• FICIENCY MONOGRAPHS 
 
 ANDARDS 
 N ENGLISH 
 
 MAHONEY 
 
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STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
SCHOOL EFFICIENCY MONOGRAPHS 
 
 Attiterson 
 Education of Defectives in the Public Schools 
 
 Arjt 
 Rural Education and the Consolidated School 
 
 iButtmunrll? 
 Problems in State High School Finance 
 
 (&abg 
 Commercial Tests and How to Use Them 
 
 Eaton 
 Record Forms for Vocational Schools 
 
 The Public and Its School 
 
 Standards in English 
 
 An Experiment in the Fundamentals 
 
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 The Reconstructed School 
 
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 Newsboy Service 
 
 QIiJi«tttatt 
 The Teaching of Spelling 
 
SCHOOL EFFICIENCY MONOGRAPHS 
 
 STANDARDS IN 
 ENGLISH 
 
 A COURSE OF STUDY IN ORAL AND 
 
 WRITTEN COMPOSITION FOR 
 
 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN J. MAHONEY 
 
 PRINCIPAL STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
 LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 REVISED EDITION 
 
 YONKERS- ON -HUDSON, NEW YORK 
 
 WORLD BOOK COMPANY 
 1919 
 
 I 
 
WORLD BOOK COMPANY 
 
 THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE ^ I 
 
 Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson ^Jl\ j 
 
 Yc-NKERS-ON-HUDSON, New YORK VKAt) 
 
 2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 
 
 Publishers of the following professional works : 
 School Efficiency Series, edited by Paul H. 
 Hanus, complete in thirteen volumes; Edu- 
 cational Survey Series, seven volumes already 
 issued and others projected ; School Efficiency 
 Monographs, eleven numbers now ready, 
 others in active preparation 
 
 sem:Sise-7 
 
 Copyright, 1917, 1919, by World Book Company 
 All rights reserved 
 
 *? JUL 19 1919 
 
 A*L6 ©CI.A530271 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The Course of Study herewith submitted is the out- 
 come of an investigation of the language problem in Cam- 
 bridge, Massachusetts, which was carried on for a space 
 of two years, 1913-1915, under the direction of the writer, 
 who during that period served as Assistant Superintendent 
 of Schools in the city named. It would seem to be im- 
 portant at this time to state the purposes, methods, and 
 results of that investigation, in order that those who 
 think it worth while to use this course may be able prop- 
 erly to do so. Hence the following: 1 
 
 In January and February, 1913, a series of conferences on 
 English in the Cambridge public schools brought out the follow- 
 ,ing points: 
 
 1. That the English work in the schools was unsatisfactory. 
 
 (Proposition tentatively accepted.) 
 
 2. That there was considerable haziness of opinion as to just 
 
 exactly wherein it was unsatisfactory. (Examination 
 needed.) 
 
 3. That there was also considerable haziness of opinion as to 
 
 just exactly why it was unsatisfactory. (Examination 
 needed.) 
 
 Examination of Proposition No. 2 
 
 Having accepted as tentatively true the first proposition, it 
 became necessary before any advance step could be taken to 
 find out definitely and clearly just what was the matter with the 
 English. The place selected for investigation was the first- 
 year work in the High and Latin School. This grade was chosen 
 because it seemed logical to assume that pupils, on graduating 
 from the elementary school, should show a definite standard 
 of achievement, which might be expressed simply and concretely. 
 
 1 Reprint from School and Society, issue of July 17, 1915. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 (The definition of the standard was confined first to written 
 English.) 
 
 The beginning of this investigation (to discover a standard for 
 the elementary schools) was made from a negative viewpoint. 
 Following a conference with the teachers of freshman English, 
 in which the purpose of the investigation was talked over at 
 length, a questionnaire was sent to them. They were asked to 
 state very concretely the important weaknesses found most 
 conspicuously on freshman papers. They understood that they 
 were to set down those weaknesses which, by their very nature, 
 branded an English paper as unsatisfactory from the point of 
 view of a teacher of freshman English. Conversely, of course, 
 it followed that the absence of the weaknesses set down would 
 mean work satisfactory from the same viewpoint. 
 
 The conspicuous weaknesses were reported by eighty per 
 cent of the teachers as follows : 
 
 1. Poor sentence structure. 
 
 (a) The comma sentence. 
 
 (b) The clause sentence. 
 
 (c) The sentence with marked awkwardness. 
 
 2. Misspelling of common words. 
 
 In the week following, a freshman test was given under rigid 
 conditions, and corrected for the above points only. Thirty 
 per cent of the papers revealed poor sentence structure. Shortly 
 afterwards a similar test was given in the graduating classes of 
 the elementary schools, and, corrected with these points only in 
 mind, revealed thirty-six per cent of the papers as poor in sen- 
 tence structure. (The misspelled words were tabulated also on 
 a percentage basis. Unfortunately, the tabulations are not just 
 now at hand. The statement, however, as to the prevalence 
 of common words misspelled was borne out.) 
 
 Taking, then, the result of the above examination, both of 
 teachers and of pupils, as a basis, we succeeded, after a series of 
 conferences, in formulating the following as a standard of achieve- 
 ment in English for pupils about to enter the High School: 
 
 [vi] 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Pupils should be able (a) To write an interesting page of clean- 
 cut sentences, unmarked by poor spelling or common grammatical 
 errors. (Based on above.) (b) To talk for a few minutes in an 
 interesting way, using clean-cut sentences and good enunciation. 
 (Formulated by teachers in conference.) 
 
 These points — minimum standards — were made the end 
 to be attained by the new course of study which it became neces- 
 sary to write. From the standpoint of economy of time, the 
 first advance step had been taken by defining clearly just what 
 was most conspicuously the matter with the work in English at a 
 certain stage. To remedy what was wrong, teachers were told 
 very distinctly what to do. They might do more. They might 
 teach the idea of the paragraph. They might teach various 
 points of technique and of style in the upper grades. In the 
 course of study as laid out, work of this kind was included. 
 But there was to be no more "shooting in the air." Certain 
 things were to be done, regardless. And these things were of so 
 elementary a character that the teachers knew they could be done. 
 
 The next step was to set down in a course of study how they 
 could be done with most economy of time, so that further time 
 might be secured for points only less essential. This meant 
 
 Examination of Proposition No. 3 
 
 Why was the work unsatisfactory in the elementary school? 
 Of course, it immediately appears that the chief reason was the 
 absence of any such definite ultimate goal as above set down. 
 This goal having been fixed, however, there remained to investi- 
 gate, from the point of view of economy of time in English, 
 what changes, if any, and what additions, if any, should be made 
 in the course of study then in existence. 
 
 Another series of conferences was held with teachers, and the 
 course of study examined. The following points were brought 
 out: 
 
 1. Waste existed because not enough time was devoted to the 
 study of English and English grammar combined in grades 6, 
 7, and 8. 
 
 [vii] 
 
PREFACE 
 
 2. Waste existed in that teachers were not by any means 
 agreed as to what the term "English" really meant. Some 
 thought of it mainly as grammar. Some thought of grammar 
 teaching as the chief means toward securing good English. 
 Some disregarded oral English as a factor almost entirely. 
 Unanimity of viewpoint was lacking. 
 
 3. Waste existed because the course was outlined, grade by 
 grade, in a general way, with considerable general repetition, no 
 definite step by step advance being indicated. There was need 
 of standardization all along the line. 
 
 4. Waste existed in that unimportant technicalities were 
 found emphasized in the course, while those of most vital 
 importance were largely subordinated. Furthermore, certain 
 technical points were introduced in the course at points where 
 they could be taught only with great waste of time, if at all. 
 An instance of this is "shall and will" — grade 3. Proper 
 emphasis, proportion, balance, was lacking. 
 
 5. Waste existed in that some of the methods used in teaching 
 were of a kind not likely to yield the greatest commensurate 
 results. The reproductive form of the theme was too much 
 in evidence. Some teachers still clung to the idea of asking 
 for long, carefully planned themes, infrequently written. An 
 examination into the character of the subjects assigned brought 
 out the scarcity of the subject that was at the same time pointed 
 and stimulating. 
 
 6. In oral English waste existed in that not enough time or 
 serious, intelligent practice was given to it to secure any results 
 worth while. Inaccuracies in speech were drilled on in hap- 
 hazard fashion, teachers too often relying on rules of grammar 
 rather than on stimulating and continuous drill to establish 
 correct forms. Mumbling and indistinctness of articulation 
 testified to the fact that the recitation was not used as a medium 
 for the teaching of oral English. 
 
 And so on. 
 
 The task became to formulate a course of study definite in its 
 aim, clear and simple in its requirements grade by grade, sug- 
 gestive and economical as to its methods — the end being to 
 
 [ viii ] 
 
PREFACE 
 
 attain a minimum standard of achievement with little waste of 
 time or energy. The most important and the most difficult 
 piece of this task became the setting of grade standards which 
 might serve as suggestions to the teacher in any grade as to what 
 she might reasonably be expected to accomplish in that grade. 
 This task has been partly accomplished. Even if the results 
 do not come up to our expectations, it will nevertheless have been 
 worth while. It has opened our eyes to the fact that there are 
 many ways in which we can secure economy of time in the 
 teaching of English. 
 
 Since the above was written, the course has been 
 finished, and has lived through its trial stage. In the 
 making of it many people have had a share, notably 
 those Cambridge teachers who served on the several 
 committees. To these teachers and to the Superintendent 
 of the Cambridge schools, Mr. M. E. Fitzgerald, the 
 writer acknowledges his indebtedness. To the various 
 other people, teachers and writers of courses, named and 
 unnamed, whose ideas have been appropriated as needed, 
 the same acknowledgment is due. It may seem un- 
 gracious, when so many have helped, to name specifically 
 one or two. It cannot be left unsaid, however, that this 
 course would be a far poorer one had not the writer 
 enjoyed the collaboration of Superintendent Bernard M. 
 Sheridan of Lawrence, whose work in the language field 
 has won country -wide recognition. To him, especially, 
 the undersigned expresses obligation. 
 
 John J. Mahoney 
 
 [k] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface v 
 
 Part One: A Course in Language 1 
 
 Part Two: Outline by Grades : 
 
 First Grade 41 
 
 Second Grade 51 
 
 Third Grade 62 
 
 Fourth Grade 73 
 
 Fifth Grade 90 
 
 Sixth Grade 104 
 
 Seventh Grade 120 
 
 Eighth Grade 136 
 
 Literature Outline 157 
 
 Appendix: 
 
 A. Picture List 177 
 
 B. Common Errors and their Correction 182 
 
 C. Model Letter Forms 192 
 
 D. Time Allotment in Language 193 
 
 Index 195 
 
 [xi] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 PART ONE 
 A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 WHAT WE MEAN TO TEACH 
 
 Part I of this little book is given the title "A Course 
 in Language." Just what do we mean by that word 
 "language"? It may be that we all have the same 
 understanding as to what the term implies. If so, very 
 good. If not, we shall waste a great deal of time in hazy 
 thinking at the very outset. Teachers generally agree 
 as to what "arithmetic" means, and as to the range and 
 choice of topics to be taught in an arithmetic course. 
 "History" causes little misunderstanding. "Geography" 
 means but one thing. But when it comes to "language," 
 one teacher is apt to think of it as one thing, another 
 teacher as another. 
 
 For purposes of clearness, then, it is highly important 
 to write down specifically at the very outset just what 
 phases of school work we are to deal with in this course. 
 Here they are: 
 
 1. Oral language 
 
 (a) Training and practice in connected talking. 
 
 (b) Voice, articulation, pronunciation, inflection. 
 
 (c) Exercises on common errors of speech. 
 
 (d) Building up a vocabulary. 
 
 2. Written language 
 
 (a) Training and practice in written com- 
 
 position. 
 
 (b) Exercises in technicalities of written work, 
 
 including spelling. 
 
 [1] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Technical grammar is not included in this language 
 plan. Too many teachers still regard technical grammar 
 as the backbone of language teaching, and too many 
 courses still yield to this subject the great proportion 
 of the total amount of time given to language work. 
 As a matter of fact, however, rules of grammar do not 
 fashion speech; they record its crystallization. They 
 never establish habits of correct usage; they serve rather 
 to make that usage more intelligent and self -directive. 
 Knowledge of the rule would be sufficient "if to do were 
 as easy as to know what 'twere good to do." Every 
 teacher knows that it is not. Technical grammar has a 
 place in the grammar school. Its value in linguistic 
 training is by no means unimportant. Teachers will 
 continue to teach it as heretofore within the time specially 
 allotted to the subject in the school program. But they 
 are not to teach it in the time allotted to English as 
 outlined. 
 
 Besides grammar, the broader field of English in the 
 elementary school includes reading, literature, and spelling. 
 The fact that these subjects, like grammar, are excluded 
 from consideration in the present language plan does not 
 mean that teachers should not use these subjects for the 
 purposes of teaching language. As a matter of fact, 
 there is included in this pamphlet a Course in Literature. 
 It is set down as a separate course and given a special 
 time-allotment for purposes of clearness only. No 
 teacher will hesitate, however, to make an intelligent 
 correlation here. That every lesson should be a language 
 lesson is very trite, but also very true. The reading period 
 and the language period may often be so conducted as to 
 be considered two halves of one whole. By means of the 
 reading lesson, completed by the language lesson, the child 
 not only grows in knowledge and appreciation of the best 
 
 [2] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 things written in English, but also in mastery of form and 
 ability to speak and write more effectively. Technical 
 grammar, in the grades where it is studied, should be of 
 great help in rationalizing the use of correct forms of 
 speech. The history lesson, too, offers an excellent occa- 
 sion for practice in oral language. Nevertheless, none of 
 the language training incidental to these subjects should 
 be regarded as substitutes for the distinct teaching of 
 language as outlined in this pamphlet. The specific 
 lines of language work laid down in this course must be 
 given their full quota of time each week, in addition to hav- 
 ing the contributory value of the other English subjects. 
 
 HOW MUCH SHALL BE TAUGHT? 
 
 So far we have been saying that this course in English 
 is intended to include certain particular phases of language 
 work and to exclude others. We have indicated in a 
 general way the scope or range of the course, and in a 
 general way have set certain limitations on it. It now 
 becomes necessary to ask a few pointed questions. Just 
 how much are we to expect, in the way of English power 
 and accomplishment, from a pupil graduating from the 
 elementary school? In terms of the outline above set 
 down, what standard of attainment can we reasonably 
 expect from the grammar-school graduate? What are 
 the things, put concretely, that the pupil must know; 
 and conversely, what are the mistakes that he must not 
 commit? What, in brief, should be the aim of this 
 language course? 
 
 [3] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 THE AIM OF THIS COURSE IN ENGLISH 
 
 The question last asked really includes the others 
 The aim of this course in English for the elementary 
 schools is: 
 
 1. To graduate pupils able to. talk or recite for a few 
 
 minutes in an interesting way, using clean-cut 
 sentences and good enunciation. 
 
 2. To graduate pupils able to write an interesting 
 
 paragraph of clean-cut sentences, unmarked by 
 misspelled words and by common grammatical 
 errors. 
 
 Courses of study in English, as a general thing, have been 
 very vague in their requirements and have usually called 
 for more on paper than could possibly be accomplished. 
 In language, as in other elementary-school subjects, 
 we must hark back to the essentials. There are a good 
 many things that we should teach, if we can. There 
 are a few things that we must teach. We must graduate 
 pupils from our elementary schools able to talk and write 
 as above set down. The requirements stated may seem 
 somewhat arbitrary. They may seem not to tell the 
 whole story. As a matter of fact, we may well expect 
 teachers to do more with the great majority of the pupils 
 in the grades. But teachers may not do less. The re- 
 quirements are reasonable and definite. They constitute 
 a goal toward which teachers may work from the first 
 grade up. This is the minimum standard of achievement 
 for the elementary school. There remains to indicate 
 in this connection, still with a view to definiteness, the 
 minimum standard of achievement, the degree of accom- 
 plishment which each grade should strive for in the teaching 
 of both spoken and written English. An attempt will be 
 
 [4] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 made to do this under the assignment of work by grades. 
 If this standard can be set, definitely, grade by grade, 
 a great step in advance will have been taken, because 
 teachers will know, from the first year up, just what they 
 are expected to accomplish in English, just as they know 
 this now with regard to arithmetic or grammar. Before 
 attempting this, however, it becomes necessary to take 
 up the topics of spoken and of written English separately, 
 and to point out some of the problems there found. 
 
 (1) Oral Language 
 
 Not very often is the individual called upon to submit 
 to a test of his knowledge of arithmetic or history or Latin. 
 But his spoken English is being passed upon by his fellow 
 men every day of his life; and largely upon the basis of 
 this test is he adjudged an educated or an uneducated 
 man. Moreover, success in business and intercourse 
 with people depends more than is commonly realized upon 
 power to talk well. Yet of all the subjects in the class- 
 room this is most ineffectively taught. Indistinct utter- 
 ance, grammatical inaccuracies, a poverty of words, a 
 lack of anything approaching fluency — these are con- 
 demning characteristics of too many of our grammar- 
 school graduates. Some of the causes of the failure to 
 secure results may be here noted : 
 
 1. Oral work is frequently not regarded as a help to 
 written composition. Too often a subject is assigned 
 or chosen and the pupil told to write; that's all. As a 
 matter of fact, oral work should almost invariably accom- 
 pany written work. Both are but forms of self-expression. 
 The boy who learns to talk well will write well inevitably. 
 
 2. The other subjects of the program are not utilized 
 as a help in teaching oral composition. The reading les- 
 
 1*1 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 son, with its discussion and story telling, the history 
 recitation, current events, even arithmetic itself — all 
 provide occasion for a "free and natural use of language 
 on the part of the pupils and for fruitful observation of 
 their speech on the .part of the teacher." The pupil 
 should be encouraged, when he recites, to recite in an 
 orderly way. This in time tends to beget orderly think- 
 ing and leads to orderly presentation of thought in all 
 composition work. The process is slow, and the results 
 secured in any one year may seem disappointingly meager. 
 Teachers should remember that there are other years 
 ahead, and that the school cannot work wonders when its 
 influence is confined to five hours in the day of twenty- 
 four. They should also remember, though, that "every 
 lesson is a language lesson," and intelligently make use 
 of the many means presented to purify the child's language 
 and cause it to grow. 
 
 3. Subjects assigned for oral language are often 
 indefinite and uninteresting, often too large. There is 
 nothing gained in holding an exercise merely for the sake 
 of leading children to talk. It should have that dynamic 
 quality that makes children see some purpose in the talk- 
 ing. The other subjects in the program, as suggested 
 above, contribute to this end. A common mistake is to 
 allow pupils to talk on subjects vague and large. The 
 subject should be very definite and limited in its phases. 
 (This topic is merely referred to here. For a fuller dis- 
 cussion see under "Written Language," page 16.) 
 
