IO4 METHODS IN TEACHING 



action words ; such as, jump, run, skip, sing, cry, separating 

 them into their sounds, the pupil performing the act as 

 soon as he recognizes the word. The pupils pronounce 

 words in a similar manner for their classmates to perform 

 the action, or for the teacher or pupils to guess. This is a 

 very important part of the work, requiring much time and 

 patience. Its mastery by the pupils means quick recognition 

 of sounds; hurried and inaccurate training leaves the chil- 

 dren incapable of taking this first step in phonics, and sub- 

 sequent work will be weak and full of errors. Games, fre- 

 quent changes of teacher and pupil in giving sounds, action 

 words, guessing contests, all tend to keep the interest from 

 lagging, until the pupils are led into a high degree of 

 accuracy in recognizing words from their sounds and in 

 separating one sound into several. Children even begin to 

 notice the inaccuracies of pronunciation, as, in for ing, kin 

 for can, although wholly dependent upon the teacher in 

 this respect. 



When the child recognizes quickly the word as a whole 

 from its sounds, and can separate a word quickly into its 



sounds, work begins with phonograms. 

 Phonograms 



Some phonogram, as at> is chosen. When, 



as in this case, it is a complete word, the children use it as a 

 word in sentences, until the teacher is sure that they know 

 just what the word is and how to use it. The children get 

 the sounds, a-t, by slow pronunciation. They are drilled to 

 associate thoroughly the letter with its sound. The letter 

 is made and the sound called for ; the sound is given, and the 

 children are asked to give or find the letter; they write the 

 phonogram. 

 When the teacher is convinced that the phonogram is 



