68 METHODS IN TEACHING 



children can be greatly increased in this grade by combining 



them with the verbs in the verb drills, thus 



developing in the child's mind that idea of 



relation between verbs and abverbs that is imperative to the 



correct use of the latter. In these drills care is taken to 



avoid predicate adjectives, as, he looks neat; they would be 



very confusing to these children. 



The use of relative pronouns is taught by introducing them 

 into the vocabularies of the children for connectives in the 

 sentence building exercises. If "and," "and," 



" and >" " but >" " but '" " but '" are taken awa y 

 from the children, something must be given 



in their places. Relative pronouns, conjunctive adverbs, and 

 well-chosen conjunctions are given, and the children grad- 

 ually pass into the use of fairly well-formed complex sen- 

 tences, without, however, being troubled about their gram- 

 matical analyses. If relative pronouns are grouped together, 

 if on certain days a list of conjunctive adverbs is placed upon 

 the board for use in sentence building, if the teacher is sys- 

 tematic in the presentation of this material, the children will, 

 however, acquire their knowledge systematically, and later 

 grammatical work is made easier and more practical. Com- 

 bining sentences by these aids permits considerable individ- 

 uality and is fascinating to the pupils. A list of relative 

 pronouns and two or three short sentences are put upon the 

 board : 



who I have a book. I am reading from the book, 

 whom Then the children combine: I have a book from 

 which which I am reading. I am reading from the book 

 what which I have. Have you the book from which I 

 that was reading? 



