Beginners' Book in Language Part 27

When the fairy left the room, the planning and wishing would begin. Each pupil would probably have a wish very different from that of his cla.s.smates. Some of the plans and wishes would be very interesting. It would be fun to hear them all.

=Oral Exercise.= Tell your cla.s.smates how you would like to spend the long summer vacation if you could spend it any way you wished.[83]

=NOTES TO THE TEACHER=

(The page number following each note number indicates the first appearance of the note in the text)

=Note 1= (page 1). Although the lessons in this book are addressed to the pupil, it will probably be advisable for the teacher to reproduce the procedure of the first ones orally and independently of the text, rather than to confront the cla.s.s at once with the printed page. In some instances, however, it will be preferred from the beginning to work out each lesson as it stands, the cla.s.s reading and studying the text with the teacher (the "study recitation"). In no case should there be haste.

If the teacher finds that the Christmas lessons cannot easily be reached by December, or the valentine lessons by early February, much depending on the cla.s.s, judicious omissions are advised. The plan of the text makes this both permissible and easy. The teacher is asked to read the Preface and is strongly urged to read the entire book, including the Notes, at the beginning of the year's work.

=Note 2= (page 1). The spirit of play should pervade the composition period. Pupils should feel as free and happy as on the playground. It is suggested that they be encouraged to "let go" when they are playing stories. Let there be much action, even exaggerated action. Let there be unembarra.s.sed speaking, even if it be sometimes a little louder than necessary. Let there be energetic pantomime. When animals are imitated, or sleepy boys, or elves, let it be done with a will, perhaps even ludicrously. This freedom and abandon of play and fun will help lay the foundation for natural, vigorous, and interesting self-expression.

=Note 3= (page 2). A number of pupils may be asked to show how the sleepy boy looked as he wakened. Let each one lie on the platform or floor before the cla.s.s, apparently fast asleep; then awaken and stretch and yawn prodigiously; and finally awake fully and realize lazily that mother is at the bedside. This may represent an awakening from dreamless sleep. Next, let each player awake with a start, as Tom may have done after his exciting dream. It may be advisable with some cla.s.ses, as a preliminary "warming up," to ask that (for example) flying a kite, riding a horse, picking flowers, sweeping and dusting a room, rowing a boat, be represented in pantomime.

=Note 4= (page 3). No finished dramatic product is looked for in these exercises. The ends are (1) the pupils' keen pleasure in the activity and expression involved in the play; (2) the creation of a situation that means for the pupils freedom and absence of self-consciousness; (3) purposeful speech by the children "in the situation"; (4) development of increasing interest in the story as a basis for further, and now story-telling, expression work. _No_ rehearsing, _no_ memorizing of speeches, but originality, extemporaneous expression, natural, spontaneous speech, are desired. Later on, different pupils should be asked to be managers of plays, selecting players, giving stage directions, urging the actors to speak more, to act more naturally, etc.

=Note 5= (page 3). It is desirable that all pupils take part in the dramatizations, and not only the favored or the forward few. Besides, each pupil should be encouraged to play the part _as he sees it_.

Originality, not thoughtless imitation, is desired. It is the _differences_ that will be recognized as interesting and valuable in schoolrooms where individuality is encouraged; and it is the differences that justify repeated playing of the same story before the same audience. See Note 57.

=Note 6= (page 4). It is astonishing and delightful how well little people do when they are permitted to take the initiative and to a.s.sume responsibility. Frequently pupils should be allowed to work out a play alone, the teacher helping only when asked or when the situation calls loudly for her a.s.sistance.

=Note 7= (page 4). If the purpose of language teaching is the improvement of pupils' speaking and writing, pupils must speak and write abundantly. But they must do more. Two garrulous housewives may gossip over the back fence for years and at the end of that time speak no better than at the beginning. The same grammatical errors with which they began, the same infelicities of expression, the same lack of organization, the same meager and overworked vocabulary, the same misp.r.o.nunciations and slovenly utterance, will still be there. Why is this? The reason indicates clearly that it is not enough that pupils speak and speak and write and write. This is only half the battle. In addition there must be continual attention to the problem of improvement in speaking and writing. This improvement is a task of years, and only one step can be taken at a time. In these first lessons criticism should be directed mainly to the matter of the pupil's expressing himself fully. See Notes 20 and 64.

