Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education Part 14

=Use of Study Lessons.=--There is a danger that the study lesson may be used too much or too little. In an ungraded school containing many cla.s.ses, the teacher may be tempted to rely solely upon the study lesson as a means of intellectual advancement. Used exclusively it becomes monotonous, and the pupils grow weary of the constant effort required.

On the other hand, in the graded school, where a teacher has charge of only one cla.s.s, there will be a tendency to depend entirely on the oral presentation of lessons, to the exclusion of the text-book altogether.

The result is that pupils do not cultivate the power to obtain knowledge from books. The study lesson should alternate with the oral lesson, so that monotony may be avoided, and the pupils will reap the undoubted benefits of both methods.

THE RECITATION LESSON

=Purpose of the Recitation Lesson.=--The recitation lesson is the complement of the study lesson. Its purpose is to test the pupil's grasp of the facts he has read during the study period. Incidentally the teacher clears up difficulties and corrects misconceptions on the part of the pupil. The facts of the text-book may be amplified from the teacher's stock of information. Abstract facts may be ill.u.s.trated in a concrete way. The important facts may be emphasized and the unimportant ones lightly pa.s.sed over. The ultimate aim of the recitation lesson is to add something to the pupil's power of interpreting and organizing facts.

=Precautions.=--Some precautions are to be noted in connection with the recitation lesson. (1) Care must be exercised that the pupils are not reciting mere words that have no solid basis of ideas. Young children are particularly expert at verbalizing. (2) Care must also be taken that the pupils have not merely sc.r.a.ppy information, but have the ideas thoroughly organized. (3) The teacher must know the facts to be recited well enough to be independent of the text-book during the recitation. To conduct the lesson with an open book before him is a confession of weakness on the part of the teacher.

CONDUCTING THE RECITATION LESSON

There are two methods of conducting the recitation lesson, namely, the question and answer method and the topical method.

=A. The Question and Answer Method.=--This is the easier method for the pupil, as he is called upon to answer only in a brief form detailed questions asked by the teacher. The onus of the a.n.a.lysis of the lesson rests largely upon the teacher. He must ask the questions in a proper sequence so that, if the answers of the pupils were written out, they would form a connected account of the matter. He must be able to detect from the pupils' answers whether they have real knowledge or are merely masquerading with words. To be able to question well is one of the most valuable accomplishments that a teacher can possess. The whole problem of the art of questioning will be considered in the next Chapter.

=B. The Topical Method.=--The topical recitation consists in the pupil's reporting the facts of the study lesson with a minimum of questioning on the part of the teacher. Two advantages are apparent: (1) It gives the pupil an excellent training in organizing his materials, and (2) it develops his language power. It is to be feared that the topical recitation is not so frequently used as its value warrants. The reason is probably that it is a difficult method to follow. Poor results are usually secured at first, teachers grow discouraged, they stop trying it, and thereafter put their whole faith in the question and answer recitation. This is unfortunate, for however good the latter may be, it is greatly inferior to the topical recitation in helping the pupil to inst.i.tute relations among his facts, and in improving his power to use his mother-tongue effectively. Successful topical recitations can be secured only at the price of long, patient, and persistent effort. The teacher can gradually work towards them from detailed questions to questions requiring the combination of a few sentences in answer, and thence to the complete outline. In almost every lesson the pupils may be called upon to summarize some topic after it has been gone over by means of detailed questions. In such answers the pupils may reasonably be expected to state the facts in their proper connection and in good language form. In reviews, also, in such subjects as history and geography, the pupils should be frequently called upon to recite topically.

THE DRILL LESSON

=Purpose of Drill Lesson.=--The Drill Lesson involves the repet.i.tion of matter in the same form as it was originally learned, in order to fix it in the mind so firmly that its recall will eventually become automatic.

In other words, the function of this type of lesson is habit-formation.

It is necessary in those subjects that are more or less mechanical in nature, and that can be reduced to the plane of habit. The field of the drill lesson will, therefore, be largely restricted to spelling, writing, language, and the mechanical phases of art and arithmetic.

