THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 //.. 
 
 ? 
 
 >*
 
 READING: 
 HOW TO TEACH IT.
 
 GIKI, KKADI.M;.
 
 Reading : 
 How To Teach It 
 
 By 
 
 Sarah Louise Arnold 
 
 Supervisor of Schools, Boston, Mass., and author of 
 
 " Stepping Stones to Literature," " Waymarks 
 
 for Teachers," etc. 
 
 Silver, Burdett and Company 
 Boston New York Chicago
 
 Copyright, 1899 
 
 BY 
 SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY
 
 Education 
 Library 
 
 GREETING. 
 
 The teacher of children must know how to 
 guide her work so that the seemingly trivial 
 beginnings shall tend toward a goal whose at- 
 tainment is worth striving for. Hers is a 
 day of small things. The child does not see 
 the end from the beginning, but the teacher 
 must, and the constant recognition of the de- 
 sired object must influence her simplest lesson. 
 
 These pages are written in the hope of help- 
 ing teachers to appreciate the true import of 
 the familiar task. They attempt to interpret 
 and to dignify the commonplace routine. They 
 have grown out of thoughtful experience, and 
 are sent forth with good will, to their service. 
 
 SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD. 
 
 Boston, Mass., 
 July, 1899.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 I. WHY Do WE READ ? . . . 9 
 II. LITERATURE IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM . 25 
 
 III. LEARNING TO READ . .45 
 
 IV. THE STUDY OF THE LESSON . . 87 
 V. LANGUAGE LESSONS AS A PREPARA- 
 TION FOR READING LESSONS . 105 
 
 VI. EXPRESSION IN READING . .117 
 
 VII. LESSONS TO SUGGEST PLANS OF 
 
 WORK 139 
 
 VIII. LESSONS TO SUGGEST PLANS OF 
 
 WORK CONTINUED . . .157 
 
 IX. THE STUDY OF PICTURES . .185 
 
 X. HINTS FOR READING LESSONS . 199 
 
 XI. THE USE OF THE LIBRARY . . 223 
 
 XII. A LIST OF BOOKS . . . .251 
 
 XIII. A LIST OF POEMS . . . .273
 
 Consider what you have in the smallest 
 chosen library. A company of the wisest and 
 wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil 
 countries, in a thousand years, have set in best 
 order the results of their learning and wisdom. 
 The men themselves were hidden and inacces- 
 sible, solitary, impatient of interruption, fenced 
 by etiquette ; but the thought that they did not 
 uncover to their bosom friend is here written 
 out in transparent words to us, the strangers 
 of another age. We owe to books those general 
 benefits which come from high intellectual ac- 
 tion. Thus, I think, we often owe to them the 
 Perception of immortality. They impart sym- 
 pathetic activity to the moral power. Go with 
 mean people, and you think life is mean. Then 
 read Plutarch, and the world is a proud 
 place, peopled with men of positive quality, 
 with heroes and demi-gods standing around 
 us, who will not let us sleep. Then they ad- 
 dress the imagination : only poetry inspires 
 poetry. They become the organic culture of 
 the time. College education is the reading of 
 certain books which the common sense of all 
 scholars agrees will represent the science al- 
 ready accumulated. In the highest civiliza- 
 tion, the book is still the highest delight. 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
 
 READING: 
 HOW TO TEACH IT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHY DO WE READ ? 
 
 THE power to read is so ordinary a 
 part of our mental equipment that 
 we rarely question its meaning or its ori- 
 gin. All common things pass us unchal- 
 lenged, however marvellous they may 
 be. We take little note of our sunrises 
 and sunsets, the hill range which we see 
 every day from our window, the clear 
 air which infuses new energies into our 
 lives with every new morning. Com- 
 mon institutions, however precious the
 
 io Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 home, the school, the church, the state 
 are received by us as a matter of course, 
 just as children receive without surprise 
 the most valuable gifts from the hands 
 of their friends. We need not marvel, 
 then, that this power, which has so long 
 been a part of ourselves, should remain 
 unquestioned, or that we learn to read 
 without giving a thought to the motive 
 which impels us to learn. It may be 
 well for even the most thoughtful among 
 us to pause for a moment to question 
 why everybody learns to read ; to pon- 
 der the returns from the effort, the time, 
 and the pains spent in the mastery of 
 the art. 
 
 It is evident that our estimate of the 
 value of reading will depend upon our 
 kind of reading ; or, in other words, the 
 kind of knowledge which we gain from 
 reading. For example, you and I may 
 turn to the daily newspaper for a certain
 
 Why Do We Read ? 1 1 
 
 knowledge to direct our everyday plans. 
 We wish to go to the city on the mor- 
 row: this evening's paper warns us of 
 an approaching rain ; we therefore pro- 
 vide ourselves with an umbrella before 
 starting on our journey. Or we desire 
 to hear Nansen's lecture: the news- 
 paper apprises us of the time, the place, 
 the subject, the cost of tickets, the place 
 where they are to be sold, the arrange- 
 ment for extra trains. Or, again, we 
 plan a trip to Florida: the ways and 
 means of going, the departure and arri- 
 val of trains, the choice of routes, the 
 cost of the journey, the hotels which we 
 may expect to find, together with a 
 thousand other items, all these are 
 learned by means of time-tables, guide- 
 books, and printed pamphlets, which we 
 carefully read before going. Without 
 this information which has been written 
 down for us, and without this power on
 
 12 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 our part to read it, our journey would 
 be to us like that of a traveller in 
 an unexplored country, except as our 
 friends give us the result of their ex- 
 perience. The business man consults 
 the paper to learn of the quotations of 
 stocks and bonds, the arrival or depar- 
 ture of ships, the scarcity or abundance 
 of crops. The enthusiastic bicyclist 
 learns of the proposed runs of the club 
 through the obliging columns of the 
 paper; his guide-book supplies the di- 
 rections which take him safely to his 
 journey's end, or the descriptions which 
 interpret to him the places through 
 which he rides. Can we imagine our- 
 selves as bereft of this power of reading 
 the printed directions which are every 
 day consulted by us for our ordinary 
 convenience ? How limited, how hin- 
 dered our lives would seem to us with 
 this power withdrawn !
 
 Why Do We Read ? 13 
 
 Through the various agencies to which 
 we have referred, and similar sources 
 equally familiar to us, we share the_gx- 
 perience of others and add to our limited 
 life that which they have learned for us. 
 Our power is multiplied, our convenience 
 is assured, our happiness is increased by 
 means of the work which lias been done 
 by others. The fruit of others' thought 
 and experience is stored ready for our 
 use as soon as we have mastered the art 
 of reading. Therefore, in order that we 
 may add to our own power by sharing 
 the experience and wisdom of others in 
 the management of our everyday, prac- 
 tical affairs, we have learned to read. 
 
 And, furthermore, as members of a 
 community we need to know what others 
 are doing. We cannot live to ourselves 
 alone. Ordinary intelligence demands a 
 knowledge of contemporary events. A 
 strike in the Fall River mills, a freshet
 
 14 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 in the Connecticut Valley, a cyclone in 
 Iowa, a frost in Florida, a famine or a 
 pestilence in India, a war in Cuba, the 
 threatened partition of China, the acces- 
 sion of Hawaii, are matters which per- 
 tain to us also. In these days of rapid 
 transmission of intelligence, the world 
 has become one great family, and in 
 proportion as one recognizes his respon- 
 sibility to the brotherhood of which he 
 is a member, he will be interested to 
 know the deeds of other men, the hap- 
 penings in other communities. These 
 exert a direct influence upon our own 
 / environment. Therefore we read to ob- 
 / tain knowledge of the life about us, in 
 countries near and remote ; and in pro- 
 \ portion as our interest is wide and intel- 
 \ ligent does such reading become a ne- 
 \ cessity to us. 
 
 Moeovr y _ an intelligent judgment of 
 the events of the present involves a
 
 Why Do We Read? 15 
 
 knowledge of the past, which to so large 
 a degree determines the present. What 
 men have done, what they have discov- 
 ered, what they have thought, in the 
 ages that are past, enables us to inter- 
 pret the present. A complete knowl- 
 edge of our own time is the possession 
 only of the man who can read the past. 
 The history of any nation, the develop- 
 ment of any art or science, the growth 
 of any religion can be known only to 
 him who reads. The student of his 
 
 V 
 
 own times must turn to the life of the 
 yesterdays for answers to the problems 
 which are confronting him. The ex- 
 perience of the past has been chronicled 
 in books in order that we may share the 
 blessings of that experience. How nar- 
 row seems the life of the person who is 
 without the power to read even the out- 
 lines of that history ! We have but to 
 imagine the books of the past as closed
 
 16 Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 to the entire world, and the power of 
 reading as cut off from every one, to 
 realize the individual loss when the 
 power of thus reading is withheld. It 
 is a recognized truth that the broader 
 one's life, the greater his consciousness 
 of the necessity for general knowledge 
 such as is gained from books. 
 
 A fourth type of reading is suggested 
 by the ministrations of literature. If 
 we imagine ourselves as seated by the 
 study table reading our favorite poem, 
 we shall recognize that it has been 
 through the reading of literature that 
 much of our highest inspiration has 
 come to us. It is the poet who brings 
 to us true insight into our own experi- 
 ence, who interprets for us the great 
 problems of life. With what joy and 
 exultation we recall our magnificent 
 hymns ! What waves of emotion sweep 
 over us as we read the lines in which
 
 Why Do We Read? 17 
 
 the master hand has recorded the deep- 
 est experiences ! For enjoyment, for 
 culture, for spiritual help we turn to 
 the higher order of books. In the tru- 
 est sense, this reading directs our lives, 
 interprets our experiences, and deter- 
 mines our ideals. We cannot imagine 
 ourselves as defrauded of this birth- 
 right. How meagre would our lives 
 at once become if every vestige of the 
 treasures of literature was removed from 
 our experience: the army without the 
 battle hymn, the home without the 
 poem, the struggle without the psalm 
 of courage, the mortal defeat without 
 the inspiring shout of spiritual triumph ! 
 In attempting thus to picture a life 
 without the inspiration of literature, we 
 realize our dependence upon its teach- 
 ings. The higher our conception of liv- 
 ing, the fuller our realization of the help 
 which comes to us through literature.
 
 1 8 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Our motives in reading, then, may be 
 recorded in an ascending series: To 
 obtain practical guidance in everyday 
 affairs; to enrich our lives with the ex- 
 perience of our neighbors ; to share the 
 wisdom resulting from the experience of 
 the past; to gain pleasure, insight, and 
 spiritual direction. Any one of these 
 motives would be sufficient to warrant 
 us in teaching reading; through any one 
 of these results we are fitted to become 
 better members of the community. But 
 can we draw the line, giving to our chil- 
 dren the lower results only, where so 
 much might well be given ? 
 
 We have asked why we read, and 
 the question which naturally follows is: 
 " What shall we read ?" We must be 
 able to read ordinary facts affecting our 
 everyday life, expressed in the terms of 
 that life. Such reading involves little
 
 Why Do We Read ? 19 
 
 growth. Its purposes are exceedingly 
 practical in the ordinary sense of the 
 term. There is little widening of our 
 horizon, little deepening of our experi- 
 ence in consequence of such practice. 
 Second, we should read such books and\ 
 papers as will serve to inform us of \ 
 contemporary events, such events as I 
 really have a bearing upon our present I 
 environment or the life of the future. 
 This reading gives us knowledge of 
 other peoples and places, widening our 
 horizon, and urging us back to study, 
 with clearer eyes, the environment which 
 has been constantly about us. Only 
 thus can we truly see the life which is 
 nearest to us. Third, the reading of 
 the past leads us to the pages of history 
 in which the best has been chronicled. 
 As has been said, the knowledge of the 
 present can be obtained only through 
 the interpretation of the past. That
 
 2O Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 life is narrow indeed which confines its 
 range to the present alone. And fourth, 
 we must be able to read and interpret 
 literature, a reading which requires a 
 fuller power than any which has been 
 heretofore described, and involves a 
 higher type of teaching. 
 
 In the thought of many parents and 
 friends of the school, the immediately 
 practical aim of reading is the only one 
 considered. Because reading facilitates 
 buying and selling, coming and going, 
 and is ordinarily accepted as a mark of 
 intelligence, it is considered as an essen- 
 tial in our school courses. But the 
 higher our conception of life, the higher 
 will be our conception of education ; and 
 with the higher conception of education 
 comes the acceptance of the higher aim, 
 even in our simplest teaching. We may 
 learn to read in such a way that we 
 never rise beyond the first result of our
 
 Why Do We Read? 21 
 
 attainment. This will almost assuredly 
 be the case if the so-called " practical " 
 aim is the only one considered ; but if, 
 from the beginning, the teacher's hope 
 and that of the parent are that the child 
 may grow into fuller power, we shall 
 find his life strengthened and inspired 
 by the loftier aim, by the surer accom- 
 plishment of the greater result. " Seek 
 ye first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness, and all these things shall 
 be added unto you." The old saying is 
 far from being interpreted in these days 
 of hurrying to obtain the immediate and 
 the practical, but it is forever true that 
 as our aim becomes higher, the type of 
 our work becomes nobler, while the 
 character of the results justifies our en- 
 deavors. The greater will include the 
 less, but the lower aim may never lead 
 to the higher. Can we dare to with- 
 hold from our children the comfort, the
 
 22 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 inspiration, the strength, the guidance 
 that has come tc us through the higher 
 type of reading ? Is it not a necessity 
 that, from the beginning, they shall be 
 taught to look forward to such power of 
 acquisition as shall open to them the 
 treasures of experience which have been 
 written down for them in the best 
 books ?
 
 // is as undesirable as it is impossible to try 
 to feed the minds of children only upon facts 
 of observation or record. The immense prod- 
 uct of the imagination in art and literature 
 is a concrete fact with which every educated 
 being should be made somewhat familiar, such 
 products being a very real part of every indi- 
 vidual's actual environment. . . . Do we 
 not all know many people who seem to live in 
 a mental vacuum to whom we have great 
 difficulty in attributing immortality, because 
 they apparently have so little life except that 
 of the body ? Fifteen minutes a day of good 
 reading would give any one of this multitude 
 a really human life. ''The uplifting of the 
 democratic masses depends upon the implant- 
 ing at schools of the taste for good reading." 
 CHARLES W. ELIOT.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LITERATURE IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. 
 
 LEARNING to read is an important 
 part of the children's training, but 
 learning what to read is quite as impor- 
 tant. A child's mastery of the printed 
 page may leave him with the key to that 
 which is base and ignoble in literature, 
 or it may open to him that which is 
 noble and inspiring. His newly gotten 
 power may unlock to him the dime 
 novel, or the Iliad. Whether he turns 
 to the one or to the other depends 
 largely upon his early associations. It 
 is determined especially by his early 
 teaching.
 
 26 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 To present the right standard or pat- 
 tern is one of the functions of the 
 teacher. This is equally true whether 
 the lesson be the form of a Latin verb, 
 the shape of a vase, the polite fashion of 
 address, or the choice of books. To set 
 the copy was of old the teacher's part, 
 and it must still occupy a prominent 
 place in our work. For the sake of giv- 
 ing the children right ideals, we must 
 place before them the best in literature, 
 such literature as will supply not only 
 standards in language, but ideals in 
 character. Their experience, like ours, 
 must be reenforced by the teachings of 
 others the lessons which have been 
 treasured in books and these lessons 
 must begin in childhood. It is a mis- 
 take to postpone good literature until 
 the child has mastered word forms and 
 the technique of reading. His love for 
 the good must exist before he begins to
 
 Literature in the School-Room. 27 
 
 read at all, and must be stimulated and 
 strengthened by means of his reading. 
 At the same time that he becomes mas- 
 ter of the mechanics of reading, he 
 should be endowed with the desire to 
 choose that which is good to read. The 
 work of the teacher, therefore, is to 
 establish ideals, to quicken desire, to 
 strengthen right tendencies, to lead to 
 wise choices. These belong to the teach- 
 ing of reading, and should assume quite 
 as important a place as does the mastery 
 of words, or fluency in expression. 
 
 As has been said, good literature 
 should not be postponed until the chil- 
 dren can read it for themselves. A 
 study of our own experience will assure 
 us that the teachings of our childhood 
 have made the most lasting impression 
 upon us. It is the childhood associa- 
 tion which moves us most strongly to- 
 day. As the twig is bent the tree is
 
 28 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 inclined. There comes a time in the 
 tree's history when its inclination is 
 fixed. It is the young tree which is 
 shaped by the skill of the nurseryman. 
 The best of poems should be read and 
 recited to little children. ' Tell me a 
 story," or " Read to me," is the oft- 
 repeated plea in the home. It indicates 
 the child's desire, and his need as well. 
 Let us be taught by the children. Here 
 is our opportunity to present to them 
 the story that is worth telling, the poem 
 that is worth reading. ' Tell it again," 
 we hear, after every recital, and again 
 and again and again the loved story is 
 repeated. Should we not be assured 
 that the oft-heard word is worthy of this 
 frequent repetition ? If the child asks 
 for bread, shall we give him a stone ? 
 
 In the home, long before the child en- 
 ters school, he should become familiar 
 with true stories, fairy stories, exquisite
 
 Literature in the School-Room. 29 
 
 songs, beautiful poems, adapted to his 
 intelligence, suited to his interest. If 
 this good work has been done at home 
 it should be continued by the teacher. 
 If it has been neglected by the home 
 friends, it necessarily becomes a part of 
 the teacher's work. The child's mind 
 should be furnished with the best stories 
 and poems before he begins his primer. 
 So shall he long to master the art which 
 shall open books to him for his own 
 reading, and every step which his baby 
 feet take in the path to his desire shall 
 bring him consciously nearer to the 
 longed-for treasure. 
 
 Through the first years of the school 
 life, telling stories, reciting poems, or 
 reading to the children should be a fre- 
 quent exercise. This may occur in the 
 time of the reading lesson, in the lan- 
 guage lesson, or the morning talk. The 
 benefits derived from this practice are
 
 3O Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 two-fold. The stories and the poems 
 give to the children new material for 
 thought ; they also help them to acquire 
 a taste for good things which will cause 
 them to choose instinctively that which 
 is good when they are left free to choose. 
 Children who have been accustomed to 
 the stones of the Iliad, will read and 
 re-read this treasure in later life with an 
 advantage which could not have been 
 theirs had not the heroes of the old 
 story been the companions of their 
 childhood's thought. We can hardly 
 imagine that boys accustomed to such 
 associations will be satisfied with the 
 cheap and pernicious pages of the dime 
 novel. A mind well furnished with 
 good things will appropriate good to 
 itself. It is the empty head which be- 
 comes filled with that which is cheap 
 and mean. The children of a certain 
 city were once asked without previous
 
 Literature in the School-Room. 31 
 
 notice to write down something which 
 they had memorized. Those who had 
 not been taught in school to memorize 
 choice selections, wrote pages of curious 
 and uncouth rhymes, which they had 
 learned in various ways. The exercise 
 proved conclusively that they must be 
 helped to choose wisely. The choice 
 will never be between the good and 
 nothing, fulness and emptiness : it will 
 always be a choice between the good 
 and the bad. 
 
 Let us read to the children, then. 
 Let their own desires guide our selec- 
 tion in the beginning. The true story, 
 the fairy story, the poem, may be read 
 or recited in turn. The children's plea 
 for repetition will teach us what their 
 present choice is. If we are wise we 
 shall be instructed by their comments 
 and questions. 
 
 Three rules should guide our choice
 
 32 Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 of literature: First, give the children 
 what is good. Second, give them what 
 we like. Third, give them what they 
 like. 
 
 The first rule needs no interpretation. 
 With so much that is precious waiting 
 to be taught, we cannot be satisfied 
 with any lesson material worthless in 
 itself. Life is too short and its time 
 too sacred to admit of such harmful 
 dallying. 
 
 The second rule is always a safe one. 
 We must teach that which belongs ta 
 us. We cannot give to the children 
 what is not ours to give. The poem 
 or story which we enjoy because it an- 
 swers to something in our nature, we 
 shall be able to teach to them. We 
 may repeat, but we cannot teach, that 
 which has not entered into our own 
 lives. Therefore, if we do not love and 
 appreciate what is good in literature, our
 
 Literature in the School-Room. 33 
 
 first duty is to teach ourselves, in order 
 that we may be prepared to teach the 
 children. 
 
 The third rule necessitates a study of 
 the children as well as a study of litera- 
 ture. Songs and stories which are en- 
 tirely suited to one class may fail to 
 interest another. Those which we like 
 may not attract the children. Hence, 
 we must watch them through our story- 
 telling or our reading, and judge, by 
 their attention, their comments, their 
 silence, their indifference, where their 
 interest lies. We must begin with that 
 which appeals to their child life, their 
 present interest; but we shall not end 
 there. We must lead them to a fuller 
 enjoyment and to a wider interest, by 
 giving them always a little more than 
 that for which they ask. 
 
 There is much in the pages of the best 
 literature which is already suited to chil 
 3
 
 34 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 dren's understanding. Let us choose 
 that first. But we shall dare to add 
 much which they do not fully under- 
 stand as yet, knowing that the future 
 will interpret to them that which is now 
 hidden. It is a mistake to cut litera- 
 ture to the children's comprehension. 
 Let us trust that they will feel in some 
 measure the beauty which they cannot 
 understand, and that their future ex- 
 perience will unlock the door which is 
 now shut to them. 
 
 The writer remembers a class of chil- 
 dren children who came from rude 
 homes, whose lives were narrow and 
 hindered, who, nevertheless, listened 
 with intense interest to the poems 
 which their teacher read to them. It 
 happened that she once selected for 
 the morning reading the first stanzas of 
 Longfellow's poem, " My Lost Youth." 
 They listened eagerly until the book
 
 Literature in the School-Room. 35 
 
 was closed, giving evidence of apprecia- 
 tion with every return of the rhythmic 
 refrain. "Is that all?" they asked. 
 " No," was the reply, " but you would 
 not understand the rest." " Oh, read it 
 to us, even if we don't," they urged. 
 " We love the sound of it." 
 
 The writer has often heard primary 
 classes reciting Wordsworth's " Daffo- 
 dils " with great delight. Without 
 doubt the child's interpretation differs 
 from that of the man, understanding 
 is the fruit of experience, but even thus 
 early the children enter into the spirit 
 of the poem, rejoice in the beauty of 
 the daffodils, and are happy in the rhyth- 
 mic recitation. The beautiful words are 
 treasured in their memories, to return 
 again and again to gladden their hearts, 
 just as the bright vision was repeated in 
 the experience of the poet. 
 
 Give to the children, then, not only
 
 36 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 the child thought which fits the childish 
 experience, but also the treasure which 
 grows in beauty as they grow, and be' 
 comes rich as they become wise. 
 
 It is well for the teacher to cultivate 
 the art of telling stories to children. 
 The story that is told has an element o { 
 life which is not found in the story that 
 is read. There is no barrier between 
 the story-teller and his audience; the 
 book often makes a gulf between the 
 reader and his hearers. Practise story- 
 telling. Let the children's indifference 
 teach you wherein you fail ; your un- 
 conscious tutors will show you what 
 to omit and what to magnify. Their 
 training will help you in other direc- 
 tions. If you yield yourself to the 
 teaching of the children, you will be re- 
 paid by a new readiness in story-telling 
 before less kindly and less candid critics. 
 Do not forego this privilege.
 
 Literature in the School-Room. 37 
 
 It is well to read and re-read the poem 
 or story until it becomes the child's own 
 possession. The term " Memory Gem " 
 has been adopted into our familiar school 
 phrases. Whether the phrase remains 
 or not, it is to be hoped that the exer- 
 cise which it names will always have a 
 place. It has an advantage beyond sim- 
 ply reading or hearing the poem. The 
 poem which has been committed to 
 memory and recited again and again, 
 becomes the child's own. It will recur 
 to him at his play, at his work, in school 
 and out. No other thought treasure is 
 so dear to us as that which is learned in 
 childhood, and which accompanies us 
 through life. Through such indirect 
 teaching, we may remain an influence 
 for good even when our names have 
 been forgotten. By means of such tui- 
 tion the child becomes familiar with the 
 vocabulary of good literature, and is
 
 38 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 prepared to read, understand, and enjoy 
 that which would otherwise have been 
 beyond his reach. By all means con- 
 tinue the " memory gem," but be as- 
 sured that the selections are truly 
 gems. 
 
 A poem or story may be presented to 
 a child as a message from the author to 
 him. Whittier's " Barefoot Boy," for 
 example, serves not only to describe the 
 barefoot boy, but to tell the children 
 something about the poet himself. If 
 they read it with this thought in mind, 
 they will be desirous of learning some- 
 thing about the poet. This study of 
 the author should not precede the study 
 of the poem. They will care to learn 
 about Whittier because he has written 
 this charming poem for them ; now, facts 
 about his life will be filled with meaning; 
 they will rejoice in the story of his boy- 
 hood experience, and will return to
 
 Literature in the School-Room. 39 
 
 'The Barefoot Boy" with a keener 
 interest, because it has become real to 
 them through their study of the poet's 
 life. For little children (and is it not 
 true of grown-up children as well?) this 
 is the natural order of teaching. We 
 care to know about Scott because we 
 delight in " Marmion " and "Ivanhoe"; 
 we do not first learn about the author, 
 and then decide to read his works. 
 
 Other things being equal, our selections 
 for reading and for memorizing should 
 be from the world's best writers. We 
 should at least be sure that the chil- 
 dren's course of reading gives them 
 some sense of companionship with a 
 few men and women who have blessed 
 the world through their books. Hans 
 Christian Andersen, Alice and Phcebe 
 Gary, Mary Howitt, Longfellow, Whit- 
 tier, Lowell, Robert Louis Stevenson, 
 and Eugene Field have written some of
 
 4O Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 their best thoughts for children as well 
 as for men and women. Some of these 
 names should stand for real personali- 
 ties, nay, for friends, to the children, 
 before they leave school. 
 
 One question is often asked by teach- 
 ers: " Shall I give myths to the chil- 
 dren, and how? and can I give them if 
 I do not believe them nor like them at 
 all myself?" Somewhere, sometime, 
 somehow, the children should become 
 familiar with the classic myths. The 
 "sometime" should be in childhood, 
 or the myths will never fulfil their 
 true mission. They should come at 
 the time when children delight in the 
 marvellous, the fanciful, the grotesque. 
 Rightly used, they help to develop the 
 imagination, a power which is left sadly 
 to itself in school life. They serve as a 
 basis for future reading. A knowledge 
 of them is necessary to the interpreta-
 
 Literature in the School-Room. 41 
 
 tion of the best in literature. By all 
 means give them to the children, but 
 give them in their best form. They 
 should not be mutilated by any attempt 
 to embody them in words of one sylla- 
 ble. Let the child's reading of the 
 myths wait until he is able to read some 
 version couched in the purest English. 
 Meanwhile, read them to him again and 
 again, sometimes without note or com- 
 ment, for explanations are often bun- 
 gling attempts to explain that which can 
 never be explained. Let the child ab- 
 sorb into himself what the story conveys 
 to him. Answer his questions plainly, 
 if you can. Tell him you do not know, 
 if you do not ; but do not spoil his vis- 
 ions by attempting to teach vaporized 
 theories. 
 