 4. Much of the mumbling and indistinctness of ar- 
 ticulation so common in school is due to the fact that the 
 child has not the conception that he is addressing an 
 audience with the purpose of actually saying or telling 
 something worth while. In reading, he reads to the 
 teacher with the audience behind him. In recitations, 
 
 [6] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 he recites to the teacher, and what he says is lost on those 
 in the rear. Since he has no interest in talking clearly 
 and distinctly, that his fellow pupils may hear, he does 
 not do so. The teacher should, at all times, try to es- 
 tablish the situation of pupil talking and audience listening. 
 
 5. Children persist in grammatical inaccuracies be- 
 cause teachers too often rely on rules of grammar to 
 correct them. The pupil hears these incorrect forms 
 over and over again on the street. Obedient to the 
 principle of motor reaction, such forms invariably "write 
 themselves out" in his daily speech. It is of little avail 
 that the pupil knows what is the right. He must hear it; 
 say it; say it again and again and again; say it until 
 the motor reaction is so strong that the right form stamps 
 its impression on the spinal cord and wipes out the wrong. 
 This means continued practice on the right forms of speech. 
 
 The above points are stated at this time briefly. This 
 brevity, however, implies no disparagement of their 
 importance. Teachers, it is felt, will recognize their 
 importance, and teachers are asked to refer to them again 
 and again for guidance when the work in oral composition 
 seems discouraging. This work undoubtedly will seem dis- 
 couraging at times. At best it is hard to measure from 
 year to year the growth in a child's power over speech. 
 And with the measure of growth lacking, the task of 
 counteracting during the five hours in school the demoral- 
 izing influences of the street becomes, to say the least, 
 a joyless one. It is the purpose of this course, however, 
 as before stated, to suggest to teachers definitely, both 
 in oral and in written English, just what and just how 
 much they are to do, grade by grade. These prescriptions 
 will in themselves constitute a yardstick for measuring 
 growth in English power. No claim is made here that 
 these prescriptions are necessarily the ones that should be 
 
 [7] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 made. If the teaching of oral English is the most difficult 
 task the school has to face, — and it undoubtedly is, — 
 then the attempt to organize and standardize a body of 
 teaching material hitherto largely unorganized and 
 unstandardized is difficult, too. Everything, however, 
 has a beginning. This course — in so far as it relates 
 to oral English — will have made a very good beginning 
 if it points out clearly the causes of failure in the past, 
 and sets out a few guideposts and a few milestones on the 
 road to future achievement. 
 
 In the outline (p. 1) the scope of the work falling under 
 the head of oral English was indicated in this way: 
 
 1. Training and practice in connected talking. 
 
 2. Voice, articulation, pronunciation, inflection. 
 
 3. Exercises on common errors of speech. 
 
 4. Building up a vocabulary. 
 
 A little discussion on these headings may not be out 
 of place here. 
 
 1. TRAINING AND PRACTICE IN CONNECTED TALKING 
 
 This work is most valuable when it stimulates the child 
 to free self-expression. Every teacher knows the difficulty 
 of inducing children to express themselves with any degree 
 of freedom with regard to their own experiences. Indeed, 
 a great many teachers are of the opinion that most children 
 have no experiences about which they can talk. This 
 certainly would seem true, if we are to judge from the utter 
 dumbness and painful embarrassment displayed by so 
 many victims during the period assigned to oral composi- 
 tion. It is a fact, however, that with skillful stimulation 
 and encouragement, the pupil talks best and most interest- 
 ingly on subjects that represent his personal knowledge, 
 peculiar to himself. 
 
 [8] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 The imagination, also, especially in the case of younger 
 children, furnishes a fertile field for exploitation. The 
 child knows what the pleasures of imagination are. He 
 could as soon stop thinking as stop imagining. If the 
 atmosphere in the schoolroom is right, he will not hesitate 
 even to imagine "out loud." Teachers can induce pupils 
 to talk from the storehouses of their experience and their 
 imagination. It is no easy task, as admitted above; 
 but it is distinctly worth while. 
 
 This point is here brought out because of the fear that 
 in the period devoted to oral composition too much time 
 has been given hitherto to merely reproductive talking. 
 Pupils have been asked to retell a story read by the 
 teachers or by themselves, or in some way to reproduce 
 something that others have said, done, written, or thought. 
 Memory is the principal factor in this kind of work; 
 original thought and experience are not developed by it 
 to any considerable degree. As a source of thought for 
 oral composition, therefore, reproduction should be 
 sparingly used. 
 
 Yet it must be said again, in this connection, that there 
 is no thought of depreciating the value that must come 
 to oral language from the use of the daily school program 
 with all the abundant and rich material provided by the 
 work in reading, literature, history, nature study, picture 
 study, etc. Once more, "Every lesson is a language 
 lesson." Every time a child talks he is talking "oral 
 language," if one may so express it. The teacher who 
 skillfully avails herself of all that is appealing, thought- 
 provoking, dramatic, inspiring, in the daily program will 
 not go far wrong. On the contrary, she will, in all prob- 
 ability, be teaching in a very stimulating way. But then, 
 after all, if she does this, she will not be asking children 
 simply to reproduce, in the sense referred to above. 
 
 [9] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Another thought: Oral composition means more than 
 mere "talking" on the part of the pupil. There is an old 
 saying that "talk is cheap." It is to be feared that not 
 a little of the "talking" that takes place in the "oral 
 language" period is cheap, indeed, in the sense that it is 
 of little value, except as it gives the teacher a chance to 
 engage in the somewhat negative performance of cor- 
 recting occasional grammatical errors. It profits little 
 that children should merely talk. They should talk to 
 some purpose — to different purposes, in fact, at different 
 times. Just what these purposes or aims are, both the 
 teacher and the pupils should have in mind at all times. 
 It is even more important in the case of spoken than of 
 written English that teachers from grade to grade should 
 know just what they are aiming at, and why. For all the 
 qualities that are to be developed in the written composi- 
 tion may be, and ought to be, developed first in the oral 
 work: good sentences, grammatical correctness, choice of 
 words, and so on. The development, of course, will have 
 very humble beginnings. But there must be development, 
 improvement, all along the line, or the work is aimless. 
 "The pupil who talks well will write well." Is it not so? 
 
 2. VOICE, ARTICULATION, PRONUNCIATION, INFLECTION 
 
 "Talk distinctly! Don't mumble your words!" The 
 writer recommends this as a slogan to every teacher of 
 oral English. For some reason or other these matters 
 of voice, articulation, etc., have been yielded little place 
 heretofore in most language outlines. This may be due 
 to the fact that only recently has oral English come into 
 its own as an important phase of language instruction. 
 However this may be, it must be evident that the topics 
 above mentioned are tremendously important if teachers 
 
 [10] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 are to approximate the end of our English teaching. 
 When pupils write, the unforgivable sins are bad sentence- 
 structure, grammatical errors, and misspelled words. 
 Correspondingly, when pupils talk, the unforgivable sins 
 are again grammatical errors of speech and indistinct, 
 slovenly vocalization. The American voice has long been 
 criticized. And it is undoubtedly too much to expect 
 that teachers can find time to change the unlovely quality 
 of voice so many times encountered in their pupils. That 
 would mean a special course in voice training, which, 
 however desirable for its results, is regrettably beyond our 
 scope. But teachers can insist that pupils open their 
 mouths and sound final syllables and consonants. Teachers 
 can insist that pupils talk in a tone that can be heard 
 clearly by the boy in the back seat. Teachers can, by 
 persistent drill on words commonly mispronounced or 
 half pronounced, do a great deal toward making oral 
 English in their class of much better quality than now 
 usually obtains. Teachers can, by keeping eternally at 
 it, abolish the "schoolroom tone" and that very fashion- 
 able inflection manifested by keeping the voice up, in- 
 stead of letting it down at the end of a sentence. These 
 things can be done, and teachers are asked to keep at 
 them everlastingly. 
 
 Below are noted some of the oral defects most com- 
 monly occurring. The Appendix includes lists of words 
 commonly mispronounced. It is not meant that either 
 of these lists should be prescriptive; every teacher will 
 think of many more instances, and better ones, than those 
 cited. It is really far more important that each teacher 
 should make her own lists from year to year, using the 
 material suggested only in so far as it suits her needs. 
 And most important of all is consistent, persistent drill. 
 "Talk distinctly! Don't mumble your words!" 
 
 [11] 
 
STANDARDS W ENGLISH 
 
 Some of the mispronunciations to be especially noted: 
 
 1. "TaMn',""writin',"etc. 
 
 2. An r is often inserted or added when none ought to 
 
 be heard, as " I saw-r a ship " ; "Emma-r Abbott." 
 
 3. Careful attention should be given to the proper 
 
 pronunciation of the vowel u, as in Tuesday, duty. 
 
 4. Th is often pronounced as d or t — as found in dem 
 
 for them, or tree for three. 
 
 5. Len'th and strength are heard for length and strength. 
 
 6. Winder for window; want ter for want to; yeh or 
 
 yep for yes. And so on. 
 
 Words and phrases for special practice: 
 
 1. Sleep, sleek, sleet, sleeve. 
 
 2. Twelfth, breadth, length, depth, strength, width. 
 
 3. Particularly, especially, certainly. 
 
 4. Just, worst, crust, finest, youngest, greatest, break- 
 
 fast. 
 
 5. Kindness, goodness, helpless, thoughtless, careless. 
 
 6. Give me, let me, was he, I don't know, don't you. 
 
 7. Whittle, whistle, wheel, white, when, whether, 
 
 which. 
 
 8. Would you, could you, did you, can you, had you. 
 
 9. This one, that one, which one, let her go, let him do 
 
 it. 
 
 3. EXERCISES ON COMMON ERRORS OF SPEECH 
 
 Unlike the errors just dealt with, which are found in 
 spoken language only, grammatical inaccuracies mar both 
 oral and written language. The boy who says "he don't" 
 will write "he don't" invariably. Therefore the teacher 
 should and will strive to correct such inaccuracies both 
 in the oral language period and when they appear on the 
 written page. They are treated in this course as a phase 
 
 [12] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 of oral English because of the conviction, expressed be- 
 fore, that the pupil who talks correctly will write correctly. 
 The teacher has a dozen opportunities to correct oral 
 errors, to every one in written work. This happens natu- 
 rally, because even in school pupils talk — at least they 
 should talk — much more than they write. Right here, 
 however, it may be said again — what has been said al- 
 ready — that common errors of speech cannot be corrected 
 through the medium of lessons in technical grammar. 
 It is no doubt true that certain rather subtle phases of 
 correct speech are best understood and mastered only 
 after the grammar of the mother tongue or of a foreign 
 language has been taught. This does not apply, however, 
 to the kind of ungrammatical speech indulged in by the 
 average schoolboy. Such a boy may know, as he knows 
 the batting averages in the Big Leagues, that the verb 
 and its subject must agree in number. For all this he 
 serenely uses "they was" in private conversation and in 
 the language period. Good English is a habit. It must be 
 mastered by practice, not by rule. This fact cannot be 
 emphasized too strongly. 
 
 At first thought it would seem rather an appalling task 
 to attempt to correct in the eight years of the elementary- 
 school course all the grammatical inaccuracies heard in 
 the classroom. There is, indeed, no thought that this 
 result will be obtained. We must not expect what is at 
 least improbable, if not impossible. It is interesting to 
 note, however, that, after all, the actual range of errors 
 made by children is small. Verb errors make up a very 
 large proportion of the total number. The misuse of 
 pronouns is alone responsible for a great many more. 
 Some one has estimated that if children could be taught 
 to use correctly the past tense and perfect participle of 
 thirteen verbs, one sixth of all the errors made by the 
 
 [13] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 children could be eliminated. The task, though difficult 
 enough, is really not so difficult as it seems. In the outline 
 by grades, under the head of oral English, teachers will 
 find certain errors allotted to each grade. 1 The distri- 
 bution is an arbitrary one, and the lists have been made 
 comprehensive rather than selective. Teachers need not 
 take up eveiy error noted. They most positively should 
 not drill on errors simply because they happen to be 
 listed for the grade. Some errors they will recognize as im- 
 portant and typical, and will drill on these unremittingly. 
 So, too, they will select errors listed for grades either above 
 or below their own, and will drill on these, likewise un- 
 remittingly, should the needs of the class demand it. All 
 of which means only that teachers will use their common 
 sense in this, as in other phases of school work. Given 
 common sense, systematic drill, and a patient optimism, 
 the task of purifying the child's language becomes one not 
 unconscionably hard. 
 
 We have been emphasizing drill, repetition, rather than 
 formal grammar, as the means of eliminating grammatical 
 errors. A caution is needed here. In language, as in every 
 other school subject, repetition soon begins to illustrate 
 the application of the law of diminishing returns. Sheer, 
 straight, unadulterated drill is seldom a dynamic activity. 
 It may, indeed, bring results; but they come only at a 
 vastly uneconomical expenditure of time and toil. The 
 young child, in particular, has no special incentive to talk 
 correctly. Indeed, he will hate the very notion of talking 
 correctly — just as so many children in the past have 
 hated this or that exercise in school — if correct forms 
 are the teacher's excuse for hours of hateful drill. But 
 if the element of a real, lively interest can be secured in 
 
 1 See pages 47, 55, 66, 77, 94, 109, 125, 141. 
 
 [14] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 this work, the curse is removed. The exercises that aim 
 to inculcate correct forms should be made as interesting 
 as 'possible, to the end that attention may be effortless and 
 recollection pleasant. In fact, the play's the thing. This 
 idea is embodied in the Formal Language Games which 
 appear in the Appendix (page 184). These games are 
 interesting because of the activity involved. Constant 
 repetition is a factor, but it is called forth by a natural 
 situation. Games such as those suggested are no experi- 
 ment. They have already been tried out with marked 
 success. Teachers are asked not necessarily to adopt 
 these particular games, but rather to adopt the idea and 
 to invent others according to the needs of their classes. 1 
 
 4. BUILDING UP A VOCABULARY 
 
 This is a topic to be worked upon largely in the upper 
 grades, and will be given some specific attention in the 
 outline for those grades. The writing vocabulary of a child 
 is smaller than his speaking vocabulary, and much smaller 
 than the one familiar to him through his reading. It 
 becomes the task of the school to induce the child to use 
 first in speech, and second, on the written page, some of 
 the expressions which he gleans through his reading in 
 school or out of it. This can be done consciously by the 
 teacher, but it should not be done arbitrarily. The 
 " spelling- sentence " 2 is a type of exercise that has been 
 much overworked and much abused. But the "spelling- 
 sentence" can readily be made to serve the purpose of 
 
 1 For other language games see Language Games for All Grades, by 
 Deming (Beckley-Cordy Company, Chicago), a very helpful book. 
 
 2 This refers to the device of insisting that all words taught in the 
 spelling lesson be used by the children in sentences either oral or written, 
 sometimes in both. There is no point in asking a child to use in a 
 sentence any word, the meaning of which he already knows. 
 
 [15] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 vocabulary building if the teacher skillfully forms a cor- 
 relation here with written English. Adjectives and verbs 
 offer the best material for vocabulary building, and the 
 occasional lesson in synonyms is valuable. As a phase 
 of vocabulary building, also, pupils should be led to en- 
 large their stock of connectives, to the end that sentence 
 transition may not always turn on the crude use of the 
 stock conjunctions "and," "then," "but," and "so." 
 In the upper grades it is well worth while to give lists of 
 connectives and allow children to experiment with their 
 use, after some study is made of that use through the 
 medium of the reading lesson or of some good models. 
 But of this, more at the proper time. 
 
 (2) Written Language 
 
 The aim of the work in written language has already 
 been set down (page 4) : 
 
 "To graduate pupils able to write an interesting para- 
 graph of clean-cut sentences, unmarked by misspelled 
 words or by common grammatical errors." 
 
 From what has been said already, and from what will 
 be said scores of times in this course, the teacher will 
 gather that pupils must have acquired the sentence sense x 
 before graduation, must spell correctly, must have attained 
 a certain measure of correctness in the technicalities of 
 written language. Now the attainment of correctness in 
 such matters as punctuation, capitalization, good spelling, 
 the sentence sense, and so on, constitutes a problem that 
 is not present in the teaching of oral language. When the 
 child writes, it becomes necessary for him to remember 
 that the declarative sentence should begin with a capital 
 and end with a period. The words that he uses so freely 
 
 1 By "sentence sense" is meant the ability to tell when a sentence 
 begins and ends, and how. 
 
 [16] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 in talk must be correctly spelled, or the page is marred. 
 He must remember even to write in his best fashion, 
 or the paper may be returned because of poor penmanship. 
 Forced to think of these mechanical things, he will for 
 a long time lack in writing the freedom that he may dis- 
 play in speech. For this reason it is important that in 
 the early years pupils be required to write little. It is 
 also extremely important that in the early years the only 
 technicalities taught be those most necessary for the cor- 
 rect expression of the simplest sentences on the written 
 page. In the past, the mistake has been made of attempt- 
 ing to teach too many technicalities at once. The result 
 has been what is always the case when fundamentals and 
 things less fundamental are given equal importance: 
 nothing is learned well, and the pupil comes to the 
 eighth grade lacking that automatic knowledge of the 
 essentials of written English that he should have secured 
 in the lower grades. 
 
 Correct written English, involving a mastery of the points 
 indicated above, must be secured. That goes without 
 saying. But this matter of correctness should not be 
 secured at so uneconomical an expenditure of time as to 
 leave no time for the securing of other things hardly less 
 important. This course aims to teach the more important 
 technicalities and to teach them well. Sufficient attention 
 is given them so that they may be taught well. The 
 teacher will doubtless note that many time-honored 
 topics are omitted entirely, or at least receive scant 
 consideration. This need give no cause for alarm. In 
 reality it is spending time uneconomically to put in days 
 and weeks on quotations, a technicality within the sen- 
 tence, if the sentence sense is not established. It is time 
 absolutely wasted to talk unity and coherence or the 
 technic of paragraph structure to pupils who don't know 
 
 [17] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 how to spell. Good sentence structure, good spelling, a 
 few important technicalities thoroughly mastered — these 
 constitute on the side of correctness, or form, a task 
 sufficient to take up all the time that should be spent on 
 form in the grammar grades. If the teaching is good, 
 these points of form can be taught so thoroughly as to 
 make simple punctuation, capitalization, good sentence 
 structure, etc., matters of automatic control by the time 
 the pupil reaches the upper years of the course. Some- 
 thing is wrong somewhere if this result is not secured. 
 On the other hand, if this result is secured, the elementary 
 teacher can be satisfied that in so far as the formal, side of 
 language work is concerned, the pupil is well prepared 
 for the high school. 
 