=Note 8= (page 5). As pupils suggest improvements, Tom's dream should be rewritten on the board, sentence by sentence, the point being throughout that Tom did not tell all that he had in mind. The cla.s.s will greatly enjoy and profit by seeing Tom's original bald, fragmentary story become a vivid narrative, full of interesting detail and realistic color. See Note 64. Later this should be compared with Tom's improved narrative as it stands on pages 5 and 6. Pupils should not conclude, however, that _length_ is necessarily a virtue in compositions. What is desired is not mere fullness but fullness of interesting detail.

=Note 9= (page 7). After pupils have read the introduction to the poem, or the teacher has freely developed one (see Note 1), the poem should be read aloud by the teacher, in order that the cla.s.s may be impressed at once with its rhythm and thought. A second reading by the teacher, immediately following the first, may be advisable, in order to deepen the first favorable impression. With most cla.s.ses every selection in the book should be read, the first time, by the teacher to the cla.s.s. Many teachers memorize the poems, reciting instead of reading them.

=Note 10= (page 7). Some teachers will desire to use the second half of this poem. Judiciously employed, that half will be greatly enjoyed by children and will, in fact, give added point to the first half.

=Note 11= (page 7). When the force of each word has been explained, pupils should use it in sentences of their own and thus show that they understand its meaning.

=Note 12= (page 8). Far better than the traditional correction of completed papers by the teacher at home it is for the teacher to walk up and down the aisles while pupils are busy copying, and to point out sympathetically their mistakes, making concrete and constructive suggestions where they are needed.

=Note 13= (page 9). The best way for the pupil to memorize, as is well stated in Pillsbury's "Essentials of Psychology," page 192, is "to read through the whole selection from beginning to end, and to repeat the reading until all is learned, rather than to learn bit by bit." The teacher should join the cla.s.s in reading the poem aloud repeatedly, in order that pupils may have the right emphasis and expression while they memorize.

=Note 14= (page 9). Pupils will enjoy, in this connection, hearing some of the wonderful tales, which might very well have been fantastic dreams, of Baron Munchhausen. See "Tales from Munchhausen," edited by Edward Everett Hale (D. C. Heath & Co.). The telling of dreams involving comical situations should by no means be discouraged. The funnier they are, other things being equal, the better.

=Note 15= (page 9). The term _group exercise_ designates in this book those cla.s.s activities in which pupils manage the matter in hand mainly themselves, or in which they work together on a problem as in a laboratory.

=Note 16= (page 10). It is suggested that the term _sentence_ be used incidentally by the teacher while writing on the board. The beginning capital letter and the final punctuation mark (period or question mark) should be pointed out, as well as capital _I_, also incidentally.

Besides, the terms _punctuation mark_, _period_, and _question mark_ should receive pa.s.sing notice. The object is to give pupils a preliminary acquaintance with these technicalities. No definition of the sentence should be attempted in this grade, but the foundation for sentence sense may be laid successfully.

=Note 17= (page 10). Improvement here should take the form of adding interesting and significant details, as was done on pages 4 and 5 in the improvement of Tom's dream. The matter of variety in expression may be lightly touched. By no means should the work be formal or heavy or above the heads or interests of the pupils. So far as possible let them make the suggestions.

=Note 18= (page 10). Let the dictation clearly indicate, by a dropping of the voice and by a pause, the end of each sentence. Thus the dictation work will be a drill rather than a test in the writing of sentences. Preparation for dictation work may include counting the capital letters in the selection to be written, counting the periods, etc. It is suggested that occasionally the pupils be asked to repeat each sentence aloud as it is read by the teacher, and then write it.

=Note 19= (page 11). See page 21 for the fuller presentation of _saw_ and _seen_. In this connection the teacher need hardly be reminded that good English is largely a matter of habit rather than of knowledge, and that repet.i.tion under stimulus and in the atmosphere of interest is the means of establishing habits. Of course the game is one of the best of these means.

=Note 20= (page 12). Encourage originality. Applaud unusual conceptions.

Let pupils give free rein to their imaginations. Some of the best sentences may be written on the board, both for their content interest and to emphasize again the capital letter at the beginning, the punctuation mark at the end, and capital _I_. Besides, work in variety of expression or in amplification may profitably become an incident of the game. Thus, a sentence like "I saw an automobile" offers a real opportunity. It should be placed on the board. By means of questions the cla.s.s should be led to amplify it, to give it definition, color, interest. What sort of automobile was it? Was it new or old? Where was it? Who was in it? Etc. Finally the original meager sentence becomes, "I saw an old, unwashed automobile that stood by the roadside with the driver asleep on the back seat," or, "I saw a shining new automobile spin noiselessly down the street with three laughing children on the back seat." See Notes 7 and 64.