 Enough has been said of the teach- 
 er's duty in the direction of developing 
 taste. It is self-evident that no teacher
 
 42 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 can help a child to appreciate that 
 which is beautiful, unless she herself 
 appreciates it. The fountain cannot 
 rise higher than its source. We must 
 be that which we would help the chil- 
 dren to become. Therefore, it is of the 
 utmost importance that the teacher's 
 reading be carefully directed. I know of 
 no way in which a teacher can better 
 serve her children than by reading the 
 best books. This reading will be, of 
 course, in the line of her own tastes 
 and interests. Every year, at the least, 
 a new book should become a teacher's 
 possession. She should not only buy it 
 to keep, but she should read and re-read 
 it, until its contents become a part of 
 herself. Every year should widen her 
 horizon, and enable her to see more 
 truly than she has seen before. Every 
 book thus read and re-read becomes a 
 definite force in her life, and uncon-
 
 Literature in the School-Room. 43 
 
 sciously directs her teaching. The 
 teacher who would guide her pupils in 
 the fields of literature, must herself fre- 
 quent the paths in which she desires 
 their feet to tread.
 
 If the crowns of all the kingdoms of the 
 empire were laid down at my feet in exchange 
 for my books and my love of reading, I would 
 spurn them all, 
 
 F&NELON.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LEARNING TO READ. 
 
 THE problem of teaching would be 
 solved could the teacher know how 
 her well-devised plan of action really 
 affects her pupil. Patiently and per- 
 sistently she follows her foreordained 
 method, but who can know the critical 
 moment when the mind opens to take in 
 the new idea, and to delight in the con- 
 sciousness of growth ? Who can name 
 or describe the Open Sesame that un- 
 locks the world of books to the child ? 
 
 A clear light is thrown upon our com- 
 mon problem by the charming descrip- 
 tion of one child's experience. Hugh
 
 46 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Miller, in his " Schools and School- 
 masters," tells us how he learned to 
 read, or, rather, learned to love reading. 
 We quote at length: 
 
 I had been sent, previous to my father's 
 death, to a dame's school, where I was taught 
 to pronounce my letters to such effect in 
 the old Scottish mode, that still, when I at- 
 tempt spelling a word aloud, which is not 
 often, for I find the process a perilous one, 
 the aa's, and ee's, and uh's, and rau's, return 
 upon me, and I have to translate them, with 
 no little hesitation, as I go along, into the 
 more modish sounds. A knowledge of the 
 letters themselves I had already acquired by 
 studying the signposts of the place, rare 
 works of art, that excited my utmost admira- 
 tion, with jugs, and glasses, and bottles, and 
 ships, and loaves of bread upon them ; all of 
 which could, as the artist intended, be ac- 
 tually recognized. During my sixth year, I 
 / spelt my way, under the dame, through the 
 i Shorter Catechism, the Proverbs, and the New 
 i Testament, and then entered upon her highest 
 \form, as a member of the Bible Class; but
 
 Learning to Read. 47 
 
 all the while, the process of acquiring learn- 
 ing had been a dark one, which I slowly mas- 
 tered, in humble confidence in the awful 
 wisdom of the schoolmistress, not knowing 
 whither it tended, when at once my mind 
 awoke to the meaning of that most delightful 
 of all narratives, the story of Joseph. Was 
 there ever such a discovery made before ! I] 
 actually found out for myself, that the art of 
 reading is the art of finding stories in books, 
 and from that moment reading became one 
 of the most delightful of my amusements. I 
 began by getting into a corner at the dismis- 
 sal of the school, and there conning over to 
 myself the new-found story of Joseph ,-)nor 
 did one perusal serve; (the other Scripture 
 stories followed, in especial, the story of 
 Samson and the Philistines, of David and 
 Goliath, of the prophets Elijah and Elisha; 
 and after that came the New Testament stories 
 and parables. Assisted by my uncles, I began 
 to collect a library in a box of birch-bark 
 about nine inches square, which I found quite 
 large enough to contain a great many immor- 
 tal works, "Jack the Giant-Killer," and 
 "Jack and the Bean-Stalk, " and the "Yel- 
 low Dwarf," and "Blue Beard," and "Sind-
 
 48 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 bad the Sailor," and " Beauty and the Beast," 
 and "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," 
 with several others of resembling character. J 
 
 Those intolerable nuisances, the useful- 
 knowledge books, had not yet arisen, like 
 tenebrious stars, on the educational horizon, 
 to darken the world, and shed their blighting 
 ^influence on the opening intellect of the 
 " youthhood " ; and so, from my rudimental 
 books books that made themselves truly 
 such by their thorough assimilation with the 
 rudimental mind I passed on, without being 
 conscious of break or line of division, to 
 books on which the learned are content to 
 write commentaries and dissertations, but 
 which I found to be quite as nice children's 
 books as any of the others. Old Homer 
 wrote admirably for little folk, especially in 
 the "Odyssey"; a copy of which, in the 
 only true translation extant, for, judging 
 from its surpassing interest and the wrath of 
 critics, such I hold that of Pope to be, I 
 found in the house of a neighbor. Next 
 came the " Iliad " ; not, however, in a com- 
 plete copy, but represented by four of the six 
 volumes of Bernard Lintot. With what 
 power, and at how early an age, true genius
 
 Learning to Read. 49 
 
 impresses ! I saw, even at this immature 
 period, that no writer could cast a javelin 
 with half the force of Homer. The missiles 
 went whizzing athwart his pages ; and I could 
 see the momentary gleam of the steel, ere it 
 buried itself deep in brass and bull-hide. I 
 next succeeded in discovering for myself a 
 child's book, of not less interest than even 
 the " Iliad," which might, I was told, be 
 read on Sabbaths, in a magnificent old edi- 
 tion of "Pilgrim's Progress," printed on 
 coarse, whity -brown paper, and charged with 
 numerous woodcuts, each of which occupied 
 an entire page, that, on principles of econ- 
 omy, bore letterpress on the other side. And 
 such delightful prints as these were ! It must 
 have been some such volume that sat for its 
 portrait to Wordsworth, and which he so ex- 
 quisitely describes as 
 
 "Profuse in garniture of wooden cuts, 
 Strange and uncouth ; dire faces, figures dire, 
 Sharp -kneed, sharp - elbowed, and lean- 
 
 ankled, too, 
 With long and ghastly shanks, forms 
 
 which, once seen, 
 Could never be forgotten." 
 4
 
 5O Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 /In process of time I had devoured, besides 
 these genial works, " Robinson Crusoe," 
 " Gulliver's Travels," " Ambrose on Angels," 
 the judgment chapter in Howie's " Scotch 
 Worthies," Byron's "Narrative," and the 
 " Adventures of Philip Quarll," with a good 
 many other adventures and voyages, real and 
 fictitious, part of a very miscellaneous collec- 
 tion of books made by my father. It was a 
 melancholy little library to which I had fallen 
 heir. Most of the missing volumes had been 
 with the master aboard the vessel when he 
 perished. Of an early edition of Cook's 
 " Voyages," all the volumes were now absent 
 save the first ; and a very tantalizing romance 
 in four volumes, Mrs. Ratcliff's " Mysteries 
 of Udolpho," was represented by only the 
 earlier two./ Small as the collection was, it 
 contained some rare books, among the rest, 
 a curious little volume entitled, " The Mira- 
 cles of Nature and Art," to which we find Dr. 
 Johnson referring, in one of the dialogues 
 chronicled by Boswell, as scarce even in his 
 day, and which had been published, he said, 
 some time in the seventeenth century by a 
 bookseller whose shop hung perched on Old 
 London Bridge, between sky and water. It
 
 Learning to Read. 51 
 
 contained, too, the only copy I ever saw of 
 the " Memoirs of a Protestant condemned to 
 the Galleys of France for his Religion," a 
 work interesting from the circumstance that, 
 though it bore another name on its title-page, 
 it had been translated from the French for a 
 few guineas by poor Goldsmith in his days of 
 obscure literary drudgery, and exhibited the 
 peculiar excellences of his style. The col- 
 lection boasted, beside, of a very curious old 
 book, illustrated by very uncouth plates, that 
 detailed the perils and sufferings of an Eng- 
 lish sailor who had spent his best years of life 
 as a slave in Morocco. It had its volumes of 
 sound theology, too, and of stiff controversy, 
 Flavel's "Works," and Henry's "Com- 
 mentary," and Hutchinson on the " Lesser 
 Prophets," and a very old treatise on the 
 " Revelation," with the title-page away, and 
 blind Jameson's volume on the " Hierarchy," 
 with first editions of " Naphthali," "The 
 Cloud of Witnesses," and "The Hind let 
 Loose." But with these solid authors I did 
 not venture to grapple until long after this 
 time. Of the works of fact and incident 
 which it contained, those of the voyagers 
 were my especial favorites. I perused with
 
 52 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 avidity the voyages of Anson, Drake, Raleigh, 
 Dampier, and Captain Woods Rogers, /and 
 my mind became so filled with conceptions 
 of what was to be seen and done in foreign 
 parts, that I wished myself big enough to be 
 a sailor, that I might go and see coral islands 
 and burning mountains, and hunt wild beastn 
 and fight battles. / 
 
 These reminiscences are most sugges- 
 tive. Do they not find a parallel in our 
 memory of our childhood conquest of 
 the art of reading ? 
 
 Before planning her lessons in reading, 
 the teacher will do well to review her 
 ,own experience in reading, or to scan 
 the difficulties which she has encoun- 
 tered in teaching other classes. A brief 
 , analysis of her experiences, both as a 
 pupil and as a teacher, will reveal dis- 
 tinct lines of achievement in learning to 
 read. These are illustrated in any act 
 of reading.
 
 Learning to Read. 53 
 
 " The old familiar sights of ours 
 
 Took marvellous shapes. Strange domes 
 
 and towers 
 
 Rose up where sty and corncrib stood, 
 Or garden wall, or belt of wood. 
 The bridle post an old man sat, 
 With loose-flung coat and high-cocked hat. 
 The wellcurb had a Chinese roof, 
 And even the tall sweep, high aloof, 
 In its slant splendor seemed to tell 
 Of Pisa's leaning miracle." 
 
 To read, that is, to get the meaning of 
 these lines ; or, if one reads aloud, to get 
 and to give the meaning. One who 
 truly reads "Snow-Bound" learns to 
 see the scenes which Whittier so beauti- 
 fully describes; to see them as he saw 
 them, with tender affection, and to in- 
 terpret the deeper meaning of the lines 
 of " homely toil and destiny obscure." 
 Manifestly this involves much. On the 
 surface, and first attracting the atten- 
 tion of the teacher, appears the obvious
 
 54 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 necessity of knowing the words at sight. 
 Familiarity with the forms of the words 
 used is indispensable to reading. This 
 involves knowing the sounds of the 
 words, while the power to pronounce 
 new words readily calls for knowledge 
 of the laws of English pronunciation. 
 
 In the minds of too many teachers of 
 little children, such mastery of word pro- 
 nunciation is held as reading. But this 
 is a grievous error, which leads to nar- 
 row and mechanical work, and obscures 
 the high purpose of real reading. Ref- 
 erence to the definition of reading, and 
 a study of the selection from " Snow- 
 Bound," will show us the proper value 
 of this achievement and its relation to 
 true reading. The words are the vehicle 
 of thought, a means to an end. Their 
 mastery is indispensable to reading, but 
 the reader must compass, not the single 
 word-speaking, but the meaning of the
 
 Learning to Read. 55 
 
 related words which express the author's 
 thought. Knowledge of the meaning of 
 the words used, and especially the mean- 
 ing of the words as Whittier uses them, 
 is necessary to a clear understanding of 
 the poem. The reader who would un- 
 derstand the poem must know some- 
 thing of farm life the sty and the corn- 
 crib, the garden wall, the wellcurb, the 
 sweep, and the other accessories of the 
 farm which Whittier names or describes. 
 Plainly, too, his knowledge must extend 
 further to a Chinese roof, and Pisa's 
 leaning miracle. To such knowledge, 
 observation of common life must minis- 
 ter, coupled with the study of books and 
 pictures. In other words, the reader 
 interprets Whittier's "Snow-Bound" by 
 virtue of his own experience, reenforced 
 by the experience of others as written 
 down in books, or pictured with brush 
 or pen. To the formal word-mastery,
 
 56 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 then, must be added study of the mean- 
 ing of new words, or recalling such ex- 
 perience as explains the old. The con- 
 tent, as well as the form, of the word 
 must be studied. 
 
 Added to such study, is the general 
 training which gives us power to picture 
 the unknown, interpreting a new scene 
 through its relation to our old experi- 
 ence. The ready and trained imagina- 
 tion easily pictures the scene which the 
 words conjure before the mind makes 
 real the homestead, snowbound and com- 
 fortfilled. Reading may be so taught 
 as to develop this power, which takes 
 hold on things unseen. No careful 
 teacher omits such training. 
 
 Here, then, are different phases of 
 teaching reading : mastery of the words 
 as to form and sound; explanation of 
 the meaning of new words, through 
 observation or reading; lessons which
 
 Learning to Read. 57 
 
 tend to develop power of imagina- 
 tion. 
 
 The young child who leaves his home 
 and his play to enter upon the life of the 
 school-room finds a new world awaiting 
 him, with manifold new experiences. 
 Hitherto he has romped and rambled to 
 his heart's content. All his friends and 
 playmates have in turn been his teach- 
 ers, albeit theirs has been an unconscious 
 tuition. His lessons have been in the 
 line of his desires, or suggested by his 
 natural environment. Longfellow pic- 
 tures the little Hiawatha in the arms of 
 his first teacher, the loving old Noko- 
 mis : 
 
 " At the door on summer evenings 
 Sat the little Hiawatha, 
 Heard the whispering of the pine-trees, 
 Heard the lapping of the water 
 Sounds of music, words of wonder ; 
 Saw the moon rise from the water,
 
 58 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Rippling, rounding from the water, 
 Saw the flecks and shadows on it, 
 Whispered, ' What is that, Nokomis ? ' 
 And the good Nokomis answered " 
 
 The moon, the rainbow in the heaven, 
 the Milky Way, the firefly, the owl and 
 owlet, the beaver, the rabbit, the squirrel 
 these saluted the baby boy, and awak- 
 ened his interest. ' What is that ? " he 
 cried, with eager question. " And the 
 good Nokomis answered." The little 
 Hiawatha " learned of every bird its lan- 
 guage." He was taught, not by old 
 Nokomis alone, but by bird and beast, 
 flower and field. 
 
 So with every child who enters the 
 school-room upon that fateful first Mon- 
 day in September. He brings with him, 
 not an empty head, but a mind stored 
 with the memories of varied experiences. 
 Just as the little Hiawatha gazed, pon-
 
 Learning to Read. 59 
 
 dered, questioned, learned so this child 
 has seen, has heard, has questioned, has 
 thought, has acted. What he brings to 
 school, who can tell ? What has he seen 
 and heard ? What has he liked and de- 
 sired ? What has he questioned and 
 learned ? How little we know of this 
 unwritten history! And yet it deter- 
 mines the net result of all our teaching. 
 For nothing which we attempt to teach 
 finds lodgment in the child mind unless 
 it is linked with some past experience 
 and awakens actual interest. Much of 
 our reiterated instruction falls upon deaf 
 ears, fails utterly to awaken the dormant 
 interest, because it is ill chosen. We 
 must know something about the life of 
 the children before we can wisely teach 
 them. 
 
 The thoughtful teacher remembers 
 this truth and directs her work accord- 
 ingly. Instead of rushing with headlong
 
 60 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 zeal into the routine of reading, writing, 
 and number under the impulsion of the 
 Course of Study, and the memory of 
 classes which failed to "pass" she 
 makes haste slowly, and devotes the first 
 days of the term to lessons which help 
 t to reveal the experience of the children. 
 Observation of and talks about common 
 things; conversations which lead the 
 children to tell what they can do, or like 
 to do; storytelling; picture drawing; 
 these afford opportunity for expression, 
 and serve to show the teacher something 
 of her pupils' attainments, and the line 
 of their interests as well. Meanwhile, 
 they are becoming accustomed to the 
 school-room routine, and so emerge from 
 the period in which they gazed, dumb 
 and dazed, at the many marvels with 
 which this new school world is crowded. 
 They come to know the teacher as their 
 friend, and they become free and con-
 
 Learning to Read. 61 
 
 fident in her presence. Thus the true 
 atmosphere of the school-room is created 
 the only atmosphere in which whole- 
 some and natural teaching and learning 
 can thrive. 
 
 This is not a prodigal misuse of time. 
 It is the part of thrift to so spend in the 
 beginning, for the returns are evident in 
 the ease and readiness with which pupils 
 and teacher afterward work together 
 the value of every lesson being enhanced 
 by the mutual good will and understand- 
 ing. 
 
 The school differs from the home and 
 the kindergarten in that its allotted tasks 
 are evidently determined by a motive 
 and plan outside the child's comprehen- 
 sion. In many cases this must be so. 
 The lessons which involve the mastery 
 of the symbols used in reading, writing, 
 and number, or the drill and practice
 
 62 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 necessary to attain skill in music or 
 drawing or writing, have no self-evident 
 goal for the child. So many lines, so 
 many letters, so many problems, he at- 
 tempts, because the teacher says so, and 
 in his new universe the teacher is su- 
 preme. At home he has always chosen 
 more or less; so, too, in the kindergar- 
 ten his interest and choice determined 
 the story or the game or the topic of con- 
 versation. He has delighted in building 
 houses, modelling balls, weaving mats, 
 playing games and all, so far as he 
 knew, for his own immediate pleasure 
 and accomplishment. Other results, to 
 him unknown, were of course secured. 
 He builded better than he knew. But 
 in every case he rejoiced in some im- 
 mediate accomplishment which he de- 
 sired. 
 
 In too many cases the decreed exer- 
 cises of the school are meaningless and
 
 Learning to Read. 63 
 
 purposeless to the beginner. Such ex- 
 ercises easily degenerate into dull and 
 fruitless routine, indifferent and profit- 
 less to teacher and pupil alike. To 
 arouse desire and awaken conscious 
 motive is the teacher's most import- 
 ant work, and in teaching reading it 
 should receive first consideration. She, 
 therefore, after securing such freedom 
 and cooperation as promise a fertile 
 soil for her seed-planting, calls the 
 children about her to explain the pur- 
 pose of the lessons which will fill their 
 days. 
 
 Perhaps she reads to them a story 
 which they like, a new story which they 
 have never heard. When she reaches 
 the interesting climax she pauses to say, 
 " I haven't time to read the rest of the 
 story now. How I wish you could read ! 
 Then you might take the book and read 
 the story yourselves. Would you not
 
 64 Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 like to learn to read, so that you could 
 read stones like these ? " 
 
 In Hugh Miller's graphic description 
 of his childhood experience in reading, 
 this element of purpose and desire is 
 strongly emphasized. ' The process of 
 learning and acquiring had been a dark 
 one," he says, recalling his struggles 
 with letters and syllables. He " slowly 
 mastered " these" in humble confidence 
 in the awful wisdom of the schoolmis- 
 tress, not knowing whither it tended," 
 when (as a member of the Bible Class 
 " in the highest form ") his mind 
 " awoke to the meaning of that most 
 delightful of all narratives, the story of 
 Joseph. Was there ever such a discov- 
 ery made before ? " 
 
 Such testimony might be repeated a 
 thousand times over, by our pupils of 
 to-day if they were able to describe 
 their common experience.
 
 Learning to Read. 65 
 
 It was the first vision of the goal that 
 gave meaning, motive, and conscious 
 gladness to Hugh Miller's study. Such 
 motive and such meaning should per- 
 vade the earliest lessons in reading, and 
 should be consciously recognized by pu- 
 pil as well as teacher. We repeat, then : 
 the teacher's first effort, after becom- 
 ing acquainted with her children, is to 
 awaken this conscious desire to read, 
 and to secure intelligent cooperation in 
 her exercises. 
 
 One teacher suggests writing upon the 
 board some sentence which has been 
 whispered to her by the children, and 
 then calling an older child from another 
 room to read the secret. This is done 
 again and again, until the children are 
 eager to share the power which their 
 comrade possesses, and turn gladly to 
 the tasks required of them, that they 
 may the sooner reach their goal. 
 5
 
 66 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 There is a wide difference between 
 such teaching and the routine drill which 
 does not enlist the child's desire. The 
 enthusiastic bicyclist would smile if asked 
 to exchange his morning ride to the city 
 for an hour's exercise upon a fixed " bi- 
 cycle exerciser " in the back hall. Nor 
 could the most skilful pedagogue con- 
 vince him that the exercise involved in 
 making the wheel go round is as valu- 
 able as the spin which carries him to his 
 destination, through the fresh morning 
 air, along roads bordered with flowered 
 fields. Yet the contrast is no more 
 marked than that between the task of the 
 syllable-pronouncer, who obediently per- 
 forms his meaningless labor, and that of 
 the child who, with conscious and ear- 
 nest desire, sets himself to learn to read. 
 
 In order to give some sense of 
 immediate achievement, the sentences 
 of the first lessons should express
 
 Learning to Read. 67 
 
 thoughts in which the children are in 
 terested. 
 
 This is Kate. 
 
 Kate can read. 
 
 Kate has a book. 
 
 Read to me, Kate. 
 
 Kate can read. 
 
 I can read, too. 
 
 Kate has a book. 
 
 I have a book, too. 
 
 See Kate's book! 
 
 See my book! 
 
 Kate has a doll. 
 
 I have a doll, too. 
 
 Kate has a kitty. 
 
 I have a dog. 
 
 Kate likes her doll. 
 
 I like my dog. 
 
 See my dog! 
 
 See Kate's little kitty f 
 
 Come, little Kitty. 
 
 Come to me, Kitty.
 
 68 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 The object of these preparatory lessons 
 is to give some consciousness of the 
 purpose of reading, and some sense of 
 achievement. The sentences are the 
 children's, obtained in a conversation 
 concerning Kate, who is an older pupil, 
 or some pictured child. The sentence 
 is the unit, and is read by the teacher. 
 The children repeat the sentence after 
 her reading. 
 
 Of course these first efforts are not 
 reading. They simply represent the 
 children's memory of the teacher's words 
 and tone. Often, when asked to read 
 alone, the child dashes at the wrong sen- 
 tence with his pointer, which vainly wan- 
 ders in search of the right one. But just 
 as the frequent observation of the loved 
 story in the picture book not only fixes 
 the words in their order, but enables the 
 young listener to find some of them upon 
 the page, so, by repetition of these first
 
 Learning to Read. 69 
 
 sentences, the words are at last held in 
 the mind, and are recognized in new 
 places and under new relations. The 
 attentive eye will recognize the new 
 words, first in their wonted place in the 
 sentence, then when isolated. At first 
 the words selected for repetition and 
 recognition are those which present few- 
 est difficulties ; not by any means the 
 shortest words as a, is, too but the 
 meaningful words, the nouns and ad- 
 jectives, and verbs which denote action. 
 Kate, book, doll, dog, kitty these are 
 the first and easiest, in the lessons writ- 
 ten above. Later, see and likes, with 
 can read. Later still, I have, this is 
 while is and a will not be emphasized as 
 units until the eyes have been trained to 
 distinguish more readily, and the words 
 have become familiar through constant 
 repetition. 
 
 Such lessons should continue for sev-
 
 70 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 eral weeks, introducing the various dear 
 and oft-seen objects of the child's envi- 
 ronment, and the actions with which he 
 has long been familiar. The sentences 
 should be worth reading, and grouped 
 in coherent paragraphs. Drill in rec- 
 ognizing the words should follow the 
 sentence reading, in every day's les- 
 son. 
 
 When the children can recognize at 
 sight a vocabulary of one hundred to 
 two hundred words, they should be- 
 gin to compare them, and to place in 
 groups those which are alike in sound. 
 For example: book, look, and brook 
 are known ; red and fed ; cat, hat, 
 and pat ; Fan, ran, can, and Dan. 
 Placed in lists, their similarity is evi- 
 dent: 
 
 book fed cat Fan 
 look red hat ran 
 took bed sat man
 
 Learning to Read. 71 
 
 Some one volunteers to increase the list, 
 adding took, bed, sat, and man. Here 
 is the beginning of the analysis of words 
 into their sounds, and with this lesson 
 a new feature appears in our word 
 study. 
 
 Such lessons in sentence reading as 
 have been suggested, if continued long 
 enough and with sufficient discretion on 
 the part of the teacher, might enable a 
 class to read independently for, even 
 without the teacher's direction, obvious 
 likenesses and differences in words are 
 noted by the children, and rules are de- 
 duced therefrom. But the mastery of a 
 large vocabulary is readily secured only 
 through attention to the common laws 
 of pronunciation, and familiarity with 
 the sound units. Thus far every word 
 has been presented as a new unit. Now 
 the children should learn that these 
 words are like many others in form, and
 
 72 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 that the pronunciation of one serves as 
 a key to the many. Knowing book, all 
 monosyllables ending in ook can at once 
 enter their vocabulary of recognizable 
 words; knowing Fan, all monosyllables 
 with the an ending are known. The 
 missing factor is the knowledge of the 
 sounds of the separate letters which are 
 initials in these group words m-an, 
 F-an, c-an, r-an, t-an, p-an. At this 
 juncture these sounds should be taught. 
 There has been some question among 
 teachers as to the time for teaching 
 sounds of the letters. It is wise to de- 
 fer this teaching until the children have 
 acquired some little facility in reading, 
 and understand its purpose, that their 
 work may not be approached from the 
 mechanical side solely. Again, the vo- 
 cabulary which the children already know 
 reveals groups of similar words and 
 suggests the wisdom of analysis and
 
 Learning to Read. 73 
 
 classification. And, further, the too 
 early attempt to study the lists of sim- 
 ilar words and to select and emphasize 
 them for use in reading, drives the chil- 
 dren at once to their most difficult task. 
 It is much easier to recognize Hiawatha 
 and arrow, because they are long and 
 different, and seem hard, than to name 
 promptly the elusive can, ran, and tan, 
 which seem so easy and yet are so nearly 
 alike as to be formidable obstacles to the 
 success of the untrained observer. The 
 climax of objection is reached when we 
 cite the tendency to make sentences 
 solely for the sake of using certain words, 
 thus destroying the element of thought 
 value in the sentence. " Does the fat 
 rat see the cat on the mat ? " is far more 
 difficult fora child than is "Hiawatha 
 lived in a wigwam with old Nokomis " 
 for the reasons above named. 
 
 The mastery of words is an essential
 
 74 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 element in learning to read. Our com- 
 mon mistake is, not that we do such 
 work too well, but that we make it the 
 final aim of the reading lesson, and lead 
 the children to feel that they can read 
 when they are merely able to pronounce 
 words. Perhaps lack of careful atten- 
 tion to the form of words is quite as 
 serious a mistake, for it results in care- 
 lessness in reading. 
 
 The study of form and of sound should 
 be associated, but attention to sound 
 alone should precede any attempt to 
 master the form as suggesting sound. 
 Children should be taught to recognize 
 and to distinguish sounds, to repeat 
 them accurately, to speak them dis- 
 tinctly, before they are taught to copy 
 the single characters which represent 
 these sounds. / To hear, to repeat, to 
 compare, to distinguish sounds, should 
 be the order of the instruction.
 