 1. ENGLISH THAT IS "INTERESTING" 
 
 Correct English, then, within the narrow limits set 
 down, is something for the teacher to secure as a sine 
 qua non. But, as has been hinted, not all the time given 
 to written English should be spent in the attempt to se- 
 cure English that is merely correct. Form is important. 
 But form without thought is barren. The teaching that 
 secures correctness of form only is not real language 
 teaching; for the theme that is conventional and colorless, 
 even though it be correct, has no particular value as a 
 piece of language work. 
 
 True language training is giving skill in self-expression 
 — the expression of the individual's own experiences, 
 his own thoughts, his own feelings, his own way of looking 
 at things. The first step is to rouse and stimulate the 
 pupil's interest. This generates the second requisite — 
 eagerness to tell something clearly and well. In the 
 composition period the teacher should aim primarily to get 
 
 [18] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 from the pupils an interesting incident, a good bit of a 
 story, a clever description, etc., ignoring for the time 
 being the technical side. The teacher should work to 
 develop in her class what has come to be called English 
 "power." Not many children can write, or ever will be 
 able to write, English glowing with those "purple patches" 
 that mark the born stylist. Nevertheless, we are justified 
 in expecting from the great majority, now and then, 
 themes characterized by those subtle touches that mark 
 them as original and "different." Such results can be 
 secured if the teacher is clever and skillful. In the back- 
 ground of her mind, and of the pupil's mind as well, there 
 should always be the subconscious feeling that the theme 
 must be as correct as can reasonably be expected. But 
 interesting, spontaneous writing will never be secured 
 from pupils if they have the notion that their work is to 
 be judged solely or mainly on the basis of the errors that 
 may appear. In the written language period the teacher 
 must know when to correct, what to correct, and how much 
 at a time. Otherwise thought is sacrificed to form. The 
 good language teacher finds no such sacrifice necessary. 
 She does not minimize the value of correctness; but she 
 knows that from the pupil's standpoint "there's all the 
 difference in the world between having to say something, 
 and having something to sa,/." Her vital task is to bring 
 it to pass that children "have something to say." Toward 
 this end she bears three things in mind: 
 
 1. That she must select good subjects. 
 
 2. That she must read good models to the class. 
 
 3. That the class must have frequent practice in 
 
 writing short themes. 
 
 It goes without saying that if a pupil really wants to 
 write a theme, he will turn out a much better piece of 
 
 [19] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 work than if it presents itself to him merely as a part of 
 school routine. A good subject goes a long way toward 
 reconciling children to the daily task of composition work. 
 Such a subject is at the same time concrete and appealing. 
 But it is not enough to assign a subject or to allow one to 
 be chosen : the subject must be illuminated. 
 
 Herein lies the value of the model story, the model 
 description, the model bit of verse. It is not for repro- 
 ductive purpose at all; for reproduction, involving memory 
 only, is the least profitable kind of language work. The 
 literary model serves a far greater end. It should suggest 
 and recall, illumine and interpret, the child's own personal 
 experience which he is about to try to put into speech 
 or writing. As he listens to something "finely said" 
 by a master, he catches the inspiration to tell what he has 
 himself seen and felt, and along with it he catches here 
 and there the choice word and the happy phrase. 1 That 
 "language is caught, not taught" is the old way of putting 
 it. Through the use of the model, the skillful teacher 
 leads her class first to unconscious and then to conscious 
 imitation of certain correct forms and fine or strong 
 expressions, and through repetition of these forms in self- 
 expression leads to their unconscious and habitual use. 
 Professor Palmer says that a word three times used is 
 thereafter a part of one's own vocabulary. In this way 
 and not under the spell of a rule of grammar does each 
 individual learn to use English correctly. 
 
 The third requisite is frequent practice. Pupils should 
 write, not a long, labored theme once in a fortnight, but 
 short, one-page themes very frequently. Inspiration, imi- 
 tation, practice — these are the guideposts to good English. 
 
 1 For an excellent presentation of the value of good literary models 
 in composition writing, and suggestions as to their use, see Cooley's 
 Language Teaching in the Grades, Houghton, Mifflin Company. 
 
 [20] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 2. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE TERM "PARAGRAPH" 
 
 We have said that pupils, on graduating from the gram- 
 mar school, should be "able to write an interesting para- 
 graph, etc." It is necessary to point out that this term 
 is not to be interpreted technically. There is no intention 
 of asking teachers to teach the paragraph idea with its 
 topic-sentence, amplifying sentences, and so on. It is, 
 indeed, a doubtful question if the paragraph idea can be 
 really taught at all in the elementary school, without the 
 expenditure of a disproportionate amount of time. How- 
 ever that may be, this course does not insist on instruction 
 in the technical make-up of the paragraph. The term is 
 here used rather to indicate the length of the pupil's com- 
 position. This should not exceed the single paragraph. 
 Expressed in another way, at no time, even in the eighth 
 grade, should this length exceed twenty lines, or about the 
 amount that can be written on an ordinary page. 
 
 There is no doubt about it that the pupil writes with 
 more thought, more interest, and more care if he knows 
 that quality is demanded rather than quantity. Every 
 teacher is familiar with the piece of written work that 
 starts off, a thing of beauty, at the top of page one, and 
 ends up, a sorry sight, at the foot of page two. Such a 
 composition indicates that the pupil's interest in his task 
 has become dissipated. To avoid this dissipation, we set 
 down the limit — the single paragraph. In the primary 
 grades this may contain not more than three sentences, 
 as instanced in the outline for those grades. But from 
 the very beginning careful insistence will be laid on the 
 correct form. Children must not be allowed after Grade 3 
 to set down their thoughts in scattered sentences, as they 
 sometimes do. They must be taught early to use the 
 indented form. It should not be necessary for teachers 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 of English in high schools to have to insist on indention. 
 Mechanical points such as this should be taken care of long 
 before pupils reach the upper grades. While only matters 
 of form, they affect the appearance of the written page, 
 and in language, as in everything else, appearance counts 
 for something. 
 
 It may be said in passing that the insistence on the 
 short one-paragraph theme means more time for more 
 themes. In the good old days, pupils wrote not much 
 oftener than once a month. The new idea is that com- 
 position is an art acquired by much practice under proper 
 guidance and inspiration. The fifteen-minute theme 
 daily is the ideal. Lacking time for this, the teacher 
 should still see to it that her class is given the opportunity 
 to write the short paragraph as frequently as is possible. 
 
 3. "clean-cut sentences" 
 
 If there is any one thought which, more than any other, 
 this course should impress on the teacher, it is that the 
 sentence is the fundamental unit in language work, and 
 that, consequently, the mastery of the sentence is the most 
 important matter that the teacher has to handle. Mastery 
 of the sentence does not mean skill in handling the sen- 
 tence, that skill displayed in the balancing of sentences, 
 long and short, in the easy use of the clause, or phrase, 
 or in any of those other particulars that make for style. 
 Work of this latter kind will be attempted in the upper 
 grades, and it is hoped that the great majority of our 
 pupils will have attained before graduation some measure 
 of this skill, some ability to write sentences that show a 
 little evidence of style. But sentence mastery, for which 
 the teacher is held absolutely responsible, means much 
 less than this. It means that pupils must know just 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 when a sentence begins and when it ends. It means that 
 pupils must not string two or three or four sentences 
 together, with only commas between. It means that 
 pupils must not ramble on endlessly either in speech or 
 in writing, connecting their thoughts with the old familiar 
 conjunctions "and," "but," and "so." It means that 
 pupils must not mistake clauses for sentences, and set 
 the former off by periods instead of commas. With all 
 these errors teachers in the elementary schools are only 
 too familiar. They mark and mar written language all 
 through the grades. High-school English even is not free 
 from them, as the following so-called sentences, taken 
 from papers written in the Cambridge High and Latin 
 School, show: 
 
 "We are having a great time in fall, the chief sport we have in 
 fall is football." 
 
 "One Sunday afternoon on a bright and pleasant day I went 
 for a ride in a friend of mine's automobile we had a very pleasant 
 ride and on our way we passed many beautiful places and we got 
 a good view of the places as we passed by." 
 
 "While on my vacation at the beach this summer. We found 
 it great sport to watch the boats sailing." 
 
 Sentences similar to the above are found all too fre- 
 quently in our high-school work today. That this is so 
 is a serious charge against the teaching in the elementary 
 schools. The grammar-school graduate, if he knows 
 nothing else of the art of composition, should at least 
 know how to handle the simple sentence with assurance. 
 He should have "the sentence sense," "the sentence 
 feeling," "the sentence instinct," — call it what you will, 
 — that trained habit of mind by which the completed 
 thought is recognized as complete and left to stand by 
 itself. This is fundamental above all fundamentals. 
 
 [23] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Failing to teach this, the elementary teacher has failed 
 in her task indeed. 
 
 Now the sentence sense will never be taught in the 
 elementary schools if the teacher depends on technical 
 grammar as the medium of instruction. Of course, the 
 sentence is a topic that occupies a very important place 
 in the teaching of formal grammar. But long before 
 the child has heard of subjects and predicates, he should 
 have acquired a very fair notion of what a sentence is; 
 and — what is far more important — long before he has 
 learned to call a simple sentence by name, he should be 
 writing short, simple sentences, crude and choppy, perhaps, 
 but nevertheless satisfactory in their indication that the 
 foundation is being laid for real language progress later 
 on. Training along this line should begin not later than 
 the first grade, and for a long time should be confined 
 to oral work. In the Outline for Grades 1, 2, and 3 there 
 are indicated certain schemes for teaching the beginnings 
 of the "sentence sense." 1 Right here it will be sufficient 
 to say that two thirds of our troubles in written com- 
 position come from our neglect of oral composition. The 
 child who has early been taught to speak in clean-cut 
 sentences will give the teacher little annoyance by writing 
 otherwise. There is no intimation here that to teach 
 children to speak and write in the desired way is an easy 
 task. It is, on the contrary, one of the most difficult 
 problems that confront the teacher, and requires long- 
 continued practice along the right lines before any results 
 are assured. But it is in our elementary schools that the 
 "sentence sense" must be taught. To talk about teach- 
 ing much else in the way of language until children are 
 sentence sure is nothing but folly. There is no use in 
 
 1 See pages 41, 42, 49, 58, 68. 
 [24] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 trying to build a superstructure when the foundation is 
 lacking. And the foundation of all writing is the sentence. 
 
 4. CORRECT SPELLING OF COMMON WORDS 
 
 Ordinarily the matter of spelling is never mentioned 
 in a language course. The thought seems to be that lan- 
 guage is language and spelling is spelling, and that the 
 two have not sufficient connection to warrant their being 
 mentioned together in the same pamphlet. As a matter 
 of actual fact, however, a misspelled word in a letter from 
 a correspondent looms up as a more grievous error than 
 any mere weakness in structure or style. And the teacher 
 who could correct her hundreds of papers monthly without 
 having to deal with bad spelling would consider herself 
 blessed indeed. Spelling is most vitally related to written 
 language. It is only when the pupil writes that his 
 spelling is exhibited. He may be familiar with hundreds 
 of words from his reading, and yet be unfamiliar with their 
 spelling, without betraying illiteracy. But in his written 
 vocabulary he must be letter perfect or his language is 
 spoiled. This written vocabulary, made up of the words 
 that children use on paper, is the one that should be drilled 
 upon. 
 
 Heretofore, with the spelling and the language work 
 almost wholly divorced, we have been teaching the spell- 
 ing of words that pupils never use, and neglecting in large 
 measure to teach, and teach again until they are taught, 
 the words that are being misspelled every day in the week. 
 The several well-known studies made during the past few 
 years on the material of English spelling all bring out the 
 fact that the number of words actually used by children 
 in their written work is rather small. (See "Concrete 
 Investigation of the Material of English Spelling," by 
 
 [25] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 W. Franklin Jones, Ph.D. 1 ) Of this number, the words 
 commonly misspelled constitute again a small proportion. 
 The pamphlet just mentioned prints a list of "one hundred 
 spelling demons" in which teachers recognize nearly all 
 the words that they correct, over and over again, from the 
 first grade to the high school. Now it is not intended to 
 prescribe here that no words shall be assigned for spelling 
 other than the limited number above referred to. It is 
 very much worth while for us all to know how to spell more 
 words than we are likely to use in ordinary writing. It 
 is very conceivable, for instance, that people may occasion- 
 ally wish to use words a bit out of the ordinary. Un- 
 questionably they should be able to do so without referring 
 to dictionaries or running chances of spelling incorrectly. 
 The fact remains, however, that in the interest of good 
 written language the first claim on the spelling lesson must 
 be given to the words commonly misspelled. Lists of 
 these are printed in the Outline by Grades. The words 
 most commonly misspelled have been repeated year after 
 year. These words should be regarded as constituting 
 spelling material just as much as the words listed in a 
 speller. They should be drilled on endlessly until they 
 fail to be misused on the written page. They should be 
 drilled on, not in the language period, but in the spelling 
 period. They should be added to, according as teachers 
 meet other words commonly misspelled. At most the 
 number will not be very large, and a vigorous campaign 
 against them, with no let up, will go a long way toward 
 banishing from school compositions the great bulk of the 
 spelling errors which daily disfigure them. 
 
 1 Published by the author, University of South Dakota. 
 
 [26] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 5. COMPOSITION SUBJECTS 
 
 If pupils have no special interest in the subject assigned 
 by the teacher, or if they are not trained to search their 
 own experiences for topics that may be interestingly 
 treated, not much can be expected in the way of real 
 language results. This point has been touched upon 
 before. It is brought out at greater length in this chapter 
 because of its great importance. It is a grave mistake 
 for a teacher to expect anything worth while in a language 
 lesson if, as is so often the case, she says to the class 
 vaguely and abruptly, "Choose your own subject today." 
 Nine times out of ten, children don't appreciate the fact 
 that they know anything worth writing about. This is, 
 of course, all wrong. Children's lives are crowded with 
 incidents; they have plenty of experiences, ideas, and 
 opinions, which they can express with effect, given the 
 proper stimulation. From their life at home, in the 
 streets, in school; from their sports, amusements, duties, 
 tasks; from the things they have heard and seen and felt 
 and done; from the things they read and the things they 
 imagine; from all these may be drawn an almost endless 
 variety of subjects, full of the breath of life and the 
 actuality of experience. Subjects of this kind, that come 
 within the range of the pupil's knowledge and interest, 
 furnish the best kind of composition material. But — 
 give proper stimulation. The pupil must be led to appre- 
 ciate the fact that he has lived through such experiences. 
 He must realize that, in fact, he has "something to say," 
 and the teacher must establish such an atmosphere that 
 he will have a real desire to communicate this something, 
 the same desire that enables him to talk so freely when on 
 the street or at home. To stimulate in this way, to estab- 
 lish such an atmosphere, to ferret out the topics of interest 
 
 [27] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 from what seems to be the commonplace of the child's 
 daily existence — this is a part of the teacher's work that 
 requires all her ingenuity. But the thought spent in thus 
 making conditions right beforehand will be more than 
 repaid in the better quality of the results secured. Chil- 
 dren will never write well if they hate the task. From 
 time immemorial children have hated the task of writing, 
 because they could see no particular purpose in it. One 
 of the best ways to give this work some purpose is to 
 treat only subjects that are personal to the pupil, fur- 
 nishing him an opportunity to tell something that he feels 
 is worthy of the telling. 
 
 It is not enough, however, that the subject be of this 
 personal nature. Nine out of ten of the ordinary subjects, 
 even when assigned by the teacher, are altogether too 
 large to be treated with any effect within the limits of a 
 single page. Take, for example, such a popular type of 
 topic as "How I Spent My Last Vacation." It is abso- 
 lutely impossible for a child to make of this any more than 
 a bare catalog of events — first I did this, then I did 
 that, and so on — the finished product being a flat, 
 "woodeny" conglomeration of unrelated incidents, any 
 one of which might have furnished much better material 
 for the infusion of that personal touch that lends interest 
 and vitality to the work. Similarly, "Our Picnic at the 
 Park," while again possessing the virtue of being personal, 
 is altogether too expansive a theme to be treated in a 
 satisfactory way. Subjects, besides being personal, must 
 be definite, brief, pointed — each subject calling up a 
 single thought or experience brief enough to be handled 
 with something approaching dramatic unity. "When 
 My Mother Calls 'Get Up,'" "On the Lake in a Leaky 
 Boat," "A Picture in My Schoolroom" — subjects like 
 these, by touching on single incidents, establish a single 
 
 [ 28 ] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 point of view and make it possible for the child to put 
 his own thinking into his composition. In the Outline 
 by Grades, lists of subjects of this character are suggested. 
 They have been selected from hundreds submitted by 
 teachers as those best setting forth the characteristics 
 that the good language subject should possess. They are 
 all personal, definite, brief. It is hoped that teachers 
 will try them out, eliminate those which get no response 
 from the pupils, and add new ones from time to time. 
 It will be no easy matter for the teacher to train her class 
 away from the habit referred to above, that of "cata- 
 loging," or of narrating unrelated incidents. But no 
 language work will amount to much as long as this 
 habit obtains. The surest way of eliminating it is to 
 eliminate the subject too expansive, too large, and sub- 
 stitute for it the type of subject possessing the opposite 
 qualities. 
 
 Before passing, it may be of some value in bringing 
 out the distinction between the two ways of handling 
 a subject, to quote the following school compositions 
 on the same topic, "Coming to School." In view of 
 what has just been written, which do you think is su- 
 perior ? 
 
 Coming to School 
 
 This morning I started from my home about eight 
 o'clock to walk to school. When I got to my friend's 
 house, she was already outside waiting for me, so we started 
 right off. In front of us were a few girls we knew. They 
 were all talking about a party they had been to the night 
 before. My friend and I were asking each other questions 
 about our history lesson, which was to come that morning. 
 As we walked fast, we reached school about twenty minutes 
 past eight. 
 
 [29] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Coming to School 
 
 It was fifteen minutes after eight o'clock when I started for 
 school with an armful of books and a feeling that I had forgotten 
 something in my hurry. A little farther along, I met my chum, 
 who joined me in my haste, for neither of us wanted to spoil 
 our records by tardiness, especially so near the beginning of the 
 school year. We seemed to make very good time, and were 
 within sight of the school building, when I suddenly remembered 
 that I had been told to order something at a store which we had 
 already passed, on our way to school. So I left my friend, ran 
 back a short distance, and entered the store, entirely out of 
 breath. As nobody was in sight to wait on me, I coughed as 
 loud as I could, and soon a young man came out from the rear 
 of the store, slowly putting on his white coat. It seemed to me 
 that I stood there half an hour while he fixed his coat and wrote 
 down my order, but it was really only two minutes. At the end 
 of that time I rushed from the store and ran the remaining short 
 distance to the school as fast as I knew how. Luckily I didn't 
 have to climb any stairs, but reached my room and sank into my 
 chair out of breath, just as the last bell rang. Right there and 
 then I made up my mind that I would start for school earlier, 
 for I do not like such narrow escapes. 
 
