6O METHODS IN TEACHING 



on the board from their readers, and copying from the board 

 the composite stories from literature, history, 

 Language or nature study. These are drills for cor- 



rect forms. By the end of the seventh 

 month the pupils are able to write little original stories occa- 

 sionally, in which they use their own reproductions in place 

 of the composites and try to remember capitals and correct 

 punctuation. 



The children often illustrate their little stories with their 

 own crude drawings. Sometimes pictures are collected from 

 newspapers or magazines and placed upon the teacher's desk ; 

 every pupil chooses one, names it, pastes it on his paper, and 

 writes the story that it suggests to him. This is a satis- 

 factory basis for a written exercise. 



The above report is adapted from the words of a teacher 

 engaged in a quarter of the city where there are many chil- 

 dren of foreign parentage, some of whom hear little English 

 except when in the schoolroom. In other schools, where 

 pupils come from homes in which English is the usual lan- 

 guage, and where parents ordinarily work intelligently and 

 sympathetically with the teacher, more is accomplished in 

 the first year and different methods can be employed, although 

 the general work is the same. 



From the many exercises found in a notebook belonging 

 to a first grade child, a few have been selected. They are 

 uncorrected, just as the pupil copied them from the board. 



I 

 Questions and Answers. (Written in January.) 



Did you go to the train ? I went to the train. He went 

 home. 