 Learning to Read. 75 
 
 Careless speech and indistinct articula- 
 tion often arise from imperfect hearing, 
 or indifferent attention to what is said. 
 Children should be trained in the early 
 lessons to hear, and to repeat, exactly 
 what is said. The repetition is a test of 
 the child's hearing. Begin with short 
 sentences. Speak them clearly, in a 
 moderate voice, requiring the children 
 to repeat after once hearing. Gradually 
 increase the length of sentence, but do 
 not increase the volume of voice; speak 
 distinctly, and expect the children to be 
 attentive enough to hear an ordinary 
 tone ; teach them to respond in the same 
 tone, with clear articulation. Continue 
 this exercise until a long sentence can 
 be accurately returned ; then pronounce 
 lists of words beginning with letters 
 which demand careful articulation. When 
 these have been mastered, draw atten- 
 tion to initial sounds, and then to the
 
 76 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 letters which represent them. Work 
 with these until every letter suggests its 
 sounds to the pupils, whether in a new 
 or in a familiar word. With little chil- 
 dren, the sound should be taught first in 
 connection with initial letters always. 
 
 A successful device consists in allowing 
 each pupil to represent a certain sound. 
 If the sound is the initial sound in his 
 own name, it will be easy for the chil- 
 dren to remember. Thus John can al- 
 ways suggest the sound of j, Mary the 
 sound of m, Peter the sound of p, and 
 so on. A class of children aided in this 
 way will master the sounds of the letters 
 in a very short time. 
 
 Having learned, through the initials, 
 the sounds which various letters repre- 
 sent, the next step will be to analyze 
 monosyllables into their sounds. Select 
 first those containing short vowels, in 
 order to avoid the difficulty of the silent
 
 Learning to Read. 77 
 
 letter. The preliminary drill with the 
 initials will have made this step an easy 
 one to take. 
 
 Whenever a type word is represented, 
 as black, for example, the children 
 should be taught to suggest other words 
 which rhyme with the pattern, as crack, 
 back, lack, etc. If in every such case the 
 common element is studied and mastered, 
 in a few weeks the children will become 
 possessors of a large vocabulary, whose 
 basis is the few familiar words which 
 they have studied. Every type word 
 will stand for a list of words similar in 
 form. 
 
 This study of sounds should continue 
 through at least the first jive school 
 years. After analyzing any word into 
 its separate sounds, the children should 
 be required to name other known words 
 which resemble the one studied. This 
 will tend to a habit of classification, and
 
 78 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 will enable the pupil to depend upon 
 himself in his study. 
 
 Diacritical marks are a help in master- 
 ing new words, if the key words have 
 been studied in connection with the 
 marks. They are needed also in con- 
 sulting the dictionary for pronunciation. 
 They should be taught only when neces- 
 sary to the pronunciation. In older 
 classes, after the use of the dictionary 
 becomes necessary, a complete list should 
 be mastered. It is a mistake to insist 
 ' upon diacritical marking when the chil- 
 . dren can pronounce accurately without. 
 I remember hearing a teacher chide a 
 pupil for reading a sentence before she 
 had time to mark the vowels, but, since 
 the child could and did read without such 
 help, the marking was evidently unneces- 
 sary. It serves as a means to an end, and 
 should be dispensed with when the end 
 can be reached without such artificial aid.
 
 Learning to Read. 79 
 
 As a matter of fact, every child refers 
 a new word back to a similar word with 
 which he has become familiar. Thus: 
 black, once mastered, serves as a key to 
 sack, crack, quack, etc. The only ele- 
 ments in these words are the final ele- 
 ment ack and the initial sounds. If a 
 child hesitates with a new word, help 
 him to refer at once to the type word 
 which he has already mastered. Instead 
 of pronouncing the new word for him, 
 insist upon his using for himself his own 
 stock of knowledge. Help him only 
 where he cannot help himself. If he 
 forms the habit of referring the unknown 
 to the kindred known, he will become 
 independent in study. For example, to a 
 six-years-old child the word blacksmith 
 may, at first sight, appear formidable. 
 Separated into its parts and referred to 
 the simple words already mastered, the 
 child conquers the newcomer, and adds
 
 8o Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 it to his list of servants. He is endowed 
 with new strength, because he has mas- 
 tered something which seemed to him 
 hard. Such conquests, often repeated, 
 lead to strength and independence. In 
 many cases, it is wise to leave a child to 
 wrestle with a word which at first sight 
 he fails to master. Of course this proc- 
 ess is unwise if he has no experience to 
 which he can refer for help. Guess-work 
 will never take the place of thought, and 
 a child should not be driven to guess at 
 the pronunciation, but every attempt 
 should be based upon something which 
 he has been taught in former lessons. 
 Such practice will lead to thoughtful 
 self-help. 
 
 This work may be facilitated by many 
 devices. We have seen classes hunting 
 for new words beginning with a given 
 sound, as eagerly as if they were play- 
 ing hide-and-seek. Or with the utmost
 
 Learning to Read. 81 
 
 enjoyment they have made lists of 
 words beginning with chosen sounds ; or 
 matched pairs of words which rhymed. 
 But their most valuable exercise is that 
 in which the old familiar word of their 
 first vocabulary is made the key which 
 unlocks the new. 
 
 Now, when a new word is presented, 
 the teacher no longer pronounces it for 
 the children, but asks instead, " What 
 word helps you to pronounce it?" 
 Bright is not a new word, because the 
 children know light, remember the sound 
 of br, and put their two bits of knowl- 
 edge together to meet the new emer- 
 gency. They do for themselves what 
 the teacher has heretofore done for 
 them. 
 
 A most helpful form of word study, 
 which is suitable for desk work, is mak- 
 ing lists of words containing the same 
 sound. It strengthens the habit of 
 6
 
 82 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 classification, and helps in spelling and 
 in the recognition of new words. 
 
 The most difficult work for children 
 appears in words which are spelled alike 
 and pronounced differently, or in words 
 pronounced alike and spelled differently, 
 or in the various equivalents of the same 
 sound which our language affords. Chair, 
 their, where, etc., suggest the problems 
 of this nature. This work should be in- 
 troduced not earlier than the third or 
 
 i- ' 
 
 fourth year. It should come in connec- 
 tion with the spelling lesson, and not 
 with the reading. The mastery of these 
 difficulties in English spelling doubtless 
 requires many months of careful teach- 
 ing. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that children 
 are hindered and not helped by any at- 
 tempt to spell, by sound, words which 
 are unique in spelling. Through, for 
 example, should be learned by sight, and
 
 Learning to Read. 83 
 
 not by sound. Beautiful, tongue, phy- 
 sique, may illustrate this group. The 
 eye and not the ear must be depended 
 upon in the mastery of such words. Care 
 should be taken to develop the habit of 
 accurate attention through the eye as 
 well as the ear. Any attempt to mark 
 the sounds in these words increases the 
 labor without increasing facility. If the 
 teacher makes a careful classification of 
 the ordinary words which frequently re- 
 cur in the reading lesson, she will dis- 
 cover the class which must be mastered 
 by sight. Out of the remainder she can 
 make lists which include the ordinary 
 type sounds. The study of these lists 
 will reduce the labor of word mastery to 
 its minimum, and the habit of compari- 
 son developed through this study will go 
 far to make the children independent in 
 the pronunciation of new words. 
 
 It is self-evident that this plan can be
 
 84 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 pursued only when the words are amen- 
 able to common phonic laws. Cough, 
 and its congeners, ^hould be named as 
 new wholes. So with all words which 
 follow no rule, and must be pronounced 
 by substitution. No time should be 
 lost by attempting a method which has 
 no excuse for being, in such cases. In 
 its place, as a help to the mastery of 
 groups of kindred words, it is invalu- 
 able. Out of place, it is bad. 
 
 For diacritical marks and correct pro- 
 nunciation, the teacher is referred to the 
 standard dictionaries. It should not be 
 forgotten that the teacher's pronuncia- 
 tion is a guide to the pupil. She needs 
 a quick ear and the careful judgment 
 which will render her a safe guide. The 
 familiar rule should direct her practice : 
 When in doubt, consult the dictionary. 
 
 Note the value of this word mastery. 
 The pupil fast becomes independent of
 
 Learning to Read. 85 
 
 the teacher, and ready to master the 
 page for himself. Note, also, that this 
 power becomes his in proportion to the 
 teacher's purpose to make him self-help- 
 ful, and her skill in finding the connect- 
 ing link between the new knowledge and 
 the old. 
 
 Two elements of learning to read have 
 been presented here: sentence reading 
 and word mastery. Of the study of the 
 meaning of the words and the develop- 
 ment of the power of imagination we 
 shall speak elsewhere.
 
 Reading without purpose is sauntering, not 
 exercise. More is got from one book on which 
 the thought settles for definite end in knowl- 
 edge, than from libraries skimmed over by a 
 wandering eye. A cottage flower gives honey 
 to the bee, a king's garden none to the butterfly. 
 EDWARD BULWER.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE STUDY OF THE LESSON. 
 
 IN our emphasis of certain phases of 
 the new education, there is a ten- 
 dency to swing away from the use of 
 the text-book, so that the children de- 
 pend largely upon the teacher's oral in- 
 struction and explanation. It often 
 happens that the teacher, in her zeal, 
 forgets that the growth of the children 
 depends upon their own doing, and im- 
 agines that her thought and experience 
 will suffice, without effort on the part of 
 her pupils. This state of affairs exists 
 in the reading class oftener than in any 
 other. Time is often wasted in smooth-
 
 88 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 ing out difficulties which never existed 
 as such to the children, and obstacles 
 are explained away before they are 
 recognized by the child as obstacles. 
 Meanwhile the teacher is doing the 
 work and the pupil is losing the oppor- 
 tunity to gain power by wrestling with 
 his little problems himself. 
 
 It is essential that even the little chil- 
 dren should be taught how to study to 
 the limit of their ability. The study of 
 the reading lesson may be made a most 
 profitable exercise. Too much of the 
 occupation termed study by both pupil 
 and teacher is an indifferent conning of 
 the book, a careless and hurried repeti- 
 tion of the text, or a thoughtless copy- 
 ing; all of which weakens the power of 
 attention, and tends to make the les- 
 son dull and uninteresting. Such loss 
 should be prevented by careful direc- 
 tion of the young student. The study
 
 The Study of the Lesson. 89 
 
 should be at first conducted under the 
 personal guidance of the teacher, for, 
 until the children grow into the power 
 of learning to work by themselves, they 
 need to be taught how to study as well 
 as how to read. The time spent in the 
 preparation of the lesson should be 
 thoughtfully employed, the exercise re- 
 sulting in helpful habits as well as in 
 increased power. 
 
 Before we can teach our pupils how 
 to study their reading lessons, we must 
 have a realizing sense of their difficul- 
 ties in reading. This means that we 
 must know our children as well as we 
 would have them know their lesson. A 
 successful teacher of little children once 
 told the writer that she allowed her pu- 
 pils a period for free conversation every 
 day. While they availed themselves of 
 this privilege, she listened, in order to 
 discover in what they were interested
 
 90 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 and about what subjects they talked 
 freely to one another. Having learned 
 this, she began her language lessons 
 where the children's interest was cen- 
 tred, led them gradually to new inter- 
 ests, and helped them to overcome their 
 limitations. 
 
 Some such study of individual chil- 
 dren, or at least of the varying classes of 
 children, is indispensable to the teacher 
 who would endeavor to train her pupils 
 to overcome the obstacles in their way. 
 It is vain for her to assume that all 
 classes are alike, and that a mastery of 
 the words at the head of the lesson will 
 properly equip them all for the feat of 
 rendering the thought which the lesson 
 contains. Such easy assumption ends 
 in failure. The children differ in attain- 
 ment and in experience. We cannot 
 take for granted either knowledge or 
 ignorance on their part. We must
 
 The Study of the Lesson. 91 
 
 study their experience in order to know 
 their limitations and their needs. 
 
 A class of children of foreign parent- 
 age was engaged in reading a fairy tale 
 which described the adventures of a wee 
 robin on his way to sing a Yule song to 
 the king. Evidently the children were 
 not accustomed to imaginative tales, 
 and, moreover, they had the dimmest 
 possible notions of the wee robin, the 
 gray, greedy hawk, the Yule song, and 
 the king. Their reading was dull, mo- 
 notonous, and indifferent, accomplished 
 by dint of constant suggestion and ex- 
 planation on the part of the teacher, 
 and wearisome though patient repeti- 
 tion on the part of the children. 
 
 The exercise, though termed reading, 
 was in reality simply a preparation for 
 reading. It would have been greatly 
 improved by a conscious recognition of 
 its import by both teacher and pupils.
 
 92 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 They were studying the lesson together 
 and aloud. Had it been thoughtfully 
 studied in this way before reading was 
 attempted, both exercises would have 
 been more helpful to the pupils. 
 
 This same class was afterwards ques- 
 tioned in regard to home reading. Not 
 one pupil was accustomed to read or to 
 hear reading at home. In few homes 
 were there any books, while story-tell- 
 ing was a practice of which they had 
 never dreamed. Obviously these chil- 
 dren had in their home experience a 
 meagre preparation for reading, and the 
 teacher's duty was consequently a 
 double one. In such an instance the 
 reading lesson would be entirely robbed 
 of its value if the proper study of the 
 lesson were omitted. 
 
 For preliminary study, therefore, it is 
 well for the teacher to use the period 
 assigned to reading in talking with the
 
 The Study of the Lesson. 93 
 
 class about the lesson, her object being 
 not to tell what she knows, but to dis- 
 cover what the children know or do not 
 know. To this end she will bend a lis- 
 tening ear to all mistakes, not to waive 
 them away, nor to smile at the awkward 
 interpretation, but to see from what 
 limitation they arise. Knowing their 
 source, she can help to correct them by 
 removing the cause. Such attention to 
 the errors or the questions of the chil- 
 dren discloses two classes of difficulties : 
 those which the children can overcome 
 by thought or by observation, and 
 others in which the teacher must of ne- 
 cessity furnish the necessary explana- 
 tion. For example, a class in a primary 
 school read, and with fair expression, 
 the story of " a kid upon the roof of a 
 house that railed at a wolf passing by." 
 The teacher, knowing her class, assumed 
 their ignorance of the meaning of
 
 94 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 " railed " was not surprised at the sug- 
 gestion that " the kid fired a rail at the 
 wolf" and by her explanation made 
 clear the meaning of the word. She was 
 surprised, however, in the course of the 
 study conversation, to discover that to 
 the majority of the class " kid" stood 
 for little boy. Nothing in the wording 
 of the fable or in the children's experi- 
 ence served to correct the impression. 
 Again the duty devolved upon the 
 teacher. 
 
 Obviously, in such cases the children 
 must depend upon the teacher. To 
 withhold aid at the right time is to 
 make the study fruitless and the chil- 
 dren indifferent or discouraged. On the 
 other hand, by means of just such united 
 exercises in study the children will learn 
 to measure their own understanding and 
 to point out their own limitations. 
 
 Fancy the class, described above, as
 
 The Study of the Lesson. 95 
 
 having been taught to study, and there- 
 fore having wrestled alone with the fa- 
 ble. Upon coming to the recitation, 
 some are conscious of their ignorance 
 and say at once, " I do not know what 
 'railed' means." They have studied 
 to some purpose, have made themselves 
 ready for their teacher's explanation 
 and for helping themselves by means 
 of the dictionary. The other difficulty 
 presented by the slang use of "kid" 
 would of course fail to present itself to 
 their consciousness. 
 
 One result, then, of the preliminary 
 study, with or without the teacher, 
 should be to help the children to dis- 
 cover the " don't know" line; the sec- 
 ond should be to enable them to help 
 themselves, if possible. Through care- 
 ful and conscious study, they may be 
 helped to realize the " sense" of what 
 they read, and to judge for themselves
 
 96 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 when they fail to get the meaning of the 
 sentence. 
 
 From the beginning, the children 
 should be shown that every sentence 
 is an embodiment of a thought, every 
 word having its place in the expression 
 of that thought. 
 
 " A saucy robin is eating the ripe 
 cherries in the tree under my window," 
 the children read. The teacher studies 
 with them for a moment. What does 
 the sentence teil them ? Who is eating 
 the ripe cherries ? What kind of robin ? 
 What is he doing ? What is he eating ? 
 What cherries is he eating ? Where is 
 the tree ? What word tells us what 
 kind of a robin is eating ? What words 
 tell where the cherries are ? What word 
 tells who is eating the cherries ? Even 
 in primary schools such questioning is 
 valuable, leading the children to realize 
 that the words appear in the sentence,
 
 The Study of the Lesson. 97 
 
 not by chance, but in order to express 
 something; that every word has its 
 work, that not one can be omitted, that 
 a change in a single word changes the 
 thought. Such exercises, thoughtfully 
 conducted, will lead the children to look 
 for the thought in the sentence, and will 
 make its mastery a test of their success. 
 If the sentence does not yield them a 
 thought which they understand, let 
 them question every word until they 
 get its meaning. Thus they learn to 
 recognize the line where their knowl- 
 edge ends and their ignorance begins. 
 
 It is often the case, however, that the 
 difficulty to be overcome is the pupils' 
 inability to pronounce words whose 
 meaning may be familiar. If this is the 
 case, they will need to bring all their 
 knowledge of words to bear upon this 
 new problem. "Sidewalk" is a long 
 word, a new word no one knows it, 
 7
 
 98 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 The teacher helps, not by pronouncing 
 it and easing the children of their load. 
 No. She says : ' That word seems 
 long, but it is very easy. You know 
 the first syllable." Yes, everybody 
 knows " side." ' Now, who knows the 
 second ? Who can put them togeth- 
 er ?" The children rejoice in the sense 
 of overcoming. They have gained some 
 power to help themselves. Our teach- 
 ing should compel as well as invite such 
 thoughtful comparison of the old with 
 the new, should lead the children to use 
 what they have learned, in the mastery 
 of the not learned. 
 
 The simplest lessons in preparatory 
 study are thus justified: they lead to a 
 conscious judgment of one's attainment. 
 Study means nothing if it does not lead 
 to this judgment. The power once 
 gained, the pupil is his own best teach- 
 er, his own strongest helper. Prize,
 
 The Study of the Lesson. 99 
 
 then, all exercises which lead to this 
 judgment. Instead of saying to the un- 
 trained pupil, " Read your lesson ten 
 times," when his present attainment or 
 lack of attainment renders such repeti- 
 tion worse than useless, you will say, 
 " Read the lesson and copy all the 
 words whose meaning you do not 
 know." " Read and copy the words 
 that you cannot pronounce." " Read 
 and copy the sentence that you do not 
 understand." " Read so carefully that 
 you are sure you can read well to the 
 class. ' ' 
 
 The skilful teacher will think of a 
 hundred devices to advance such study. 
 The test of each device will be, " Does 
 it help to arouse thought ? Does it end 
 in thoughtful study ? " 
 
 Such study is necessary before reading 
 whenever we may assume that the lesson 
 presents any difficulty to the child, un-
 
 ioo Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 less we prefer that the first oral rendei 
 ing of the lesson shall be merely a 
 studying aloud. 
 
 As a stimulus to, or a test of, study, it 
 may be well to omit the oral reading oc- 
 casionally, substituting for it an exercise 
 in silent reading, whose thoroughness is 
 tested by questions. After the usual 
 study of the lesson the books are closed 
 and the teacher calls upon the pupils to 
 tell her what they have read. Older 
 pupils may respond by giving the sub- 
 stance of the lesson. Younger children 
 may be tested by more frequent and de- 
 tailed questions after the reading of short 
 paragraphs. 
 
 The above exercise is even more help- 
 ful if the children share in the question- 
 ing. They read with keener interest ii 
 their knowledge is thus put to the test. 
 
 Such exercises tend to emphasize to 
 the pupils the truth that their reading is
 
 The Study of the Lesson. 101 
 
 not for itself, but to make them masters 
 of the thoughts expressed in their les- 
 sons. It becomes more real, more pur- 
 poseful, in proportion as this is realized. 
 In this connection, it may be said 
 that anything which adds purpose to 
 the reading lesson gives motive to study. 
 When pupils are asked to read to the 
 class some selection unknown to the 
 other pupils, they study and read with 
 a zest quite unlike that manifested in 
 the repetition of a worn-out selection 
 which the others already know. For 
 some good end, recognized by himself 
 as worthy, the child reads now. The 
 introduction of opportunities for indi- 
 vidual reading, as early as may be, thus 
 proves an incentive to study and a 
 means of rapid advancement. Cuttings 
 from papers and magazines and collec- 
 tions of children's books prove most 
 helpful at this stage, affording a prize
 
 102 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 for attainment, as well as an evident test 
 of progress. 
 
 The foregoing has been written with 
 special reference to beginners in reading. 
 As pupils advance in their grades, the 
 study of the reading becomes even more 
 necessary and may be made the more 
 profitable. 
 
 All that has been said of younger 
 readers applies equally to older pupils. 
 The test of the ability to study is the 
 power to judge rightly where the limit 
 of one's knowledge appears. 
 
 As soon as the pupil can point out 
 the obstacle which hinders his under- 
 standing, he is ready to be taught. A 
 single word, a question, a suggestion 
 from the teacher, removes his difficulty. 
 He recognizes his need and desires help, 
 therefore listens attentively and intel- 
 ligently. 
 
 At this stage he is enabled, also, to
 
 The Study of the Lesson. 103 
 
 help himself, since he is prepared to 
 use the dictionary and other reference 
 books. 
 
 Older students should read with the 
 help of the dictionary. They should, of 
 course, be taught how to use it, just as 
 they are taught to interpret any other 
 book. Its use is discussed at length in 
 another chapter.
 
 And this our life . 
 
 Finds tongues in trees, books in the running 
 
 brooks, 
 
 Sermons in stones, and good in everything. 
 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LANGUAGE LESSONS AS A PREPARATION 
 FOR READING LESSONS. 
 
 r I AVO problems confront the teacher 
 1 of little children in the ordinary 
 schoolroom. Children coming from dif- 
 ferent homes, with various training and 
 environment, do not always bring a com- 
 mon fund of knowledge. Unaccustomed 
 to the strange surroundings and the new 
 regime, they are not always free in telling 
 what they know. The teacher needs to 
 learn the " contents of their minds " (as 
 the present phrase hath it), and this she 
 cannot readily do unless the children 
 converse freely and without self-con- 
 sciousness. Talking lessons, or lessons
 
 io6 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 whose object is purely to help them to 
 free expression, so that they will reveal 
 their experiences to the teacher, are 
 very necessary at this stage. These les- 
 sons will have a further value if they 
 help the children to new interests, and to 
 new knowledge. They will also be more 
 valuable if the teacher recognizes a defi- 
 nite purpose and forms a definite plan 
 for the lesson. 
 
 Again, the simplest reading lesson de- 
 velops the fact that, inasmuch as the 
 children's experiences have been varied, 
 their corresponding fund of ideas is 
 widely different. Any new lesson may 
 present ideas entirely foreign to the ex- 
 perience of the children. The words 
 which represent these ideas, therefore, 
 will be unfamiliar. This state of affairs 
 necessitates an act of teaching which 
 should precede the act of reading. For 
 example, a class of city children in the
 
 Preparation for Reading. 107 
 
 West attempt to read a story which 
 deals with life by the sea. The sound- 
 ing sea, the rolling waves, the whisper- 
 ing foam, the rugged rocks, the shining 
 sands, the smooth pebbles, the brown 
 seaweed, the white-winged ships, the 
 brave sailors, are unknown quantities to 
 these children entirely foreign to their 
 experience. Clearly, before they read 
 this lesson, they must know something 
 of the life and scenes which the lesson 
 portrays. The teacher of children who 
 live by the sea is not confronted by 
 the same problem. Her children have 
 played upon the beach, have gathered 
 the many-colored pebbles, have built 
 houses in the wet sand. Ships at sea 
 are as familiar to them as are the clouds, 
 or the birds ; while many of them have 
 played upon the decks of their fathers' 
 fishing-boats, and know the ropes and 
 spars even as they know their own
 
 io8 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 homes. These children have had an 
 experience which fills the lesson with 
 meaning. The inland children must be 
 taught in the next best way. Since 
 they cannot go to the sea, at least 
 pictures of the sea may be brought 
 to them. Shells and pebbles, sea-ur- 
 chins, starfishes, and seaweeds will 
 tell their story of the far-off beaches. 
 Pictures of ships at sea, of rocks lashed- 
 by the waves in a storm, will help them 
 to imagine the conditions which their 
 lesson attempts to describe to them. 
 But the wise teacher will make a con- 
 necting link, in some fashion, between 
 the experience and interest of the child 
 and the thought suggested by the story. 
 Here, then, is the need of a language 
 lesson which shall introduce or explain 
 the reading lesson, preparing the child 
 for the new thought, or recalling to his 
 mind the almost forgotten experience.
 
 Preparation for Reading. 109 
 
 The everyday experience in every 
 city schoolroom will serve to reenforce 
 this truth. Many a city child has never 
 looked upon daisies and buttercups. 
 Brooks and fields and trees are outside 
 his little horizon. It is idle to have 
 these children pronounce the words 
 which stand for these objects unless the 
 words call up pictures in their own 
 minds, and this cannot be the case ex- 
 cept as they have some experience with 
 the real things. It is not impossible to 
 bring the flowers and the birds and the 
 trees within the experience of the chil- 
 dren. No other work which we can ever 
 do for them will tend more to their fu- 
 ture happiness and growth; but, aside 
 from that, no other work which we can 
 do for them will contribute so generously 
 to their growth in reading power. They 
 cannot get the thought from the page 
 unless the words stand for something at
 
 no Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 least akin to their own experience, and 
 our first efforts must begin by occasion- 
 ing the experience which is necessary to 
 the interpretation of the printed page. 
 As a means to good reading, then, lan- 
 guage lessons are necessary for the pur- 
 pose of developing ease of expression 
 and freedom from self-consciousness, and 
 
 leading to knowledge which will serve 
 / I 
 
 \ as a basis for the new thought con' 
 
 tained in the lesson. 
 
 The subjects introduced in the earliest 
 language lessons should be those with 
 which children are ordinarily familiar. 
 All country children are somewhat ac- 
 quainted with the common animals: the 
 rabbit, squirrel, cat, dog, cow, mouse, 
 etc. They know something of the oc- 
 cupations of the people around them. 
 They have watched the sunrise and sun- 
 set. They have seen the boughs of the 
 trees waving in the wind. They have
 
 Preparation for Reading. 1 1 1 
 
 been awakened by the birds in the morn- 
 ing. They have cared for pet animals 
 at home. Many city children have had 
 something of this experience. All need 
 to have it. In every lesson where these 
 subjects are introduced, the teacher 
 should be assured that the children al- 
 ready know something about them. A 
 short conversation may suffice where 
 the objects are already familiar; where 
 they are strange, careful lessons should 
 be arranged. The cat, rabbit, dog, 
 squirrel, or mouse, can be brought to 
 the schoolroom, cared for, observed, 
 studied, discussed. These language les- 
 sons will not only give the children the 
 knowledge necessary for understanding 
 the lessons, but they will endow the 
 subject with new interest, and add to the 
 reading a sense of reality. Children who 
 have been observing the squirrel will 
 read with great zest the lessons which
 
 ii2 Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 reaffirm what their eyes have seen, or 
 answer the questions which they have 
 asked, or tell some story which adds to 
 the interest already evoked. The read- 
 ing thus becomes an expression of the 
 child's actual experience or interest. 
 It is no longer a something which he 
 does simply because he is told. He 
 sees at once the fruit of his labors. He 
 reaches a goal which seems desirable 
 from a child's point of view. He recog- 
 nizes the purpose and meaning of the 
 story, and works to dig out the message 
 which the sentences contain for him. 
 Everything which serves to make the 
 lesson real to the child's experience, 
 makes a permanent addition to his read- 
 ing power. 
 
