26 METHODS IN TEACHING 



readily in later years. This recognition of the figures by 

 fifth grade pupils and naming them correctly should come 

 slowly and by imitation, rather than by drills and direct 

 teaching. The teacher explains often how she recognizes each 

 one, and the children gradually acquire the same power. 

 The first step, that of selecting a comparison, will be enough 

 for many slowly maturing minds. 

 The following thoughts are from a fifth grade teacher : 1 

 Little reproduction is attempted with the poems by Long- 

 fellow, for it is thought better to have the child retain the 



Reproduction poet ' s own charmin g expressions. Two of 

 the main objects of this year are to inspire 

 in the child a love for the beauty of the thought expressed 

 in a poem, and a recognition of some beauty of form as 

 found in rhythm and musical rhymes. If a reproduction of 

 such a poem as " The Village Blacksmith " is asked for, we 

 find it all cheapened, even to the child himself. He is right 

 when he says, " I know it, but I can't say it." Who would 

 attempt to express those thoughts in any language but that 

 of Longfellow? In a poem like "The Wreck of the Hes- 

 perus," where a clearly defined story is found, reproduction 

 is in place ; but it is the story of the whole that is asked for, 

 not an exhaustive paraphrase of stanza after stanza. 



After reading the poem for the first general conception, 

 we go back and make a more intensive study. The pupils 

 are asked to look out for themselves the 

 Study meanings of the new words found in the 



stanzas, slow work at first, for at the begin- 

 ning of the year a fifth grade pupil is but slightly acquainted 

 with his dictionary, and has to be given special lessons in its 

 1 Miss Elma Hopkins. 



