Educ T 958, 89, 310 HARVARD GOLLEGE LIBRARY SINN AND COMPANY Copyright, 1889, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. PREFACE. A FIRST REAder should contain a great many very easy lessons, carefully graded, and so arranged as to aid sight and memory, since these powers are the most active in the process of learning to read. The style should be natural and simple, yet never in conflict with good English, and the sentences or paragraphs short, such as may be apprehended at a glance before utterance begins. This plan should continue throughout the first year, in order to establish the habit of natural and fluent sight-reading. After a few months' practice, however, long sentences may be read at sight with little effort, if divided into short sections at natural pauses, each section occupying a separate line. In such cases the pupils should read each section through as if it were complete in itself, then combine the parts and read the whole. The mind is thus aided to grasp the entire thought without undue effort, and without confusion. Extensive practice with easy reading is the surest and quickest way of laying the foundation for intelligent sight-reading of a higher grade. This is in every sense a reading-book, whatever would tend to interfere with the legitimate work of thoughtgetting and thought-expressing having been carefully excluded. The design is to show forth such an arrangement of lessons as will be most helpful to little children. The vocabulary is much more extensive than is usually found in a First Reader, yet the lessons are so graded as to form a standard of acquirement which the children will be able to attain in their first year's work. Should V any difficulty be experienced, develop some of the words on the blackboard in original sentences, according to suggestions given in the Teachers' Edition for the early stages of the work. It is now customary in all good schools to spend more or less time upon blackboard exercises as a preparation for the reading-book. The Teachers' Edition offers a complete method for conducting such exercises, which, if followed in detail, will lead to results that will be surprising to teachers who have not tried it. The whole plan is founded on an experience of many years in the school room. The introduction of Mother Goose Melodies, so delightful to little children, is in accordance with a definite purpose to furnish a series of reading-books of four grades only, each containing as much of classic literature as the conditions would allow, which may tend to the development of a taste for good reading and the early appreciation of English classics. The tendency of late years has been to underestimate the powers of children in this direction. While the special object of this book is to exemplify a particular method of teaching reading, it is equally well adapted to any of the various processes used in our schools. Grateful acknowledgment is hereby made to Miss May Stone, a teacher of large experience and eminent success, for valuable assistance, and to Prof. G. L. Farnham, formerly Superintendent of Schools at Binghamton, New York, for early inspiration in the thought method. HOW TO TEACH READING. Essentials. The crayon and blackboard, script or print representations, together with a carefully selected vocabulary, are recognized as essential appliances for teaching the first stages of reading preparatory to the introduction of books. Script is far preferable to print in the blackboard exercises, for the reason that it is more easily and rapidly executed and acquaints the pupil with a form of representation very important for him to learn;-its use offers little impediment to the immediate transition to the printed page. When little children first enter school-at five years of age, we will suppose-they have already learned how to use, intelligently, several hundred words in conversation, or to understand their meaning as they hear others use them; it is the teacher's duty to make as many as possible of these words recognizable to the eye in the briefest possible time, by both their script and their print representations, in such manner that they may be read as easily and fluently as they are uttered in conversation. Attention. Before reading can be taught successfully, by any process, it is necessary to engage the close attention of every pupil during recitation. Darwin tells of a showman who, in purchasing monkeys for exhibition, was in the habit of offering double the required price provided he might take several on trial for one week and select such as he desired. He gave vii as a reason, that in a week's time he could ascertain whether he should be able to hold the attention of the monkeys, deeming it of little use to teach those that were inattentive. Children are not wholly unlike monkeys in this respect; but the teacher cannot as easily make a selection, and, therefore, must devise means to compel their attention. These are known to her who has given the subject proper consideration, but the advantages resulting from the division of a school into small groups may not be as well appreciated. No teacher is sufficiently strong or magnetic to hold the uninterrupted attention of fifty pupils during a single recitation. Experience has shown that ten or twelve children grouped by themselves are as many as can be taught at one time with best advantage. It is better for them to stand in some convenient place that their attention may not be distracted by the immediate surroundings. Outfit. Every school-room needs appliances for the first stages of this work, which are inexpensive,—an outlay of a few dollars being sufficient to equip a whole school,—and should consist of objects, picture-books with easy reading, pieces of boards seven or eight inches square and perforated with holes for pegs or nails, bundles of worsted a few inches long arranged in colors and shades, colored paper for geometric forms, splints, etc., the uses of which will be explained hereafter. The objects should be selected with reference to representing perfectly the object-words of the vocabulary. They will arouse the dullest child, help to establish confidence at the first entrance to school, open the mind and heart to first impressions, and unloose the tongue. |