 A little careful study convinces us 
 that there are two general fields which 
 all readers must explore. The subjects 
 which appear and reappear upon the
 
 Preparation for Reading. 113 
 
 pages of books have their source either 
 in__ oaure or in human experience. 
 When we teach the child to read books, 
 we must also teach him to apprehend 
 that of which books treat. This teach- 
 ing will necessarily include observation 
 of nature and observation of human ex- 
 perience. To read "The Village Black- 
 smith " requires some knowledge of a 
 blacksmith's work and its associations: 
 the horse and his shoes, the molten iron 
 and its action, the sounding anvil and its 
 use, the reason for the " honest sweat " 
 upon the brow of him who " owes not 
 any man." Knowledge of nature and 
 knowledge of human experience are 
 surely needed in order to read the 
 thought in this poem. He whose ex- 
 perience is richest will obtain the rich- 
 est harvest from this field. Any act of 
 reading will teach us this truth with re- 
 gard to our own experience. It ought
 
 H4 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 also to point the way for all teaching 
 of children. A visit to a blacksmith's 
 shop is the best possible preparation for 
 a study of " The Village Blacksmith." 
 If such a visit is impossible (is it ever 
 impossible ?), pictures and talks may help 
 to supply the need. The language les- 
 son in the one form or the other is nec- 
 essary to the full interpretation of the 
 reading. So of any poem or story which 
 tells of the life of the farmer, the miller, 
 the baker, the sailor, the fisherman, the 
 shoemaker, the mother. The language 
 lesson which serves to make the experi- 
 ence real to the children helps them to 
 understand the reading lesson, and gives 
 added power for the interpretation of 
 all such lessons in the future. 
 
 Such language lessons should not be 
 considered as something added to the 
 school course. They are legitimate 
 reading lessons, inasmuch as they pre-
 
 Preparation for Reading. 115 
 
 pare for the study of pages which would 
 be meaningless to many pupils without 
 such preparation. The teacher will of 
 course choose her own time for such les- 
 sons. Often they are given in connec- 
 tion with the reading lesson itself. A 
 wiser plan ordinarily is that which allots 
 a specific time for the observation or 
 the conversation which is necessary to 
 explain the reading lesson. If the first 
 period of the morning is set aside for 
 oral language, the subjects for this pe- 
 riod may be easily determined by the 
 reading lesson, and selected to accord 
 with and prepare for it. 
 
 A few illustrative lessons appear in 
 another chapter. They are intended to 
 serve as suggestions merely, for those 
 to whom such lessons are to open a new 
 field. It is believed that in the majority 
 of schoolrooms such teaching is already 
 a common feature.
 
 And to get peace, if you want it, make for 
 yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. Those 
 are nests in the sea, indeed, but safe beyond all 
 others. Do you know "what fairy palaces you 
 may build of beautiful thought, proof against 
 all adversity ? Bright fancies, satisfied mem- 
 ories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure 
 houses of precious and restful thoughts, which 
 care can not disturb, nor pain make gloomy, 
 nor poverty take away from us; houses built 
 without hands for our souls to live in. 
 
 JOHN RUSKIN.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EXPRESSION IN READING. 
 
 HOW can children be taught to read 
 aloud clearly, distinctly, and with 
 feeling, so as to clearly convey the au- 
 thor's thought and to give pleasure to 
 the listener? " My pupils do not read 
 with expression," is a common com- 
 plaint. " How can I help them ? " 
 
 Manifestly the first requisite to read- 
 ing with expression is the mastery of the 
 thought on the part of the pupil, and 
 this cannot be accomplished without 
 mastery of the words. As has been said 
 in another chapter, children should be 
 trained to study in such a way that they
 
 ii8 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 can decide for themselves what words 
 present difficulties to their understand- 
 ing. When the pupils, after studying 
 a lesson, are enabled to point to the 
 exact words which are obstacles to their 
 thought-getting, the teacher's labors are 
 minimized and her teaching is at once 
 made definite. Such study, too, leads 
 the pupils to more thoughtful reading. 
 Since they must weigh every word in 
 the sentence to discover its meaning, 
 they become accustomed to dig for the 
 thought, and to estimate their own diffi- 
 culties. By this means they help them- 
 selves to the mastery of the thought, as 
 far as the words in which it is expressed 
 belong to their vocabulary. 
 
 But when a pupil points out to the 
 teacher the words which mark the boun- 
 dary of his understanding, it becomes 
 her duty to make them clear to him. 
 This is a fruitful exercise. The child
 
 Expression in Reading. 119 
 
 desires to learn the meaning of the word 
 which has blocked his way, and his need . i 
 of it makes him its master forever after. 
 It is only in this way that words are 
 mastered. It is idle to explain a list of 
 words for which children have no use in 
 the expression of their thought. But 
 after the study has revealed to the child 
 his need of new knowledge, the word 
 fits at once into his vocabulary and an- 
 swers the new need. The teacher's ex~ 
 planation not only suffices to make the 
 reading plain, but it increases the child's 
 vocabulary for future use. 
 
 It should be borne in mind in such 
 exercises that the word is not always 
 made plain by simple explanation ; illus- 
 tration may be necessary, or some entire 
 language lesson like those indicated in a 
 previous chapter. The teacher should 
 make mental note at least of these un- 
 familiar words, in order that she may so
 
 I2O Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 direct her language lesson as to supple- 
 ment her teaching in reading. She is 
 wise if she keeps a notebook at hand in 
 which these lists may be recorded. 
 
 It will be seen from the above that 
 the pupil is expected to master the 
 words of the lesson as a means of get- 
 ting the thought, before it is assumed 
 that he can read with expression. But, 
 having prepared himself through study, 
 and having been assisted by the teach- 
 er's illustration and explanation, there 
 should be no hindrance to free and 
 natural reading. We do, however, find 
 expression hindered by various minor 
 causes, some of which it may be well to 
 discuss. 
 
 A frequent occasion of indolent or 
 indifferent reading is the child's feeling 
 that the exercise is perfunctory, one of 
 the tasks assigned at school as a school 
 duty, but having in itself no excuse for
 
 Expression in Reading. 121 
 
 being. He needs to realize that he is 
 delivering a message, or telling a story 
 which some one desires to hear. It has 
 often been observed that children read 
 their own productions with marvellously 
 good effect, even when they stumble 
 and hesitate in the normal reading exer- 
 cises. The reason is easily discerned. 
 In the one case they have something to 
 tell, and desire to tell it. In the second 
 case, the exercise is one in which they 
 have no special interest. The teacher's 
 chief endeavor, then, should be directed 
 toward inciting in the children a desire 
 to communicate thought. This may 
 sometimes be secured by having the 
 class listen, with closed books, while a 
 single pupil reads, the teacher insisting 
 that he shall so read that every one who 
 listens may understand and enjoy all 
 that is read. Another help which has 
 been suggested by many teachers is the
 
 122 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 practice of bringing from home different 
 short selections, which the pupils are 
 encouraged to read to the class. These 
 selections may be brief and simple 
 some anecdote, some clipping from a 
 newspaper, some phrase or line, some 
 conundrum, which has interested the 
 child. It will soon be discovered that 
 the children will learn to read well only 
 when conscious that their reading is the 
 means of conveying the thought to their 
 hearers. 
 
 The practice of consulting reference 
 books, even with pupils in the lowest 
 grammar grades, has a reflex influence 
 upon the power to read aloud well, since 
 it gives to the pupil something which he 
 desires to read to the others and which 
 he alone can convey to them. This de- 
 sire to share what is read by becoming 
 able to read well should be stimulated 
 in every possible way.
 
 Expression in Reading. 123 
 
 Again, ease in reading, which is an 
 important factor, is often prevented by 
 the pupil's self-consciousness, which 
 renders him timid and .awkward when- 
 ever he attempts to read aloud in the 
 presence of others. This timid self- 
 consciousness varies with different indi- 
 viduals, of course, and it also varies in 
 different classes. The teacher is often 
 responsible for this shrinking on the 
 part of the children, although it may 
 be an unconscious responsibility on her 
 part. Undue criticism of the reader, 
 which draws the attention of the class 
 to his faults and makes him conscious 
 of himself, often prevents the very thing 
 which the teacher is striving to obtain. 
 The pupil's thought should be drawn 
 away from himself and centred upon 
 the thought in the sentence, the mes- 
 sage which he is to deliver. The ques- 
 tion should be directed toward that,
 
 124 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 rather than toward the pupil's idiosyn- 
 crasies. 
 
 This is coupled with another serious 
 consideration. It has just been said 
 that the child cannot read with expres- 
 sion if he is thinking about himself. It 
 is also true that he cannot read well ex- 
 cept as his mind is centred upon the 
 subject about which he is reading. The 
 teacher's efforts should be in the direc- 
 tion of picturing the scene which the 
 child describes, so that it will become 
 real to him, and that he may be enabled 
 to paint it to the class. She not only 
 will endeavor to refrain from drawing 
 the pupil's attention to himself by ill- 
 chosen comments, but she will also help 
 him to imagine the thing described and 
 to fix his thought upon it. For the 
 time being everything else is forgotten. 
 
 Let us suppose that a class is read- 
 ing " Paul Revere's Ride ":
 
 Expression in Reading. 125 
 
 Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, 
 Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride 
 On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. 
 Now he patted his horse's side, 
 Now gazed at the landscape far and near, 
 Then, impetuous, stamped the earth, 
 And turned and tightened his saddle-girth ; 
 But mostly he watched with eager search 
 The belfry-tower of the Old North Church, 
 As it rose above the graves on the hill, 
 Lonely and spectral and sombre and still ; 
 And lo ! as he looks, on the belfry's height 
 A glimmer, and then a gleam of light ! 
 He springs to the saddle, the bridle he 
 
 turns, 
 
 But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight 
 A second lamp in the belfry burns ! 
 A hurry of hoofs in a village street, 
 A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the 
 
 dark, 
 And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, 
 
 a spark 
 Struck out by a steed flying fearless and 
 
 fleet: 
 That was all ! And yet, through the gloom 
 
 and the light, 
 The fate of a nation was riding that night ;
 
 126 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 And the spark struck out by that steed, in 
 
 his flight, 
 Kindled the land into flame with its heat."* 
 
 If the pupil is to make his hearers 
 hear and see Paul Revere, he must see 
 and hear him, too. His eye must be 
 upon the belfry tower of the Old North 
 Church; he must feel the loneliness of 
 the quiet graveyard, the fearfulness of 
 the silent way; he must catch the gleam 
 of the light; must watch the impetuous 
 mounting, hear the hurry of hoofs in the 
 village street, and realize the fatefulness 
 of the hour in which the land is kindled 
 into flame. Every effort should be cen- 
 tred upon helping the children to feel, to ; 
 imagine the picture, and to sense its } 
 depth of meaning. Say nothing now 
 about holding the book in one hand, 
 standing on both feet or throwing the 
 shoulders back; but stir the class to 
 
 * Used by permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
 
 Expression in Reading. 127 
 
 feel as Paul Revere felt, and to tell the 
 tale with enthusiastic pride. Let all 
 the questions help to make the picture 
 clearer and the feeling stronger. Read 
 again, and again, and again, until the 
 message becomes most familiar, but 
 with every reading more eager than be- 
 fore. 
 
 This selection emphasizes the need of 
 preparation for the reading lesson out- 
 side of the reading class. No one can 
 read the poem well who does not un- 
 derstand the setting. The story of the 
 Revolution is essential to understanding 
 the poem. Why the British ships were 
 in the harbor; why the country folk 
 should be up and in arms; what pre- 
 ceded and what followed the fateful 
 ride; the scene of the poem the bel- 
 fry, the church, the town, the river, the 
 harbor must be clearly in mind. The 
 background of the poet's picture must
 
 128 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 be drawn before the children attempt to 
 read aloud the paragraph. 
 
 It is obvious that the picture will be 
 most vivid in the minds of those pupils 
 who are most generously endowed with 
 imagination. The above exercise goes 
 to prove the need of some attempt on 
 the part of teachers to cultivate the im- 
 agination of the children. A close scru- 
 tiny of the failures in our reading lessons 
 would lead us to believe that it is to a 
 lack of this power that we may attribute 
 much of our difficulty in teaching read- 
 ing. As soon as the children picture 
 the scene which the words describe, they 
 read with interest and vigor. Their in- 
 difference and heaviness are largely due 
 to the fact that the words suggest no 
 picture to them. 
 
 This faculty might be developed, in 
 some degree, by frequent conversations 
 which necessitate the children's picturing
 
 Expression in Reading. 129 
 
 or imagining what they have read. The 
 simplest primer will lend itself to this ex- 
 ercise. The habit of drawing the picture 
 which the sentence suggests is a further 
 stimulus. Reading fairy stories or stories 
 of adventure may help to stimulate the 
 imagination. An effective aid is derived 
 from playing or acting the story told in 
 the lesson. I remember seeing a pri- 
 mary class that played " Hiawatha " 
 with great delight, different children 
 taking the parts of Nokomis, Hiawatha, 
 Wenonah, the Pine Tree, the Fir Tree, 
 the Squirrels, the Rabbits ; reciting their 
 parts with eager pleasure, acting them 
 in the most unconscious fashion, and 
 never with any lack of expression. The 
 children recited with ease and natural- 
 ness and vigor. They were lost in their 
 play, which was very real to them. Not 
 long ago I visited a school in which the 
 children had begged the privilege of rep 
 
 9
 
 130 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 resenting the dialogue which they were 
 reading. They assigned the parts them- 
 selves, improvised simple costumes, and 
 read their various parts with great ani- 
 mation. The members of the class who 
 served as audience listened with rapt 
 attention, very unlike that which is or- 
 dinarily accorded to a rendering of the 
 reading lesson. Through the play, the 
 lesson became vitalized, it was made 
 real. It did not occur to the teacher to 
 suggest inflections or pauses; such sug- 
 gestions were quite as unnecessary as 
 they would have been in any conversa- 
 tion with the children. These things 
 take care of themselves when the chil- 
 dren have once been overmastered by 
 the desire to express the thought. Nor 
 will it ever be necessary to dwell upon 
 them if this desire is created. " Seek 
 ye first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness, and all these things shall
 
 Expression in Reading. 131 
 
 be added unto you." In a parallel 
 sense, if we once inspire in the children 
 the desire to convey the message of the 
 text, the accessories of inflection and 
 tone will become theirs. It cannot be 
 too strongly emphasized that these lesser 
 phases of good reading will be secured if 
 properly subordinated to one great aim 
 the desire to communicate thought. 
 
 It is not difficult to imagine a question 
 at this point. ' Would you not have 
 any vocal exercises to help in securing 
 expression ?" By all means, but not as 
 a part of the reading exercise. If the 
 exercise shows that the children have 
 certain needs, if the teeth are closed, if 
 the pronunciation is slovenly or the ar- 
 ticulation poor, special exercises should 
 be planned to remedy such defects, but 
 these should be given as exercises and 
 not as a part of the reading lesson. Sen- 
 tences which demand clear articulation
 
 132 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 may be pronounced in rapid succession, 
 or sung to the scale ; selections may be 
 read from the farthest corner of the 
 room. Exercises which stretch the mus- 
 cles used in articulation, exercises which 
 straighten the body or secure ease in 
 posture; breathing exercises and their 
 kindred, all are helpful, as exercises, 
 but they should not interrupt the read- 
 ing. They may alternate with reading, 
 and prepare for it, but they should be 
 considered, as they really are, subordi- 
 nate to the one essential, the creation of 
 a desire to read. 
 
 ' Would you ever read to children in 
 order to help them to get the right ex- 
 pression ?" is a question which is fre- 
 quently asked. By all means. There 
 is no other way in which children can 
 form an ideal of good reading. Many 
 children hear no reading in their homes. 
 They are accustomed to monotonous
 
 Expression in Reading. 133 
 
 speech and to careless articulation. It 
 is necessary to read to them, and to read 
 well, in order to show them what good 
 reading is. A further advantage of 
 reading to the children is to show them ; 
 how much the teacher gets from a poem 
 or story which has meant little to them. 
 Such reading should not lead to servile 
 imitation on the part of the children; ; 
 rather the opposite. The teacher's com- 
 ments upon the reading in the class will 
 readily fix the seal of her approval upon 
 individual renderings. " Let me hear 
 how that seems to you, John," she will 
 say. " Mary, let me hear you read. 
 I should like to get your thought." 
 " Kate, is that the way you understood 
 it ? Let me hear you read it. " I have 
 heard a teacher request one pupil after 
 another to read, waiting until the inter- 
 pretation which was like her own was 
 given before she commended, and im-
 
 134 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 pressing upon the entire class her feeling 
 that such reading alone was correct. As 
 a matter of fact, every rendering which 
 was given was as good as the teacher's 
 some even were better. The reader 
 must interpret the author's message as 
 it appears to him. His reading shows 
 his interpretation. If the teacher reads 
 to the class, she shows simply what the 
 writer's message has been to her. In 
 the reading lesson she gives to the pupils 
 the opportunity of expressing what they 
 themselves have read. 
 
 In reading, as in everything else, ease 
 comes with practice. The class should 
 have two varieties of practice. They 
 should read and re-read a few selections 
 which demand variety in expression; 
 and they should read many easy selec- 
 tions which require very little effort in 
 mastering. If the exercise is difficult 
 enough to demand study, it will neces-
 
 Expression in Reading. 135 
 
 sitate hesitation if read at sight. Such 
 attempts at sight reading, with too diffi- 
 cult matter, will result in the habit of 
 stumbling. Children should have an 
 opportunity to overcome by study the 
 difficulties which would otherwise make 
 them hesitate in reading. All sight 
 reading, so called, should be easy enough 
 to be read fluently at sight. 
 
 The old-fashioned custom of setting i 
 apart Friday afternoons for reading, reci- ; 
 tation, and declamation should be re-' 
 vived. The exercise was admirable, 
 giving the children confidence in reading 
 and speaking which resulted in ease and 
 fluency. It was a helpful adjunct to the 
 reading class and deserves to be honored 
 in the observance. 
 
 It may be well to suggest, in this con- 
 nection, that the habit of reading with 
 free and individual expression is seri- 
 ously hindered by the practice of concert 
 
 J S L
 
 136 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 reading. If the teachers who pursue 
 that practice were to attempt occasion- 
 ally to read aloud in company with 
 others, they would discover the difficul- 
 ties under which the children labor. 
 The practice works in direct opposition 
 to the exercises which have been ad- 
 vised. It is impossible for the child to 
 give his individual rendering in a con- 
 cert recitation. He cannot even read at 
 his individual rate; he must wait for his 
 neighbor. His words drag, his voice be- 
 comes strained and unnatural, the exer- 
 cise assumes the schoolroom tone, and 
 \ 
 
 the children adopt the swinging rhythm 
 of the singsong. A few children lead ; 
 the others follow, or most of the others 
 a very few succeed in evading the reading 
 altogether. All this is wrong. It jsjtjet- 
 ter for the child to read once alone than 
 to read ten times in concert with others. 
 It is true, however, that there is one
 
 Expression in Reading. 137 
 
 place for the concert reading. When a 
 poem or paragraph has been memorized 
 by the entire class under the direction 
 of the teacher, they may learn to recite 
 it well in concert without the disadvan- 
 tages described; but, as a reading fes- 
 son, the exercise has no place it should 
 be banished from the school-room. 
 
 One word more. In our attempts to 
 teach children to read with expression, 
 we may be helped by studying to learn 
 what selections they like best to read, 
 what it is that appeals to thenu By fol- 
 lowing the line of their interest we may 
 come to realize why selections which we 
 have chosen are difficult for them, and 
 through making a wiser choice may be- 
 come more successful in our teaching. 
 Here, as elsewhere, it is the intelligent 
 study of the class by the teacher which 
 enables her to apply her knowledge of 
 the subject which she teaches.
 
 The highest office of reading is not to open 
 the eyes of the child to the evolution of the 
 material world, nor to teach him to adapt its 
 resources to his own subsistence ; he needs no 
 books for that. The greatest hunger of the hu- 
 man soul is not for food. It is that he may bet- 
 ter understand soul motives and heart needs; 
 that he may more freely give to the heart-hun- 
 gry, and more freely receive from the soul-full; 
 that he may live out of and away from his 
 meaner self; that he may grow all-sided ; that 
 he may look with analytic rather than with 
 critical eyes upon the erring ; that he may 
 relish the homely side of life, and weave beauty 
 into its poverty and ugly hardships ; that he 
 may add to his own strength and wisdom the 
 strength and wisdom of the past ages. It is 
 that he may find his own relation to the eternal, 
 that the child, equally with the grown person, 
 turns to the songs which ravish the ear and 
 
 gladden the heart. 
 
 MARY E. BURT.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LESSONS TO SUGGEST PLANS OF WORK. 
 I. Lesson upon the Cow. 
 
 To precede or accompany Reading Lessons 
 which refer to the Cow (in lowest grades). 
 
 I. Find out what the children know about 
 the cow. 
 
 EVERY new lesson should be built 
 upon and fastened to the chil- 
 dren's past experience. If they have 
 no knowledge of cows, we must intro- 
 duce the subject accordingly. If they 
 have always known them, the lesson will 
 be merely a review, because the founda- 
 tion will have been prepared. If the 
 children live in the country and know
 
 140 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 the common animals, proceed at once 
 to definite questions which will arrange 
 their knowledge and help them to ex- 
 press it : 
 
 Where have you seen cows ? What 
 do you know about them their size, 
 color; the head, ears, legs, feet, tail ? 
 
 How large are they, as compared with 
 the horse, dog, cat ? 
 
 Compare the covering with that of 
 the horse, dog, cat. Compare the parts 
 with the corresponding parts of those 
 animals. 
 
 Describe the horns. Why do cows 
 have horns ? What use do they make 
 of them ? 
 
 Describe the ears. Where are they ? 
 Does the cow move them ? The ears 
 of the dog, cat, cow, horse are movable ; 
 ours are not. Why ? 
 
 Compare the cow's nose and mouth 
 with those of the cat or the horse.
 
 Plans of Work. 141 
 
 Does anyone know anything about 
 the cow's teeth ? What does she 
 eat ? What kind of teeth does she 
 need ? 
 
 Tell the children about the chewing 
 of the cud. 
 
 Of what use to the cow is the long tail 
 with its brush at the end ? Who has 
 seen her use it ? Would a short tail 
 serve as well ? 
 
 Who knows anything about the cow's 
 foot ? Who can draw a picture of a 
 cow's footprint ? 
 
 Of what use are cows to us ? What 
 does the cow give to us ? 
 
 How should cows be cared for ? What 
 kind of stall, what kind of bed, what 
 food, water, pasture, should they have ? 
 Describe a pasture that you would like 
 if you were a cow. Describe a barn 
 that you would like if you were a 
 cow.
 
 142 Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 How ought we to treat animals ? Is 
 it right to forget their wants when we 
 have the care of them ? 
 
 Every lesson upon animals should help 
 the children to realize more fully their 
 obligation to properly care for them. 
 Sympathy for animal life ought to be 
 developed through the reading and lan- 
 guage lessons. Interest in animal life 
 is always present in children. The 
 questions above suggested cannot be 
 answered at once, by any ordinary class 
 of children. Many who are familiar 
 with cows in general will be unable to 
 answer them definitely. But the ques- 
 tions will lead them to more thought- 
 ful observation, after which they can 
 report in another lesson. Sometimes 
 the subjects may be distributed, dif- 
 ferent groups of children being held 
 responsible for the answer to a certain 
 question.
 
 Plans of Work. 143 
 
 2. Direct outside observation, in order to get 
 
 new knowledge. 
 
 It is entirely feasible, in many school- 
 rooms, to make the study of the cow the 
 subject of a field lesson. The children 
 may be taken, in groups, to a farmyard, 
 a pasture, or a stable, where a cow may 
 be observed and studied. Such lessons 
 have ceased to be formidable, since they 
 have become so common. The need of 
 these visits is revealed by the children's 
 vague answers. Nothing but definite 
 observation of the real thing will open 
 their eyes, and make the words in their 
 lesson full of meaning. 
 
 There are many city children who 
 have never seen a cow. If it is impossi- 
 ble to take them to a real cow, excellent 
 pictures should be substituted. Many 
 of the questions suggested could be an- 
 swered by pictures. It must be remem- 
 bered, however, that the picture tells to
 
 144 Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 us, who have had the real experience, 
 much more than it tells to a child who 
 has never had that experience. It is not 
 strange that a boy who has never seen 
 a real cow should imagine that animal to 
 be six inches long, the size of the cow 
 which he has known from pictures in the 
 lesson. Emphasize the fact of the size. 
 Allude to the picture as a picture only. 
 Have the children show by their hands 
 how high a cow would be, how long, 
 how wide its head, etc. By such means, 
 help to vivify the mental picture which 
 is suggested to the children by the 
 lesson. If the pictures are the only 
 avenue through which they learn about 
 the cow, do not attempt to give as much 
 information as would naturally be asso- 
 ciated with the real observation lesson. 
 Remember that the amount of knowl- 
 edge which the child gains is not pro- 
 portioned to the number of facts which 

 
 Plans of Work. 145 
 
 the teacher enumerates. He will intel- 
 ligently appropriate those which his ob- 
 servation and thought have helped him 
 to understand. As has been said be- 
 fore, this truth determines the value of 
 the reading lesson to the child, and ne- 
 cessitates the associated lessons, which 
 supplement his experience and enable 
 him to bring to the lesson a mind fur- 
 nished with appropriate ideas. 
 
 3. Tell the children simple facts -which they 
 cannot find out for themselves. 
 
 There are many facts associated with 
 the cow which the children can know 
 only through others: the use of the 
 horns, of the bones, the hair, etc. ; the 
 manufactures; the reason for the cud- 
 chewing; the making of butter and 
 cheese. The writer has known class- 
 rooms in which milk was skimmed, the 
 cream churned into butter, and the but-
 
 146 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 ter eaten by the children. The quan- 
 tity, of course, was small, but the pro- 
 cess was very real and very interesting. 
 This happened recently in a kindergar- 
 ten in a large city. There were only 
 three children in the class who had ever 
 seen a cow. It is hardly necessary to 
 say that the lesson followed a visit to 
 the cow. 
 
 4. Reenforce the lessons by stories. 
 
 Stories about cows, or descriptions of 
 certain animals, perhaps the pets which 
 we have known, will add interest to the 
 lessons. 
 
