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INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDIES 



Suggestions Regarding Oral Teaching. One lumdred and 

 sixty-five of the returns had no suggestions to offer on oral teach- 

 ing of history. The remaining 114 of the total returns represent 

 those who had ideas on this phase of the work and wish others to 

 share them. Since these suggestions were given primarily to help 

 those engaged in oral history teaching, it seems worth while to insert 

 them as they were given, indicating just how many times each one 

 occurs in the replies in order to show the prevalence of the various 

 suggestions: Have material well organized (7) ; use many ques- 

 tions (4) ; should be well outlined and illustrated (4) ; get the 

 teacher full of her subject (6) ; clear and concise reproductions, 

 useless otherwise (8) ; limit to primary grades (2) ; get interest of 

 pupils, stop when this fags (4) ; few points will give better results 

 than many that are vague (3) ; should be very vivid (4) ; main- 

 tain continuity (2) ; as dramatic as possible without being sensa- 

 tional (4) ; the aim to be clear and definite (2) ; teacher not to do 

 all the talking (2) ; story based on outline on the board (2) ; select 

 important phases, treat them intensively (2) ; should not be simply 

 a 'pouring-in process' (1) ; have definite field to cover (1) ; work 

 on new period introduced orally by teacher (1) ; teacher to be a 

 good story teller (2) ; animate and give the story local coloring 

 (1) ; make the story true to history in essentials (1) ; must not be 

 carried too far in the upper grades (1) ; a pleasing voice and ability 

 to make points stand out are necessary (1) ; told, not read (22) ; 

 questions must lead to definite end (2) ; encourage the pupils to tell 

 a story they have heard or read (1) ; give in a simple and straight- 

 forward manner (2) ; impersonate historical characters (1) ; fre- 

 quent reviews (1) ; have teachers with training in story-telling (2) ; 

 have pupils do supplementary reading (2) ; reproduce entire story 

 rather than answer questions (1) ; oral teaching a farce above 

 fourth grade (1) ; must be in reach of children (2) ; no superfluous 

 words, instruction real, interest vital (3) ; should create a love of 

 history (1) ; keep in story form (2) ; read historical poems to chil- 

 dren (1) ; dramatize in grades I, II, III, and IV (1) ; use as sup- 

 plementary to text (2) ; correlate with other subjects (2) ; cultivate 

 ease and freedom in pupils (1). 



All the answers and courses of study submitted indicate that 

 some of the great needs in oral teaching at present are to have 

 teachers who can tell a story, and some definite instructions as to 

 the method of presentation and more definite material. The in- 

 struction to teachers given in one course will illustrate what is 