 6. CORRECTION OF COMPOSITIONS 
 
 "How shall I correct my written work?" For some 
 years past this problem has been talked about and written 
 about more perhaps than any other single topic connected 
 with the teaching of English. It is an important question, 
 and all the talk and writing pertaining to it has done a 
 great deal toward eliminating much in the way of method 
 that was at least wasteful, if not positively wrong. But 
 there still remains considerable difference of opinion as to 
 just what is the right thing to do. Some teachers believe 
 that the teacher should note and mark every mistake, 
 
 [30] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 and that papers should be rewritten with every mistake 
 removed. Others, in a reaction against the "reign of 
 red ink," work on the theory that little or no correction 
 of papers is necessary, and that correct language habits 
 will somehow come down from the skies if the pupil is 
 required to write often enough. These teachers are fond 
 of quoting "The way to learn how to write is to write." 
 This is quite true, but it isn't the whole story. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the question "How shall I correct 
 my written work?" cannot be answered intelligently until 
 the other much more important one is answered, "Why 
 do I correct my written work?" 
 
 It is probable that if teachers were asked why the cor- 
 rection of class exercises in composition is included as a 
 part of the work, in nine cases out of ten they would answer 
 that the object is to secure a correct form of composition. 
 It is this notion of the purpose of the work, together with 
 the methods that are determined by this idea, that has 
 made the work in composition correction so unsatisfactory 
 in the past. Here, even more than in any other branch 
 of the work, the result or the product is of slight im- 
 portance compared with the power which it should be 
 the aim of the teacher to develop. Very few of us indeed 
 are so facile with our pens that we can turn out in a first 
 draft a perfect copy of what we wish to say. Most of us 
 are compelled to look over our work carefully, to correct 
 it, to be perpetually on the lookout for errors in English, 
 in punctuation, and, to a somewhat less degree, in spelling. 
 It should be the aim of the teacher to give to the children the 
 power intelligently to look over their work with a view to 
 bringing that work up to the standard of correctness. This 
 end can be attained neither by red-inking every mistake, 
 for the purpose of future correction, nor by neglecting 
 to red-ink at all. It can be attained only by following 
 
 [31] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 out consistently through the grades a method based on 
 several very important principles. 
 
 The first of these principles is that there must be some 
 degree of progression in the work of correction. It is useless 
 to attempt to correct everything in every composition. 
 No child should be expected to turn out an absolutely 
 perfect paper. To secure a habit of correct expression, 
 the only economical procedure is to see to it that the chil- 
 dren work from month to month to correct a few mistakes 
 at a time. The Outline for Written Work in Part II of 
 this report indicates what technical points should be taken 
 up in each grade. The points enumerated are rather 
 few for each grade, but they have been selected because 
 they are typical of the kind of error that must be elimi- 
 nated from children's papers in the grammar school. The 
 teacher will always be expected to review, of course. 
 Furthermore, the teacher should always demand from 
 children, as a sine qua non, the best-looking piece of work 
 from a mechanical standpoint that children may reasonably 
 be expected to produce. Beyond this, however, criticism 
 and correction on the part of the teacher should be con- 
 fined to the typical grade errors as set down in the outline, 
 and these should be worked on a few at a time. Pupils 
 will thus be more likely to have in mind, at any given 
 period, the errors they are to avoid, and will accordingly 
 tend to grow self-critical. 
 
 In the second place, it is well to remember that the object 
 of correcting is not to mark the pupil, but to help the pupil. 
 This being so, it follows that the teacher will more likely 
 be of genuine service to the pupil if she will enter so 
 sympathetically into the work as to appreciate the in- 
 dividual difficulties of the writer. Here lies the value of the 
 conference period. By sitting down beside the pupil and 
 reading with him the work he has submitted, the teacher 
 
 [32] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 can come into a direct personal relationship. This con- 
 ference is, with many children, held most effectively 
 when they are writing. A teacher may be of most profit 
 to many of her pupils at the time of writing as she passes 
 about observing the compositions in their process of 
 growth. 
 
 Third, pupils should be taught how to criticize and how 
 to appreciate intelligently their own and one another's 
 work. Thus criticism by the teacher, which is indis- 
 pensable, may be supplemented by efficient criticism 
 by the writer's classmates. In teaching children how to 
 criticize, teachers should have in mind a definite plan of 
 development. Points like the following are suggestive: 
 
 1. Read the composition through. 
 
 2. Is it interesting? Tell one thing that made it so. 
 
 3. Did he write as if he were interested in his subject? 
 
 4. Did the writer keep to his subject? Did he put 
 
 anything in it that was unnecessary? 
 
 5. Were any of the expressions new to you? 
 
 6. Mention any apt word that you noticed. 
 
 7. Indicate a particularly good sentence, or sentences. 
 
 8. Indicate a sentence or sentences that could be 
 
 improved. 
 
 9. Help the pupil to restate it. 
 
 10. Correct grammatical errors. 
 
 11. Correct mechanical errors. 
 
 The child will not make so many blunders, in thought 
 or in expression, if the subject assigned is within his scope. 
 (See chapter on "Subjects," page 27.) Many probable 
 mistakes may also be prevented by forewarning. To 
 prevent, go before. 
 
 Lastly, it is well worth while to point out that the 
 teacher's corrections should be set down neatly. It is 
 not an unusual thing to see children's papers scribbled 
 
 [33] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 over with the teacher's markings. Remember the force 
 of example. The teacher should not try to correct every 
 paper, nor every mistake on any paper. But what she 
 does along this line should be done with care. 
 
 7. COPYING AND DICTATION AS AIDS IN TEACHING 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 The dictation exercise, if employed in moderation and 
 with a clear understanding of its use, is valuable in helping 
 to fix correct habits of written technicalities — spelling, 
 capitals, punctuation, and things of that sort. It performs 
 the same office as abstract work in arithmetic. While a 
 child is writing a composition, the center of his attention 
 is occupied by the content, the ideas that are coming to 
 the surface for expression, while the technic (the writing, 
 spelling, punctuation, etc.) is, or should be, removed to 
 the margin of consciousness. In exercises dictated by the 
 teacher, on the other hand, we isolate the forms of language 
 and focus attention entirely upon them. The content 
 comes to the pupil ready-made; he has to think only of 
 the form. 
 
 This type of exercise is useful in developing the power 
 of self-criticism, because of the opportunity it affords 
 pupils to correct their own papers in every minute detail 
 by comparing them with the teacher's blackboard copy, 
 uncovered after the writing, or the printed original. 
 No exercises are more important than those in which the 
 pupil corrects his own written work. Careful and in- 
 telligent criticism of his own work fixes correct habits 
 and develops a discrimination which helps him to under- 
 take new work more confidently and to execute it more 
 accurately. The dictation exercise is an especially good 
 starting point for training in self -correction, because here 
 
 E34] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 the field of criticism is limited to a small number of points, 
 all of which have to do with the mechanics of writing, 
 and all of which, besides, are arbitrarily determined by 
 the matter dictated. A formula for correction, suited 
 to the grade, may be written upon the board or upon 
 a card which each pupil has on his desk. Such a formula 
 contains, let us say, the following points: 
 
 1. Indenting the paragraph. 5. Comma. 
 
 2. Capitals. 6. Quotation marks. 
 
 3. Periods. 7. Spelling. 
 
 4. Apostrophe. 
 
 The pupils are instructed at first to look through their 
 papers for one kind of mistake at a time, until they have 
 gone through the list. They correct each error as they 
 find it. In this way not many errors will escape them. 
 After a while they will outgrow the need for the formula 
 as a correction chart. At the beginning, however, it serves 
 a very useful purpose, not only because it systematizes 
 the correction work, but because it impresses upon the 
 pupil's mind more effectively than talking, what the big 
 matters of writing technic are, and how necessary it is that 
 these should be kept in the front of the mind during every 
 minute of writing, until the pupil has abundantly proved 
 by the excellence of his work that these things have 
 become habitual to him. 
 
 In order to prevent any false notion as to the proper 
 place of dictation work, teachers should bear in mind that 
 it is an exercise which is almost wholly mechanical, and 
 that no amount of dictation alone will make good writers. 
 It is concerned with mechanical correctness only. It is 
 not even a safe test of the knowledge of language forms. 
 The proof of a pupil's mastery of the mechanics is not a 
 correctly written dictation lesson, but his habitual cor- 
 
 [35] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 rectness in these matters in his daily writing. The pupil 
 who begins all the sentences of a dictation paragraph 
 with a capital and ends them with a period may, in his 
 free writing, display a gross lack of "the sentence sense." 
 The cadence of the teacher's voice and the natural pause 
 which follows the close of a dictated sentence give him the 
 cue as to when a period is required and where a capital 
 must be employed. The same is true in a lesser degree 
 in respect to the other points of technic. Teachers, 
 therefore, will make a mistake if they think they can 
 teach correctness by much use of the dictation exercise. 
 It is a good thing, if rightly used. But dictation must 
 be used with moderation and with the full knowledge 
 that its chief value is to test the result of the teaching of 
 the mechanics. 
 
 Sometimes a teacher is inclined to give an undue amount 
 of dictation because her class happens to be poorly 
 grounded in the mechanics, and she postpones original 
 work until a satisfactory condition obtains with respect 
 to her pupil's grasp of technic. That is a double mistake. 
 Correctness cannot be produced from use of the dictation 
 exercise alone, because the kind of correctness it teaches 
 cannot be depended upon to carry over into the pupil's 
 free writing. Moreover, to postpone original writing 
 until the technic has been fully mastered is a violation of 
 a vital principle of composition teaching, which is, that 
 the motive for the mastery of form must come from the pupil's 
 interest in a real and living content. To drill for a long time 
 for correctness is death to all interest. To permit children 
 to write without regard to form is quite as irrational. 
 Children must be trained to develop simultaneously (l) 
 the desire to express themselves on paper and (2) the 
 ability to express themselves in accordance with the 
 established rules of correct writing. To accomplish this, 
 
 C36] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 as has been said before, is the real proof of the good teacher 
 of written composition. 
 
 Copying is useful, as an occasional exercise, to train 
 pupils in careful observation and exact expression. These 
 are qualities sufficiently rare in grown-up people to suggest 
 the need of some organized effort upon the part of the 
 school to develop in children the power to see things 
 straight and to report them straight. It is the experience 
 of the Civil Service examiners that more people fail in the 
 copying test than in any other. The standard of copying 
 in all grades is exactness itself, though the matter presented 
 in the lower grades should, of course, be much shorter and 
 simpler than that which is given to older pupils to copy. 
 The mere act of copying from time to time will not lead 
 anywhere. Children must be taught right habits of copy- 
 ing. In the second grade, for example, the pupil should be 
 taught to look at the whole word and then write the whole 
 word, not to copy a letter or two, then look at the word 
 again, and copy two or three more letters. Even in the 
 lower grades the smallest unit should be the word. As 
 soon as possible children should learn to look at the whole 
 sentence, and instead of copying it word by word, looking 
 back each time to the printed page, they should copy a 
 whole phrase at a time. Later on the pupils should take 
 in the whole sentence at one glance and reproduce it 
 without referring to the copy. 
 
 Selections for copying for all grades should be interesting, 
 and in the higher grades they should have real literary 
 quality. National songs and selections frequently re- 
 peated orally (e.g., the "Salute to the Flag") are suitable 
 material for copying. It is notorious that children are 
 seldom able to write such things correctly. This is because 
 they learn the words by ear. 
 
 A time limit should be set to exercises in copying, if a 
 
 [37] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 pupil's power of observation and accuracy are to be rightly 
 measured. A teacher cannot measure the power of all 
 the individuals in her class if some are given twice as long 
 as others to finish the same exercise. Above the fourth 
 grade, work in copying should be required of those pupils 
 only who have not become rapid and accurate copyists. 
 Then a copying test should be given three or four times 
 during each year to determine what pupils need to con- 
 tinue the work and who may be excused. This test 
 should be timed, and the selection should be longer than 
 can be done in the time allowed, so that the speed and 
 accuracy of every pupil can be rated, after the method 
 of the Courtis tests. Any exercise in copying that does 
 not keep every child on the tiptoe of alertness defeats 
 its only purpose. 
 
 Children should be given material to copy from in their 
 textbooks. They should not be asked to write from copy 
 on the blackboard. 
 
 SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT POINTS 
 
 1. In studying this course every teacher will be im- 
 pressed with the fact that the phases of oral and written 
 work dealt with in the course are definitely stated. Tech- 
 nical grammar is omitted because rules do not fashion 
 speech nor do they establish habits of correct usage. 
 Correct usage can be established only by systematic drill 
 and continuous correct use. 
 
 2. The amount of work to be done is definitely limited 
 by the goal suggested in the aims of the course. 
 
 3. The oral language period can be made a success if 
 the teacher will remember to establish the situation of 
 pupil talking and audience listening. If she has patience 
 and common sense, she can make correct English a habit 
 
 [38] 
 
A COURSE IN LANGUAGE 
 
 in the first grade. She must never fail to select for her 
 classes subjects that are interesting, personal, definite, 
 and limited. 
 
 4. Training and practice in connected talking is valuable 
 only when it stimulates free self-expression. For that 
 reason reproduction should be used sparingly. But the 
 child who talks on a worth-while topic to an audience who 
 is really interested should also be conscious of a definite 
 purpose. The teacher and the class should always know 
 in what definite way the speaker is trying to improve his 
 oral work. Class encouragement and suggestions are 
 helpful only when practically applied to the accomplish- 
 ment of definite aims or purposes. 
 
 5. Apart from definite drills for voice, articulation, and 
 pronunciation, teachers can adopt the following sug- 
 gestions for all class work : 
 
 (a) Insist that pupils open their mouths. 
 
 (b) Sound final syllables and consonants. 
 
 (c) Speak so clearly that the boy in the back seat hears. 
 
 (d) Let the voice fall at the end of every statement. 
 Concerning written work : 
 
 6. Under Correctness or Form, this outline calls for 
 good sentence-structure, good spelling, and a few im- 
 portant technicalities thoroughly mastered. Important 
 as this is, the teacher will fail who does not seek to gain 
 interesting English. The guideposts Inspiration, Imita- 
 tion, and Practice indicate the road she must travel. 
 
 7. Good sentence-structure means that the first-grade 
 child knows when a sentence begins and when it ends. 
 He continues to use short, clean-cut sentences until he 
 can give in good order several on one topic. When he 
 adopts transitional words and phrases and seeks variety 
 in expression, his sentences become longer but they still 
 have perfect sentence sense. 
 
 [39] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 8. If the children are to make progress in this manner, 
 teachers must adopt a new aim when correcting written 
 work. This aim should be to give to the children the 
 power of examining their own work intelligently, with a 
 view to bringing that work up to the standard of cor- 
 rectness. Definite errors are to be avoided at definite 
 times. With the teacher's help, the child marks his own 
 progress and at the same time receives intelligent criticism 
 from his classmates. 
 
 [40] 
 
PART TWO 
 OUTLINE BY GRADES 
 
 First Grade 
 
 {The work for the First Grade is entirely oral. Read the 
 
 section on Oral Language, pages 5-16.) 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To encourage children to talk freely about things 
 in which they are interested. 
 
 (b) To secure distinct articulation and a natural speak- 
 ing tone. 
 
 (c) To correct the errors of speech assigned in the 
 grade outline. 
 
 (d) To make a beginning in securing the "sentence 
 sense." 
 
 The teacher will please not be appalled at the task set 
 forth for the first grade. No one expects that these things 
 will be finally accomplished in Grade I. Every point 
 mentioned will be mentioned again in one form or another 
 in the succeeding grades. We are looking only for a step- 
 by-step advancement, each grade doing its share with 
 reference to the work laid out for the course as a whole. 
 Just what that share is will depend in some measure on 
 the personnel of the class. Where pupils in Grade I 
 are foreign-language speaking, naturally the degree of 
 accomplishment in free oral talk will be less than in classes 
 made up of pupils coming from the ordinary English- 
 speaking home. Naturally, too, the inculcation of the 
 "sentence sense" will proceed more slowly in such a 
 class. You cannot get children to talk "in sentences" 
 until they begin to talk. In foreign-language-speaking 
 
 [41] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 classes — in all classes — the big task is first to secure 
 talking. After that, the teacher, will tone it down, or 
 build it up, as the case may be. Mere babbling must be 
 prevented. The "garrulous" type of child must be re- 
 strained. On the other hand, the "monosyllabic" child 
 must be encouraged to expand a word into a sentence, 
 then to give two sentences, and so on. If all teachers 
 don't accomplish these things and the others noted equally 
 well, it is no great calamity. The important point is that 
 teachers of first-grade children all through the school 
 system should have exactly the same conception as to 
 the kind of work that is expected in Grade I, and as to the 
 kind to be approximated. 
 
 #. Suggestive Topics 
 
 (a) Objects and experiences suggested by the home: 
 Playthings, pets, helping, home happenings, anecdotes, 
 holiday and Saturday good times. 
 
 (6) Objects and experiences suggested by the school: 
 Playmates, on the playground, the reading lesson, drama- 
 tization, story reproduction, picture lessons. 
 
 (c) Nature: Flowers, birds, animals, etc. 
 
 (d) Stories read by the teacher or by the children. 
 
 (e) Lessons in manners. 
 
 First, as sources of material for oral composition, should 
 come the child's own experience and observation. Second 
 in importance comes the story told by the teacher, or 
 read in class by the child himself. It is usually the case 
 that children reproduce more readily than they talk from 
 their own experience. And at first the teacher may well 
 make use of the reproduced story. Not all stories, how- 
 ever, are fit for reproduction in the lower grades. The 
 short, simple story with a clear beginning, plenty of action, 
 and a definite end is best. Children talk without hesi- 
 [42] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIRST GRADE 
 
 tation about pictures, and these may be profitably em- 
 ployed to stimulate ideas. An appendix to this course 
 gives a list of pictures that have been selected as best 
 suited for language study; and in the Literature Outline 
 there are indicated a number of stories for reading to 
 children. 1 Teachers will please select from the latter list 
 such as best lend themselves to reproductive work in the 
 first grade. This Outline is an outline only, not a language 
 textbook. As such it cannot pretend to include all the 
 helpful material that a book might contain. 
 
 3. Illustrative Oral Efforts 
 
 The illustrations here cited are taken from the work 
 done in the schoolroom under conditions as set forth in 
 this outline. They find place here for two reasons : first, 
 to show that children actually have ideas to express on 
 subjects that are appealing; second, to show the form of 
 expression that teachers may secure by skillful handling 
 of this oral work. It will be noticed that the short sen- 
 tence is very evident, with rather few "ands," etc., as 
 connectives. The children will not take to this mode of 
 talking at once. Stories 1 and 2 exemplify what may be 
 expected for some time. Indeed, the garrulous child, 
 allowed to talk with no especial restraint, will sprinkle 
 his breathless story with many more of the tabooed 
 conjunctions than the illustrations show. The talk of 
 such a child must be cleverly "steered"; for instance: 
 
 Teacher. This is a bright, pleasant day. What do you like 
 to do on such days? Tell me three things. 
 