 5. Collect pictures of cows, for comparison 
 and description. 
 
 In almost any district the children will 
 be able to help in making collections of 
 pictures which illustrate the language 
 and reading lesson. These pictures can 
 be obtained from newspapers, maga-
 
 Plans of Work. 147 
 
 zines, advertisements, and various other 
 sources. Every child who helps to swell 
 the collection will feel an added interest 
 in it. The collection will be valuable in 
 proportion as it is carefully arranged and 
 thoughtfully used by the teacher. If 
 the cards are neatly mounted upon sepa- 
 rate sheets which contain the name of 
 the contributor, and distributed amongst 
 the children for observation and com- 
 parison, it will prove really helpful. 
 Through the comparison of the different 
 pictures many facts will be developed, 
 suggested by the children's comments 
 or questions. Such teaching will be 
 sure to fit the need of the children. 
 
 These suggestions will be modified 
 and arranged by any teacher who desires 
 to use them. They may help to point 
 the way for those who are not entirely 
 familiar with this phase of their work, 
 and so lead to better things.
 
 148 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 II. Lesson upon the Oak. 
 
 As in the previous lesson, the teach- 
 er's first object should be to discover 
 what the children already know. Nearly 
 all children, even those living in the 
 midst of the city, have some opportu- 
 nity to see and study trees, and their 
 attention should be carefully directed 
 to the trees in their neighborhood. 
 
 Have you ever seen an oak tree ? 
 Where was it growing ? How tall was 
 it ? (Compare with a man, with a horse, 
 a house, with other trees.) 
 
 What do you remember about the 
 size of its trunk ? about the bark, about 
 the leaves, about the fruit ? 
 
 Bring to the class acorns, leaves, or, 
 in blossom time, bring blossoms. What 
 is the use of the blossom, of the leaf, of 
 the acorn ? Draw them.
 
 Plans of Work. 149 
 
 Plant an acorn and see what comes of 
 it. 
 
 Of what use is the oak tree to us ? 
 (Do not forget that beauty as well as 
 manufacturing is to be considered.) 
 
 Name articles made of oak. 
 
 Bring specimens of the wood. 
 
 The older pupils can draw the tree. 
 
 Tell the children about the Chartei 
 Oak. 
 
 Take them, if possible, to a field or 
 woods or park or street where they can 
 see an oak tree growing. 
 
 Refer to the lesson some weeks after- 
 wards, in order to lead to continued 
 observation of the tree in different 
 stages. 
 
 Do not feel that it is necessary to do 
 all which the lesson suggests, with every 
 class ; but be sure that the children have 
 some actual knowledge of a real oak 
 tree.
 
 150 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 III. Lessons upon Occupations. 
 
 Frequent reference is made, in all lit- 
 erature, to the occupations of men. 
 Even if this were not so, a knowledge 
 of these occupations is necessary to even 
 a fair education. Every child should be 
 intelligent in regard to the work of the 
 farmer, the miller, the carpenter, the 
 brick-layer, the engineer, the miner, the 
 merchant. But, be this as it may, the 
 pages of the school reader, even, will 
 demand some knowledge of the every- 
 day occupations of men. 
 
 Children are naturally interested in the 
 occupations of their neighbors. They 
 like to see things made. They like to 
 know why certain effects come from cer- 
 tain causes. Nothing could be more 
 fruitful than a visit to a blacksmith shop, 
 a new house that is being built, a sewer 
 that is being dug, a cellar that is being
 
 Plans of Work. 151 
 
 laid; to a ropevvalk, to a mine, to a 
 quarry, where real men are engaged in 
 real work. This natural interest of chil- 
 dren in these subjects is evidenced by 
 their desire to "play" the miller, the 
 farmer, the driver, the boatman, etc. 
 We do well when we build upon this 
 natural interest. ' The Village Black- 
 smith " is a familiar poem, based upon a 
 common experience. As has been said, 
 the children who know something about 
 the work of the blacksmith will enjoy 
 and understand the poem as no others 
 can. Ask them to go to a blacksmith, 
 and then to report ; or go with a class of 
 children, and help them to observe and 
 to question. The blacksmith will be 
 helpful and generous if he is courte- 
 ously requested to give his aid to the 
 children. Prepare them for the lesson 
 by a preliminary talk about the black- 
 smith, his work, the need of his work;
 
 152 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 his tools, the material with which he 
 works; the source from which iron is 
 obtained, the process by which steel is 
 made. Having prepared the children to 
 observe, assign questions or topics upon 
 which they are to report : the anvil, the 
 forge, the sledge, the bellows, the horse- 
 shoe, etc. Upon returning from the vis- 
 it, allow the different pupils to tell what 
 they have seen. After the general con- 
 versation, insist upon an orderly de- 
 scription. 
 
 Kindred lessons may be given upon 
 the other occupations suggested. In 
 many cases, stories can be told, or read, 
 which will reenforce the observation. 
 It must not be forgotten that one result 
 of the lessons should be a sincere respect 
 for honest toil, and sturdy pride in 
 ability to do honest work well. It is 
 hardly necessary to say that the visit to 
 the blacksmith's shop will reenforce the
 
 Plans of Work. 153 
 
 reading, and that a study of Longfel- 
 low's poem will in turn make the visit 
 more valuable. The language lesson 
 will help the reading lesson because it 
 adds interest; it will also help the les- 
 son as literature, because it gives fuller 
 power of interpretation, and correspond- 
 ing appreciation of the poem. All these 
 lessons will be made more valuable by 
 the use of collections of pictures. 
 
 IV. Rain. 
 
 For Second Grade. 
 Observation during a Rainfall. 
 
 What is rain ? 
 
 Where does it come from ? 
 
 How did it get there ? 
 
 Experiment later, if the children be- 
 come interested in the question, but do 
 not answer it for them now; let them 
 question and think.
 
 154 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 Upon which windows does it fall ? 
 
 Why not upon the opposite windows? 
 
 Where does it go ? 
 
 What good will it do ? 
 
 What harm will it do ? 
 
 Think what the rain does for the 
 trees. 
 
 How do you know ? 
 
 What does it do for the birds ? 
 
 How do you know ? 
 
 What does it do for the flowers ? 
 
 How do you know ? 
 
 What does it do for you ? 
 
 If no rain were to fall for three or four 
 months, what would happen to the 
 flowers ? 
 
 To the grass ? 
 
 To the gardens ? 
 
 To the brooks ? 
 
 Would it make any difference to you ? 
 
 Experiment : Breathe upon the cold 
 glass ; show condensed vapor.
 
 Plans of Work. 155 
 
 Boil water; collect vapor on cold sur- 
 face. 
 
 Recall vapor on windows. 
 
 Recall clothes drying. 
 
 Recall windows on washing day. 
 
 Explain how fine particles of water 
 are carried through the air, and unite so 
 as to be seen, when cold, in the breath, 
 on windows, in clouds, in fog. 
 
 Explain how rainfall is caused. 
 
 Read " Children of the Clouds." 
 
 Memorize "Is it Raining, Little 
 Flower?" 
 
 Read to the children " A Rainy Day." 
 
 Tell the story of the drop of water in 
 its journey from ocean to ocean again.
 
 Oh for a booke and a shadie nooke, 
 
 Eyther in-a-doore or out ; 
 With the grene leaves whispering overhede t 
 
 Or the streete cry all about. 
 Where I maie reade all at my ease, 
 
 Both of the newe and aide ; 
 For a jollie goode booke whereon to looke, 
 
 Is better to me than golde. 
 
 OLD ENGLISH SONG.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LESSONS TO SUGGEST PLANS OF WORK 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 I. Lessons on Bird Life. 
 
 T^HE study of birds has become so 
 1 common as a part of school work, 
 that suggestions upon the subject may 
 be trite and superfluous. For the teach- 
 ers who have not yet attempted such 
 study, the following practical sugges- 
 tions may be helpful. 
 
 All children are interested in animal 
 life, but few city children have more 
 than a vague notion of the habits and 
 characteristics of the animals of which
 
 158 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 they read. Not long ago, the writer 
 chanced to hear a class of primary chil- 
 dren reading about the hen. The exer- 
 cise was hesitating, the reading dubious. 
 Upon questioning it transpired that but 
 three children in the class had ever seen 
 a live hen, and in two of these cases the 
 hen was " nailed up in a box in the 
 market." One child only had seen a 
 hen walking about, and that was in 
 ' Tim Jones's Alley." Obviously the 
 sentences which had seemed so lumi- 
 nous to the teacher were dark to the 
 children. 
 
 Such experiences are not confined to 
 city children. Wide experience has dis- 
 covered many a country child whose 
 eyes have never been truly opened to 
 the life about him. It is safe to assume 
 that any class of little children will profit 
 by the lesson which increases their in- 
 terest in the bird world, and opens their
 
 Plans of Work. 159 
 
 eyes to see new beauties, their minds 
 to receive new pictures, and which inci- 
 dentally explains the pages that other- 
 wise are meaningless. 
 
 For such preliminary study, the best 
 beginning is the observation of some 
 caged bird which can be kept within 
 reach for awhile. A canary, a parrot, 
 a dove, a hen, a duck will behave well 
 in the schoolroom, may be cared for by 
 the pupils, and observed for several days, 
 and will serve as a centre from which 
 new investigation may radiate, or a type 
 to which all new bird knowledge may be 
 referred. The canary or parrot will be 
 brought in its own house. For the 
 others a dwelling-place may be extem- 
 porized. A box frame may be built, 
 open on all sides, and covered with 
 coarse wire netting or netted fencing; 
 or one side may be removed from a 
 wooden box of suitable size, and net-
 
 160 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 ting be substituted for it. The children 
 should be able to watch the bird as it 
 eats, drinks, walks, or flies about, and 
 should at first be allowed to observe 
 without the restriction of question or 
 recitation. 
 
 The conversation of the pupils, their 
 exclamations and questions, will reveal 
 the best line of approach to the subject. 
 It will be found that their chief interest 
 centres in the actions of the bird. " See 
 him eat! How fast he turns the seed. 
 See the shells fly ! How he spatters the 
 water! Oh, he's washing himself!" 
 Such are the free comments of the chil- 
 dren. Let thesedetermine the first lesson. 
 
 ' You have been watching the canary. 
 What have you seen him do ? What 
 can he do that you can do ? What can 
 he do that you cannot do ? " 
 
 These questions cannot be answered
 
 Plans of Work. 161 
 
 without actual knowledge. If the re- 
 plies are written upon the board, it will 
 be discovered that the children have 
 added definitely to their store of knowl- 
 edge, and likewise to their vocabulary. 
 
 Another conversation may compare 
 the cat and the canary, the cow and the 
 canary, or (a very different exercise) may 
 note the resemblances and differences 
 between the canary and other birds with 
 which the children are somewhat famil- 
 iar. This comparison leads to observa- 
 tion of the structure, to naming and 
 describing the parts of the canary. 
 
 ' The canary can fly because he has 
 wings. We have no wings, but we have 
 arms. The cat has no wings, but she 
 has two forelegs." So the comparison 
 proceeds to head, eyes, bill, feet, until 
 the children are able to describe the 
 bird in clear and appropriate language. 
 
 Another talk compares the habits of
 
 162 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 the bird with those of the cat or dog, 
 and leads to descriptions of the nests, 
 the eggs, the home habits of the bird, 
 with the rearing of the young. The les- 
 sons prepare for the reading, to be sure, 
 but this value is incidental only, as com- 
 pared with the widened interest and 
 growing power of the children in think- 
 ing, seeing, and saying. 
 
 It would be interesting to keep a rec- 
 ord of the words used, or needed, by 
 the children in such lessons, to collate 
 them afterward, and to discover what 
 proportion of the list of words is in- 
 cluded in the ordinary stock vocabulary 
 of elementary readers. Such a study 
 would reveal to any intelligent teacher 
 the close relation between experience 
 and reading, and would fully justify 
 the plan of work outlined in these 
 pages. 
 
 It may be well to add in passing that
 
 Plans of Work. 163 
 
 such a series of lessons serves as a basis 
 to which all the related lessons may be 
 referred. When the children read about 
 the oriole or the robin, he is compared 
 with the canary, and the old lesson ex- 
 plains and reenforces the new. The 
 value of such lessons depends upon the 
 teacher's recognition of this relation. 
 The children need not know the skele- 
 ton of her plan, but she must know the 
 end from the beginning. 
 
 II. Study of "The Builders." Long- 
 fellow. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE POEM. 
 
 If the readers are young children, it 
 would be well to prepare for the reading 
 of the poem by a lesson upon the mate- 
 rial building. It is oossible that the car- 
 penters and masons are already at work 
 in the immediate neighborhood of the
 
 164 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 schoolhouse. The children have been 
 interested in watching the digging of 
 the cellar, the laying of the foundation 
 stone, the fixing of the frame in posi- 
 tion, the building of the walls. A little 
 questioning and observation will lead 
 them to see how necessary it is to the 
 strength of the building that every part 
 be well shaped and firmly placed. There 
 may be unfortunate examples in their 
 neighborhood which show the folly of 
 dishonest building. They may easily be 
 led to realize what harm may result from 
 slighting any piece of work, or falsely 
 covering any weakness. Anecdotes are 
 abundant to illustrate this : the bridge 
 which gives way beneath the weight of 
 the passing train, carrying hundreds to 
 death ; the dam which has weak timber, 
 yielding to the pressure of the freshet ; 
 the elevator which falls with its precious 
 load. These point to building which
 
 Plans of Work. 165 
 
 was insecure and treacherous. For the 
 other side of the picture, we turn to the 
 old cathedrals, showing the children the 
 beautiful spires, the exquisite carving, 
 and telling them how they have endured 
 through the ages because their builders 
 did honest work. 
 
 Such a lesson prepares for the inter- 
 pretation of the poem, which turns our 
 thought to the building which we are 
 shaping with our to-days and yester- 
 days. The lesson of the unstable wall, 
 the falling bridge, as well as the grace 
 and strength of the cathedral, serve now 
 as a parallel for the poet's teaching, and 
 the inevitable result to others is seen as 
 well as felt when we read of the " broken 
 stairways, where the feet stumble as they 
 seek to climb." After such lessons, 
 every line is filled with meaning as the 
 children read and re-read the inspiring 
 poem. Then it is time to memorize
 
 1 66 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 every line, but especially the two stan- 
 zas, 
 
 " In the elder days of art, 
 
 Builders wrought with greatest care 
 Each minute and unseen part; 
 For the gods see everywhere. 
 
 " Let us do our work as well, 
 
 Both the unseen and the seen : 
 Make the house, where gods may dwell, 
 Beautiful, entire, and clean." 
 
 It is not necessary to preach while 
 teaching this poem. The lesson im- 
 presses itself upon the children if they 
 are rightly prepared for it. They will 
 make their own application, but- we 
 should not forget that a valuable les- 
 son like this is not measured by ease in 
 recitation or accuracy in reading. If in 
 the days to come the memory of the 
 poet's words gives strength in the hour 
 of temptation, or incites to honest work 
 when the hand inclines to careless shirk-
 
 Plans of Work. 167 
 
 ing, the lesson will have counted for 
 good. In selecting our poems for our 
 children, and in directing their reading, 
 such hope should guide our choice. 
 The words of the poem or story will 
 recur again and again when the mem- 
 ory of the schoolroom has faded. We 
 should be assured that the minds of our 
 pupils are furnished with thoughts worth 
 remembering. ' Whatsoever things are 
 lovely, whatsoever things are pure, what- 
 soever things are of good report, if there 
 be any virtue, and if there be any praise, 
 think on these things. ' ' 
 
 III. Study of the Reading Lesson. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE LESSON. 
 
 LITTLE BELL. 
 
 Piped the blackbird on the beechwood spray, 
 " Pretty maid, slow wandering this way, 
 What's your name ? " quoth he,
 
 168 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 " What's your name ? Oh, stop, and straight 
 
 unfold, 
 
 Pretty maid, with showery curls of gold ! " 
 " Little Bell," said she. 
 
 Little Bell sat down beneath the rocks, 
 Tossed aside her gleaming golden locks. 
 
 " Bonny bird," quoth she, 
 " Sing me your best song, before I go." 
 " Here's the very finest song I know, 
 
 Little Bell," said he. 
 
 And the blackbird piped ; you never heard 
 Half so gay a song from any bird, 
 
 Full of quips and wiles, 
 Now so round and rich, now soft and slow, 
 All for love of that sweet face below, 
 
 Dimpled o'er with smiles. 
 
 And the while the bonny bird did pour 
 His full heart out freely, o'er and o'er, 
 
 'Neath the morning skies, 
 In the little childish heart below 
 All the sweetness seemed to grow and grow, 
 And shine forth in happy overflow 
 
 From the blue, bright eyes.
 
 Plans of Work. 169 
 
 Down the dell she tripped, and through the 
 
 glade 
 Peeped the squirrel from the hazel shade, 
 
 And from out the tree 
 Swung, and leaped, and frolicked, void of 
 
 fear, 
 While bold blackbird piped, that all might 
 
 hear, 
 " Little Bell !" piped he. 
 
 Little Bell sat down amid the fern ; 
 
 " Squirrel, squirrel, to your task return; 
 
 Bring me nuts," quoth she. 
 Up, away, the frisky squirrel hies, 
 Golden woodlights glancing in his eyes, 
 
 And adown the tree 
 
 Great ripe nuts, kissed brown by July sun, 
 In the little lap dropped one by one. 
 Hark ! how blackbird pipes to see the fun ! 
 
 " Happy Bell !" pipes he. 
 
 Little Bell looked up and down the glade; 
 " Squirrel, squirrel, if you're not afraid, 
 Come and share with me ! "
 
 170 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 Down came squirrel, eager for his fare, 
 Down came bonny blackbird, I declare ! 
 Little Bell gave each his honest share ; 
 Ah, the merry three ! 
 
 And the while these frolic playmates twain 
 Piped and frisked from bough to bough again, 
 
 'Nealh the morning skies, 
 In the little childish heart below 
 All the sweetness seemed to grow and grow, 
 And shine out in happy overflow 
 
 From her blue, bright eyes. 
 
 By her snow-white cot, at close of day, 
 Knelt sweet Bell, with folded palms, to pray. 
 
 Very calm and clear 
 
 Rose the praying voice, to where, unseen, 
 In blue heaven, an angel shape serene 
 
 Paused awhile to hear. 
 
 " What good child is this ? " the angel said, 
 " That, with happy heart, beside her bed 
 
 Prays so lovingly ? " 
 Low and soft, O ! very low and soft, 
 Crooned the blackbird in the orchard croft, 
 
 " Bell, dear Bell ! " crooned he.
 
 Plans of Work. 171 
 
 " Whom God's creatures love," the angel fair 
 Murmured, " God doth bless with angels' 
 
 care; 
 
 Child, thy bed shall be 
 Folded safe from harm. Love, deep and 
 
 kind, 
 
 Shall watch around, and leave good gifts be- 
 hind, 
 Little Bell, for thee." 
 
 THOMAS WESTWOOD. 
 
 The poem selected for this lesson is 
 suitable for use in third, fourth, or fifth 
 grades, although even younger children 
 enjoy hearing it read. Such children 
 would, however, find difficulty in a de- 
 tailed study, such as is suggested in this 
 exercise. The poem may be used sim- 
 ply as a reading lesson, or it may be 
 read, studied, and memorized by the 
 pupils as a language exercise. The va- 
 rious advantages of the study are indi- 
 cated in the following suggestions, which 
 are intended to indicate merely some of
 
 172 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 the different modes of treatment which 
 may be attempted in language teaching. 
 
 THE THOUGHT IN THE POEM. 
 
 As in all lessons, the children should 
 read the entire poem, or hear it read, 
 before any detailed study is attempted. 
 This is done in order that the poem may 
 be presented to them as a whole, giving 
 its thought or telling its message. After 
 such reading, every verse and word will 
 assume its rightful place in the descrip- 
 tion of the story. Otherwise, given 
 separately, the words lose the meaning 
 which they are intended to convey. A 
 poem, like a picture, should be presented 
 as a whole, and never dissected, in the 
 first lesson. 
 
 It is wise, sometimes, to read and to 
 re-read without note or comment ; then 
 to lay aside the book and leave the chil-
 
 Plans of Work. 173 
 
 dren to recall the story, and to accustom 
 themselves to its pictures. At the next 
 lesson, the teacher may question, fol- 
 lowing out any of the suggested lines of 
 work. 
 
 The important motive is to get the 
 message which the author intended to 
 give us in the poem. Everything else 
 must be subordinate to this purpose. 
 Any supplementary teaching which 
 draws the attention away from the 
 poem, creating a separate centre of in- 
 terest, is excessive. All illustration and 
 explanation should be intended simply 
 to throw light upon the poem, making 
 the pictures more vivid and the message 
 more plain. 
 
 The thought in this poem is very evi- 
 dent, even to the children. In the first 
 stanza the blackbird on the beechwood 
 spray introduces us to the pretty maid, 
 " slow wandering " his way. She is little
 
 174 Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 Bell. Sitting down beneath the rocks, 
 she asks the blackbird for his best song. 
 The bonny bird pours his full heart out 
 freely, while, in the little childish heart 
 below, all the sweetness seems to grow 
 and grow, and shine forth in happy over- 
 flow from the blue, bright eyes. The 
 squirrel swings and leaps and frolics in 
 the glade, and at the child's bidding 
 drops down great ripe nuts into her lap. 
 The blackbird pipes to see the fun. The 
 child shares her treasures with the squir- 
 rel and the bird, and again the poet tells 
 us 
 
 " In the little childish heart below 
 
 All the sweetness seemed to grow and grow, 
 And shine out in happy overflow 
 From her blue, bright eyes." 
 
 When, at close of day, the child kneels 
 to pray beside her snow-white cot, an 
 angel pauses to hear, and asks what good 
 child prays so lovingly beside her bed.
 
 Plans of Work. 175 
 
 The blackbird answers from the orchard 
 croft, "Bell, dear Bell!" "Whom 
 God's creatures love, God doth bless 
 with angels' care," the angel murmured. 
 " Child, thy bed shall be folded safe 
 from harm. Love, deep and kind, shall 
 watch around, and leave good gifts be- 
 hind, little Bell, for thee." 
 
 Even the little children sense the 
 meaning of the poem. They have al- 
 ready learned that love wins love and 
 makes friends, and they feel it to be both 
 natural and just that the loving little 
 Bell shall be shielded from all harm, and 
 sheltered by loving thought. The elder 
 children may be reminded of Sidney 
 Lanier's poem, " How Love Sought for 
 Hell," failing to find it because wher- 
 ever his presence came there were kind- 
 ness and light. The little ones are re- 
 minded that the mirror gives back smile 
 for smile, and frown for frown. It is
 
 176 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 hardly necessary to " point the moral 
 and adorn the tale." The poet has re- 
 peated in the self-same words the lines 
 which show how the child grew in sweet- 
 ness as she played so lovingly with her 
 woodland friends. For many classes it 
 would be enough to talk of the poem 
 until the children were possessed of this 
 thought, or rather this feeling, and then 
 leave it to do its own work. In this 
 case, however, the poem serves as a 
 text for the lesson, and we shall consider 
 other phases. 
 
 The Pictures in the Poem. 
 
 The poem takes us at once to the 
 woods where the blackbird pipes on the 
 beechwood spray. We see the rocks, 
 the dell, the glade, the trees, the hazel 
 shade, and are made acquainted with 
 the blackbird and the squirrel. Plainly, 
 the setting of the poem is clearest to
 
 Plans of Work. 177 
 
 those children who themselves have 
 played in the woods; who have heard 
 the blackbird sing, and have seen the 
 squirrel leap from bough to bough. The 
 beechwood spray, the hazel shade, the 
 dell, the glade, the fern, are already 
 familiar to such children, and need no 
 lesson to introduce them. But if the 
 tenement house, the narrow alley, the 
 brick walls, and the noisy street have 
 been the familiar surroundings of the 
 children, and if the country seems as far 
 away to them as Paradise, the poem is 
 written in a foreign tongue. With such 
 children, other lessons are necessary be- 
 fore any such selection is read or mem- 
 orized. These lessons may not be given 
 at the time of the reading far better 
 not ; but they should precede the read- 
 ing in the teacher's plan, and the young 
 reader should enter upon this lesson 
 equipped with some knowledge of the 
 
 12
 
 178 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 bird, the squirrel, and the woods. In 
 another chapter, something has been 
 said of the necessity of such teaching, 
 and of the way in which such lessons 
 may be conducted. The suggestion is 
 made here simply to emphasize this 
 truth : that observation of nature is es- 
 sential to the interpretation of literature. 
 
 Study of the Vocabulary of the Poem. 
 
 Although the pupils may be prepared 
 by their out-of-door experience to un- 
 derstand the poem, they will, neverthe- 
 less, be met by a new difficulty in the 
 reading. The language of literature dif- 
 fers from that to which they have been 
 accustomed in conversation. The ten- 
 dency of our school readers and chil- 
 dren's books is often to remove such 
 difficulties from the path of the children. 
 The lessons are expressed in words al-
 
 Plans of Work. 1 79 
 
 ready familiar to the children, and in 
 colloquial forms. While this practice 
 renders the first lessons in reading easy, 
 it makes the entrance to literature diffi- 
 cult. Many expressions are entirely 
 foreign to the child's ear, and therefore 
 unintelligible, even when the story is at- 
 tractive. The poem which we are using 
 for illustration contains many words and 
 phrases which the children have not met 
 in their ordinary reading. These must 
 be explained and their meaning made 
 familiar to the children. ' ' ' What's your 
 name ? ' quoth he " ; " stop, and straight 
 unfold" ; "showery curls of gold"; 
 ' ' gleaming golden locks " ; " bonny bird ' ' ; 
 " blackbird piped " ; " dell" ; "glade " ; 
 11 hazel shade " ; " void of fear " ; 
 "hies"; " golden woodlights " ; " adown 
 the tree"; "playmates twain"; "an 
 angel shape" ; "crooned the blackbird 
 in the orchard croft" are some of these.
 
 180 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 It may not be necessary nor wise in 
 most classes to study all these expres- 
 sions minutely, but they should become 
 plain to the children so that they may 
 plainly speak the message of the poem, 
 and present no difficulty if met else- 
 where. So with the figurative expres- 
 sions: " The bird did pour his full heart 
 out freely"; "the sweetness did shine 
 forth in happy overflow " ; " thy bed shall 
 be folded safe from harm " ; " stop, and 
 straight unfold." 
 
 There is no reason why the young 
 readers should not come to realize the 
 picture in these figurative expressions, 
 to compare their several words with the 
 figure which the poet has used, and to 
 begin to sense the difference between 
 the plain, straightforward speech and 
 the pictured verses of the poet. Such 
 study, however simple, will help the 
 children to some appreciation of the
 
 Plans of Work. 181 
 
 beauty of expression, which is one 
 charm of literature. 
 
