A Type Lesson

A TYPICAL READING LESSON FROM THE BOOK.

MONTH OF SCHOOL.

Parts of the lesson.

FOURTH

1. Connecting the lesson with the child's experi ence by a question or two.

2. Teaching the new words from blackboard sen.. tences.

3. The use of the book.

TEACHER. "Have you ever seen a rainbow, John?" JOHN. "Yes, I saw one yesterday afternoon. It was such a bright one."

TEACHER. "What colors seemed the most beautiful to you?"

JOHN. "Oh, I liked the blue and the red and the green, but all of them were beautiful."

TEACHER. "Did all of us see that rainbow? I did, and I thought about you and hoped you were looking at it."

Then, placing a glass prism in the sunlight, the the teacher points, until they discover the rainbow. Then she writes on the board: "See the little rainbow!"

A child begins to read, but is puzzled by the word rainbow. The teacher tells the word, but after the sentence is read by several children she asks, "If you should ever forget this word, how could you find it out for yourselves?" The children give the sounds

represented by the following letters, to which the teacher points, one by one, r-a-n-b-o.

She then writes: "The colors are very beautiful.” If several children look puzzled, she asks, pointing to the word colors, "Does this word trouble you? How does it begin?" The children give the sound of the initial letter.* The teacher gives the vowel sound and the children repeat it after her. Then they go back and give the initial sound and the sound of o in quick succession, following with 1 and r, as the teacher points, until they discover the word.

After this sentence is read, a child is asked to read both the sentences from the board. The teacher erases the first two words from the last sentence and substitutes Rainbows. Several children read the new sentence.

"Red is a beautiful color." "Green is a beautiful color." "Blue is a beautiful color."

These sentences are written one after another, giving drill, and a thought-producing drill, upon the new words beautiful and color. Several children

read each, trying to make us know that they really feel these things, if they do.

Then the teacher says, "I want to ask you something. It is going to begin, 'Have you

I'll ask it on the board."

seen the rainbow before?"

She writes, "Have you

"Ask Edith, Harold,"

she says. Then erasing the words the rainbow, she

* The chapter on Phonics gives extended drill on this work.

substitutes these colors. The children ask and answer these questions. Turning from the board to a set of printed words prepared on perception cards with the aid of a sign printer, the teacher says, "Hiawatha saw the rainbow one day. The book tells about it. Here are some words you'll need to know before you can read the story."

Again, the teacher shows words on which she wishes to give further drill, in appropriate sentence settings. She emphasizes the words by reading all of the sentences except the words to be recalled, pausing expectantly when she comes to their places that the children may pronounce them. All of the sentences, or merely the drill words, may be written, the teacher speaking the others.

"The sun was in the sky."

"It was in the western sky."
"The rainbow was in the eastern sky."
"Hiawatha asked questions.'

"Nokomis answered the questions."

As the teacher shows the words again and without comment, the children as individuals pronounce them and in some cases give the sounds of the letters to "help them remember."

The class then turn to page sixty-six in the IIiawatha primer and read the page, each sentence studied through silently by all the pupils, then read orally by a few. The teacher often asks for several review sentences to be read by one child, and finally the page is read as a whole by one or two pupils.

Seat work supplementing such a lesson as this might consist in word building of letter cards.

It may consist also in the sorting of colored worsteds, placing a red bit by the side of the word red, etc.

CHAPTER IX
PHONICS

A large proportion of the letters in our written language represent sounds. A knowledge of what sounds various letters stand for helps a child to find out for himself words new to his eye, but already in his spoken vocabulary. The diacritical marks used in the dictionary help him to pronounce words new to both eye and ear. A pupil has no need for diacritical marks so long as he is meeting in print and script only words familiar to his ear.

The work in phonics should aim at giving the child a real mastery over the printed page. Some say that he should be independent of the teacher as soon as possible. Others prefer to delay this matter of independence a little while for the sake of habits they think more important, but all, probably, agree that the pupil should grow steadily in ability to gain new words for himself.

Avoid Formality

The teaching of these sound values to the children should be done with the least possible amount of "red tape." The children are to look upon these symbols as tools with which they are to do things. The sooner they are masters of their tools, the