 Pupil. This is a bright, pleasant day. I like to roll my hoop. 
 My dog likes to run with me. 
 
 1 See pages 177-182 and 164-173. 
 
 [43] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Teachee. The weather is growing warmer every day. The 
 birds are coming back. Tell me which one you saw first. Tell 
 me what he is doing. 
 
 Pupil. The weather is growing warmer every day. The 
 birds are coming back. I saw the robin first. He is getting 
 ready to build a nest. 
 
 Through methods like this the garrulous child may be 
 restrained. On the other hand the teacher will encounter 
 not a few pupils who seem to be able to talk not at all. 
 Such pupils do well to give expression to such curtailed 
 efforts as numbers 3 and 4. The teacher's task here is to 
 inspire confidence. 
 
 Neither the talkative child nor the one approaching 
 classroom dumbness will be cured of his especial ills in the 
 first grade. But if the teaching is good, the great majority 
 of the pupils will, by June of each year, talk about in the 
 manner below indicated. Of course, every room will have 
 its few "star" pupils. Illustration number 16 shows 
 what such a pupil may do. If you have pupils who can 
 talk in that way, by all means let them do it. 
 
 It is our business to train up to our reasonable standard, 
 not down to it. 
 
 1. Yesterday I played in the house because it rained, and in 
 the afternoon a little girl and her mother came to see me and we 
 had ice cream. (See comment above.) 
 
 2. Yesterday we went out to pick flowers and two 
 cows frightened us and we ran home like everything. (See 
 above.) 
 
 3. I have a little baby at home. His name is Jimmy. (See 
 above.) 
 
 4. Yesterday my four cousins came to see me. We played 
 burglar. (See above.) 
 
 [44] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIRST GRADE 
 
 5. Today I swept the yard for my mother. I went over to 
 the store and bought two loaves of bread. My mother gave me 
 two cents for doing it. I spent them for candy. 
 
 6. When I go home from school I do the errands. I come 
 right home from the store. Then I ask my mother if she wants 
 me to help her. If she says "No," then I go out to play. 
 
 7. I have a little "Polly " at home in my room. He screeches 
 and wakes me up every night. Then I have to give him a cracker. 
 My baby says, "Polly wants a cracker." 
 
 8. My grandmother has a dog. His name is Duke. He is 
 brown and white. When I pick up stones he comes near me. 
 When I throw them out in the street he runs after them. 
 
 9. Monday was a holiday. Monday was Memorial Day. 
 There were flags on the graves of the soldiers. The soldiers 
 put flags on the dead soldiers' graves. I saw the soldiers march- 
 ing and on a car. There were some women with them. They 
 had music and flags. 
 
 10. On Memorial Day in the morning I went to see the soldiers 
 at Cambridge Cemetery. In the afternoon I went to ride. 
 I saw some pigs and a bossie calf. My brother went with me. 
 
 11. I went to a picnic Saturday. We took the car at the 
 church and went to Spot Pond. There were swings and see- 
 saws in the grove. We ate our lunch on a piazza. We got 
 home at six o'clock. 
 
 12. Last Sunday my mother and my baby Frances and I 
 went up to the church and Caroline got christened. The 
 minister gave my father a card and put water on my baby's 
 head. Next Sunday we are going to a wedding. 
 
 13. Last night we were making a tent. We made it of old 
 carpets. We played cowboy. I went behind the wheelbarrow. 
 I was shooting caps. A boy came and captured me. 
 
 14. My aunt came down to my house one night. She 
 gave me five dollars. My mother put the money in the 
 
 [45] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 bank. Then I went to her house and she let me play with 
 my uncle's billy. 
 
 15. My mamma has an Easter lily! It is big, big as that! 
 (Measures from floor.) 
 
 16. Sunday I had on my cowboy suit and I played cowboy. 
 I ran around the square and a boy lassooed me and made me hold 
 up my hands. I didn't know he was coming. He had a truly 
 air gun with real bullets. He shot over to the railroad track; 
 then a policeman came along and said, "Don't you ever bring 
 that gun around here again, or I'll take it and keep it; your 
 mother will not have it any more." The policeman looked at 
 me and said, "Oh, what a nice cowboy suit!" 
 
 17. Boy Blue always wore blue clothes, He carried a little 
 horn. One day he fell fast asleep under a haycock. His sheep 
 got into the meadow. His cows got into the corn. 
 
 18. The crow said, "I am so thirsty! I have had no water 
 for a long time. I shall die pretty soon, I think. Ah! there is 
 a pitcher. Now I shall get a drink." 
 
 19. One day a fox was walking along the street. He saw 
 a tree with some grapes on it. He wanted the grapes. He 
 couldn't reach them. He said that they were sour grapes. 
 
 20. In the picture I see a little girl. She is on a swing. 
 Her dress is white. I know she likes to swing because she is 
 laughing. I am going to call her Margaret. I think she is three 
 years old. 
 
 21. I like to play "squirrel." We all stand in a ring. One 
 girl is the squirrel and runs around the ring. Another tries 
 to catch the squirrel before she gets into her place. It is fun to 
 chase the squirrel. 
 
 22. I have a buttercup. The buttercup is yellow. It grows 
 in the field. It makes your chin yellow. That means you like 
 butter. 
 
 [46] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIRST GRADE 
 
 23. The snow is falling. The flakes are white. They are 
 like stars. Yesterday we made snowballs, and a snow fort. 
 We made a big, big snow man, too. 
 
 24. I went in a sailboat and sailed to a lighthouse. My 
 father and mother went with me and my little baby was crying. 
 The boat almost tipped over. My baby almost fell out, but my 
 mother caught her and I was laughing all the time. 
 
 25. Today I saw a runaway horse. Two men were trying 
 to catch him, and another man in a team got in front of the horse 
 and stopped him. Then the two men caught him and took him 
 to the barn. 
 
 4. Common Errors of Speech 
 
 Re-read the section on Oral Language (pages 12-15) to 
 get a clear understanding of the principles and the method 
 that should be followed in the work of eliminating language 
 errors. 
 
 What has been said concerning content and form 
 applies here. The teacher should not too early begin 
 to criticize the child for his oral mistakes. At no time, 
 in fact, in Grade I, should the child be made to feel that 
 while telling his story he is liable to interruption for an 
 "I seen" or a "brung." The important thing at first is 
 to secure spontaneity and free expression. The teacher 
 will note the incorrect expression, of course. After a little 
 while it may safely be made the basis for special drill. 
 This drill, once begun, should be kept up insistently. 
 The teacher need give no reason for the correct expression. 
 The children need know none. Constant repetition of the 
 right form is all that is necessary. But this repetition 
 must not be lifeless. Use the "language games" (see 
 Appendix, page 184) and invent others like them. 
 
 The errors below are divided into four groups: (1) 
 verb errors; (2) pronoun errors; (3) colloquialisms; 
 
 [47] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 (4) mispronunciations. The teacher in the primary grades, 
 however, is not in her teaching to make any reference to 
 these distinctions. They are so grouped throughout 
 the course to suggest how the teacher is herself to classify 
 the errors which she hears made frequently by her pupils 
 and which are not listed here. Every teacher should 
 supplement the errors by others that she has observed 
 and noted. She should first, however, study the list of 
 errors that are printed in the grades below and above her 
 own. It is not worth while to attack some errors until 
 later in the course. On the other hand, there are some 
 errors that must be rooted out in the lower grades, if they 
 are to be rooted out at all. 
 
 i Incorrect 
 
 (1) I seen him. 
 
 I come to school. 
 He ain't here. 
 I done it. 
 I run all the way. 
 He don't want to. 
 I knowed it. 
 
 (2) Me and him did it. 
 My father, he said — 
 It was me. 
 
 (3) Look 't. 
 Lemme see it. 
 Gimme that. 
 
 I ain't got no book. 
 
 (4) Once they was a man who - 
 Ketch. 
 
 Correct 
 I saw him. 
 I came to school. 
 He isn't here. 
 I did it. 
 
 I ran all the way. 
 He doesn't wish to. 
 I knew it. 
 
 He and I did it. 
 My father said — 
 It was I. 
 
 Look. 
 
 Let me see it. 
 
 Give me that. 
 
 I haven't any book. 
 
 Once there was a man who 
 Catch. 
 
 5. Hints and Helps 
 
 (a) Work to overcome the overloud, sing-song, school- 
 room tone as well as the tone barely audible to children 
 ten feet away. The former sometimes comes as the result 
 of the teacher's work to get rid of the latter. Both are 
 bad. The child should be led to talk in a natural tone. 
 In this connection, teachers would do well to remember 
 that little children are born imitators. Flexibility of 
 tone and good enunciation on the part of the teacher will 
 prove big factors in securing the same from the pupil. 
 
 [48] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIRST GRADE 
 
 (&) In this grade begin the attack on "and" and "so." 
 "Short stories" should be the teacher's slogan. Even 
 first graders are able to talk with some attention to sen- 
 tence formation, if brevity is insisted on. Volubility is 
 to be discouraged for two reasons : (1) It leads to careless 
 speech, especially to the "and" habit ; (2) it cannot help 
 "boring" the children compelled to listen. The talkative 
 child must be wisely restrained. 
 
 (c) Train your pupils to stand erect when they talk. 
 
 (d) Train your pupils to drop the voice at the end of 
 every sentence. 
 
 (e) See Chubb, The Teaching of English, 1 Chapters 3 
 and 4. 
 
 6. Preparation for Written Work 
 
 The seat work called for by the reading systems used in 
 our schools is really the foundation for future written 
 work, in that it constantly gives practice in the con- 
 struction of sentences, in the placing of capital letters at 
 the beginning of sentences and proper names, and in the 
 placing of the closing period or question mark. 
 
 After the work of the initial stage of matching single 
 words has been done, children should be required to make 
 the full rhyme from the rhyme-card, or the complete sen- 
 tence from the teacher's model on the blackboard. Here 
 the opportunity occurs to correct any tendencies to omit 
 words, by having the reading of what has actually been 
 made compared with what was intended to be made. 
 Next, children should be furnished with alphabet letter- 
 cards, and required to construct simple sentences, con- 
 nected with the reading, from the teacher's blackboard 
 model, using capitals and closing marks correctly. During 
 the last half of the year, simple, original sentences should 
 be required, first using the word cards and next using the 
 1 Published by The Macmillan Company, New York. 
 
 [49] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 alphabet letters. This gives the child full responsibility 
 for right use of capitals and closing marks. 
 
 Illustration of seat work as preparation for written work: 
 
 The squirrel wants to play with me. 
 
 The little squirrel is glad. 
 
 The little squirrel jumps for joy. 
 
 Little squirrel, jump for joy. 
 
 Run, little squirrel, run. 
 
 Play in the tree, little squirrel. 
 
 The little squirrel plays in the rain. 
 
 Illustration of child's name and address : 
 
 Mary Brown 
 
 20 Prospect Street 
 
 Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 Before leaving the grade, children should make with 
 alphabet letters their own names and addresses, and the 
 name of their school. In addition, they should have 
 acquired the habit of placing (1) a capital letter at the 
 beginning of their card-constructed sentences, in com- 
 posing the names of persons, and in their use of the 
 pronoun "I"; (2) a period or question mark at the close 
 of sentences. 
 
 Read Outline for Second Grade. 
 
 [50] 
 
Second Grade 
 
 oral 
 
 (Read the section on Oral Language, pages 5-16. Read 
 Outline for First Grade.) 
 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To see to it that children are not obliged to "say 
 something," but rather that they "have something to 
 say." This will make for freedom and fluency in talking. 
 
 (6) To lead children to think for a few minutes before 
 they attempt anything in an oral way. This, not over- 
 done, will be valuable in making for some beginnings of 
 order in the arrangement of their ideas. 
 
 (c) To continue the work of developing distinct articu- 
 lation and an easy natural talking tone. 
 
 (d) To correct the errors of speech assigned in the 
 grade outline. 
 
 (e) To continue the war against "and," "then," and 
 "so." Have stories told in short sentences and have few 
 of them. Encourage use of the question-sentence and 
 the exclamation, for variety and effectiveness. Don't 
 overdo this phase of the work. 
 
 2. Suggestive Topics 
 
 (a) Child's experiences at home, at school, on the 
 street, holiday and play experiences. 
 
 (6) Observations of the nature world: Birds, animals, 
 flowers, etc. 
 
 (c) Lessons on manners : How to act politely at home, 
 in school, etc. 
 
 (d) Stories — reproductive and original. 
 
 (e) Picture study. 
 
 If the work of inducing children to talk has been well 
 done in Grade I, the teacher should not have very much 
 
 [51] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 difficulty in getting four- or five-sentence stories on any 
 one of the thousand and one specific subjects suggested 
 by the above. 
 
 The imaginative story should not be overlooked. Chil- 
 dren talk eagerly, once their imagination is stirred. The 
 story read by the teacher can be made to serve as a means 
 to this end. Again let it be said, however, that stories 
 used for language purposes should be carefully chosen. 
 In this grade they should be short and simple, with a 
 definite beginning, a related middle, and a definite close. 
 Such a story may be used for reproductive purposes, 
 or children may be allowed to invent one similar. Pic- 
 tures used should be full of life and action. (See list in 
 Appendix.) 
 
 Teachers should bear in mind what has been written 
 regarding the type of subject that will yield best results. 
 In this grade, as in the first, the teacher will get little, 
 probably, by simply asking children to talk on such a 
 subject as "My Pets." The linguistic child, indeed, 
 will need no stimulus. But the average youngster will 
 need to have his thoughts set going by pointed questions. 
 The clever teacher will give some thought beforehand to 
 this matter. There is no period in school so barren of 
 results as the language period, if the teacher is barren of 
 ideas. 
 
 3. Illustrative Oral Efforts 
 
 The illustrations cited differ not much in their written 
 form from those entered under Grade I. It is hoped, 
 however, that Grade II pupils will be talking with clearer 
 articulation, better tone, and a more certain control 
 over the short simple sentence. These evidences of power 
 in oral language cannot be set down on paper. As to 
 the rest, it will be noted that the specimens are still, in 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SECOND GRADE 
 
 the main, short. We have in this grade, as in the first, the 
 pupil who can talk at some length and do it well. We 
 have with us still the father of the man who is to believe, 
 later on, in action rather than in words. (See number 16.) 
 Unquestionably, too, the pupil of the "and" ailment 
 will not be found missing. (See number 17.) But by 
 the end of the school year the " average child " will be found 
 producing work of about the length and kind instanced. 
 
 These illustrations, by the way, are not put here as 
 subject matter to be drilled upon and repeated from 
 memory. They merely show what has been done by pupils 
 in actual schoolroom conditions. What has been done 
 can be done. We mean to attempt no improbabilities. 
 
 1. I saw a robin's nest last summer. There were four eggs 
 in the nest. I often climbed up to see the eggs. 
 
 2. I know where there are some pigs. They are under the 
 barn. I see the man feeding them every morning. 
 
 3. I planted some sunflowers. Every morning the bees came 
 to the flowers. Once when I was in the yard, a bee stung me. 
 
 4. Last night when I was going home from school, I heard 
 a noise in the tree. What do you think it was? It was a wood- 
 pecker picking at the tree. 
 
 5. I saw a bee on one of the rose bushes. It was trying to 
 get honey. Bees like honey. I like honey, too. The bee was 
 saying, "Buzz, buzz, buzz!" 
 
 6. I went to the Wellington School show Tuesday night. 
 First a boy came out and said he was War. When all the boys 
 went to war, then Peace came out and they stopped fighting. 
 Peace drove War away. 
 
 7. Every morning before school, I go on errands. When 
 I come home from school in the afternoon, I put on old clothes, 
 and help my mother. Then my mother says, "That's a good 
 boy, run along and play." 
 
 [53] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 8. My little baby has black eyes and light brown hair. She 
 crawls all around the floor. She can't talk, but she has five teeth. 
 The other day a lady said, "Oh, what a pretty baby!" 
 
 9. One day we were telling stories when the fire bell rang. 
 We left the room quickly. We filed down the stairs without 
 talking or fooling. The teachers said it took us two minutes. 
 
 10. We had a visitor Friday afternoon. When she came in, 
 Philip got a chair for her. Then we sat up tall. When the 
 teacher was talking to the visitor we took our books and studied. 
 When we went in front of her we said, "Please excuse me." 
 
 11. One day we had a party in our house. There were many 
 little boys and girls at the party. We had a lot of things to eat. 
 Mary — ■ — spilled ice cream on her new dress. 
 
 12. Tomorrow I am going to shoot off firecrackers. I bought 
 them in the store for one cent. I am going to shoot off the fire- 
 crackers near my house. I am going to set off some sparklers. 
 They will look like stars. 
 
 13. I have a long cannon with red wheels. It is white where 
 the bullets go, and blue where you pull the trigger. I play 
 soldier with my cannon. When I pull the trigger, the stopper 
 flies out, and pop goes the cannon! 
 
 14. Whom do you like best in Mother Goose Village? I like 
 Humpty Dumpty the best because he found the Golden Egg. 
 No other boy could find it. It was in the hollow tree. After 
 Humpty Dumpty found it, he ran and stubbed his toe and broke 
 the Golden Egg. He was going to cry, but he didn't. The 
 children said, "Hurrah for Humpty Dumpty, the boy who never 
 cries!" 
 
 15. James and I play "Step on dirt, you're poisoned." 
 There are piles of bricks near our house. If we fall off the bricks, 
 we're poisoned. Then we have to go to a brick and say, "Doctor, 
 doctor, make us better." When we're better we go back to 
 play, but we cannot go on any dirt. 
 
 [54] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SECOND GRADE 
 
 16. I had a cat. It was black. It is dead now. 
 
 17. One day we were at the water and we thought a seal 
 was a dog and we whistled to it and it sank down out of sight, 
 and then it came up again and again, but at last it sank down out 
 of sight way off, and we didn't see it again. 
 
 h. Common Errors of Speech 
 
 The teacher should read over the section on " Common 
 Errors" in the foreword of the course (pages 12-15). She 
 should also re-read the notes printed under this heading 
 in the first grade. Keep in mind the groupings of the 
 errors, as there explained, but do not discuss the "gram- 
 mar" of them with the pupils. Study the list of errors 
 in all the grades, but confine your work mostly to those 
 of this grade and the grade below. They will keep you 
 busy. Use some language game every day. You will 
 find plenty of them in the section on "The Language 
 Game" in the Appendix (page 184). If they do not suit 
 you, make up some of your own. 
 
 Language games may be played at any time during the 
 day — to fill up a few odd minutes here and there, or as 
 a change after a period of concentrated work in number 
 or phonics. 
 
 Incorrect Correct 
 
 (1) We sung it. We sang it. 
 
 We et it. We ate it. 
 
 My pencil is broke. My pencil is broken. 
 