 From what has been said, it will be 
 rightly judged that the poem affords a 
 basis of several lessons, all of value in 
 different directions. It may not be wise 
 to make a detailed and careful study of 
 every poem which is read or memorized 
 by the children, but some teaching in 
 the lines suggested is indispensable to 
 intelligent reading on the part of the 
 children. The phrases which are so 
 familiar to us often suggest a very curi- 
 ous idea to the children. This inter- 
 pretation is shown when they draw pic- 
 tures to represent the scenes of the 
 poem. In a certain school, the teacher 
 read a story to the children containing 
 the expression, " his mother gave him 
 leave to go." The child drew tlie moth- 
 er in the act of presenting a leaf to the 
 boy. " Fret-work," said the boy who
 
 182 Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 read " Sir Launfal " for the first time, 
 " fret-work is work that makes you 
 fret " ; while the child who drew the pic- 
 ture of the hare and the tortoise repre- 
 sented a turtle and a boy with bushy 
 hair. Reference has been made else- 
 where to the kid on the roof of the 
 house which was pictured as a little boy ; 
 and the writer remembers the pictures 
 which were drawn by children in illustra- 
 tion of the above poem, representing the 
 angels with webbed feet. These items 
 are intended simply to suggest that the 
 child's crude notion is often very differ- 
 ent from the meaning which the word or 
 phrase conveys to us. We should be 
 grateful for the frank question or the 
 crude remark which betrays the child's 
 mistake, and should be careful to secure 
 such confidence and freedom in our 
 classes as will enable us to discover what 
 the children are really thinking.
 
 Plans of Work. 183 
 
 After reading and discussing the poem, 
 the children may memorize it. At this 
 juncture it is wise for the teacher to 
 read it to the children again and again 
 in order that they may get some notion 
 of the proper reading. The children's 
 recitation will incline to adopt the vir- 
 tues of the teacher's reading; the faults 
 will be imitated, also. 
 
 If, after such study and such memoriz- 
 ing, the words of the poem appear now 
 and then in the children's conversation 
 or writing, let us rejoice; for this means 
 not simply that new words have been 
 added to the vocabulary, but that the 
 child has a new conception of beauty of 
 thought and speech.
 
 We're made so that we love 
 fttst when we see them painted, things we 
 
 have passed 
 
 Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see; 
 God uses us to help each other so, 
 Lending our minds out. 
 
 ROBERT BROWNING.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE STUDY OF PICTURES. 
 
 CHILDREN delight in pictures. 
 Every child-lover knows how in- 
 tently and with what delight the baby's 
 eyes gaze upon the pages of the beloved 
 picture book, long before the words 
 which describe the picture can be 
 spoken or even understood by the 
 young student. The childish chatter 
 is an attempt to express the delight in 
 the treasure and the thoughts suggest- 
 ed by the picture. 
 
 As the child grows older, pictures con- 
 tinue to be a source of pleasure. He 
 names the familiar objects, talks about
 
 i86 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 them, asks questions about them. Thus 
 he unconsciously grows in the power to 
 see and to tell what he sees, taught by the 
 many willing helpers who turn the pages 
 of his book and interpret its pictures. 
 
 Many a new idea creeps into the child's 
 mind by the path of the picture book. 
 Many an object which would be entirely 
 foreign to his experience otherwise, be- 
 comes familiar through its pages. Every 
 new book put into his hands is first chal- 
 lenged by him to discover whether it con- 
 tains pictures, and it is the pictures that 
 first excite his desire to learn to read the 
 story which they illustrate. 
 
 We cannot estimate the contribution 
 which such books make to both knowl- 
 edge and vocabulary. Most of us can 
 think of scenes which we know only 
 through their pictured semblances, yet 
 seem to know well. We can remember 
 our first glimpses of scenes that pic-
 
 The Study of Pictures. 187 
 
 tures had made familiar. How friendly, 
 how well known they seemed ! How we 
 were used\.Q them! Niagara, Westmin- 
 ster Abbey, the Pyramids, the Alps, are 
 known to many of us only through pic- 
 tures. Are we entirely ignorant, then, 
 of their beauty or their grandeur ? When 
 our eyes first look upon them, shall we 
 not greet them as already a part of our 
 possession ? 
 
 We have been slow, in our school 
 work, to follow the teaching of chil- 
 dren's experience. Although we have 
 always known and always recognized the 
 child's interest in pictures, we have not 
 used them in the schoolroom to the ex- 
 tent that they might have been used, 
 nor in such a manner as to yield the 
 greatest advantage. 
 
 The writer remembers a class of chil- 
 dren in whose hands were placed some 
 new readers beautifully illustrated with
 
 1 88 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 full-page pictures. The new books, 
 which had just been brought into the 
 room, were given to the children with 
 the brief direction, " Turn to page 85 and 
 begin reading at the top of the page." 
 
 " Theirs not to reason why, 
 Theirs not to make reply." 
 
 The obedient fingers turned to the 
 page indicated, and the curious eyes 
 were allowed no moment to linger over 
 the pages which tempted them with their 
 fascinating pictures. Yet here was the 
 " Delectable Land," which might have 
 been opened to them to their lasting ad- 
 vantage. Here the children's interest 
 was assured, and no artificial incentive 
 needed to be presented. 
 
 Another class, under similar condi- 
 tions, had a different experience. 
 
 " Here are new books," the teacher 
 said to the children. ' You will enjoy
 
 The Study of Pictures. 189 
 
 reading these stories, I know. But you 
 will find pictures in them as well as 
 stories. Before we read let us look at 
 the pictures and enjoy them." 
 
 The children eagerly opened the books. 
 They found, as a frontispiece, a copy of 
 Rosa Bonheur's " Norman Sire." 
 
 The children talked about the picture, 
 compared the horse with horses that they 
 knew, admired the noble head, the fine 
 eyes. As they turned the pages of their 
 books they found other pictures of ani- 
 mals, " The Lions at Home " and " Com- 
 ing from the Fair." Their comments 
 were free, their questions ready. No- 
 body thought of the picture as a picture. 
 The conversation centred about lions 
 and horses only, and expressed the chil- 
 dren's interest in animals. 
 
 It was the teacher who called the at- 
 tention of the children to the name writ- 
 ten underneath the first picture, "Rosa
 
 190 Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 Bonheur. " This, they inferred, must be 
 thenameof the one who madethe picture. 
 
 The teacher then explained that the 
 pictures in the book were copied from 
 photographs of the original pictures 
 which the artist painted. If the children 
 were to see the painting they would find it 
 colored and much larger than the copies. 
 
 Looking again and with a new interest 
 at the other pictures, the children dis- 
 covered the same name written below 
 them. " Did Rosa Bonheur paint this 
 picture, too ?" " And this ?" ' Did she 
 paint any others?" " Does she paint 
 now ?" These questions answered, the 
 children asked, " Who painted the pic- 
 ture of the little girl tending the baby ? " 
 " Is this the painter's name under the 
 picture?" "Yes, Meyer von Bremen. 
 On this page you will find another pic- 
 ture of his." The children found the 
 picture of" The Pet Canary," and talked
 
 The Study of Pictures. 191 
 
 earnestly about it. "I like that picture. 
 I wonder if this is the same little girl." 
 ' ' What queer chairs ! " ' What a funny 
 window!" 'This girl has been knit- 
 ting, too." 
 
 The teacher threw some light upon the 
 German interior, explaining that this was 
 a picture of a home in the country where 
 the artist lived. Then she questioned, 
 ' What did Meyer von Bremen paint for 
 you ?" " Children," was the ready re- 
 sponse. " And what did Rosa Bonheur 
 paint?" "Animals," came quite as 
 readily. " Do the pictures tell you any- 
 thing about the artists ? " The children 
 hesitated. ' You remember ' The Chil- 
 dren's Hour'?" suggested the teacher. 
 " You thought that Mr. Longfellow 
 wrote about children" " Because he 
 loved children," volunteered a child, as 
 the teacher paused. " I should think 
 Meyer von Bremen liked children, too,"
 
 192 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 observed another, thoughtfully. "And 
 Rosa Bonheur must like animals," added 
 a third. 
 
 They turned again to the pictures, 
 and decided, after some discussion, that 
 Rosa Bonheur not only loved animals, 
 but was able to make us love them bet- 
 ter by her painting. 
 
 The books were closed and carefully 
 put away till time could be given for the 
 reading, which the children now so ear- 
 nestly desired. The lesson had been a 
 simple one. To some casual observers 
 it might have seemed no lesson at all. 
 'Just looking at pictures!" But it 
 opened to the pupils a new line of 
 thought, and served to illuminate both 
 picture and text. When the children 
 read, the pictures, now made to interpret 
 the text, themselves became teachers. 
 
 Though seemingly incidental, the les- 
 son pointed toward such study of pic-
 
 The Study of Pictures. 193 
 
 tures as should obtain in every school. 
 One of the greatest pleasures of life is 
 the delight in art, the creations of minds 
 that enjoy the beautiful, and know how 
 to make the world beautiful for others. 
 We have learned to give to young chil- 
 dren the poems which the world treas- 
 ures. They commit these to memory. 
 They learn to sing the hymns which the 
 greatest of musicians have composed. 
 In poetry, in music, we have begun to 
 learn how to teach. But should we not 
 teach the children to know and to love 
 good pictures, as well as good poems 
 and good music ? 
 
 In too many of our homes the picture 
 is a stranger. Such teaching as tends to 
 interest the children in the picture gal- 
 lery or the art museum opens another 
 avenue of pleasure and profit, adds one 
 more resource to the lives which must 
 often be hindered and bound. By all 
 13
 
 194 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 means, let us begin it, and learn how to 
 use the wealth of material which lies at 
 our hand. 
 
 In a Boston school the teacher has 
 established a loan collection of pictures. 
 The children have the privilege of keep- 
 ing for a week the framed pictures which 
 they choose to carry home. They learn 
 to enjoy the pictures, and, so to speak, 
 to read them. They look with new in- 
 terest at all other pictures which come 
 in their way, comparing them with the 
 ones they have come to know. They 
 visit the art museum and study the 
 original from which their pictures are 
 copied. Their lives are enriched by 
 such teaching, their minds are furnished 
 with pleasant memories, and their love 
 of the beautiful is set growing. 
 
 Such study has a legitimate place in 
 the school curriculum. Happily, it is 
 now emphasized in some degree in the
 
 The Study of Pictures. 195 
 
 Drawing. It should also appear in con- 
 nection with the Reading. The picture 
 is intended to throw light upon the les- 
 son which is illustrated. The children 
 should be taught to read the picture as 
 well as to read the story. 
 
 Geography, as it is presented in good 
 schools of the present day, well illus- 
 trates the necessity. The picture is 
 often a photographic reproduction of 
 the mountain, the cascade, the geyser, 
 the surf. The text describes, as clearly 
 as words can describe, but the picture is 
 far more faithful. It brings the scene 
 before the eyes of the child, while words, 
 misapplied or misunderstood, often build 
 a wall between the pupil and the scene 
 which they attempt to portray. If the 
 children learn to see all that the picture 
 contains, they are helped in their study 
 of the text. It is the part of wisdom, 
 from the teacher's point of view, to
 
 196 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 make much of these aids, even if knowl- 
 edge getting is the one goal in sight. It 
 can hardly be doubted, however, that all 
 teachers will recognize the greater need 
 which is satisfied by such instruction. 
 To know and to love these things so well 
 worth knowing and loving is quite as 
 worthy of achievement as the mastery 
 of equations or the demonstration of a 
 theorem. 
 
 If the Drawing does not admit of the 
 teaching suggested, the Language Les- 
 son, ever hospitably inclined, may be 
 extended to include the study of the pic- 
 ture. Every teacher knows best what 
 pictures she desires to present to her 
 class, but, from common experience, a 
 few inferences may be made. 
 
 Certainly the picture chosen for initial 
 study should be one whose subject is in- 
 teresting to the children, a picture which 
 represents action or suggests a story.
 
 The Study of Pictures. 197 
 
 Such pictures are Schreyer's " Imperial 
 Courier," Meyer von Bremen's " Little 
 Nurse," Millet's "Angelus," Landseer's 
 " Saved." After the children have be- 
 come interested in the picture they will 
 wish to learn who painted it, just as they 
 desire to know about the poet, after they 
 have come to enjoy the poem. Then 
 they are ready to look at the reprints of 
 the other works of the artist, regardless 
 of subject, and to ask questions about 
 the artist and his works. So the inter- 
 est deepens and the study grows, follow- 
 ing this natural order. 
 
 Fortunately the abundance of cheap 
 good reprints, and the careful illustra- 
 tion of text-books, place the means for 
 such study within the reach of every 
 teacher and pupil. It will not be long 
 before the picture will take its proper 
 place with the song and the poem as a 
 factor in elementary education.
 
 He that loveth a book will never -want a 
 faithful friend, a wholesome counsellor, a 
 cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. 
 By study, by reading, by thinking, one may 
 innocently divert and pleasantly entertain 
 himself, as in all weathers, so in all fortunes. 
 ISAAC BURROWS.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HINTS FOR READING LESSONS. 
 
 Words at the Head of the Lesson. 
 
 IT is not uncommon to find the lists of 
 words which precede or follow the 
 lessons of the so-called " regular reader " 
 used as the only basis of the study of the 
 lesson. This would be wise if the lists 
 enumerated the only or the chief obsta- 
 cles to the children's understanding of 
 the lesson. But as a matter of fact, 
 they must vary greatly in value, some- 
 times bearing no relation to the real 
 needs of the individual class. They are 
 prepared with the average child in mind,
 
 2OO Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 but as some one has humorously said, 
 'The average child does not exist." 
 They may prove very helpful to one 
 class, and of no possible use to another. 
 Examine any such list with reference 
 to your own class, or ask the children to 
 study the list with you. You find that 
 the first word is an old friend, the sec- 
 ond is made up of two known words, the 
 third is unfamiliar in both meaning and 
 form, the fourth presents a variation 
 from the ordinary rule of spelling, the 
 fifth and the sixth are easy to master or 
 are already well known. 
 
 After such a survey, the thoughtful 
 pupil will " study " the third and fourth 
 critically and carefully, the others hav- 
 ing been disposed of in the first reading. 
 Such an exercise is profitable, deserving 
 the name of study. The routine direc- 
 tion, " Study the words at the head of 
 the lesson twenty times, and copy them
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 201 
 
 five times," leads to careless droning 
 over the page and ends in preventing 
 any intelligent study. 
 
 Reading " Without the Book:' 
 
 A visitor in a primary school was as- 
 tonished by the rapid and fluent reading 
 of a five-year-old who delivered " The 
 Story of a Dog" with remarkable ease 
 and precision. ' ' May I see your book ? ' ' 
 the visitor asked. The little lad passed 
 the book to her with smiling consent. 
 " But," she exclaimed, " there is noth- 
 ing here that you have read." " Dear 
 me ! " cried the child, looking at the pic- 
 ture, " I got the wrong dog." 
 
 The writer remembers a child who ex- 
 plained with charming nai'vet6, " I can 
 read my reader all through without the 
 book." Upon being tested, he proved 
 his statement.
 
 202 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 The constant repetition of the pages 
 of the "regular reader" soon imparts 
 this fatal facility, which often com- 
 pletely deceives the teacher. The abil- 
 ity to repeat the story, word for word, 
 does not necessarily involve the power 
 to recognize the words on any page. 
 The children simply memorize the sen- 
 tences to which they have so often 
 listened, and are reciting by rote, not 
 reading. 
 
 Just here the new lesson written upon 
 the board, or the supplementary read- 
 ing book, is effective. The new ar- 
 rangement of familiar words demands 
 thoughtful attention, and serves there- 
 fore as a test of skill. The teacher 
 should guard against the common ten- 
 dency to use a single lesson until it be- 
 comes useless.
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 203 
 
 Word Study apart from the Reading 
 Lesson. 
 
 If the words which occur in the read- 
 ing lesson present such difficulty to the 
 children that their first efforts in reading 
 are seriously hindered, it is wise to make 
 the word study a separate exercise, pre- 
 paring for the so-called reading lesson. 
 This preparatory lesson, often called 
 " the development lesson," should make 
 the pupils so familiar with the form of 
 the word that it at once suggests the 
 meaning. If the meaning itself is new, 
 there is need also of the explanatory or 
 illustrative lesson. It may be wise to 
 repeat the suggestion that the explana- 
 tion does not always explain, and that 
 special illustration is necessary in pre- 
 senting new ideas to the children. In 
 any case, however, the time taken for 
 " sounding" the word, or the necessity
 
 204 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 for explaining its meaning, is an inter- 
 ruption to the reading as thought get- 
 ting, and should be reduced to the lowest 
 terms in the reading exercise. The bet- 
 ter plan, with classes of young children, 
 is to arrange a separate time for word 
 study, as a preliminary to individual 
 study of the lesson. Where it is possi- 
 ble to secure the necessary time, the 
 order of the work might be as follows : 
 
 1. Class study of new words, with ex- 
 planation and illustration by the teacher 
 when necessary. 
 
 2. Individual study of the lesson at 
 desks, or " busy work" employing new 
 words. 
 
 3. Reading the lesson which has been 
 studied. 
 
 4. Supplementary reading, sight read- 
 ing, or review. 
 
 This plan is especially adapted to the 
 first year of school, where the time is
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 205 
 
 largely given to language and reading. 
 In the class study phonics finds its proper 
 time and place. In the seat work chil- 
 dren make some application of the knowl- 
 edge just acquired. When the reading 
 exercise takes place, the time should be 
 given to reading, the attention being 
 held to the thought in the lesson. 
 
 Supplementary and Sight Reading. 
 
 The supplementary book is intended 
 to afford variety in practice for the 
 young readers, and to prevent the mem- 
 orizing process, with its hindrance to 
 reading. Its use depends upon circum- 
 stances. It should sometimes be used 
 as is the "regular reader": studied, read, 
 and re-read that is, if it is worth re- 
 reading. It may be given to the pupils 
 for silent reading only, or for individual 
 reading when other work is done. Se-
 
 2o6 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 lected lessons from the supplementary 
 reading may alternate with those of the 
 more familiar book, or the books may 
 be changed from week to week. 
 
 In "sight reading," so called, the book 
 serves simply as a test of the pupil's 
 power to read at sight, without definite 
 preparation in the way of study. Such 
 exercises should, of course, present no 
 new difficulty which demands study. 
 As soon as this becomes necessary, the 
 character of the exercise is changed, and 
 it becomes a " study of a lesson" instead 
 of a test or review. The teacher should 
 select, for sight reading, material of a 
 simpler sort than that which is demanded 
 in the current exercises in reading at that 
 period. Second Grade classes may read 
 First Readers. Third Grade classes may 
 use Second Readers, and so on. 
 
 Of course this provision becomes use- 
 less as soon as the pupils have passed
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 207 
 
 the " learning to read " stage, and are 
 reading for the sake of thought getting 
 only, without reference to training in 
 power to read. Then the supplemen- 
 tary books should be chosen purely with 
 an eye to throwing light on other sub- 
 jects studied, or for their literary value, 
 and pleasure in reading. Mention has 
 been made elsewhere of the value of 
 school libraries as an aid to the reading 
 habit. Here the Supplementary Reader 
 loses its title, and advances to the grade 
 of a " real book. " Now the cultivation 
 of the reading habit and the love of 
 books is an immediate aim, and the book 
 ceases to serve as a test merely. It is 
 a means to an end, an instrument by 
 whose use new knowledge can be gained 
 or the pleasure of life enhanced. There- 
 fore it is wise to spend carefully the 
 money devoted to books, buying few 
 of a kind, and many kinds now. For
 
 208 Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 reference, for individual reading, for 
 reading to the class, this collection of 
 books is invaluable. The skilful teacher 
 will plan many exercises which will reach 
 far beyond the immediate lesson in their 
 beneficent results. 
 
 Reading Poetry. 
 
 Among the many schoolroom exer- 
 cises which yield present profit, none 
 other continues its dividends so far into 
 the future as does the intelligent reading 
 and memorizing of a good poem. It has 
 been urged elsewhere that the teacher 
 should frequently read good poetry to 
 the children, often without comment, but 
 sometimes repeating the reading again 
 and again, until the children become 
 familiar with the rhythm, question the 
 meaning, and are ready to memorize the 
 poem. Such exercises are immediately
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 209 
 
 helpful in other reading, while they store 
 the sturdy young memory with treasures, 
 promising enjoyment for future years, 
 which can be gained in no other way. 
 Childhood is the one fit season for amass- 
 ing such wealth. It is well for the chil- 
 dren if the teacher recognizes this op- 
 portunity. Just here it may be wise to 
 refer to the interest which attends such 
 exercises in schools where every class 
 chooses a class poet, reading and mem- 
 orizing selections from his works, and 
 learning something about his life. From 
 the lowest to the highest grade this work 
 proves helpful, and the children's associ- 
 ation with these authors is never forgot- 
 ten. Something the memory will hold, 
 do what we may. Let us supply mate- 
 rials worthy to endure, preventing the 
 accumulation of stuff which is not merely 
 of indifferent value, but is often positively 
 harmful.
 
 2io Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 Friday Afternoons. 
 
 The old custom of setting aside a part 
 of Friday afternoons for declamation and 
 recitations is remembered with mingled 
 feelings by the pupils who shared its 
 advantages. Nevertheless the custom 
 should be perpetuated, for such exer- 
 cises afford an unusual opportunity for 
 practice in reading and reciting for the 
 sake of others. To read aloud so that 
 our hearers can listen with pleasure, 
 gives us the power and privilege of help- 
 ing and pleasing others. No life is with- 
 out such opportunities. It is wise to 
 emphasize this accomplishment in our 
 schools, and to expect our pupils to be- 
 come competent to render this service. 
 
 Any exercise which accustoms the chil- 
 dren to reading or reciting with ease, 
 modesty, and simplicity, in the presence 
 of, and for the sake of, others, adds ma-
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 211 
 
 terially to their ability to make them- 
 selves agreeable as well as useful. 
 
 The special exercise, when one class 
 entertains another class in the hall, or 
 when children recite for the audience of 
 schoolmates and parents, differs from the 
 ordinary exercise in motive. Why should 
 one read plainly when everyone else 
 holds a similar book and is reading the 
 same paragraph ? But to read to those 
 who have no book, have never read the 
 story, or really desire to hear it, that is 
 another matter. 
 
 So, with no artificial manner, voice, 
 or gesture, but with a pure and simple 
 desire to please, let the children read 
 and recite to one another, or to other 
 classes, at least once a week, until the 
 exercise becomes as natural as breathing. 
 And let the power to thus minister to 
 others become one of the common at' 
 tainments of our pupils.
 
 212 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 Children as Teachers. 
 
 The child's interpretation of that 
 which he reads is often very different 
 from the teacher's. Yet his rendering 
 does not always disclose his thought. 
 Conversation regarding the lesson brings 
 out the children's notions, if there is 
 freedom and confidence in the presence 
 of the teacher. But nothing else affords 
 so much light on the subject as the chil- 
 dren's own questions, if they are allowed 
 to question one another. Where the 
 teacher monopolizes the questions, she 
 often monopolizes the thinking, too. 
 Let the children act the part of the 
 teacher, and as they question one an- 
 other, their own ideas will appear, while 
 the teacher who listens thoughtfully will 
 be able to teach according to the revela- 
 tion which she hears.
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 213 
 
 Management of the Reading Class. 
 
 The abandonment of concert reading 
 at once necessitates the reorganization 
 of the reading class. If I cannot have 
 my children read in concert," one ques- 
 tions, " how can I keep them interested 
 and attentive through the long reading 
 hour ?" 
 
 The way of escape from the difficulty 
 is a simple one. Do not expect to ar- 
 range to have fifty pupils read at one 
 period, unless there is some work worth 
 doing to demand their attention. The 
 plan of work will vary with the grade of 
 the class and the aim of the lesson. 
 
 Is the teacher's purpose to introduce 
 the class to the lesson thought ? To 
 teach them how to study the lesson ? 
 To discover what words or phrases or 
 turns of expression present obstacles to 
 the learners ? Then fifty may be taught
 
 214 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 and questioned as well as one, and just 
 as long as general interest and attention 
 can be maintained no longer. 
 
 Is the aim of the teacher to afford 
 practice in oral reading, by drilling upon 
 the rendering of a certain paragraph ? 
 Then let her limit the class to ten or 
 twelve at most, leaving the other pupils 
 to busy themselves with written work 
 which admits of definite accomplish- 
 ment. All pupils become weary of the 
 countless repetitions of their mates, in 
 their stumbling practice. They learn 
 chiefly through their own doing, the 
 correction of their own mistakes. And 
 while the drill is confined to the few, 
 
 " Satan finds some mischief still 
 For idle minds to do." 
 
 So the old hymn might be varied by 
 the experienced teacher who remembers 
 unnumbered cases of discipline which
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 215 
 
 have arisen from the monotonous drill 
 exercises in which the wits of the major- 
 ity of the class were unemployed. By 
 all means, in such cases, drill a few pu- 
 pils at a time, and let the others be prof- 
 itably employed in conscious endeavor 
 to accomplish something. 
 
 In older classes where the reading has 
 passed the elementary stage, and the 
 pupils are reading for information or en- 
 joyment, neither length of lesson nor 
 number of pupils need be considered. 
 Here, without doubt, the interest in the 
 subject will be paramount, and "meth- 
 od " may be forgotten. Now the chil- 
 dren read for the love of reading, and 
 the only gauge of time or number is the 
 teacher's power to interest her class. 
 The one aim is to get the message from 
 the book, and to make it plain to those 
 who hear. Desire is the spur to en- 
 deavor, and attention is at the command
 
 216 Reading: How to Teach It, 
 
 of interest. The teacher's one secret 
 is the art of making her pupils book 
 lovers. 
 
 Concert Reading. 
 
 To save time, in the hurried day with 
 its crowded program, is the teacher's 
 constant desire, and it is not remark- 
 able that, under pressure, achievement 
 is measured by counting the minutes 
 of recitation and numbering the facts 
 learned or the questions answered. It 
 is a common error to assume that mere 
 lip repetition is valuable drill, and that 
 "practice makes perfect," even when 
 the practice is indifferent or unwise. 
 Quantity is carefully measured, while 
 quality is ignored, in such drill. 
 
 To this mistaken estimate the wide pre- 
 valence of concert recitation is due. If 
 thirty children read at one time, it would 
 seem that the recitation accomplishes
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 217 
 
 thirty times as much as would be accom- 
 plished by a single recitation in the same 
 time. " I could not get through with 
 the lesson," explains the teacher, " if I 
 did not have my class read in concert." 
 
 The theory appears plausible to the 
 mathematical mind. Upon inspection, 
 however, its failings appear. 
 
 In what does the value of the lesson 
 as a reading lesson consist? The exer. 
 cise should aid the children in getting 
 the thought or in expressing it fluently 
 and naturally. The teacher should be 
 assured that the mind of every reader ig 
 intelligently active in the thought get- 
 ting, and that the practice in expression 
 is such as will lead to independent 
 skill. 
 
 But observe: in concert reading the 
 individual difficulties are " skipped." 
 While John, who fails to recognize a 
 word, falters, hesitates, and halts, Jane,
 
 218 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 to whom it is an old friend, marches tri- 
 umphantly on. John takes breath, and 
 plunges in again when his stumbling- 
 blocks have been safely passed (by his 
 comrades). John's achievement was 
 nil, likewise Jane's, for she knew the 
 word before. As a teaching exercise, 
 then, the concert reading is ineffective. 
 It is safe to assume that it is difficult if 
 not impossible for any teacher to know 
 that all of her pupils are really reading 
 all the time during the concert exercise, 
 or that a seemingly good concert exer- 
 cise really proves that all the members 
 of the class can master, or have mas- 
 tered, the lesson. 
 