=The Method.=--As the purpose of the drill lesson is the formation of habit, the method will involve the application of the principles that lie at the basis of habit-formation. These are, (1) attention to the thing to be done so as to obtain a vivid picture or a clear understanding of it, and (2) repet.i.tion with attention. For instance, if the writing lesson is the formation of the capital E, the cla.s.s will examine carefully a model form, note the parts of which it is composed, the relative size and position of the parts, how they are connected, etc. Then will follow the repet.i.tion of the form by the pupils, each time with careful attention to the method of making it, comparison with the model, and the noting of defects in their work. This will continue until the letter can be made correctly without attention, that is, until the method of making it has been reduced to a habit. If the lesson is on the spelling of difficult words, the first step will be to observe the p.r.o.nunciation of each, the division into syllables, the difficult part of the word, and the order of the letters. Then the word will be repeated attentively until it can be spelled without effort. In a language lesson on the correct use, say, of "lie" and "lay," the pupils will first be called upon to observe the forms of each, "lie, lay, lain, lying," and "lay, laid, laying"--as used in sentences on the black-board, and the meaning of each group--"lie" meaning "to recline"

and "lay" meaning "to place." The pupils will then repeat attentively the correct forms of the words in sentences, until they finally reach the stage when they unconsciously use the words correctly, or as habits of speech. The same principles apply in learning the addition and multiplication tables, and the tables of weights and measures in arithmetic; in the memorization of gems of poetry and prose; in the learning of dates, lists of events, and important provisions of acts in history; and in the memorization of lists of places and products in geography, where this is desirable. In all the cases mentioned, it must not be supposed that a single drill lesson will be sufficient for the fixing of the desired knowledge or skill. Before instant and unconscious reaction can be depended upon, repet.i.tion will be needed at intervals for some time.

=Danger in Mere Repet.i.tion.=--In connection with the repet.i.tion necessary in the second stage of the drill lesson, an important precaution should be noted. It is impossible for anybody to repeat anything _attentively_ many times in succession unless there is some new element noted in each repet.i.tion. When there is no longer a new element, the repet.i.tion becomes mechanical, and hence comparatively useless so far as acquisition of knowledge or even habit is concerned. To ask a pupil who has difficulty with a combination in addition, or a product in multiplication, or the spelling of a word, to repeat it many times in succession, may be not only waste of time, but even worse, because a tendency toward mind-wandering may be encouraged. The practice of requiring pupils to write out new words, or words that have been mis-spelled in the dictation lesson, five, ten, or twenty times successively, cannot be too strongly condemned. The attention cannot possibly be concentrated upon the work beyond two or three repet.i.tions, and the fact that pupils frequently make mistakes two or three words down the column and repeat this mistake to the end, is sufficient proof of the mechanical nature of the process. The little boy who had difficulty with the use of "went" and "gone," and was commanded by his teacher to write "I have gone" a hundred times on his slate, ill.u.s.trates this principle exactly. He had been left to finish his task alone and, after writing "I have gone" faithfully forty or fifty times, grew tired of the monotony of the process. Turning the slate over, he wrote on the other side, "I have went home" and left it on the desk for the teacher's approval.

=How to Overcome Dangers.=--To avoid this difficulty, some device must be adopted to secure attention to each repet.i.tion until the knowledge is firmly fixed. For instance, instead of asking the pupil many times one after the other, what seven times six are, it would be better to introduce other combinations and come back frequently to seven times six. In that way the pupil would have to attend to it every time it came up. Similarly, in learning to spell a troublesome word like "separate,"

the best plan would be to mix it up with other words and come back to it often. Repet.i.tion is always necessary in the drill lesson, but it should always be _repet.i.tion with attention_.

THE REVIEW LESSON

=Purpose of Review Lesson.=--As the name implies, a review is a new view of old knowledge. While the drill lesson repeats the matter in the same form as it was originally learned, the review lesson repeats the matter from another standpoint or in new relations. The function of the review lesson is the organization of the material of a series of lessons into an inter-connected whole, and incidentally the fixing of these facts in the mind by the additional repet.i.tions.