 You was afraid. You were afraid. 
 
 I can't find it no place. I can't find it anywhere. 
 
 I ain't got no book. I haven't any book. 
 
 Ketch. Catch. 
 
 I done it. I did it. 
 
 He knowed me. He knew me. 
 
 I seen it. I saw it. 
 
 It's tore. It's torn. 
 
 I brung it home. I brought it home. 
 
 We drawed a robin. We drew a robin. 
 
 He hadn't ought to go. He ought not to go. 
 
 He don't need a book. He doesn't need a book. 
 
 [55 1 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Incorrect Correct 
 
 (2) He did it hisself . He did it himself. 
 Me and him went. He and I went. 
 Them kind ain't good. That kind isn't good. 
 
 (3) I got it off a him. I got it from him. 
 Are they any school? Is there any school? 
 Look 't here. Look here. 
 
 He didn't give me none. He didn't give me any. 
 
 I was to home. I was at home. 
 
 (4) I wash me own self. I wash myself. 
 
 He would of gone. He would have gone. 
 
 They was six books. There were six books. 
 
 I dunno. I don't know. 
 
 I'm thinkin'. I am thinking. 
 
 5. Hints and Helps 
 
 (a) Don't become discouraged if improvement seems 
 almost nil along the different lines of oral work. You 
 are too close to the work to detect improvement from 
 week to week. 
 
 (6) Don't kill spontaneity by too many criticisms. 
 Your pupils will not talk correctly at the end of the year. 
 An attempt to make them do so would result in making 
 them incapable of talking at all. 
 
 (c) Pick out good stories for reproductive purposes, 
 and tell them well. 
 
 (d) Give all your pupils a chance to talk. Don't 
 develop a few "star performers." 
 
 (e) Insist on careful pronunciation of final syllables 
 ending in g, t, d. 
 
 (/) "Stand erect! Open your mouths! But don't 
 shout!" 
 
 (g) Teach children to drop the voice at the end of the 
 sentence. 
 
 (k) Don't overdo the insistence on the "sentence 
 sense." And never talk about a sentence technically. 
 
 [56] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SECOND GRADE 
 2. WRITTEN 
 
 Preparation for Writing 
 
 During the first half of the year the alphabet-card seat 
 work, started in Grade I, should be reviewed and extended. 
 
 In review, children should first make sentences from the 
 teacher's model on the blackboard. These sentences may 
 be based on the reading lessons, or on the topics discussed 
 in the oral composition period. The pupil's work should 
 always be inspected by the teacher. Her method of cor- 
 recting faults should be that of teaching the children 
 to correct their own and to establish the tendency to look 
 their work over for correction before the teacher inspects 
 it. They should be trained to look it over first to see if 
 all the words are there; they look again, to see if the 
 capital and the closing marks are correctly used. 
 
 In extending the work, children should be required to 
 make sentences independent of a model. These may be 
 reproduction from memory of those occurring in a reading 
 lesson, in a preceding oral composition lesson, or they may 
 be original. Such work throws upon the class full responsi- 
 bility for right spelling and correct use of capitals and 
 closing marks. But whatever the source of these sen- 
 tences, the teacher must guard against incorrect spelling, 
 and if she finds it necessary should assign the topic herself, 
 and prevent misspelling by placing on the blackboard 
 for children's use while working, words with regard to the 
 spelling of which the class may not be certain. 
 
 The work of inspection should be continued, and the 
 habit of self-correction strengthened by requiring chil- 
 dren to look over the work before the teacher does, once 
 for omission of words; again, for correct use of punctuation 
 and capitals; and a third time for correct spelling. 
 
 [57] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To teach the pupils to transfer to paper, with cor- 
 rectness, a few simple related sentences such as may be 
 evolved in the oral language period. (Copying.) 
 
 (b) To teach a very few technicalities of written 
 work. 
 
 (c) To develop the power to write correctly several 
 related sentences on a given topic, without the teacher's 
 cooperation, but always under her supervision. 
 
 (d) To develop the power of thinking out the sentence 
 before writing it. 
 
 2. Type of Work 
 
 Sentences: 
 
 (a) Copied from the blackboard. 
 
 (6) The same written from dictation, each child 
 comparing her finished product with the teacher's correct 
 copy on the board. 
 
 (c) Several related sentences written on the blackboard 
 by children. 
 
 (d) An occasional short reproduction. 
 (Note. Base the above on the oral work.) 
 
 3. Suggested Topics for Sentence Writing 
 
 (See Outline for Oral Composition, section % page 51.) 
 4- Technicalities 
 
 (a) Capitals. Beginning sentences, names of persons, 
 of places, days of the week, months of the year, the name 
 of the school, the letters I and O. 
 
 (b) Period. At the close of the telling sentence. 
 After the abbreviations Mr., Mrs., St. 
 
 (c) Question mark at the close of a question 
 sentence. 
 
 ess: 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SECOND GRADE 
 
 (d) Punctuation marks used in the writing of the pupil's 
 name and address, as learned through the alphabet card 
 work during the first year and the first half of the second 
 year. 
 
 5. Words for Special Spelling Drill 
 
 (Note. Re-read the section on "The Correct Spelling 
 of Common Words," pages 25-26.) 
 
 again 
 
 goes 
 
 once 
 
 usmg 
 
 any 
 
 having 
 
 only 
 
 very 
 
 asked 
 
 heard 
 
 running 
 
 want 
 
 buy 
 
 higher 
 
 school 
 
 went 
 
 can't 
 
 knew 
 
 shining 
 
 when 
 
 coming 
 
 know 
 
 some 
 
 where 
 
 cried 
 
 leaving 
 
 sure 
 
 which 
 
 does 
 
 loving 
 
 taking 
 
 whole 
 
 don't 
 
 making 
 
 their 
 
 whose 
 
 dropped 
 
 many 
 
 there 
 
 won't 
 
 drowned 
 
 much 
 
 they 
 
 write 
 
 fairy 
 
 near 
 
 too 
 
 
 first 
 
 off 
 
 tried 
 
 
 6. Standards 
 
 The following groups of sentences are printed here to 
 indicate about the sort of "written composition" the ordi- 
 nary child should be able to write at the end of this second 
 year. Some second-grade pupils will be capable of writing 
 longer and better ones. A few will not be able to write 
 as well as the printed standards call for. The majority 
 of the pupils, however, if given a subject they feel like 
 writing about, should be able to produce three or four 
 sentences somewhat like the ones printed below. They 
 should be able to do this with a fair degree of facility, 
 and with no assistance from the teacher except what is 
 derived from the oral preparation. The sentences should 
 
 [59] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 show some sense of sequence and the desire to be inter- 
 esting. They should be invariably correct in the matter 
 of capitals and ending marks. The pupil's power should 
 always be measured by the first writing, not by a corrected 
 and rewritten copy. 
 
 1. I was born at Cambridge, Mass., December 11, 1906. 
 I am eight years old. 
 
 I live at 81 Broadway. 
 I go to the Parker School. 
 I am in the second grade. 
 
 2. My sister's name is Edith. 
 She works in a candy shop. 
 
 She says she likes to work making candy. 
 Sometimes she brings candy home to my mother. 
 
 3. Yesterday we had our pictures taken in the school yard. 
 The man told us not to look cross. 
 
 He is going to show us the picture today. 
 If we like it we are all going to buy one. 
 They cost twenty-five cents. 
 
 4. My aunt has a dog. 
 His name is Teddy. 
 
 He follows my uncle to the car every morning. 
 
 5. I have a great many dollies. 
 I like my big doll the best. 
 Her name is Gertrude. 
 
 I named her after myself. 
 
 7. Hints and Helps 
 
 (a) Keep the amount of written work small. There 
 are but very few technicalities to be taught. Remember 
 that as yet pupils have had very little applied penmanship 
 and not very much written spelling. 
 
 (6) The copying exercises should not be given as "busy 
 work." It is important that children be trained in right 
 
 [60] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SECOND GRADE 
 
 habits of copying from the beginning. (Read what has 
 heretofore been said about this under "Written Lan- 
 guage," topic No. 7, pages 34-35.) 
 
 (c) Keep the sentences for copying and dictation short 
 and simple. Use familiar words. 
 
 Read Outline for Third Grade. 
 
 [61] 
 
 
Third Grade 
 
 1. ORAL 
 
 (Read the section on Oral Language, pages 12-16. Read 
 Outline for Second Grade.) 
 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To lead children to tell of their experiences as 
 
 freely in school as they do at home or on the playground. 
 
 (6) To restrain the garrulous; to stimulate the timid. 
 
 (c) To acquaint children, mainly through imitation 
 of the model, with the use of the short exclamatory and 
 the interrogatory sentence as a medium for lively thought 
 expression. 
 
 (d) To continue the work of developing distinct articu- 
 lation and an easy natural talking tone. 
 
 (e) To play the language games without any let-up. 
 (/) Still to continue the war against "and," "then," 
 
 and "so." 
 
 2. Suggestive Topics 
 
 (a) Personal experiences of children: At home, at 
 school, on the street; holiday and play experiences. 
 
 (b) The imagination : Finishing an uncompleted story; 
 "making up" a story from a picture. 
 
 (c) Nature life: The trees in the school yard and in 
 the neighborhood; birds of the locality; habits, home, 
 and use of insects; the caterpillar and its cocoon; the 
 spider and its web, etc. These from actual observation. 
 
 (d) Manners and general behavior: Promptness and 
 obedience in school and at home; courtesy to visitors; 
 helping the fireman, the policeman; keeping the streets 
 clean; preventing accidents on the street, etc. Don't* 
 preach. 
 
 [62] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: THIRD GRADE 
 
 (e) Miscellaneous: Saturday good times; Sunday 
 walks at different seasons; holidays; description of toys, 
 of pets; games played at home, at school, indoors, out 
 of doors; the policeman, fireman, postman, and their 
 work; the milkman, grocer, butcher, shoemaker, carpenter, 
 and their work; home chores; directions for making 
 something, for playing a game; short stories for repro- 
 duction; pictures (choose those that suggest a story 
 rather than those that suggest description of objects seen). 1 
 
 3. Suggestions as to Use of the Material in Section 2 
 
 Note use of exclamations and questions. 
 
 (a) To develop from a single topic several different 
 groups of interesting sentences arranged in good order. 
 Illustration : 
 
 "The Fun that Spring Days Bring." 
 
 {Sentences contributed by the children.) 
 
 Flowers are gathered in the meadow by girls. 
 
 Girls play hop-scotch. 
 
 Boys fly kites and play marbles. 
 
 Sometimes boys go fishing. 
 
 Every boy plays ball. 
 
 (Showing variety and good order in the arrangement of 
 the above made by individual pupils.) 
 
 1. What fun we have in spring ! 
 Girls jump rope. 
 
 Boys fly kites and play marbles. 
 
 2. How glad I am it is spring! 
 Little girls play hop-scotch. 
 Every boy plays ball. 
 
 1 For other suggestions see the Course of Study in English issued 
 by the Department of Education of the State of New Jersey. 
 
 [63] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 3. Oh! how nice spring is! 
 
 Little girls gather flowers in the meadows. 
 Boys go fishing. 
 
 (&) To improve the quality of the sentence through 
 imitation of a model given by the teacher. 
 
 1. Teacher's Model: 
 
 The First Snowstorm 
 
 What a stormy day ! The snow is piling up in drifts. It comes 
 in at the windows. I have to play in the house. 
 
 Child's Imitation (modeled on the above) : 
 
 A Winter Day 
 
 What a cold day it is ! Jack Frost has come at last. He sends 
 the leaves flying. I have to play in the house, or he will bite 
 my nose. 
 
 2. Teacher's Model: 
 
 The Humming Bird 
 
 Can you see that little bird? He is a little humming bird and 
 he comes to swing in my tree every morning. When the wind 
 blows and the branches sway, he is very happy. 
 
 Children's Imitations: 
 
 The Robin 
 
 There is a little robin in the grass. How fat he is ! His breast 
 is bright red. He sings very sweetly every morning. 
 
 The Sparrow 
 
 There is a sparrow on the topmost bough. He is building his 
 nest. There he goes now to get some more straw. 
 
 [64] 
 
• OUTLINE BY GRADES: THIRD GRADE 
 
 The Canary 
 
 At home we have a little canary. He has yellow and white 
 feathers. His feathers are very smooth. He sings very sweetly. 
 
 4. Illustrative Oral Efforts 
 
 Yesterday afternoon I went to the circus with my mother. 
 There were elephants there. I saw camels and horses. There 
 was a man on the elephant dressed like a clown. 
 
 When I went down East I ate my supper on the ship. After 
 supper I went to bed. My mother and sister went up on deck. 
 I wanted to go, too, but they wouldn't let me. When we got 
 there, my grandmother took me in her arms and kissed me. 
 
 I am going to stay all summer at Prince Edward's Island. 
 My grandmother lives there. I have lots of fun. They let me 
 milk the cow, feed the hens, and hunt for eggs. I play on the 
 hay, too. 
 
 The Eskimos live in Greenland. The people dress in furs. 
 They do not feel the cold. Do you know what they do? They 
 catch fish and kill seals. They make knives out of the bones of 
 animals. 
 
 A fireman rides on an engine. He is very strong and brave. 
 He wears a rubber coat, a rubber hat, and rubber boots. He- 
 works quickly. A great many firemen get hurt. 
 
 When I came to school this morning I saw men working on 
 the street. Some of them were digging and some were laying 
 a pipe. One had a wheelbarrow. They were all working. 
 
 Last vacation I went fishing. I caught several fishes. My 
 mother cooked them. Other days I went berrying. My father 
 had to climb a tree to get away from a snake. 
 
 Yesterday we made penwipers. We cut three circles out of 
 cloth. The first one was small. The second was a little larger. 
 The third was the largest of all. We fastened the three circles 
 together with a brad. 
 
 [65] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 5. Errors of Speech 
 
 (Re-read the section on "Common Errors of Speech," 
 pages 12-15.) 
 
 The errors listed below are those that one ordinarily 
 hears in a primary grade. It goes without saying, how- 
 ever, that no one particular room will need drill on all 
 these errors. The list is intended to be suggestive, not 
 prescriptive. It is time wasted to drill on errors simply 
 because they appear in this list. On the other hand, it 
 is opportunity wasted not to drill on errors simply because 
 they do not appear in this list. The needs of the class 
 must dictate the points of attack. 
 
 Don't hesitate to drill on errors of Grade II, nor yet on 
 errors of Grade IV. Remember the groupings : (1) verb 
 errors, (2) pronoun errors, (3) colloquialisms, (4) mis- 
 pronunciations. Remember, too, all that has been said 
 regarding the futility of attempting to eliminate oral 
 errors through work in formal grammar. Right use of 
 language comes from habit. To form right habits of speech 
 use the language games every day. Vary the repetition 
 of them to ward off monotony. Invent games of your own. 
 
 Incorrect 
 
 (1) I done it. 
 
 I et the apple. 
 
 I seen him take it. 
 
 Leave him do it. 
 
 I ain't got no book. 
 
 He don't know. 
 
 Has John went yet? 
 
 I seen it. 
 
 That ain't mine. 
 
 He never give me a pen. 
 
 My pencil is broke. 
 
 She brung it to school. 
 
 You was down there. 
 
 (2) Here is yourn. 
 Me aunt is sick. 
 Him and me done it. 
 Them are mine. 
 
 Correct 
 
 I did it. 
 
 I ate the apple. 
 
 I saw him take it. 
 
 Let him do it. 
 
 I haven't any book. 
 
 He doesn't know. 
 
 Has John gone yet? 
 
 I saw it. 
 
 That isn't mine. 
 
 He never gave me a pen. 
 
 My pencil is broken. 
 
 She brought it to school. 
 
 You were down there. 
 
 Here is yours. 
 My aunt is sick. 
 He and I did it. 
 Those are mine. 
 
 [66] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: THIRD GRADE 
 
 Incorrect Correct 
 
 (3) Do like I did. Do as I did. 
 
 Can I get a pen off him? May I get a pen from him? 
 
 I was to school. I was at school. 
 
 These kind are bad. This kind is bad. 
 
 I can't find it nowhere. I can't find it anywhere. 
 
 (4) My mother is worser. My mother is worse. 
 
 The boy was almost drownded. The boy was almost drowned. 
 
 My teacher's name is Mrs. — My teacher is Mrs. — 
 
 They was nobody to be seen. There was no one to be seen. 
 
 I was late, 'cause I went to the I was late, because I went to the 
 store. store. 
 
 6. Hints and Helps 
 
 (a) A natural speaking tone means one that can be 
 heard plainly by every one in the classroom. Remember 
 that the boy in the last seat seldom hears what the girl 
 in the front seat says to the teacher. Be careful of the 
 other extreme. Pupils should not be allowed either to 
 read or to recite in a tone that may be heard at the other 
 end of the building. 
 
 (b) The reading lesson is a splendid medium to help 
 develop the proper tone. 
 
 (c) Children at this age are not naturally self-conscious. 
 They will take readily to the exclamatory sentence as a 
 means of expression. Let them note its use in the readers. 
 
 (d) The following rhyme was invented by an Illinois 
 teacher to cure the use of "ain't got no" : 
 
 The Lazy Little Boy 
 He comes to school at nine o'clock, just missing being late, 
 He hasn't any pencil and he hasn't any slate, 
 He hasn't any ruler and he hasn't any book, 
 While at the other boys and girls he likes to sit and look — 
 O careless, lazy little child ! 'Twould yield you greater joy 
 If you would try each day to be a very careful boy ! 
 
 (e) Children should not be allowed to babble on end- 
 lessly. Lead them to think for a few minutes before talk- 
 ing, and then talk to the point, with some idea of order. 
 
 [67] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Be satisfied with very gradual improvement. There are 
 other grades ahead. 
 
 (/) Teach pupils to drop the voice at the end of the 
 sentence. 
 
 2. WRITTEN 
 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To develop in children the power to write, either 
 from dictation or as an original effort, several short sen- 
 tences on a given topic, as instanced below. 
 
 (&) To make certain that the children show on paper 
 that they have learned through the oral work when one 
 sentence ends and another begins. 
 
 (c) To eliminate the misspelling of words commonly 
 used. 
 
 2. Types of Work 
 
 (a) Copying from the board sentences based on oral 
 conversation. These sentences should first be discussed 
 and arranged in the best order. 
 
 (6) The above sentences written from dictation. 
 Each child corrects his own paper. 
 
 (c) Original independent work based on (a) as model. 
 (See Helps and Hints, page 71.) 
 
 (d) Dictation to test points of technical accuracy. 
 Take note only of the technical points that children 
 are supposed to know. 
 
 (e) The occasional very short reproduction of a story 
 told in the oral period. At first such a reproduction should 
 be copied from the board, after being told by the children. 
 Later the copying step may be omitted. 
 