 Again, as a practice in expression the 
 concert exercise is harmful, because it 
 ignores the individual expression and 
 aims at an average movement, inflec- 
 tion, interpretation. The product is 
 not the expression of the thought as it
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 219 
 
 appears to John, Jane, or Henry, but 
 .a composite which represents nobody. 
 The sprightly Kate must wait for the 
 ponderous Phcebe; the slow-moving 
 James must lag behind the animated 
 Jack. Let a dozen teachers attempt to 
 read aloud in concert, without previous 
 common training, and the statement 
 will need no further argument. 
 
 To the writer the time given to con- 
 cert reading in the elementary schools 
 seems ill-spent. Definite teaching and 
 practice are possible only when the pu- 
 pils are considered as individuals. Dron- 
 ing and indifference are cultivated by the 
 concert exercise. 
 
 The above statements apply to all ex- 
 ercises whose object is to teach reading. 
 Declamation or recitation of the poem 
 or paragraph which has been studied, 
 read, and mastered by the individuals of 
 the class, or which presents merely an
 
 220 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 imitation of the teacher's reading, is 
 included under another head. It deals 
 with known material, and presupposes 
 training which leads to a common in- 
 terpretation. Such recitation partakes 
 of the nature of song, and here the 
 power to render the thought in unison 
 becomes an element of value. For 
 such exercises special training should be 
 given. 
 
 In schools where it is possible for the 
 classes to meet in the hall for morning 
 exercises, or even in preparation for the 
 devotional exercises of any single class, 
 such training is indispensable. To know 
 how to read in responsive exercises, to 
 join with others in the rendition of a 
 favorite psalm, hymn, or other poem, is 
 no trivial acquisition. It is worth while 
 to include in our reading exercises such 
 lessons as will develop this power. Does 
 the ordinary concert exercise do this ?
 
 Hints for Reading Lessons. 221 
 
 " My country tiserty, 
 Sweet lanter libbutty," 
 
 a child sang happily in a primary school 
 the other day. Upon investigation it 
 fell out that several members of the 
 class sang the same combination. 
 
 A parallel instance was reported re- 
 cently by a teacher whose pupils begged 
 to be allowed to recite 
 
 " There's an old dude left on the daisies and 
 clover. ' ' 
 
 Lovers of Jean Ingelow's exquisite 
 " Songs of Seven " may well take alarm, 
 and inquire the cause of the difficulty. 
 
 Such recitation is useless so far as 
 the thought in the song is concerned. 
 No time was saved in these instances by 
 omitting the individual recitation. Indi- 
 vidual mastery of the selection should 
 precede any exercise in concert reading.
 
 // is one thing to own a library j it is, how- 
 ever, another to use it wisely. If I were to 
 pray for a taste which should stand me in 
 stead under every variety of circumstances, 
 and be a source of happiness' and cheerfulness 
 to me through life, and a shield against its ills, 
 however things might go amiss and the world 
 frown upon me, it would be a taste for read- 
 ing. I speak of it, of course, only as a worldly 
 advantage, and not in the slightest degree su- 
 perseding or derogating from the higher office, 
 and surer and stronger panoply of religious 
 principles but as a taste, an instrument, and 
 a mode of pleasurable gratification. Give a 
 man this taste and the means of gratifying it, 
 and you can hardly fail of making a happy 
 
 man. 
 
 SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE USE OF THE LIBRARY. 
 
 In my garden I spend my days, in my 
 library I spend my nights. My interests are 
 divided between my geraniums and my books. 
 With the flowers I am in the present ; with 
 the books I am in the past. I go into my 
 library and all history unrolls before me. I 
 breathe the morning air of the world while 
 the scent of Eden's roses yet lingered in it, 
 while it vibrated only to the world's first 
 brood of nightingales and to the laugh of 
 Eve. 
 
 I see the pyramids building; I hear th* 
 shoutings of the armies of Alexander; I feel 
 the ground shake beneath the march of Cam- 
 byses. I sit as in a theatre; the stage is 
 Time, the play is the World. What a spec- 
 tacle it is ! What kingly pomp, what proces- 
 sions, file past; what cities burn to heaven,
 
 224 Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 what crowds of captives are carried at the 
 chariot wheels of conquerors ! I hear or cry, 
 "Bravo!" when the great actors come on, 
 shaking the stage. I am a Roman emperor 
 when I look at a Roman coin. I lift old 
 Homer, and I shout Achilles in the trenches. 
 The silence of the empeopled Syrian plains, 
 the outcomings and ingoings of the patri- 
 archs, Abraham and Ishmael, Isaac in the 
 fields at eventide, Rebekah at the well, Ja- 
 cob's guile, Esau's face reddened by the des- 
 ert sunheat, Joseph's splendid funeral pro- 
 cession all these things I find within the 
 boards of my Old Testament. 
 
 What a silence in those old books, as of a 
 half-peopled world ; what bleating of flocks, 
 what green pastoral rest, what indubitable 
 human existence ! Across brawling centuries 
 of blood and war I hear the bleating of Abra- 
 ham's flocks, the tinkling of the bells of Re- 
 bekah's camels. 
 
 Oh, men and women, so far separated yet so 
 near, so strange yet so well known, by what 
 miraculous power do I know you all ? Books 
 are the true Elysian fields where the spirits 
 of the dead converse, and into these fields a 
 mortal may venture unappalled. What king's
 
 The Use of the Library. 225 
 
 court can boast such company ? What school 
 of philosophy such wisdom ? 
 
 There is Pan's pipe ; there are the songs of 
 Apollo. Seated in my library at night, and 
 looking on the silent faces of my books, I am 
 occasionally visited by a strange sense of the 
 supernatural. They are not collections of 
 printed pages; they are ghosts. I take one 
 down, and it speaks with me in a tongue not 
 now heard on earth, and of men and things 
 of which it alone possesses the knowledge. 
 
 I call myself a solitary, but sometimes I 
 think I misapply the term. No man sees 
 more company than I do. I travel with 
 mightier cohorts around me than ever did 
 Timour or Genghis Khan on their fiery 
 marches. I am a sovereign in my library; 
 but it is the dead, not the living, that attend 
 my levees. 
 
 ALEXANDER SMITH. 
 
 THE Free Public Library is often 
 termed the People's College. It 
 is established by communities that be- 
 lieve education to be the foundation of 
 civic freedom as well as an element in 
 15
 
 226 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 human happiness. By taxation of the 
 people these treasures of books are made 
 free to all : the richest and the poorest 
 alike. Here one's scanty library is re- 
 enforced by full and rare collections, 
 and the entire care of the custodians is 
 to make this treasure-house useful to all 
 comers. 
 
 But the reports of the librarians, en- 
 couraging though they be, do not de- 
 scribe a state of general reading. A 
 study of these reports will reveal the 
 fact that only a small part of the ought- 
 to-be reading public finds its way to the 
 library and uses this marvellous oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 If we question why the readers are so 
 few, we shall doubtless arrive at certain 
 conclusions. Aside from the duties and 
 necessities which debar many would-be 
 readers from using the library, we shall 
 conclude that the majority of persons
 
 The Use of the Library. 227 
 
 not illiterate who fail to avail themselves 
 of this opportunity have not learned to 
 love books ; while many others who have 
 had considerable reading in school or at 
 home have not learned how to make the 
 stores of the library available. 
 
 Enough has been said, perhaps, re- 
 garding the necessity of teaching chil- 
 dren to love books, to the end that they 
 may have wholesome interests and sim- 
 ple and natural pleasures. Books reveal 
 the experience of others, and yield to us 
 the companionship of the wise and good. 
 Sympathetic observation of the lives of 
 boys and girls who have not been trained 
 to this larger interest would drive us to 
 renewed endeavors to open wide the 
 doors to them, out of and away from 
 the temptations which allure them to 
 lower loves. The life that does not 
 know how to find pleasure in a book, 
 that turns to the saloon rather than to
 
 228 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 the library, is sad indeed. We cannot 
 urge too strongly the early and contin- 
 ual teaching whose object is to make the 
 children book-lovers. 
 
 But, if the young book-lover appears 
 at the library door and fails to find the 
 clue to the labyrinth where the words 
 which he desires may be found, he may 
 wander away again, never to return. If 
 his love is strong, and the custodian 
 learns his need, he may study his way 
 into the desired paths; but it is evident 
 to all readers that the library is most 
 available to the best prepared, and that 
 the vast treasures of even the free library 
 are worthless to the ignorant. Further, 
 we can but recognize that home reading 
 and school reading do not always qualify 
 the reader for study in a library. He 
 must be taught how to use it, and some- 
 body must teach him. 
 
 Home and school must supply this
 
 The Use of the Library. 229 
 
 need. The wise father and mother will 
 go with the children to the library, and 
 there teach them to use books ; while in 
 school, the teacher of reading will aim 
 beyond the simple mastery of the text- 
 book. No longer can she content her- 
 self with guiding her pupils through the 
 Fifth Reader from page I to page 256. 
 With her larger conception of reading, 
 she knows now that her pupils must be 
 taught to unlock other books, and she 
 sets herself to teach them how to do 
 this. 
 
 But how ? a practical question. This 
 chapter would avail little did it fail to 
 attempt an answer. 
 
 First, by including in her teaching 
 such lessons as will show the use of 
 books as tools. The student who hunts 
 down a subject in the library looks 
 through myriads of books, but he does 
 not read them all. He learns first what
 
 230 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 books are likely to answer his question. 
 All other books he excludes from his 
 list. He learns further where to look 
 for aid in his selected books, and turns 
 at once to the helpful pages, excluding 
 all others. So he reaches the chapter, 
 the page, the line which contains the 
 desired message, and achieves his end. 
 The untrained worker loses himself in 
 the labyrinth of books, and finds noth- 
 ing. 
 
 Such ability to use books is not a gift ; 
 it is earned by thoughtful practice. The 
 power to use reference books comes only 
 through wisely using them. The art be- 
 gins with the use of the dictionary and 
 the supplementary reader, and here 
 should the teacher first apply herself to 
 teach the use of books of reference. 
 
 First, as to the dictionary. All gram- 
 mar-school classes should be supplied 
 with a good unabridged dictionary,
 
 The Use of the Library. 231 
 
 while every pupil should have access to 
 a smaller one, and be taught to use it 
 so constantly that he will consider it an 
 equal necessity with his pocket-knife. 
 Where children buy their own books, 
 the possession of the dictionary should 
 be urged. Ownership is equally desira- 
 ble where books are supplied by the city 
 or town. Nothing can take the place of 
 it. The dictionary is the student's com- 
 monest tool. 
 
 Having dictionaries, the children 
 should be taught to use them. Here 
 they are. What are they ? What do 
 they contain ? What are they good 
 for ? Of what use can they be to you ? 
 
 A study of the book reveals to us that 
 the dictionary tells us the meaning of un- 
 familiar words ; it may therefore help to 
 explain to us what we read. Or it gives 
 us many meanings of words, in their 
 various uses, thus helping us to choose
 
 232 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 the fitting one. Again, it shows us the 
 correct spelling and pronunciation of the 
 words which we need to use in reading 
 or speaking; while in our later study it 
 reveals to us the grammatical uses of 
 words, giving good authority for each 
 use, and further explains the derivation 
 or tells the history of the word. 
 
 Before leaving the grammar school, 
 children should be able to gather all this 
 help from the dictionary. In the lower 
 grades fourth and fifth the lessons 
 will be confined to the study of the dic- 
 tionary as a means of learning the mean- 
 ing, spelling, and correct pronunciation 
 of the selected words. 
 
 The first step is a study of the arrange- 
 ment of the book : the title, introduc- 
 tion, preface, keys to pronunciation, 
 rules for spelling ; then the lists of words, 
 arranged in alphabetical order. What 
 does that mean ? Who knows the mean-
 
 The Use of the Library. 233 
 
 ing of the order of the letters of the al- 
 phabet ? Test the class to discover this. 
 Often the first lack appears here. By 
 rapid recitation both forward and back- 
 ward, and varied questions, make this 
 knowledge available here. ' Does S 
 come before or after M, U, G, Q, W ? 
 In which half of the alphabet shall I find 
 X, L, F, T ? etc. I am turning the leaves 
 of the dictionary to find the word 'Trav- 
 el.' I open to a page of words begin- 
 ning with M. Shall I turn forward or 
 backward ? " By such tests oft repeated, 
 dictionary in hand, the children accus- 
 tom themselves to the alphabetical order. 
 Do not forget that it must be taught. 
 It is not discovered by intuition. 
 
 After tracing the word to its letter, it 
 remains to be found upon the page a 
 more difficult study of alphabetical ar- 
 rangement. The child who attempts to 
 find the word " Travel " finds the Ta's,
 
 234 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 but, with his limited knowledge, stays 
 to rest his eyes upon Table, Tack, Tall, 
 Tank, etc., in his likely-to-be-vain 
 search. Now he must study with his 
 teacher the fuller detail of alphabetical 
 order. The word to be found begins 
 with Tr. Let him leave Ta, Te, Ti to 
 find Tr, and then must he follow on 
 with his finger to Trav; and now slowly 
 through this column to the appointed 
 word. 
 
 The order being thus made clear, a 
 double practice should be given, to fix 
 it in his mind: first, finding chosen 
 words in the dictionary in the quickest 
 possible time; second, making lists of 
 words in alphabetical order. 
 
 These lessons may seem superfluously 
 simple and mechanical, but it is due to 
 the omission of such teaching that so 
 many hours are wasted in the blind 
 search after the contents of books, and
 
 The Use of the Library. 235 
 
 that so many dictionaries are fresh- 
 edged, unused. 
 
 Thus far the pupil has simply found 
 the way to his word. Now he must 
 learn to read what the dictionary tells 
 him about it. Here further knowledge 
 is required. 
 
 He finds the word so divided and 
 marked as to enable him to pronounce 
 it correctly, if he knows enough. But 
 first he must know how to pronounce 
 the syllables into which it is divided, 
 and to translate the marks used for his 
 benefit. Syllabification and diacritical 
 marks constitute the subject of the next 
 series of lessons. 
 
 The first is not so minor a matter as 
 it may seem at first sight. Proper divi- 
 sion into syllables is necessary to proper 
 pronunciation of syllables, and a cor- 
 rect naming of the consecutive syllables 
 means correct pronunciation of the word.
 
 236 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 The children's trick, which often con- 
 founds the scholar, proves this. " Pro- 
 nounce ba-cka-che," they demand, dic- 
 tating the syllables as written. After 
 sufficiently enjoying the scholar's dis- 
 comfiture, they pronounce the common 
 word, backache. It is no more than 
 fair to give him a taste of their daily 
 vicissitudes. All teachers know how 
 children are daily lost in the mazes of 
 syllabification. It would be well to 
 avert this evil, and lead to a more help- 
 ful reading of the dictionary, by giving 
 lessons whose object is the mastery of 
 syllables. Separating familiar words 
 into their syllables and pronouncing by 
 syllable at sight are excellent exercises, 
 and they may well displace some of the 
 formal and mechanical study of never- 
 to-be-used lists of words. 
 
 Many words are mastered for all time 
 as soon as the art of syllabification is
 
 The Use of the Library. 237 
 
 learned. For others there remains, how- 
 ever, the need of the diacritical marks. 
 
 As teachers know (but as children sel- 
 dom discover), those marks exist simply 
 as aids to pronunciation. They vary, in 
 different dictionaries. It is, therefore, 
 necessary that children should study the 
 key to pronunciation in the dictionary 
 which they use. As an aid to their 
 memories, an epitome of this key is 
 printed at the bottom of every page, 
 that he who runs may read. If the 
 mark is not recognized, a glance shows 
 them the value of the same marked 
 vowel in a familiar word. The sound 
 of the unfamiliar word is made plain to 
 them if they have learned to read the 
 dictionary. Drill in pronouncing col- 
 umns of the words found in the diction- 
 ary, is an aid to the rapid acquirement 
 of power to translate these equivalents, 
 while, until this power is won, the pu-
 
 238 Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 pil may be helped by marking familiar 
 words in accordance with the key. 
 
 The mastery of the alphabetical ar- 
 rangement and syllabification and pro- 
 nunciation being assured, there remains 
 the study of the grouped meanings and 
 the derivation, with attention to gram- 
 matical use. As soon as the pupil knows 
 the parts of speech, the various uses of 
 words are made plain to him, and he in- 
 telligently follows the dictionary column 
 which exhibits a word as noun, verb, ad- 
 jective, or adverb. If his object is to 
 discover the verb meaning, he passes the 
 others. If the earlier and perhaps obso- 
 lete meanings do not apply, he reads on 
 until the fitting definition is reached. If 
 the definition itself is not plain to him, 
 he " looks up " the unfamiliar words con- 
 tained in it. But he keeps at work until 
 he has made himself master of the word 
 for whose meaning he sought. Quota-
 
 The Use of the Library. 239 
 
 tions showing standard use are read and 
 considered. The paragraph or sentence 
 containing the new word is re-read, illu- 
 mined by the new meaning. 
 
 Such a lesson has in it the virtue of 
 a language lesson. The new word, with 
 its precious cargo, has become the child's 
 possession, and he can send it voyaging 
 to ports he desires to reach with his 
 thought. Further, through such exer- 
 cises, he learns to master books. 
 
 The more mature student will care- 
 fully con the root-meaning, and follow 
 the word through its devious history. 
 That work, in its detail, must wait for 
 the higher grades and the college. But 
 with such thoroughness as has been out- 
 lined, the grammar grade pupil may 
 make the dictionary his strong ally and 
 unfailing friend. It behooves us to teach 
 him the art. 
 
 Books of reference should be made
 
 240 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 available to the pupils, as is the diction- 
 ary, by lessons which show their use. 
 The Atlas, the Cyclopedia, the Compen- 
 dium, should be explained, and oppor- 
 tunities for their use should be created. 
 So all minor books grammars, histories, 
 geographies should be consulted by the 
 children, and compared with their own. 
 In such consultation the index or table 
 of contents should serve its purpose. 
 The pupil should not be allowed to 
 search the book from cover to cover for 
 his bit of information, but should be 
 taught to look for it, by the help of the 
 index, in its proper place, just as he 
 learned to find the word on the page of 
 a dictionary. Through such study, chil- 
 dren may develop the habit of turning 
 to books for information and enlighten- 
 ment. They will know how to seek 
 and find. We cannot overestimate 
 easily the value of such a habit and its
 
 The Use of the Library. 241 
 
 accompanying tendencies in their after 
 life. 
 
 We have spoken thus far of the child's 
 use of single books under the direction 
 of the teacher. A few words further in 
 regard to the school library, which 
 should be an introduction to the Public 
 Library. 
 
 In these days many schools are pro- 
 vided with the nucleus of a library. 
 Every school should have one. A few 
 shelves of books, well chosen and well 
 used these are next in importance to the 
 teacher in the equipment of a school. 
 By properly using such books, the chil. 
 dren learn how to choose and to use 
 their own books when they get them, 
 and meanwhile how best to avail them- 
 selves of the Public Library. 
 
 In order to afford enough practice in 
 finding what is in the books which are 
 
 within reach, the teacher should assign 
 16
 
 242 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 to the pupils work which will necessi- 
 tate the use of these books. The read- 
 ing lesson speaks of the cultivation of 
 cotton. Ask John or Joseph to learn 
 whether any book in the library throws 
 light on the cultivation or manufacture 
 of cotton. The boy first makes up 
 his mind what books will be likely to 
 contain this information, and then, by 
 use of the indexes in the chosen books, 
 discovers his item, which he brings as 
 his contribution to the class. What he 
 learns about cotton is of far less value to 
 him than what he gains through search- 
 ing for the item. Again, the history les- 
 son treats of the war for independence. 
 The teacher, instead of confining the 
 pupils to memorizing the work on the 
 pages of the school history, sends them 
 to the bookshelves to consult the English 
 histories which shall tell the children 
 something of George III. and the Eng-
 
 The Use of the Library. 243 
 
 lish statesmen of his time. By and by 
 they have gained not only some facility 
 in the use of books, but the knowledge 
 that some books are of greater use than 
 others in the lines of their study. 
 
 It is but a step, now, from the school 
 library to the Public Library, and this 
 step should be taken when the children 
 feel the limitations of their bookshelves. 
 Their quest must take its beginning in 
 their need ; not in the teacher's advice, 
 but in their inclination. John cannot 
 find in any book in the school library 
 what he wants to know about William 
 Pitt. Very well. Does he know any 
 book that would give him the desired 
 information ? There may be books at 
 the library, he volunteers. Ah, yes. 
 How can he find out ? By going there. 
 Susan suggests that the library cata- 
 logue will tell him whether he can find 
 there just what he wishes. And now
 
 244 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 the school comes into possession of the 
 catalogue of the Free Public Library of 
 the town owns it because the children 
 need to use it. John finds in the cata- 
 logue the names of the books which he 
 thinks may contain the object of his 
 search. Here the teacher helps him by 
 pointing out, from her fuller knowledge, 
 the books which will be simple enough 
 to be of service to him. Or the custo- 
 dian of the library lends a hand, and 
 names the books which will be most 
 helpful. 
 
 We may readily see that here begin? 
 another series of lessons which, unfor- 
 tunately, rarely makes its appearance. 
 Inside the library door, the youthful 
 seeker after light struggles to get the 
 book which he desires. He must learn 
 the machinery of the library, and some- 
 body must teach him. If the teacher 
 knows the librarian and the librarian
 
 The Use of the Library. 245 
 
 knows the teacher, and both are inter- 
 ested in the boy, we have a happy state 
 of affairs. His card is filled out for him 
 and properly signed. He is now allowed 
 to take books for himself. He must be 
 told where to get them and how to get 
 them; what to do with them when he 
 gets them ; what to do if he cannot get 
 them ; how, and when, and where to re- 
 turn them ; what privileges he may have 
 in the use of them. Well for the boy if 
 his two friends and co-laborers make it 
 worth while for him to use the library in 
 these early days ! Ah, who shall tell us 
 how to correctly mark in per cents the 
 value of this boy's acquisition, or the 
 worth of the teacher's instruction ? 
 
 In many of our cities, this cooperation 
 of the library and the school exists, and 
 proves its usefulness. Teachers are sup- 
 plied with teachers' cards, allowing them 
 to take six books at a time and retain
 
 246 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 them for a long time. Classes are sup- 
 plied with books. Boxes of books are 
 carried from school to school. Dupli- 
 cates of much-desired books are secured 
 from the librarian. Children are taken 
 to the library by the teacher, and the 
 classes study on the spot the operation 
 of the system, and familiarize themselves 
 with its plan of action. Children are 
 sent from school to consult reference 
 books, to study the collections of photo- 
 graphs, or the mural decorations in the 
 building. The Boston Public Library 
 affords an example, not only of stateli- 
 ness of building and beauty of decora- 
 tion, but of efficiency of the system by 
 which its recent librarian, Mr. Herbert L. 
 Putnam, did much to bring the library 
 within the reach of the school-children 
 throughout the city. 
 
 If we rightly estimate the value of this 
 tendency to read and this love of books,
 
 The Use of the Library. 247 
 
 we shall be willing to subordinate some 
 of the formerly accepted work of the 
 schools to this essential tuition. Shall 
 we continue to spend money for our 
 public libraries ? If so, let us insure the 
 return of our investment a hundredfold, 
 by fitting our children to make use of 
 the privileges which are thus afforded 
 them, and teaching them to know the 
 best books.
 
 [In response to the requests made by many 
 different teachers, I have prepared a list of 
 books, stories, and poems which are suitable 
 for reading or reciting to children. In all 
 cases the selections have been tested with 
 numbers of children, often with numbers of 
 classes, and the list represents the thoughtful 
 experience of many and different teachers. 
 In choosing, however, the teacher must be 
 guided by her knowledge of her own chil- 
 dren. It is unwise to accept without ques- 
 tion the judgment of another, who may teach 
 under conditions very different from those 
 which exist in the class of the seeker. Refer- 
 ence to the list may, however, prevent fruit- 
 less excursions to the library for unnecessary 
 reading of the books which would be read 
 only to be discarded. It will be safe to make 
 selections from the list for any class in the 
 public schools. S. L. A.]
 
 Give me leave 
 
 7" enjoy myself; that place that does contain 
 My books, the best companions, is to me 
 A glorious court, where hourly I converse 
 With the old sages and philosophers ; 
 And sometimes, for variety , I confer 
 With kings and emperors, and weigh their 
 
 counsels; 
 
 Calling their victories, if unjustly got. 
 Unto a strict account, and, in my fancy, 
 Deface their ill-placed statues. Can I then 
 Part with such constant pleasures to embrace 
 Uncertain vanities ? No; be it your care 
 T' augment your heap of wealth ; it shall be 
 
 mine 
 7" increase in knowledge. 
 
 BEAUMONT 6r* FLETCHER.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 Which Have been Tested and Found 
 Helpful in the School-room. 
 
 {Alphabetically arranged.) 
 
 GENERAL READING. 
 
 ALICE in Wonderland. Lewis Car- 
 roll. 
 
 Among the Isles of Shoals. Celia 
 Thaxter. 
 
 Architects of Fate. Orison Swett 
 Harden. 
 
 At the Back of the North Wind. 
 George Macdonald.
 
 252 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard. M. 
 and E. Kirby. 
 
 Being a Boy. Charles Dudley War- 
 ner. 
 
 Betty Leicester. Sarah Orne Jewett. 
 
 Bird's Christmas Carol, The. Kate 
 Douglas Wiggin. 
 
 Bits of Talk. Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 Bits of Travel. Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 Black Beauty. Anna Sewall. 
 
 Boy's Froissart. Sidney Lanier. 
 
 Boy's Percy. Sidney Lanier. 
 
 Braided Straws. Elizabeth E. Foulke. 
 
 Child Life in Prose. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Child's World, In the. Emilie Pouls- 
 son. 
 
 Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens. 
 
 Court of King Arthur, The. W. H. 
 Frost. 
 
 Cricket on the Hearth, The. Charles 
 Dickens.
 
 A List of Books. 253 
 
 Daffydowndilly. Nathaniel Haw- 
 thorne. 
 
 Easy Steps for Little Feet. Swinton 
 and Cathcart. 
 
 Eight Cousins. Louisa M. Alcott. 
 
 Fifty Famous Stories Retold. James 
 Baldwin. 
 
 Five Little Peppers. Margaret Sidney. 
 
 Four Macnichols, The. William 
 Black. 
 
 Golden Book of Choice Reading. 
 Swinton and Cathcart. 
 
 Great Stone Face. Nathaniel Haw. 
 thorne. 
 
 Gulliver's Travels. Jonathan Swift. 
 
 Heart of Oak, Books I. -VI. Charles 
 Eliot Norton. 
 
 How Success is Won. Sarah K. Bolton. 
 
 Hunt for the Captain, The. Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes. 
 
 Hunting of the Deer, The. Charles 
 Dudley Warner.
 
 254 Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 In His Name. Edward Everett Hale. 
 
 In the Child's World. Emilie Poulsson. 
 
 Jackanapes. Juliana Horatia Ewing. 
 
 Jan of the Windmill. Juliana Horatia 
 Ewing. 
 
 Jungle Book. Rudyard Kipling. 
 
 Jungle Book, Second. Rudyard Kip- 
 ling. 
 
 Kindergarten Stories. Sara E. Wiltse. 
 
 King of the Golden River, The. 
 John Ruskin. 
 
 Last of the Mohicans, The. James 
 Fenimore Cooper. 
 
 Letters from a Cat. Helen Hunt 
 Jackson. 
 