=Kinds of Review.=--Almost every lesson gives opportunities for incidental reviews. The step of preparation recalls old ideas in new connections, and may be properly considered a review. A lesson on the "gerund" in grammar would require a recall of the various relations in which a noun may stand, and the various ways in which a verb may be completed. It is quite probable that the pupils have never before brought these facts together in an organized way. Similarly, the step of expression affords opportunity for review. The solution of problems in simple interest confronts the pupils with new situations in which this principle can be applied. The reproduction of the matter of the history lesson requires the selection of the important facts from the ma.s.s of details given and the placing of these in their proper relationship to one another.

But besides the incidental reviews which form a part of nearly all lessons, there must be lessons which are purely reviews. Without these, the pupil, because of insufficient repet.i.tion, would rapidly forget the facts he had once learned or would never really know the facts at all, because he had not seen them in all their connections. There are two methods of conducting these reviews: (1) by means of the topical outline, (2) by means of the method of comparison.

THE TOPICAL REVIEW

=Purpose of Topical Outlines.=--By this method the pupil gets a bird's-eye view of a whole field. In learning the matter originally, his attention was largely concentrated upon the individual facts, and it is quite probable that he has since lost sight of some of the threads of unity running through them. The topical outline will bring these into prominence. It will enable the pupil to keep in his mind the most important headings of a subject, the sub-headings, and the individual facts coming under these. Whatever may be said against the practice of memorizing topical outlines, it must be acknowledged that unless it is done the pupil's knowledge of the subject is likely to be very hazy, indefinite, and disconnected.

=Ill.u.s.trations from History.=--As an ill.u.s.tration of the review lesson by means of the topical outline, take the history of the Hudson's Bay Company. If the pupil has followed the order of the text-book, he has probably learned this subject in pieces--a bit here, another some pages later, and still another a few chapters farther on. In the multiplicity of other events, he has probably missed the connections among the facts, and a topical review will be necessary to establish these. He may be required to go through his history text-book, reading all the parts relating to the Hudson's Bay Company. He will thus get a grasp of the relationships among the facts, and this will be made firmer if an outline such as the following is worked out with the a.s.sistance of the teacher.

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY

I. EARLY HISTORY:

1. Groseilliers and Radisson interest Prince Rupert in possibilities of trade in North-Western Canada. Two vessels fitted out for Hudson's Bay. Report favourable.

2. Charter granted Hudson's Bay Company by Charles II, 1670.

3. Forts Nelson, Albany, Rupert, and Hayes attacked and captured by DeTroyes and D'Iberville, 1686. Restored by Treaty of Utrecht, 1713.

II. NATURE OF FUR-TRADE:

1. Furs gathered by Indians in winter.

2. Conveyed to forts in summer, after incredible difficulties.

3. Ceremonies on arrival of Indians at forts.

4. Articles exchanged for furs at first showy and worthless, but later more useful and valuable, for example, guns, hatchets, powder, shot, blankets, etc.

III. RIVALS OF HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY:

1. Coureurs-de-bois.

2. Scottish traders--ranged from Michilimackinac to Saskatchewan.

H.B. Co. built c.u.mberland House on Saskatchewan to compete for interior trade.

3. North-West Company, 1783-4--at first friendly to H.B. Co., but later bitter enemies.

IV. THE SELKIRK SETTLEMENT:

1. _Establishment._--Lord Selkirk, a Scottish philanthropist, and a shareholder in the Hudson's Bay Co., purchased from the Company 70,000 square miles of land around Red River for Scotch colonies, 1811. About three hundred settlers came within three years. Miles Macdonell at head of the colony.

2. _Trouble with North-West Company._--

(_a_) Suspicion of N.W. Co. that colony was established by H.B. Co.

to compete for fur trade.

(_b_) Proclamation of Macdonell that food should not be taken out of settlement. Attack on colony by Metis Indians encouraged by N.W.

Co. Withdrawal of colonists to Lake Winnipeg.

(_c_) Return with reinforcements under Semple. Skirmish at Seven Oaks, 1816. Semple with twenty others killed.

(_d_) Selkirk's descent upon Fort William. Arrest of several Nor'Westers. Colony at Red River restored.

(_e_) Nor'Westers acquitted of murder of Semple. Selkirk convicted and heavily fined for acts of violence. Selkirk withdrew from Canada in disappointment and disgust.