=Note 21= (page 18). While the fable of the ants and the gra.s.shoppers is occupying the attention of the pupils certain cla.s.sic phrasings of its lesson may profitably be put on the board. See Proverbs, Chapter VI, verses 6-11, besides the quotations below. A lesson devoted to the study of these may be given, followed by exercises in copying and memorizing.

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

"Work while it is day: for the night cometh, when no man can work."

"There is a time for work and a time for play."

"He that will not work shall not eat."

"When you play, play with all your might. When you work, do not play at all."

=Note 22= (page 20). Pupils should stand before the cla.s.s as they tell their stories. Only when they _face_ their cla.s.smates can they speak _to_ them effectively. There is no good in pupils' speaking unless they speak _to_ some one. They must, like adults, have a real audience and something to tell that audience which it does not already know. Or, if there be repet.i.tion, this must be for a purpose that is of interest to the audience and therefore to the speaker.

=Note 23= (page 23). A little talk on "Sharp Eyes" is suggested.

=Note 24= (page 25). The expansion should not go too far. There is no virtue in mere length. Quality of work should be emphasized. Besides, one of these fables, the shortest one, is to be used in the subsequent exercise in copying.

=Note 25= (page 25). The work in copying should be motivated by placing before the pupils the problem involved, namely, making an exact reproduction of the original. _Can it be done?_ This is the question before the cla.s.s. Copy only a part of a fable rather than make the exercise too long. See Note 12.

=Note 26= (page 28). It is suggested that the room be decorated appropriately for these lessons that deal with Indian subject matter.

Possibly a small Indian tepee may be pitched in one corner of the schoolroom. A Navajo rug may adorn the wall, and pictures of Indian weapons, tools, utensils, and other articles of various kinds may be drawn in color on the board. Besides the book quoted in the text, Frederick Starr's "American Indians" (Heath) and Gilbert L. Wilson's "Myths of the Red Children" (Ginn), from the latter of which the Indian ill.u.s.trations in the present textbook have been taken with the kind permission of Mr. Wilson, will be found replete with authoritative information. At the discretion of the teacher this problem of room decoration may be solved in a series of group exercises in English (see Note 15), each pupil expressing his views as he stands before the cla.s.s.

Pupils will enjoy drawing tepees, tomahawks, Indian chiefs, squaws, and papooses on paper with colored crayons; dressing dolls as Indians; dressing themselves as Indians; making tepees, canoes, etc. out of paper and cardboard; making an Indian scene on the sand table.

The following are war whoops or Indian calls: "Ki-yi, whoo-oo! Ki-yi, ki-yi, ki-yi, whoo-oo!" and "Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!"

=Note 27= (page 39). It is suggested that this exercise be preceded by a pantomime in which a pupil plays that he is wandering through the woods, while the cla.s.s pretend that they are Indians waylaying him. Some may approach on the river in canoes. Some may follow his tracks on the ground. The women and the papooses would remain in the safe background.

Finally the boy is captured. Then a little extemporized dramatization takes place before the captured boy makes his speech. Sensitive children should perhaps be informed that such captures no longer happen.

=Note 28= (page 40). This game is designed to help stop the incorrect use of _got_. If some chicken feathers can be obtained, each player may wear one.

=Note 29= (page 41). Some Indians call January "Cold Moon," April "Green-Gra.s.s Moon," May "Song Moon," June "Rose Moon," and November "Mad Moon."

=Note 30= (page 42). The antidote for the _and_ habit is not a _don't_ but a _do_. If pupils are trained to drop the voice at the ends of sentences and to make a pause there, not only will many thoughtless _and's_ remain unspoken, but sentence sense will be developed. Let the cla.s.s read the January selection in the text, exaggerating the pause at the end of each sentence.

=Note 31= (page 46). The teacher should not hesitate to modify any game to suit the needs of the cla.s.s. Games 1 and 2 on pages 46 and 47 should be played on different days, to avoid confusion. Few mistakes will be made in these easy games, nor are mistakes desirable. The repet.i.tion of the correct form is desirable. It must not be a thoughtless repet.i.tion.

=Note 32= (page 47). Parent cooperation in the work of eradicating common errors is to be sought. Some schools send cards to the pupils'

homes, explaining the errors for the removal of which the teachers ask the help of the parents.

=Note 33= (page 47). Pictures of fairies should now be drawn on the board, in order to help create the proper atmosphere for the present lessons. Later in the month let Christmas decorations be added. Perhaps a small Christmas tree could be brought in and ornamented with inexpensive colored papers. See Note 26.

The story in the text may be used for story-telling, although it is given here merely to create an appropriate atmosphere for the pupils'