﻿HISTORY STUDY IJT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 43 



Under the first division just mentioned are the following : 

 'Reading tables organized, pupils bring books and magazines'; 

 'debates on historical subjects'; 'paragraph analysis as a means of 

 teaching how to study'; 'historical fiction and poems to supple- 

 ment'; 'current events to connect past and present'; 'tales by old 

 soldiers, early settlers, men of talent in some line, and persons who 

 have visited historic places'; 'flag day pupils taught why flag is 

 waving'; 'the studies of one typical northern colony and of one 

 southern, relate all others to these two'; 'writing biogTaphical 

 sketches using a picture of the man, his home, etc., for illustra- 

 tions'; 'organize Constitutional Convention, assigning pupils to 

 represent men', 'visit suitable places and institutions in local his- 

 tory', 'use School City for civics', 'put up daily work where it 

 can be seen', 'the pupil-teacher' method of recitations', 'child 

 comes before the class and tells the storj^ in the first person', 

 'printed blanks for reports in supplementary reading', 'graphic 

 representation of historic facts', 'study cross-section of country at 

 given periods', 'use longitudinal method of treating topics', 'fre- 

 quent use of "word" review', 'give each pupil a specific task', 

 ' organize the entire work of the school for several days around one 

 historic thought', 'singing patriotic songs', 'clippings from news 

 papers and magazines displayed in room', 'naming important 

 dates and asking for events and vice versa', 'pupils operate the 

 stereopticon and describe the pictures'. 



The class of devices requiring a brief description to be under- 

 standable show some interesting attempts to make history concrete. 

 They are given in the Avords of the one reporting. Characteristic 

 ones are: 



(a) 'Teacher impersonates certain characters, as a definite way 

 to tell pupils about the person studied ; the teacher has been a Per- 

 sian soldier. King Cyrus, Eskimo woman, Arab, and a Chinese lady 

 of high lineage. The children act with the teacher', 



(5) 'Allow pupils to criticise each other both as to facts pre- 

 sented and language used. Pupils address each other by name. 

 The pupil criticised must accept the suggestion or defend his posi- 

 tion'. 



(c) 'Have a set of history cards, choose sides with captains. 

 When a card cannot be guessed by the side on which it started, 

 and the other side does guess it, the captain has a right to take the 

 first side's best guesser'. 



