. Let me summarize these principles, which ar only a part of the prin- ciples that form the basis of my teaching : ( 1 ) The way of the transgressor is hard, and the wages of sin is deth. (2) The innocent suffer for the guilty. (3) / am my brother s keeper. (4) As a man think eth in his hart so is he. (5) Cooperation is civilization. These laws ar never given undiluted and ar seldom servd the same way twice. Like the French chef, I mix, season, garnish, embellish as the time, occasion, my humor and surplus energy find necessary and possible. Some- times I succeed; but many days as I go home at night, I feel that on the morrow I must make a change in the day's menu. ILLINOIS PRINTING CO., DANVILLE, ILL. (31134-3500) 3 0112 105727322