 3. Suggested Topics 
 
 See Outline for Oral Work, Section 2, pages 62-63. 
 [68] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: THIRD GRADE 
 
 Jf.. Technicalities 
 
 Capital letter beginning sentences, names of persons, of 
 places, days of the week, months of the year, the name of 
 our state, our city, of child's own school. 
 
 Period at the end of a telling sentence; after the abbre- 
 viations of names of days, of months, of the name of our 
 state; after Mr., Mrs., St. 
 
 Question mark after questions. 
 
 Exclamation mark after exclamations. 
 
 5. Words for Special Spelling Drill 
 
 asked 
 
 heard 
 
 there 
 
 when 
 
 buy 
 
 know 
 
 they 
 
 which 
 
 coming 
 
 making 
 
 too 
 
 whose 
 
 dropped 
 
 shining 
 
 tried 
 
 write 
 
 fairy 
 
 their 
 
 went 
 
 wrote 
 
 afraid 
 
 early 
 
 lose 
 
 speak 
 
 all right 
 
 easy 
 
 loose 
 
 though 
 
 almost 
 
 enough 
 
 money 
 
 together 
 
 already 
 
 father 
 
 month 
 
 truly 
 
 always 
 
 February 
 
 none 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 beginning 
 
 forty 
 
 often 
 
 until 
 
 busy 
 
 friend 
 
 people 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 children 
 
 great 
 
 please 
 
 whose 
 
 clothes 
 
 guess 
 
 quite 
 
 women 
 
 color 
 
 its 
 
 right 
 
 would 
 
 doctor 
 
 laughed 
 
 Saturday 
 
 writing 
 
 6. Written Standards 
 
 The paragraphs below have been selected as typical 
 of the kind and quality of written work that may be 
 considered satisfactory, coming from the third-grade 
 pupil. The short, clean-cut sentence is in evidence. 
 Common words are correctly spelled. The very few 
 technicalities demanded up to date are well handled. 
 
 [69] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Note that the quotation sentence and the time-honored 
 comma in a series do not appear. If children write little 
 themes that happen to call for such technicalities, the 
 teacher may suggest the correct form. But as a general 
 proposition we shall be content to ignore such technicalities 
 for the time being. 
 
 It may well happen that a score of pupils in every class- 
 room may be able to write longer and better sentences, 
 longer and better compositions, than those here set down. 
 If so, all the better. Give such pupils free rein. But be 
 sure in addition that the few basic technicalities exemplified 
 in these standard themes are mastered by the class as 
 a whole. And remember that the true measure of the 
 pupil's power is his first copy, not the copy that has been 
 corrected by the teacher. 
 
 1. This is mother's birthday. After breakfast we gave her 
 our presents. My present was a pretty bookmark. I made 
 it in school. 
 
 2. My dog is a little brown one. He can sit up and beg for 
 his dinner. My uncle gave him to me. He is very cunning. 
 
 3. Last Saturday I went to a lawn party. We had ice cream 
 and cake. We played games, too. We tried to eat a cracker 
 tied to a tree. Donald was asked to do it. He could not do it. 
 I was the second to try. I did it. 
 
 4. In the writing lesson we use our arm. We slide on our 
 fingers. We roll on our muscle. We have a bridge under our 
 wrist. 
 
 5. I like the music best of all our school lessons. I like to 
 sing the song about the rabbit. I like the Christmas songs, 
 too. Sometimes I sing alone. 
 
 6. I am a tulip. I grow in a garden. I am very pretty. 
 I am white. A little girl came in and smelled me. A naughty 
 boy smelled me and picked me. 
 
 [703 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: THIRD GRADE 
 
 7. Helps and Hints 
 
 (a) The following illustration of the method of develop- 
 ing original written work from oral work is taken from the 
 New Jersey Course of Study in English: 
 
 Step 1. Oral conversation lesson suggested by roses in 
 classroom (oral paragraph). 
 
 Step 2. Paragraph studied and copied. 
 
 Step 3. Previous work recalled, paragraph dictated. 
 
 Step 4. Original written paragraphs. 
 
 (Copy — Step 2): 
 
 I have a big bunch of roses. They are bright red and they 
 smell sweet. I picked them in my pretty garden. 
 
 (Dictation — Step 3) : 
 
 Here is a bunch of roses. They are yellow and have a sweet 
 perfume. I picked them for you in my garden. 
 
 (Original — Step 4) : 
 
 Across the way there is an arbor of pink roses. The bees 
 and butterflies often visit the roses, for they love them 
 very much. 
 
 (6) Don't let pupils form bad habits in dictation work 
 at this early stage. Give a sentence but once. Train 
 pupils to listen attentively. 
 
 (c) Don't forget that children love to write on the 
 blackboard. It is a very good device to have different 
 groups of children write on the boards on different days 
 as "bef ore-school" work. Each child may be asked to 
 write two related sentences. Later on each child should 
 be required to read his sentences, giving reason for each 
 capital and punctuation mark. Keep this up for a year's 
 
 [71] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 time, and note the growth in power of handling the few 
 technicalities involved. 
 
 (d) When pupils write, insist that they sit in good 
 writing position, use the movement, etc. (One school 
 exercise should help another.) 
 
 Read Outline for Fourth Grade. 
 
 [72] 
 
Fourth Grade 
 
 1. ORAL 
 
 (Read the section on Oral Language, pages 5-16. Read 
 Outline for Third Grade.) 
 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To strengthen the "sentence sense." Eliminate 
 "and" and "so." 
 
 (b) To secure good bearing before the class. There 
 is no excuse for self -consciousness if the right class atmos- 
 phere is established. 
 
 (c) To continue to promote orderly talking. 
 
 (d) To secure good articulation and good tone. 
 
 (e) To correct, with moderation, common spoken 
 errors. 
 
 It is more important than anything else that the teacher 
 should aim to make the period in oral English one of real 
 interest to the pupil. As the pupil advances in the grades, 
 the importance of this particular aim on the part of the 
 teacher grows. The boy in the middle and upper grades 
 regards the oral composition period as a time to be dreaded, 
 unless the teacher stimulates and suggests. The teacher's 
 aim is not to have the pupil "say something"; it is to 
 have a care rather that the pupil "has something to say." 
 This makes for interest and a real desire to talk. 
 
 2. Examples of Oral Composition 
 
 The specimen efforts entered below are intended to 
 indicate the type of oral work that the teacher should 
 try to get from her pupils in the fourth year. In so far 
 as they appear on the printed page, they do not differ 
 materially from the specimens listed in the third-grade 
 
 [73] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 
 outline. In certain particulars, however, that can't by 
 their very nature be illustrated on the printed page, it is 
 to be hoped that the pupils in this grade will show con- 
 siderable improvement over the work of the previous 
 year. They should be more "sentence sure." As a re- 
 sult of the articulation drills, they should be talking more 
 distinctly and with better tone. They should have the 
 power to think out a half-dozen connected sentences on a 
 topic, and give expression to them without painful em- 
 barrassment or undue hesitation. These things, as stated, 
 can't be illustrated on paper, but they are of great im- 
 portance, indeed. The section on "Oral English" has 
 said that "mumbling, indistinct utterance and a poverty 
 of ideas all too frequently characterize the speech of the 
 average grammar-school graduate." This will always be 
 so unless every teacher appreciates the value of good 
 habits in speech as a practical asset and strives to inculcate 
 these habits in her classroom. If the fourth-grade teacher 
 does this, her pupils will inevitably be talking better by the 
 end of the year. The teacher herself may not be able to 
 detect improvement because of her closeness to the work, 
 and because increased power along this line can't be 
 registered in percentages, as increased power in arithme- 
 tic, for instance, can be. Nevertheless, the teacher who 
 works persistently to secure good habits of speech may 
 feel sure that the improvement is there; and she can 
 draw much satisfaction from the thought that she has 
 done her share in a task that has hitherto been largely 
 neglected. 
 
 We have said many times that the results attained in 
 the English period depend largely on the kind of subject 
 chosen. We shall still insist that the best material for 
 language work is that which represents the child's own 
 experience. From his life at home, on the streets, in 
 
 [74] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FOURTH GRADE 
 
 school; from his sports, amusements, duties, tasks; from 
 the things he has seen and heard and felt and done; from 
 the things he has read and the things he imagines; from 
 all these sources may be drawn an infinite variety of 
 interesting material. Subjects of this nature are listed 
 in the outline for "Written English" for this grade. 
 These subjects, and others like them, may be used in the 
 oral period also. The study of pictures should be con- 
 tinued. The reproduced story — if the story be of the 
 right kind (see Grade II, page 52) — has likewise its 
 place. The teacher need be at no loss for subjects if she 
 will give this matter some thought. 
 
 It may be said that the illustrations cited are not to 
 be taken as absolute standards. Some pupils may easily 
 talk with more loquacity and fluency than here indicated. 
 If so, so much the better. Whatever some can do, however, 
 the teacher's task is to see to it that as many as possible 
 of the others less gifted are induced to talk in the short, 
 clean-cut sentences illustrated. This accomplished, the 
 upper grades will take care of the rest. 
 
 A Fire I Saw 
 
 One day I was talking to a boy. He noticed a fire in my 
 ash shed. He told me. I was frightened very much. I told 
 my sister, for it was dreadful. I ran up to the fire box and rang 
 in the alarm. A lot of boys came in the yard. They were shout- 
 ing, and a lot of them climbed the piazza railing to see the fire. 
 It was all in flames. The firemen were shouting for the hose. 
 They put back all the children. When they had the fire out, 
 they chopped down the roof. The landlord gave me a dime for 
 ringing in. 
 
 Why I Was Absent 
 
 I was absent one morning because I had to go to the hospital 
 with my brother. My brother had broken his fingers. When 
 
 [75] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 I came back it was half-past ten. The children were taking 
 a walk in the street. I didn't come in to school that morning. 
 I was very sorry because I missed my lessons. We had a new 
 lesson in geography that morning. 
 
 Fun at Revere Beach 
 
 One August morning my brother and I went to Revere Leach 
 on a special car. We were playing ball because we didn't know 
 how to swim. When I was at the bat I hit a boy on the head 
 with the ball. Instead of crying, he started to laugh. After 
 a while a train came by. The men threw crackers out to us. 
 We each had about two boxes full of them. At four o'clock we 
 came home. 
 
 My Report Card 
 
 When I got home the first month with my card, my mother 
 sighed. She said if I had "Whispers" again on my card, she 
 would come up to school. I did not want her to, so I never 
 whispered very much after that. Now it says "Good" every 
 month. Last month it said "Good work in reading and lan- 
 guage." 
 
 The Fourth of July 
 
 On the Fourth of July I'd like to have a repeater gun. I'd 
 like to have some rolls of caps, too. Then I'd put them in my 
 gun. If my brother didn't have any, I'd give him some. I 
 wish I could have a lot of sky rockets. I'm going up to the 
 Common to see the races and fireworks. 
 
 My Longest Journey 
 
 When I was coming from the old country, two boys gave us 
 a ride to the big boat. The boys had jerseys on. On the boat 
 there were high beds and low beds. My mother was awful 
 sick. A man gave us some spaghetti and meat. The meat was 
 no good, so we threw it in the ocean. It took us ten days to 
 sail across the ocean. 
 [76] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FOURTH GRADE 
 
 3. Common Errors of Speech 
 
 Read section 5 for the Third Grade, pages 66-67. 
 
 Remember that these errors should be drilled on fre- 
 quently in special periods. A game need not take over 
 five minutes, and thus it can well be played daily. Don't 
 try to correct every error a pupil makes every time he 
 makes it. It can't be done. Typical errors should be 
 chosen from week to week and drilled on until there is 
 some assurance that the ear of the child has become accus- 
 tomed to the right sound. 
 
 Be sure that all the pupils get a chance at the language 
 game. 
 
 Incorrect 
 
 (1) I done it. 
 
 He come back. 
 
 We drawed a bird's nest. 
 
 I brung it to him. 
 
 There was about seven 
 
 boys there. 
 We have saw them. 
 Look what I done to that 
 
 paper. 
 Where was you? 
 My book is tore. 
 It ain't so. 
 My pencil is broke. 
 You hadn't ought to do it. 
 That don't make me laugh. 
 
 (2) Them are easy. 
 
 He can't run as fast as me. 
 They are wrong theirselves. 
 Me and Frank will go. 
 
 (3) My sister learned me to sew. 
 Where shall I bring them to ? 
 Sing it like John does. 
 
 Can I have a drink? 
 John stayed to home. 
 She sits in back of me. 
 Leave me do it. 
 Where are you at? 
 She never does no thin'. 
 
 (4) Ketch the ball ! 
 Lemme have that. 
 I c'n git it. 
 
 They was an old man there. 
 Are they any school? 
 
 Correct 
 I did it. 
 He came back. 
 We drew a bird's nest. 
 I brought it to him. 
 There were about seven boys 
 
 there. 
 We have seen them. 
 Look what I did to that paper. 
 
 Where were you ? 
 
 My book is torn. 
 
 It isn't so. 
 
 My pencil is broken. 
 
 You ought not to do it. 
 
 That doesn't make me laugh. 
 
 Those are easy. 
 He can't run as fast as I. 
 They are wrong themselves. 
 Frank and I will go. 
 
 My sister taught me to sew. 
 Where shall I take them? 
 Sing it as John does. 
 May I have a drink? 
 John stayed at home. 
 She sits behind me. 
 Let me do it. 
 Where are you? 
 She never does anything. 
 
 Catch the ball ! 
 
 Let me have that. 
 
 I can get it. 
 
 There was an old man there. 
 
 Is there any school? 
 
 [77] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 4. Hints and Helps 
 
 (a) Pupils should be told constantly: 
 
 (1) To open their mouths when they speak. 
 
 (2) To speak in a clear, low voice — low in the 
 
 sense of being in the natural register of 
 the child's voice, not in the high-pitched 
 "schoolroom " tone, yet loud enough to be 
 heard distinctly in all parts of the room. 
 
 (3) To sound final g's, t's, and d's. 
 
 (6) Don't forget the enunciation drills. (See section on 
 " Voice, Articulation,Pronunciation,Inflection,"pp. 10-12.) 
 
 (c) Teach pupils to drop the voice at the end of the 
 sentence. 
 
 (d) Invent a few language games of your own. Be 
 sure to get the game element into them. 
 
 (e) Don't allow the garrulous child to talk on endlessly. 
 The time is all too short, and the timid need all the practice 
 that they can get. 
 
 (/) Don't interrupt the continuity of the child's 
 thought because he makes a language error. Note the 
 more important mistakes as they occur, and drill on them 
 in special periods. 
 
 (g) Remember that if fourth-grade pupils make second- 
 grade mistakes, those are the mistakes to deal with. 
 
 2. WRITTEN 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To strengthen the sentence sense in the short 
 paragraph. 
 
 (6) To give considerable practice in the writing of the 
 short, familiar letter. 
 
 (c) To drill on the words commonly misspelled and on 
 common grammatical errors. (See lists.) 
 
 [78] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FOURTH GRADE 
 
 (d) To secure complete mastery of the few technicalities 
 noted. | 
 
 (e) To insist on neatness and good arrangement in all 
 written work. 
 
 2. Types of Work 
 
 (a) Sentences 
 
 If children have acquired the "sentence sense" and are 
 given considerable practice on paper and on the board, the 
 "comma sentence," so prevalent in the lower grades, 
 will disappear. Pupils should be persistently drilled in 
 the idea that a sentence is a group of words that makes 
 sense. This is, of course, not a technical definition. 
 But it is one that pupils can grasp, and once grasped, 
 it will have the effect of eliminating the "clause sentence" 
 and the "phrase sentence," both of which also figure in 
 the written work of these grades. 1 In the oral work up 
 to this time teachers have been insisting on the elimination 
 of "and" in particular as a connective. The children by 
 this time should realize that, to be on the safe side, they 
 had better not indulge in its use. This does not mean, 
 to be sure, that it is not perfectly good English to write 
 compound sentences interspersed with connectives. The 
 point is rather that in these lower grades it is much better 
 to overdo the matter of drill on the short, "choppy" 
 sentence, for the purpose of making dead sure that this 
 all-important idea of the sentence sense is thoroughly 
 taught. The " smoo thing-over " process can safely be 
 left to the upper grades. 
 
 The following are a few ways of bringing out the sen- 
 tence idea : 
 
 1 Illustrations of the three types of bad sentence structure are : 
 
 1. I went down there last night, I saw three boys. (Comma sentence.) 
 
 2. While I was looking at it. A dog ran by. (Clause sentence.) 
 
 3. Mother sent me to the store. Down on Essex Street. (Phrase 
 sentence.) 
 
 [79] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 (1) Let the teacher give orally groups of words, some 
 which make sentences, and others not. After each one 
 let pupils tell whether it is a sentence or not, giving the 
 reason. 
 
 (2) Children may be required to make sentences out 
 of the non-sentence groups. 
 
 (3) The same exercises may be written on the board. 
 
 (4) Let some children give groups of words, and let 
 other children tell whether the given group is a sentence 
 or not, always giving reasons. 
 
 (5) The children may be required to complete the non- 
 sentence group. 
 
 (b) The Paragraph 
 
 Children in this grade will be expected to set down their 
 thoughts in the form of the paragraph. This means only 
 that the sentences will appear on the paper, blocked in 
 paragraph form, with proper indention. Since these 
 paragraphs, as a rule, are not to be more than a half- 
 dozen lines in length, the occasion will not arise to go into 
 any technical discussion of topic sentences and the like, 
 though good beginning sentences and good closing sen- 
 tences may be worked for. The children have become 
 familiar in the third grade with the interrogative and the 
 exclamatory sentence. They should be encouraged to 
 use these and to note their use in reading. An occasional 
 question or exclamation breaks up the monotony of the 
 theme, and makes it just a bit less formal, more live. 
 
 For subjects, the teacher is referred to the list printed 
 in the outline for this grade. These subjects have been 
 chosen because in a greater or less degree they are all of 
 the kind indicated as desirable in the section on "Written 
 English." The teacher is at liberty to choose these or 
 substitute others for them. In either case, she should 
 
 [80] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FOURTH GRADE 
 
 remember that the subject is half the battle. A poorly- 
 chosen subject means a poor set of themes. 
 
 In this connection see also "Picture List" (Appendix, 
 page 177) and selections to be read to children (Litera- 
 ture Outline, page 164). 
 
 (c) The Letter 
 
 The familiar letter is introduced in this grade, and a 
 model for the form of the same is set down in the Appendix. 
 Though there are forms other than the one indicated that 
 are in good use, the teacher is asked to teach this one only, 
 and to teach it thoroughly. The form of a letter may not 
 be nearly correct. It must be one hundred per cent 
 correct. In order to secure this, teachers will please, 
 for some considerable time, dwell on the form and teach 
 it through the medium of the copying lesson, calling 
 attention to every item of punctuation and capitalization, 
 and causing the pupils to compare their efforts, item for 
 item, with the model on the board or on the hektographed 
 sheet. Afterwards, knowledge of the form should be 
 tested by several dictations. The way is then prepared 
 for the writing of original letters. 
 
