HISTORY IN PRIMARY GRADES 2/5 



of characters and events of the story. In addition to them, 

 every pupil is expected to use his own training in drawing 

 in making original illustrations for his own written repro- 

 duction. 



During the presentation of the story, questions are asked 

 by the teacher to see that the thought has been fully grasped. 

 This dropping into conversation is the more necessary be- 

 cause a story that is read in the author's own version usually 

 contains many new words ; the sentences are more involved 

 than in stories which the teacher has carefully adapted to 

 the development of the children; it is also more difficult to 

 get the continuous thought out of reading than to grasp it 

 from a well told story. Therefore reading aloud to the chil- 

 dren is a training for them that must not be neglected. 

 They must be learning to enjoy books, and the desire to read 

 for oneself should be assiduously cultivated. 



The reproductions begin to vary in their nature. Instead 

 of trusting simply to the memory of successive events as 

 a framework for the complete story, the 

 Topicg pupils are frequently called upon to tell 



about a certain event, to describe some per- 

 son, or to narrate how an occurrence took place. That is, 

 the child is being trained to recite topically; to keep to a 

 certain assigned thought; to discriminate between the im- 

 portant and the trivial. Not much can be done in this line 

 of development, but the first steps are important even if they 

 are short and faltering. More pointed questions are asked 

 than in the lower classes, in order to cultivate exact obser- 

 vation and accurate retention even of details. 



Outlining, that valuable aid to later historical studies, be- 

 gins in this grade in the most elementary manner. The 



