I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 1. Most important of all, meaning of what is read should engage the child's mind primarily, rather than mastery of the mechanics. It is possible to approach reading through the everyday uses as well as through the story element. In this course meaning is brought to the fore: the method of attack, however, is entirely on the plane of the child and of his abilities and desires. The course is built around the following. 1. Reading through Doing. 2. Reading through Games. 3. Reading through interpretation of Directions. 4. Reading through motivated Story Parties. -- this sentence is 2. Reading should be considered as a thinking process. Ability to read implies ability to see similarities and differences like that, this one is different from that and to draw conclusions or make judgments, which are either voiced by reading words aloud or are interpreted in some way. ""To read,' says E. L. Thorndike in discussing understanding of sentences, "means 'to think' as truly as does 'to evaluate' or 'to invent' or 'to demonstrate' or 'to verify.' The problem of the first-grade teacher is to do everything in her power to make these similarities and differences stand out clearly to the child, so that his grasp of a sentence, phrase, or word is quick and accurate. For this reason matching exercises will always play an important part in helping the child to help himself. While these lessons are built on this sound interpretation of reading as a matter of recognizing similarities and differences and pronouncing judgments, they go a step beyond that. They approach reading through something of more vital concern to the child. They attack the reading task through the thing in which he is most interested not dramatization primarily, not matching primarily, important as these are. They combine reading with the child's beloved activities. It is READING THROUGH DOING, all the reading units are related to interesting things which the child is doing, the directions for which he gladly reads in order to do that which he wishes to do. Reading is associated with meaning. Reading should not be mere word calling" or thinking of words individually. From the very first day of school the child should grasp ideas that are larger than mere words; as, Good morning instead of Good and morning. 1 Thorndike, Edward L.: 'The Understanding of Sentences." The Elementary School Journal, October, 1917. Therefore, this course aims: 1. To develop matching power ("Three-decker" cards, puzzle games, 2. To give children reading exercises daily that compel actual think- 3. To lead children to draw conclusions from facts read. (Thought 4. To lead them to see big facts in relation to the ideas of a selection. 3. Proper eye movements must be cultivated. Experimentation has shown that the eye moves across the page (in good reading) in a series of jerks, pausing for a fractional moment at points along the line (called 'fixation points"), where it gathers up an eye full" of words. The fol lowing curves somewhat explain the movements across the page and back. A E B C Ꭰ A, B, C, D=fixation points. A-B, B-C, C-D-eye sweeps. The eye moves in a straight line but the curve makes the idea of sweep" clearer. The latter is equivalent to the space from A to B. It is desirable to develop the habit of: 1. Reading a line with few eye sweeps (or pauses). 2. Not pausing at each word, but taking in groups, or phrases. eye 3. Not having to retrace to pick up ideas missed at the first movements across the page. 4. Not making lip movements, when reading silently. 5. Having the eye return to the right spot to begin the next line. Science is able now to photograph the movements of the eye across the page. It has found that if a child is blocked by an unknown word, the regular progression is interrupted, and the eye flutters back and forth in a vain effort to pick up the thought. To aid in the formation of right reading habits, this course aims: 2. To prevent "blurs" by anticipating new words. 3. To give perception drills of phrases and sentences that train the eye to grasp more than a single word. 4. Blackboard reading (called Pre-Primer work) is advisable before entering upon the work in the actual Primer. It is the practice in the most progressive schools1 to use the first few weeks of school for this purpose. This course, therefore, presents: 1. A Pre-Primer period of five weeks. 2. A transitional period of two weeks to induct children into reading of the Primer. 3. A complete series of exercises for all such work. 5. There should be a definite motive for reading. Probably the best motive is reading to find out something that interests one. Is it not possible that children might be furnished with the same motive for reading a story that adults have; namely, the desire to read for the pleasure of reading or the need to learn something, and not merely to get practice in the mechanical act of reading? 