WORD STUDY 113 



children, and these are drilled upon frequently. Five min- 

 utes of such drill every day of the year will work wonders 

 in correct pronunciation, and, incidentally, in spelling also; 

 for words clearly written and properly enunciated accord- 

 ing to syllables are not ordinarily misspelled except by very 

 careless pupils. 



Spelling is carefully attended to in both oral and written 

 exercises every day. Words are given in lists and in sen- 

 tences. Pupils are held responsible for the 

 Spelling 



words found in the day's lessons, so that 

 the habit of noticing new words and of retaining old ones 

 is constantly encouraged. Compound words that do not 

 require the hyphen are included in the spelling lists, for 

 this is a much abused part of correct word writing. Some 

 new affixes are studied, such as: under, underdone; well, 

 welcome ; ly, manly, nicely ; er (one who) , worker, builder ; 

 ed, learned, shouted. This material should be carefully 

 listed by the teacher, so that the work for the month or the 

 year is in mind. It varies greatly according to the devel- 

 opment of the class, but it is always to be found in abund- 

 ance in the subjects read or studied by the children. 



FOURTH YEAR GRADE 



During this year the pupils become acquainted with all 

 divisions of letters, vowels, consonants, their various 

 sounds, and their combinations into digraphs and diph- 

 thongs; also with such equivalent sounds as a in ate and 

 ey in they; e in even and i in machine. Calling attention 

 to these points and making a few lists of illustrative words 

 obviates many of the difficulties of spelling. The simple 

 rules of phonics, to be found in any good manual on the 

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