READING 



4940 



READING 



will make the new lesson most helpful and in- 

 teresting. If the selection chosen, for instance, 

 is & cutting from a book, a brief sketch of the 

 book and of the part which the selection plays 

 in it will add interest. Or if the children have 

 had thoughts and experiences which will aid 

 them in understanding; what they are going to 

 read, these should be brought out by means of 

 an informal conversation. At times it may be 

 wise to write on the board and explain the 

 words in the newly assigned lesson which are 

 certain to give trouble. 



After this preparation the pupil is ready for 

 the reading of the selection. The first reading 

 should be silent, and of course the teacher has 

 no means, except the later oral reading, of 

 knowing how carefully this phase of the work 

 has been done. Occasionally she may require the 

 pupils in her older classes to write out without 

 their books the sense of a paragraph or of a 

 brief selection. This should not be resorted to 

 very frequently, however, nor should this 

 method be used with prose selections which 

 are conspicuously beautiful in style, nor with 

 poetry. 



When the pupil has learned to read intelli- 

 gently, he should be encouraged to read hastily 

 that is, to take in the sense of a line at a 

 glance. If each word receives in turn the un- 

 divided attention of the reader, comprehension 

 of a sentence or of a thought unit as a whole is 

 impossible. 



Oral Reading. Though this is, as stated 

 above, for the most part a means to an end, it 

 is of the utmost importance, and should re- 

 ceive the most careful attention. Since the 

 main object of reading is to secure information, 

 getting the thought is of even more importance 

 than correct pronunciation. Fortunately, the 

 teacher can almost always tell by the inflec- 

 tions whether or not the pupil is "getting the 

 sense," and obvious failure to do so should 

 never go unnoticed. Sometimes, however, a 



pupil becomes discouraged if he is constantly 

 stopped in his reading and corrected, and the 

 teacher may find it wise to wait until the para- 

 graph or other thought unit has been finished 

 before offering criticism. Several ways of sug- 

 gesting improvement are possible. The teacher 

 may read the paragraph just as the pupil has 

 read it, and allow him to discover the faults of 

 his method himself; or she may allow the 

 other pupils to criticise. This is frequently an 

 excellent process, but the teacher should see 

 to it that these criticisms are offered in the 

 right spirit. A variation of this idea is to allow 

 one pupil to read until a mistake is noticed by 

 one of the others, then to let the latter continue 

 the reading until he, too, is "tripped up" by a 

 third pupil. 



If one pupil reads too slowly and another too 

 rapidly, the two may be given a paragraph to 

 read in unison, with the provision that they 

 must keep together. Occasionally, if a pupil's 

 reading is persistently monotonous, he should 

 read in concert with the teacher, copying her 

 inflections. On the whole, however, concert 

 reading in any form has little to commend it; 

 it is better for the pupil to read, once a week 

 by himself and receive careful criticism than 

 for him to read in concert with the whole class 

 every day. 



Persistent drill is needed to overcome such 

 faults as reading too rapidly or too slowly or 

 with too little expression, as well as to over- 

 come embarrassment, but the teacher should 

 beware of drilling one pupil too long on the 

 same thing. If he becomes discouraged or tired, 

 harm rather than good will result. After all, 

 the teacher will remember that it is reading and 

 not elocution which is being taught; she will 

 realize that her chief duty is not to criticize or 

 to judge the pupil's work, but to help him to 

 appreciate the beauties of what he reads and 

 to be able to interpret them so that others may 

 enjoy them also. 



Selections for Study 



Two poems, which never fail to appeal to 

 children everywhere, are here given, with sug- 

 gestions as to the method of dealing with them 

 in a reading lesson. Certain definite rules 

 should be kept in mind : 



1. The value of a study may be decidedly less- 

 ened, if not destroyed, if the selection does not 

 suit the age and capacity of the class. A fairy 

 story in which third-grade pupils will delight Will 

 rouse only scorn in the boys of the sixth or sev- 

 enth grade. 



2. A selection should never be laid aside until 

 the teacher is certain that every word is under- 

 stood by the pupils. 



3. Drill on any selection, especially a poem, 

 should not be continued until the class becomes 

 weary and the selection loses its beauties. Many 

 a man dislikes poems which might otherwise 

 mean much to him, just because they were "dry 

 studies" to him in his childhood. 



4. Bits of information as to the life of the 

 writer, the subject he is discussing or the cir- 

 cumstances under which the selection was writ- 

 ten arouse the children's interest effectually. 