6. Real-life motives should be applied in oral reading. One great result of present-day investigations in primary reading is that actual motives from real life are for the first time sensibly applied to the child's reading problem. Why do we read aloud, we adults? We read aloud to give information to somebody, or to give pleasure to others, or to fix in our own minds something important, or to give ourselves the joy that comes from interpreting beautiful thought in speech. Can not these same motives be applied to our training of children in oral reading? The Manual presents ways and means of doing these things. The real cause of "word calling" is a wrong emphasis. Too much stress has frequently been put on oral reading because the teacher thought that the child's pronouncing a word aloud was the only way to find out whether he understood the symbol. It is now believed that a child's recognition of a new word can be tested in other ways than by having child after child rise and drone his stumbling way down the page. Oral reading in this course is motivated. The children read aloud: In the Nineteenth Yearbook (Part I) of the National Society for the Study of Education you will find interesting first-hand accounts of reading exercises based upon children's experiences and used for blackboard work. 7. Training in silent reading can be begun in the first grade. Not only is every bit of oral reading motivated or made to count, but proper stress is put on silent reading from the first day of school, and the every-day needs of silent reading are taken into consideration. With what motives do adults read silently? We read to enjoy a story. We read for information. We read to find an answer to some question. We read to verify an opinion. We read to find out the details of which some striking picture is the climax. We read because the illustrations of a book invite us to read. We read a play because later we are going to see it presented. We read to preserve our personal safety, for failure to read various signs in a community might lead to disaster. - We are constantly reading, merely to conduct our daily lives to buy eggs at a certain price, to take a train according to a printed schedule, to find a certain counter in a department store, to go to the moving-picture play we wish to see, to take the right street car for our destination, to pay a bill, to handle money. We are constantly interpreting street signs and traffic signals, official titles, numbers on houses, telephone and city directories, store signs, people's names, and advertisements. The whole community is built around the necessity of being able to interpret printed symbols correctly. Silent reading is getting the thought directly from the printed page. Oral reading is not only getting the thought from the printed page but it is giving it out simultaneously through the voice. It, therefore, involves ability in silent reading combined with use of the vocal powers. It is possible for a child to comprehend the meaning of a word without being able to enunciate it correctly. It is frequently found that he can pronounce a word with seeming intelligence and yet have no idea of its meaning. Through silent reading exercises a child's knowledge of words can often be more surely tested than by having him read aloud. It is not knowledge of single words that counts most; it is the child's ability to fit words with others and grasp their meaning in connection with the whole. This course strikes at once at the community need for interpreting correctly the printed word. Progressive silent reading exercises for following directions and interpreting symbols are given daily. The method for exercising silent reading involves a number of definite procedures: 1. Reading directions in daily Seat Work. 2. Reading incidentally for a great variety of purposes. Games play a Use is made 8. The game spirit should be used to motivate drill. well-merited part in educating children of this young age. of that principle in as varied and absorbing a way as possible. One might say that the course is built around games: 1. To teach phonetic (or phonic) principles. 2. To test a new reading unit. 3. To get the spirit of certain selections. 4. To teach new words through action. 9. The content of a Primer and a First Reader should arouse the child's interest. This course appeals to the child through 1. His immediate world and activities. 2. His interest in the story. 3. His liking for the simple child-like poem. 4. His interest in pictures on his plane. 10. The preparatory procedure should build backgrounds to aid understanding. To understand what is read even adults need: 1. Knowledge of backgrounds, theme, situations, etc. 2. Knowledge of vocabulary. Reading matter can be connected with the child's experience by means of conversation or picture study anticipatory to actual reading. In this course all the seeds that later will flower in understanding of a story or of a situation are planted in the child's mind before his actual reading. This is done without his working on the actual story in such a way that he memorizes it. For several years teachers have approached reading through the folktale, for they have felt that the child's native interest in a good story would so engender the desire to read that he would easily acquire the mechanics. Realizing that the material of a folk-tale at the beginning of a year's work was beyond the child's grasp unless he were familiarized with it, teachers have had to use a preliminary procedure to make the children familiar with the material before they actually read it for themselves. In many cases the teacher tells the story to the class, the class tell it back to her, they dramatize it, and then as a climax they read the story for themselves. The greatest value of this procedure is that it develops a commendable reading attitude and inducts into imaginative literature. The greatest objection, however, is that the children have a tendency to read a page parrot-fashion, on account of memorizing the story and repeating it without any real thinking on their part. |