 Life and Letters of Louisa M. Alcott. 
 
 Life of the Cary Sisters, The. Mary 
 Clemmer Ames. 
 
 Little Lame Prince, The. Dinah 
 Maria Mulock. 
 
 Little Lord Fauntleroy. Frances 
 Hodgson Burnett.
 
 A List of Books. 255 
 
 Little Men. Louisa M. Alcott. 
 
 Little Women. Louisa M. Alcott. 
 
 Little Saint Elizabeth. Frances Hodg- 
 son Burnett. 
 
 Lob-Lie-By-The-Fire. Juliana Hora- 
 tia Ewing. 
 
 Lorna Doone. R. D. Blackmore. 
 
 Melchior's Dream. Juliana Horatia 
 Ewing. 
 
 Modern Vikings, The. H. H. Boyeson. 
 
 Mopsa the Fairy. Jean Ingelow. 
 
 Bre'r Rabbit. Joel Chandler Harris. 
 
 Nellie's Silver Mine. Helen Hunt 
 Jackson. 
 
 Old-Fashioned Girl, The. Louisa M. 
 Alcott. 
 
 Old Stories of the East. James Bald- 
 win. 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress. John Bunyan. 
 
 Play Days. Sarah Orne Jewett. 
 
 Polly Oliver's Problem. Kate Doug- 
 las Wiggin.
 
 256 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Rab and His Friends. Thomas Brown. 
 
 Rainbows for Children. Lydia Maria 
 Child. 
 
 Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Rollo Books. Jacob Abbott. 
 
 Rose in Bloom, The. Louisa M. Al- 
 cott. 
 
 Rules of Conduct. George Washing, 
 ton. 
 
 Silas Marner. George Eliot. 
 
 Six to Sixteen. Juliana Horatia 
 Ewing. 
 
 Spy, The. James Fenimore Cooper. 
 
 Stories for Children. Edward Everett 
 Hale. 
 
 Stories from Plato. Mary E. Burt. 
 
 Stories Told to Children. Jean Inge 
 low. 
 
 Story Hour, The. Kate Douglas Wig- 
 gin. 
 
 Story of a Bad Boy, The. Thomas 
 
 Bailey Aldrich. 
 
 t
 
 A List of Books. 257 
 
 Story of the Golden Age, A. James 
 Baldwin. 
 
 Story of Roland, The. James Baldwin. 
 
 Story of a Short Life, The. Juliana 
 Horatia Ewing. 
 
 Swiss Family Robinson. Johann 
 Weiss. 
 
 Tales from Shakespeare. Charles 
 Lamb. 
 
 Tales from Shakespeare. Charles 
 Morris. 
 
 Tales of the Alhambra. Washington 
 Irving. 
 
 Three of Us. Joel Chandler Harris. 
 
 Timothy's Quest. Kate Douglas Wig- 
 gin. 
 
 Tom Brown's Schooldays. Thomas 
 Hughes. 
 
 Twilight Stories. Elizabeth E. Foulke. 
 
 Two Little Pilgrims' Progress. Fran- 
 ces Hodgson Burnett. 
 
 Under the Lilacs. Louisa M. Alcott. 
 17
 
 258 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Undine. Baron Fouqui. 
 Water Babies. Charles Kingsley. 
 We and the World. Juliana Horatia 
 Ewing. 
 
 We Girls. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 
 What Katy Did. Susan Coolidge. 
 
 NATURE STUDY. 
 
 Animals, Wild and Tame. Anna C. 
 Davis. 
 
 Bird Ways. Olive Thorne Miller. 
 
 Bird World. Stickney and Hoffman. 
 
 Birds and Bees. John Burroughs. 
 
 Birds Through an Opera Glass. Flor- 
 ence Merriam. 
 
 Citizen Bird. Mabel Osgood Wright. 
 
 Eye-Spy. William Hamilton Gib- 
 son. 
 
 Fairyland of Flowers. Mara L. Pratt. 
 
 Fairyland of Science. Arabella Buck- 
 ley.
 
 A List of Books. 259 
 
 Few Familiar Flowers, A. Margaret 
 Morley. 
 
 Four-Handed Folk. Olive Thorne 
 Miller. 
 
 From Flower to Fruit. Jane H. 
 Newell. 
 
 From Seed to Leaf. Jane H. Newell. 
 
 In Nesting Time. Olive Thorne Mil- 
 ler. 
 
 Life and Her Children. Arabella 
 Buckley. 
 
 Little Flower Folks. Mara L. Pratt. 
 
 Little Folks in Feathers and Fur. 
 Olive Thorne Miller. 
 
 Madam How and Lady Why. Ara- 
 bella Buckley. 
 
 My Saturday Bird Class. Olive Thorne 
 Miller. 
 
 My Summer in a Garden. Charles 
 Dudley Warner. 
 
 Pacific Nature Stories. Harr Wagner. 
 
 Pepacton. John Burroughs.
 
 260 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Plant World. Frank Vincent. 
 
 Rambler's Lease, A. Bradford Torrey. 
 
 Seaside and Wayside. Jane Andrews. 
 
 Sharp Eyes. William Hamilton Gib- 
 son. 
 
 Sharp Eyes. John Burroughs. 
 
 Short Stories of Our Shy Neighbors. 
 Mrs. M. A. B. Kelly. 
 
 Song of Life. Margaret Morley. 
 
 Stories Mother Nature Told Her Chil- 
 dren. Jane Andrews. 
 
 Story of the Birds, The. James N. 
 Baskett. 
 
 Succession of Forest Trees. Henry- 
 David Thoreau. 
 
 Through Magic Glasses. Arabella 
 Buckley. 
 
 Toilers of the Sea. Victor Hugo. 
 
 Wake Robin. John Burroughs. 
 
 Walden. Henry David Thoreau. 
 
 Winners in Life's Race. Arabella 
 Buckley.
 
 A List of Books. 261 
 
 POETRY. 
 
 Blue Poetry Book. Andrew Lang. 
 
 Child Life in Poetry. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Child's Garden of Verse. Robert 
 Louis Stevenson. 
 
 Children's Treasury of English Song. 
 Francis Palgrave. 
 
 Courtship of Miles Standish. Henry 
 Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 Eugene Field Book. Mary E. Burt. 
 
 Evangeline. Henry Wadsworth Long- 
 fellow. 
 
 Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill. 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 Hiawatha. Henry Wadsworth Long* 
 fellow. 
 
 Homer's Iliad. 
 
 Homer's Odyssey. 
 
 Lady of the Lake. Walter Scott.
 
 262 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 Lays of Ancient Rome. Thomas Bab- 
 ington Macaulay. 
 
 Nature in Verse. Mary I. Love- 
 joy. 
 
 Poems for Children. Celia Thaxter. 
 
 Poems of American Patriotism. Bran- 
 der Matthews. 
 
 Poetry for Children. Samuel Eliot. 
 
 Poetry for Home and School. Anna 
 C. Brackett and Ida M. Eliot. 
 
 Poetry of the Seasons. Mary I. Love- 
 joy. 
 
 School Speaker. Harper's. (Selec- 
 tions for Arbor Day and Decoration 
 Day.) 
 
 Snow-Bound. John Greenleaf Whit- 
 tier. 
 
 Tales of a Wayside Inn. Henry Wads- 
 worth Longfellow. 
 
 Vision of Sir Launfal, The. James 
 Russell Lowell.
 
 A List of Books. 263 
 
 MYTHS, FABLES, FAIRY TALES. 
 
 Adventures of a Brownie. Dinah 
 Maria Mulock. 
 
 Adventures of Ulysses. Charles Lamb. 
 
 JEsop's Fables. 
 
 Age of Fable. Thomas Bulfinch. 
 
 Blue Fairy Book. Andrew Lang. 
 
 Bulfinch's Mythology. Thomas Bul- 
 finch. 
 
 Cinderella. 
 
 Classic Myths. Charles Mills Gayley. 
 
 Fables and Folk Stories. Horace E. 
 Scudder. 
 
 Fables and Rhymes for Beginners. 
 John G. and Thomas E. Thompson. 
 
 Fairy Tale and Fable. John G. and 
 Thomas E. Thompson. 
 
 Fairy Tales. Charles De Garmo. 
 
 Fairy Tales. Grimm. 
 
 Fairy Tales. Hans Christian Andersen.
 
 264 Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 Gods and Heroes. Francillon. 
 
 Greek Heroes. Charles Kingsley. 
 
 In Mythland. Helen Beckwith. 
 
 Jack and the Beanstalk. 
 
 Little Red Riding Hood. Andrew 
 Lang. 
 
 Myths of Northern Lands. H. A. 
 Guerber. 
 
 Old-Fashioned Fairy Book. Eliza- 
 beth Harrison. 
 
 Old Greek Stories. James Baldwin. 
 
 Stories of the Old World. Alfred 
 Church. 
 
 Stories of the Golden Age. 
 
 Story of Siegfried. James Baldwin. 
 
 Story of the Niebelungen Lied. Mary 
 E. Burt. 
 
 Story of Ulysses. Mary E. Burt. 
 
 Tales of Troy. Charles De Garmo. 
 
 Tanglewood Tales. Nathaniel Haw- 
 thorne. 
 
 Wonder Book. Nathaniel Hawthorne.
 
 A List of Books. 265 
 
 GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 Adrift in the Ice Fields. Captain Hall. 
 
 Around the World in the Yacht Sun- 
 beam. Lady Brassey. 
 
 Boy Travellers. Knox. 
 
 Brook and Brook Basins. Alexander 
 Frye. 
 
 Children of the Cold. Lieutenant 
 Schwatka. 
 
 Coal and Coal Mines. Homer Green. 
 
 Each and All. Jane Andrews. 
 
 Family Flights. Edward Everett Hale. 
 
 Feats on the Fiord. Harriet Mar- 
 tineau. 
 
 From Ponkapog to Pesth. Thomas 
 Bailey Aldrich. 
 
 In Brook and Bayou. Clara Kern 
 Bayliss. 
 
 Java, the Pearl of the East. Mrs. S. 
 J. Higginson.
 
 266 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe. Char- 
 lotte M. Yonge. 
 
 Little People of Asia. Miller. 
 
 Seven Little Sisters. Jane Andrews. 
 
 Stories of Other Lands. James Johon- 
 not. 
 
 Under Six Flags. M. E. Davis. 
 
 Under the Southern Cross. Edward 
 Ballou. 
 
 Views Afoot. Bayard Taylor. 
 
 World and Its People, The. Books 
 I. -IX. Larkin Dunton. 
 
 World by the Fireside, The. Mary 
 and Elizabeth Kirby. 
 
 Zigzag Journeys. Hezekiah Butter- 
 worth. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 American Historical Tales. Charles 
 Morris. 
 
 Autobiography of Benjamin Frank- 
 lin.
 
 A List of Books. 267 
 
 Book of American Explorers. Thomas 
 Wentworth Higginson. 
 
 Boyhood of Lincoln, The. Hezekiah 
 Butterworth. 
 
 Boys of '61. Charles Carleton Coffin. 
 
 Boys of '76. Charles Carleton Coffin. 
 
 Boys Who Became Famous. Sarah 
 K. Bolton. 
 
 Building of the Nation. Charles Carle- 
 ton Coffin. 
 
 Colonial Massachusetts : Stories of the 
 Old Bay State. Mrs. S. E. Dawes. 
 
 Drumbeats of the Nation. Charles 
 Carleton Coffin. 
 
 England, Young Folks' History of. 
 Charlotte M. Yonge. 
 
 English Historical Tales. Charles 
 Morris. 
 
 First Steps in the History of our 
 Country. W. A. and A. M. Mowry. 
 
 France, Young Folks' History of. 
 Charlotte M. Yonge.
 
 268 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 George Washington. Horace Scudder. 
 
 German Historical Tales. Charles 
 Morris. 
 
 Girls Who Became Famous. Sarah 
 K. Bolton. 
 
 Greece, Young Folks' History of. 
 Charlotte M. Yonge. 
 
 Greek Home Life. Mary E. Burt. 
 
 Heroes of History. George Make- 
 peace Towle. 
 
 Heroic Deeds. James Johonnot. 
 
 Historic Boys. Elbridge S. Brooks. 
 
 Historic Girls. Elbridge S. Brooks. 
 
 Historic Pilgrimages in New England. 
 Edwin M. Bacon. 
 
 Historical Readers. Longmans' Ship. 
 
 Historical Tales: 
 American, 
 German, 
 Greek, 
 Roman. Charles Morris. 
 
 History Readers. Mrs. W. W. Wilson.
 
 A List of Books. 269 
 
 History of the United States. Thomas 
 Wentworth Higginson. 
 
 Joan of Arc. Mary E. Burt. 
 
 Legends of Charlemagne. Mary E. 
 Burt. 
 
 Madam Roland. Mary E. Burt. 
 
 Making of New England, The. Samuel 
 Adams Drake. 
 
 Man Without a Country, A. Edward 
 Everett Hale. 
 
 Old Times in the Colonies. Charles 
 Carleton Coffin. 
 
 Plutarch for Boys and Girls. 
 
 Prince and Pauper. Thomas Clemens 
 (Mark Twain). 
 
 Rescue of Cuba, The. Andrew S. 
 Draper. 
 
 Standish of Standish. Jane Austin. 
 
 Stories from Herodotus. Alfred J. 
 Church. 
 
 Stories of Great Americans for Little 
 Americans. Edward Eggleston.
 
 270 Reading: How to Teach It 
 
 Stories of our Country. James Johon- 
 not. 
 
 Stories of the Red Children. Doro- 
 thy Brooks. 
 
 Stories from English History. Grace 
 Aguilar. 
 
 Story of Liberty. Charles Carleton 
 Coffin. 
 
 Ten Boys on the Road from Long 
 Ago to Now. Jane Andrews. 
 
 War for Independence. John Fiske. 
 
 Watchfires of '76. Samuel R. Drake. 
 
 Winning His Way. Charles Carleton 
 Coffin. 
 
 Young Folks' Histories: 
 Greece, 
 Rome, 
 France, 
 England. Charlotte M. Yonge. 
 
 Vasco da Gama. George Makepeace 
 Towle.
 
 There is another view of reading, which, 
 though it is obvious enough, is seldom taken, I 
 imagine, or at least acted upon; and that is, 
 that in the course of our reading we should lay 
 up in our minds a store of goodly thoughts in 
 well-wrought words, which should be a living 
 treasure of knowledge always with us, and 
 from which, at various times and amidst all 
 the shifting of circumstances, we might be 
 sure of drawing some comfort, guidance, and 
 sympathy. . . . A man whose mind is en- 
 riched with the best sayings of his own country 
 is a more independent man, walks the streets 
 in a town, or the lanes in the country, with far 
 more delight than he would otherwise, and is 
 taught by wise observers of man and nature to 
 observe for himself. Sancho Panza, with his 
 Proverbs, is a great deal better than he would 
 have been without them; and I contend that a 
 man has something in himself to meet troubles 
 and difficulties, small or great, who has stored 
 in his mind some of the best things that have 
 been said about troubles and difficulties. 
 
 SIR ARTHUR HELPS.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A LIST OF POEMS 
 Suitable for Use in the School-room. 
 
 THE list is intended to be suggestive 
 merely. Nearly all the poems are 
 well known, and need only to be recalled 
 to the mind of the teacher. They can 
 readily be found at any good library. 
 Most of them are suitable for memoriz- 
 ing. All may be read with advantage 
 to the children in most grades. 
 
 POEMS. 
 
 Abou Ben Adhem. Leigh Hunt. 
 Aladdin. James Russell Lowell. 
 
 18
 
 274 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Alexander Selkirk. William Cowper. 
 
 Ancient Mariner, The. Samuel Tay- 
 lor Coleridge. 
 
 April. Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 April Day, An. Mrs. Southey. 
 
 Arnold Von Winkelried. James Mont- 
 gomery. 
 
 Autumn Fashions. Edith Thomas. 
 
 Bannockburn. Robert Burns. 
 
 Barefoot Boy, The. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Battle Hymn of the Republic. Julia 
 Ward Howe. 
 
 Better Land, The. Felicia D. Hemans. 
 
 Bingen on the Rhine. Caroline Nor- 
 ton. 
 
 Blue and the Gray, The. F. M. 
 Finch. 
 
 Break, Break, Break! Alfred Tenny- 
 son. 
 
 Breathes there the man, etc. Walter 
 Scott.
 
 A List of Poems. 275 
 
 Brook, The. Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 Bugle Song, The. Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 Builders, The. Henry Wadsworth 
 Longfellow. 
 
 Burial of Moses, The. Mrs. Alexander. 
 
 Burial of Sir John Moore. Charles 
 Wolfe. 
 
 Captain's Daughter, The. James T. 
 Fields. 
 
 Casabianca. Felicia D. Hemans. 
 
 Centennial Hymn. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Chambered Nautilus. Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes. 
 
 Charge of the Light Brigade. Alfred 
 Tennyson. 
 
 Cloud, The. Percy Bysshe Shelley. 
 
 Commemoration Ode. James Russell 
 Lowell. (Lines on Lincoln.) 
 
 Courtship of Miles Standish. Henry 
 Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 Daffodils. William Wordsworth.
 
 276 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Day is Done, The. Henry Wads- 
 worth Longfellow. 
 
 Death of the Flowers. William Cullen 
 Bryant. 
 
 Destruction of Sennacherib, The. 
 George Gordon, Lord Byron. 
 
 Echo. Jean Ingelow. 
 
 Elegy Written in a Country Church- 
 yard. Thomas Gray. 
 
 Emerson (from " Fable for Critics"). 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Eternal Goodness. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Evangeline. Henry Wadsworth Long- 
 fellow. 
 
 Eve of Waterloo, The. George Gor- 
 don, Lord Byron. 
 
 Excelsior. Henry Wadsworth Long- 
 fellow. 
 
 Fable for Critics (selections on Emer- 
 son, Whittier, Hawthorne, Holmes). 
 James Russell Lowell.
 
 A List of Poems. 277 
 
 February. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 
 
 Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz, The. 
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 First Psalm. Bible. 
 
 First Snowfall, The. James Russell 
 Lowell. 
 
 Flowers. Henry Wadsworth Long- 
 fellow. 
 
 Forest Hymn, The. William Cullen 
 Bryant. 
 
 Forest Song. W. H. Venable. 
 
 Forsaken Merman, The. Robert 
 Browning. 
 
 Fringed Gentian, The. William Cul- 
 len Bryant. 
 
 Frost Spirit, The. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Ginevra. Samuel Rogers. 
 
 Good Great Man, The. Samuel Tay- 
 lor Coleridge. 
 
 Good Little Sister, The. Phoebe 
 Gary.
 
 278 Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 Good Night and Good Morning. Lord 
 Houghton. 
 
 Goody Blake and Harry Gill. William 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 Gray Swan, The. Alice Gary. 
 
 Great, Wide, Beautiful World. Lilli- 
 put Lectures. 
 
 Hawthorne (in " Fable for Critics"). 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Heritage, The. James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Herv6 Riel. Robert Browning. 
 
 Hiawatha. Henry Wadsworth Long- 
 fellow. 
 
 High Tide on the Coast of Lincoln- 
 shire. Jean Ingelow. 
 
 Hohenlinden. Thomas Campbell. 
 
 Holmes (in "Fable for Critics"). 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Horatius at the Bridge. Thomas Bab- 
 ington Macaulay. 
 
 How the Leaves came Down. Susan 
 Coolidge.
 
 A List of Poems. 279 
 
 How They Brought the Good News 
 from Ghent to Aix. Robert Browning. 
 
 Humblebee, The. Ralph Waldo Em- 
 erson. 
 
 If I can Stop one Heart from Break- 
 ing. Emily Dickinson. 
 
 Incident of the French Camp. Robert 
 Browning. 
 
 In School Days. John Greenleaf Whit- 
 tier. 
 
 I Remember, I Remember. Thomas 
 Hood. 
 
 Jack Frost Looked Forth. Jane Gould. 
 
 King's Jewel, The. Phoebe Gary. 
 
 Ladder of St. Augustine. Henry 
 Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 Landing of the Pilgrims. Felicia D. 
 Hemans. 
 
 Last Leaf, The. Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes. 
 
 Last Walk in Autumn, The. John 
 Greenleaf Whittier.
 
 280 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Leak in the Dike, A. Phoebe Gary. 
 
 Legend of St. Christopher. Helen 
 Hunt Jackson. 
 
 Legend of the Northland, A. Phoebe 
 Gary. 
 
 Lincoln (in " Commemoration Ode"). 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Little Bell. Thomas Westwood. 
 
 Little Gottlieb. Phoebe Gary. 
 
 Little Gustava. Celia Thaxter. 
 
 Lochiel's Warning. Walter Scott. 
 
 Lochinvar. Walter Scott. 
 
 Longing. James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Lost Youth, My. Henry Wadsworth 
 Longfellow. 
 
 Lucknow, Defence of. Alfred Tenny- 
 son. 
 
 Lucknow, Pipes of. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Lucknow, Relief of. Robert Lowell. 
 
 Maidenhood. Henry Wadsworth 
 Longfellow.
 
 A List of Poems. 281 
 
 Man's a Man, A. Robert Burns. 
 
 March. Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 March. William Wordsworth. 
 
 Marco Bozzaris. Fitz-Greene Halleck. 
 
 May. Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 Morte d'Arthur. Alfred Tennyson. 
 
 Mountain and the Squirrel, The. Ralph 
 Waldo Emerson. 
 
 My Triumph. John Greenleaf Whit 
 tier. 
 
 Nest Eggs. Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 
 Night and Day. Robert Louis Ste* 
 venson. 
 
 Oak, The. James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Ocean, The. George Gordon, Lord 
 Byron. 
 
 Old Clock on the Stairs, The. Henry 
 Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 Old Ironsides. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 Old Tray. Robert Browning. 
 
 One-Hoss Shay, The. Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes.
 
 282 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 One, Two, Three. Horatio Bunner. 
 
 Order for a Picture, An. Alice Gary. 
 
 Our Good President. Phoebe Gary. 
 
 Over River and Through Wood. 
 Lydia Maria Child. 
 
 Over the Hills in Palestine. Harriet 
 Prescott Spofford. 
 
 Owl Critic, The. James T. Fields. 
 
 Pictures from Appledore. James Rus- 
 sell Lowell. 
 
 Pied Piper, The. Robert Browning. 
 
 Pipes at Lucknow. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Plant a Tree. Lucy Larcom. 
 
 Planting of the Apple Tree, The. 
 William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 Polonius to Laertes. William Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 Present Crisis, The. James Russell 
 Lowell. 
 
 Prisoner of Chillon, The. George Gor- 
 don, Lord Byron.
 
 A List of Poems. 283 
 
 Psalm, My. John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 Psalm, Nineteenth. Bible. 
 
 Psalm, Twenty-third. Bible. 
 
 Psalm, Ninetieth. Bible. 
 
 Quality of Mercy (Merchant of Venice). 
 William Shakespeare. 
 
 Rabbis, The Two. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Ratisbon; or, An Incident of the 
 French Camp. Robert Browning. 
 
 Receiving an Eagle's Quill from Lake 
 Superior, On. John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 Relief of Lucknow, The. Robert 
 Lowell. 
 
 Rhcecus. James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Rising in 1776, The. Thomas Bu- 
 chanan Read. 
 
 Robert of Lincoln. William Cullen 
 Bryant. 
 
 Sandpiper, The. Celia Thaxter. 
 
 Santa Filomena. Henry Wadsworth 
 Longfellow.
 
 284 Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 School Days, In. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 September Hymn. Helen Hunt Jack- 
 son. 
 
 Shepherd of King Admetus, The. 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Sheridan's Ride. Thomas Buchanan 
 Read. 
 
 Sing, Little Children, Sing. Celia 
 Thaxter. 
 
 Skeleton in Armor, The. Henry 
 Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 Skipper Ireson's Ride. John Green- 
 leaf Whittier. 
 
 Snow Flakes. Henry Wadsworth 
 Longfellow. 
 
 Snow Storm. William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 Snow Storm. Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 Song of Marion's Men, The. William 
 Cullen Bryant. 
 
 Song of the Chattahoochee, The. Sid- 
 ney Lanier.
 
 A List of Poems. 285 
 
 Song of the Shirt, The. Thomas 
 Hood. 
 
 Songs of Seven. Jean Ingelow. 
 
 Spacious Firmament on High, The. 
 Joseph Addison. 
 
 Story of a Blackbird, The. Alice 
 Gary. 
 
 Suthin' in a Pastoral Line (from " Big- 
 low Papers"). James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Tales of a Wayside Inn. Henry Wads- 
 worth Longfellow. 
 
 Talking in their Sleep. Edith M. 
 Thomas. 
 
 Tempest, The. James T. Fields. 
 
 Thanatopsis. William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 Three Bells, The. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 To-day. Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 (The) Train from out the castle drew 
 (from " Marmion "). Walter Scott. 
 
 Tray, Old. Robert Browning. 
 
 Tree, The. Bjornesterne Bjornson.
 
 286 Reading : How to Teach It. 
 
 Triumph, My. John Greenleaf Whit- 
 tier. 
 
 Twenty-third Psalm. Bible. 
 
 Two Rabbis, The. John Greenleaf 
 Whittier. 
 
 Verses by Alexander Selkirk. William 
 Cowper. 
 
 Village Blacksmith, The. Henry 
 Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 Vision of Sir Launfal, The. James 
 Russell Lowell. 
 
 Visit from St. Nicholas, A. Clement 
 C. Moore. 
 
 Voice of Spring, The. Felicia D. He- 
 mans. 
 
 Waterloo, The Eve of. George Gor- 
 don, Lord Byron. 
 
 We are Seven. William Wordsworth. 
 
 What Constitutes a State ? Sir Wil- 
 liam Jones. 
 
 Whittier (lines in " Fable for Crit- 
 ics "). James Russell Lowell.
 
 A List of Poems. 287 
 
 Why do the Bells at Christmas Ring ? 
 Eugene Field. 
 
 Wind, The. Robert Louis Steven- 
 son. 
 
 Wind in a Frolic, The. William 
 Howitt. 
 
 Wise Fairy, The. Alice Gary. 
 
 Wizard Frost. Frank Dempster Sher- 
 man. 
 
 Wolsey to Cromwell. William Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 Woodman, Spare that Tree ! George 
 P. Morris. 
 
 W'ounded Curlew, The. Celia Thax- 
 ter. 
 
 Wreck of the Hesperus, The. Henry 
 Wadsworth Longfellow. 
 
 Year's at the Spring, The. Robert 
 Browning. 
 
 Yellow Violet. William Cullen Bry- 
 ant. 
 
 Yussouf. James Russell Lowell.
 
 288 Reading : How to Teach It 
 
 GOOD COLLECTIONS OF POEMS. 
 
 Bryant's Library of Poetry. 
 
 Emerson's Parnassus. 
 
 Whittier's Songs of Three Centuries. 
 
 Whittier's Child Life in Poetry. 
 
 Open Sesame, I.-III. Blanche Wilder 
 Bellamy and Maud Wilder Goodwin. 
 
 Poetry for Home and School. Anna 
 C. Brackett and Ida M. Eliot. 
 
 Ward's English Poets. 
 
 The Land of Song, Books I.-III. 
 Katharine M. Shute and Larkin Dun- 
 ton, LL.D. 
 
 ii
 
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