 "The quality most difficult to secure in pupils' letters 
 is spontaneity, and this is but natural. For this very 
 quality is one so elusive, so thoroughly identified with 
 the interests of the children, so completely a form of pure 
 self-expression, that it may be doubted whether a spon- 
 taneous effect can ever, through the teacher's efforts, 
 be secured. If it is not present it cannot be forced. 
 Originality cannot be taught. If, however, we can dis- 
 cover what are the restraints which make letters written 
 by children in the grades of the elementary school so 
 artificial and awkward, it might be possible, could we but 
 remove the hampering factors, to lend to this work, 
 
 [81] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 within the limits of the children's powers, the freedom, 
 the grace, and the charm that characterize the corre- 
 spondence of a Lowell, a Dodgson, or a Stevenson." 
 
 The above quotation is from Method and Methods in 
 the Teaching of English. 1 The entire treatment of the 
 subject of letter writing in this book is so admirable that 
 it seems idle to attempt to duplicate it here. Teachers 
 in all grades should read the chapter on "Letter Writing" 
 and work along the lines therein laid down. The illustra- 
 tions cited as to the kind of letter that we should strive 
 to get are especially worth studying, as they exemplify 
 in a delightful way that childlike naturalness that should 
 characterize the letter in the elementary school. A few 
 of these illustrations are reproduced here: 
 
 Dear Harry: 
 
 You ought to see how the beans I planted have grown. Did 
 you ever plant any? The onion that you saw is all dried up. 
 Can you tell me why? 
 
 Dear Mother: 
 
 We have had a fine time this week. I went driving with 
 Uncle John and the horses went so fast I was frightened. But 
 Uncle only laughed at me. When will you come here? I pray 
 for you every night. 
 
 Dear Rose: 
 
 Mamma is going to let me have a real doll party next Saturday. 
 Will you come early and bring your best doll with you? I 
 want you to come early because I need you to help me to fix 
 some things for the other girls. 
 
 Dear Mother: 
 
 We arrived here at ten o'clock this morning. It was very 
 dusty on the trains. I looked as black as coal when I reached 
 
 1 Method and Methods in the Teaching of English, by E. Goldwasser: 
 D. C. Heath & Company. 
 
 [82] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FOURTH GRADE 
 
 the house. In the afternoon I went with Fred to the field and 
 
 watched the men digging potatoes. The earth has a very 
 
 pleasant smell. We saw a great number of worms. Love to all. 
 
 Your affectionate son, 
 
 Dear Mrs. Brown : 
 
 I had a very happy birthday. It was very good of you to send 
 me that book of fairy tales. I have read three stories already. 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 Dear Uncle: 
 
 You are so far away, I am afraid you didn't hear the good 
 news. Both Mary and I are to be promoted to Grade V. Isn't 
 that fine? Father and mother are as happy as we are. 
 Your loving nephew, 
 
 In passing, it may be said that the letter in this grade 
 should be kept short — not more than four or five sen- 
 tences. As often as is possible, it should be actually 
 sent somewhere. It should be written on subjects that 
 the children know something about and concerning which 
 they wish to write. In no other way can real letters be 
 secured. 
 
 (d) Copying and Dictation 
 
 These two forms should be employed for the purpose of 
 teaching and testing technicalities. Copies should be set 
 on the blackboard of sentences illustrating correct use of 
 capitals, the letter form, etc. This work is logically 
 followed by the short dictation exercise. This latter may 
 consist of a single sentence at one time, and of a whole 
 short paragraph at another. The good dictation exercise 
 should be: 
 
 (1) Definite, and planned for the needs of the class. 
 It should be chosen for a purpose: at one time to teach 
 the punctuation of the grade; at another for the use of 
 capitals, etc. 
 
 [83] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 (2) Carefully executed as to mechanical form. 
 
 (3) Given not less than twice a week in Grade IV. 
 A part of the spelling period may be used in this way. 
 
 Dictation exercises may often be written upon the black- 
 board and studied with special attention to points of special 
 difficulty. A curtain or map may be drawn over the exer- 
 cise, and pupils asked to write with one, and only one, 
 reading by the teacher. For correction, let the curtain 
 be removed and comparisons made, the teacher standing 
 by the board and calling attention to the various points. 
 Papers may be exchanged and additional errors looked 
 for. The pupils may be asked to turn papers over and 
 write again for improved results. Before pupils hand their 
 work to either pupils or teacher, they should look over 
 their papers for the detection of any errors. 
 
 3. Topics for Paragraphs 
 
 Read what is said on "Composition Subjects," pages 
 27-29. 
 
 SCHOOL 
 
 What I Like about the School. 
 
 My Monthly Report Card. 
 
 Our Best Indoor Game. 
 
 A Picture in My Schoolroom. 
 
 Helping My Teacher. 
 
 An Interruption in Our Work. 
 
 How We Make a Sewing Apron. 
 
 My Excuse for Being Late. 
 
 How to Keep the Schoolroom Floor Clean. 
 
 SPORTS 
 
 My Ride on the Roller Coaster. 
 A Trick I Taught My Dog. 
 Fun at Beach. 
 
 [84] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FOURTH GRADE 
 
 A Swimming Lesson. 
 How to Spin a Top. 
 A Tree Mishap. 
 My Rabbits. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 The Baby at Our House. 
 
 Waiting for the Mail. 
 
 The Story I Like the Best. 
 
 Spending a Nickel. 
 
 When the Fire Alarm Rings. 
 
 On an Ocean Steamer. 
 
 What I Did on Saturday. 
 
 What I Am Going to Be. 
 
 Watching an Ant. 
 
 A Fireman I Know. 
 
 A Fire I Saw. 
 
 In the Forest with Hiawatha. 
 
 Turning the Tables. 
 
 How I Build a Fire. 
 
 How I Would Direct a Stranger to the Public Library. 
 
 A Friend in Need. 
 
 Afraid of a Mouse. 
 
 In the Agassiz Museum. 
 
 When I Visit My Grandmother. 
 
 A Dog I Like. 
 
 The Best Time I Ever Had. 
 
 Making Something Useful. 
 
 A Surprise for Mother. 
 
 My Early Home. 
 
 What I Saw on My Way (to) from School. 
 
 A Dash to Save Life. 
 
 After Water Lilies. 
 
 The Cannon on the Common. 
 
 The Washington Elm. 
 
 Paul Revere Tablets in Cambridge. 
 
 In the Forest. 
 
 [85] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 What I Liked Best in the Circus Parade. 
 A Troublesome Neighbor. 
 Importance of " Safety First." 
 What I Intend to Do for Clean-up Day. 
 
 4. Technicalities 
 
 Note that these are few. Some familiar ones are missing. 
 
 (a) Capitals. Holidays, local geographical names. 
 In poetry. In letter forms. 
 
 (6) Punctuation. The use of interrogation and excla- 
 mation marks. As involved in the writing of dates and 
 in letter forms. 
 
 (c) Abbreviations and Contractions. Isn't, wasn't, I've, 
 won't, wouldn't. Others in common use. Abbreviation 
 in letter forms. 
 
 (d) Grammatical Errors. Note such written errors 
 as the use of "when" for "went"; "they" for "there." 
 See list of spoken errors for Grade IV, page 77. 
 
 5. Words Commonly Misspelled 
 
 all right 
 
 doctor 
 
 laughed 
 
 they 
 
 afraid 
 
 dropped 
 
 lose 
 
 too 
 
 almost 
 
 early 
 
 much 
 
 tried 
 
 already 
 
 enough 
 
 people 
 
 truly 
 
 always 
 
 February 
 
 quiet 
 
 until 
 
 beginning 
 
 forty 
 
 quite 
 
 using 
 
 busy 
 
 friend 
 
 Saturday which 
 
 color 
 
 guess 
 
 shining 
 
 whose 
 
 clothes 
 
 having 
 
 their 
 
 women 
 
 coming 
 
 heard 
 
 there 
 
 writing 
 
 aloud 
 
 honest 
 
 
 ready 
 
 also 
 
 hoping 
 
 
 really 
 
 among 
 
 hour 
 
 
 receive 
 
 because 
 
 instead 
 
 
 rough 
 
 becoming 
 
 just 
 
 
 spoonful 
 
 [86] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FOURTH GRADE 
 
 believe 
 
 learned 
 
 stopped 
 
 bicycle 
 
 losing 
 
 straight 
 
 built 
 
 meant 
 
 tired 
 
 business 
 
 minute 
 
 touched 
 
 carriage 
 
 ninety 
 
 through 
 
 caught 
 
 often 
 
 used to 
 
 choose 
 
 perhaps 
 
 weather 
 
 early 
 
 pieces 
 
 wholly 
 
 easily 
 
 pleasant 
 
 written 
 
 fourth 
 
 quietly 
 
 wrong 
 
 6*. Hints and Helps 
 
 The teaching of one thing for which the pupil is ever 
 after responsible, then another thing plus the first, then 
 a third plus the first and second, is the surest way of 
 getting somewhere. 
 
 It is very important that the pupil read his composition 
 through before handing it in. By this means he will 
 discover many common errors, such as omission of words, 
 misspelled words, incorrect punctuation, and the repetition 
 of the same word. He should cultivate the power of 
 imagining how it will sound when read aloud. 
 
 The fourth-grade teacher should begin to transfer the 
 burden of criticism from her own shoulders to those of her 
 pupils. But the criticism of one another's work by the 
 pupils must always be controlled and directed by the 
 teacher. The children must be made to understand : 
 
 (a) That criticism deals with merits as well as faults. 
 
 (b) That criticism of one another's work should always 
 be given to help one another. 
 
 (c) That the pupil must regard his fellow critics as 
 his friends, not his enemies. 
 
 In all oral and written compositions the blackboard is 
 most useful. By means of it the oral expression is visual- 
 
 [87] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 ized, making pleasing features more emphatic, while 
 faulty ones are recorded, to be changed again and again 
 until satisfactory. 
 
 The cooperative work of teacher and pupil is made 
 more impressive if the blackboard is brought into use in 
 working out improvement in the sequence of thought, 
 the sentence structure, and the choice of words. The 
 teacher may copy upon it compositions which are to be 
 criticized by the class; or she may use it for presenting a 
 model composition for the pupils to follow in their own 
 oral or written constructions. 
 
 One of the best ways to interest and to improve a class, 
 particularly the poorly equipped or the indifferent mem- 
 bers, is to have pupils write their own compositions on the 
 board instead of on paper. This method can be used with 
 great profit in a grade as low as the third, and is increas- 
 ingly valuable in higher grades. Here the writer is certain 
 of an audience, and equally certain of an immediate esti- 
 mate of his effort. He desires the appreciation of this 
 audience, and wishes to avoid any unfavorable criticism 
 from it. Therefore it is natural for him to look over his 
 work, correcting his own blunders before reading it aloud 
 to the class for their comments. Such exercises are certain 
 to develop the appreciation of the difference between 
 orderly presentation of events and aimless wandering, 
 to deepen the feeling for correct structure, and knowledge 
 of the right use of the capitals and the elementary punctu- 
 ation marks. 
 
 7. Written Standards 
 
 1. Last week I went to my aunt's in the country. My uncle 
 had a little kitten. He gave it to my mother, and she loved it. 
 I wanted to take it, but my uncle didn't let me. He said the 
 mother cat would scratch my eyes out. 
 
 [88] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FOURTH GRADE 
 
 2. My dog's name is Teddy. He went out in the yard yester- 
 day. He played with my cat, Toodles. The cat jumped on his 
 back and Teddy gave him a ride. Then Teddy came in and 
 slept under the lounge. 
 
 3. When I was coming to school this morning I saw a dead 
 chicken. A boy was carrying it to the ash man. I saw him put 
 it in the ash barrel. I felt very sorry to see the dead chicken. I 
 think the cat killed it. 
 
 Note. By the end of the school year, seventy-five per 
 cent of the pupils in the fourth grade should be able to 
 write as above. 
 
 Rsad Outline for Fifth Grade. 
 
 [89] 
 
Fifth Grade 
 
 1. ORAL 
 
 (Read the section on Oral Language, pages 5-16. Read 
 Outline for Fourth Grade.) 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To make the oral English period one of real interest 
 to the pupils. 
 
 (6) To train the class to talk for a few minutes in the 
 manner suggested by the illustrations, using good enun- 
 ciation and a natural speaking tone. 
 
 (c) To eliminate, through continuous and spirited drill, 
 the errors of speech that are most prevalent. 
 
 (d) To lead pupils to "stick to the point." 
 
 The oral language period has not always been one of 
 very lively interest to children, because the teacher her- 
 self has not always taken thought to motivate this work so 
 as to make it seem really worth while. This has un- 
 questionably been due to the fact that in the past the 
 teacher's attention has been centered largely on written 
 language. The course here submitted has emphasized 
 throughout that good written work is largely dependent 
 on good oral work. The teacher who believes this will 
 not be content hereafter to conduct the oral language 
 exercise as a rather aimless, boresome performance, the 
 sooner over with the better. She will see to it that the 
 dynamic element is not lacking. The boy who stands up 
 to tell his experience must be induced somehow to feel 
 that the listening class expects him to be interesting. 
 He must realize that his effort will be interesting only 
 if he presents with enthusiasm something that he knows 
 and really wishes to communicate. If the teacher estab- 
 lishes the right atmosphere, she will get something in the 
 
 [90] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIFTH GRADE 
 
 way of this attitude during the oral composition period. 
 Lacking the right atmosphere, the oral composition period 
 will hardly justify the time spent upon it. 
 
 2. Examples of Oral Composition 
 
 Great emphasis has been laid in previous grades on the 
 point of keeping the sentences short. This has been done 
 for the purpose of eliminating the long, drawn-out sen- 
 tences (so common in children's speech), interlarded with 
 the connectives "and," "but," and "so." It may be 
 said at this point, however, without fear of being misunder- 
 stood, that there is no particular virtue in continued 
 insistence on the short, "choppy" sentence, if children 
 can use the complex sentence in their speech. Some chil- 
 dren do, very readily, because all children talk with much 
 more freedom than they write. "If my mother does 
 not put water in my bird's dish, he sits on it and keeps 
 chirping till she pays attention to him." This is not a 
 short, "choppy" sentence such as we have been emphasiz- 
 ing. It is one, though, that a pupil in the fifth grade may 
 naturally use, in place of the short, simple sentences into 
 which it may be resolved. If pupils naturally talk in 
 this more flowing manner, by all means let them do it. 
 The illustrations contain several complex sentences that 
 are clearly not beyond the capacity of children in this 
 grade. The point to be remembered is that the sentence 
 we must eliminate is the compound sentence made up 
 of a series of statements strung together. It is surely 
 not too much to expect that five years' drill on this 
 weakness should have the effect of enabling us to 
 send pupils to the sixth grade with the "and" habit 
 rooted out. 
 
 As for subjects, the sources suggested in the lower 
 grades may still be utilized. (See Third Grade Outline, 
 
 [91] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 page 62.) Teachers will still use the straight reproductive 
 exercise sparingly. It is well worth while to read to the 
 class once in a while for the purpose of suggesting ideas and 
 of illustrating how a similar incident or situation might 
 be treated by the pupil. The completion of the un- 
 finished incident is always a challenge. History ceases 
 to be a bare matter of reproduction in the language period 
 if the child translates himself, in imagination, back to 
 the past and personifies his heroes. At best, however, 
 what the pupil gets second-hand, through his reading, 
 is never quite so vital as what comes to him first-hand, 
 through his experience — what he feels, and has seen, 
 and knows. The subjects suggested, therefore, for written 
 composition, which are to be used also for oral com- 
 position, are the kind based on experience. The list of 
 pictures in the Appendix also will serve as subject matter. 
 The teacher who knows how to ask a few stimulating 
 questions cannot help getting ready response when such 
 subjects are suggested. 
 
 It will be noted that one of the aims set down is to lead 
 pupils to "stick to the point." Small children can't 
 be expected to do this. But the fifth-grade teacher 
 should impress upon her pupils that they must not talk 
 about a string of things in their oral compositions, but 
 that they must select some single point, and, as it were, 
 "elaborate" it. What is meant by this term has already 
 been explained in the section on "Written Language," 
 page 27. It is referred to again in the Outline for the 
 Sixth Grade. 
 
 One of My Playthings 
 
 I have a set of cars at home. The engine used to wind up, 
 but it is broken now, so I have to push it along. It was given 
 to me one Sunday morning. I came downstairs and went over 
 to the sewing machine. I looked on the top of it and there 
 
 [92] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIFTH GRADE 
 
 was a bundle. Written right on the bundle was my nam*. I 
 opened it and there was a set of cars. 
 
 Observation of Nature 
 
 The outside gong at our school was broken. One afternoon 
 a man came to fix it. He found a bird's nest with two little 
 speckled eggs in it, inside the bell. We decided to use another 
 bell for the rest of the year, so as not to disturb the mother bird. 
 We have seen her hopping on the window. Today we heard the 
 little baby birds peeping in the nest. 
 
 My Ride on a Roller Coaster 
 
 When I first got on the roller coaster, I thought I was going 
 on a level road, but my heart sank when I went down and then 
 up so fast. My mother said that if I had been as well used to 
 them as she was, I never should have felt it at all. It went so 
 fast I lost my breath. Have you been on one? 
 
 Visit to a Doughnut Factory 
 
 I went through a doughnut factory the other day. I saw men 
 dressed in white suits pushing dough around on big boards. 
 Then the men put the dough in a big machine and doughnuts 
 came out all made, but not cooked. Next they put them in a 
 big oven, and they were brown when they took them out. The 
 man I knew there gave me one. 
 
 June 17th 
 
 On the 17th of June there will be no school. We celebrate 
 it on account of the Battle of Bunker Hill. On this day, if you 
 see flags floating around on any schoolhouse or ordinary house 
 or City Hall, you will know they are celebrating this battle. 
 Everybody shoots off firecrackers and things like that on this 
 day. This year I think I shall go over to Charlestown and see 
 the parade. Then I'm going to Bunker Hill monument and 
 climb to the top, if they will let me. My brother says that you 
 can see everything from there. 
 
 [93] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 3. Common Errors of Speech 
 
 Certain errors are herewith assigned to this grade. 
 The assignment is necessarily arbitrary. If your pupils 
 can work with profit on the matter suggested, drill them 
 without end, using the language game and other similar 
 devices. If the errors listed don't appear in the speech 
 of your pupils, pass them by. Under no circumstances 
 forget that you should continue the task of stamping out 
 errors that have been worked on in the lower grades. 
 "Ain't" and other such mistakes are linguistic weeds. 
 They are hard to kill. No one teacher can complete 
 the task of killing them. Remember that the influence 
 of the street is all against the school in this matter of cor- 
 rectly spoken English. It may even be guessed that the 
 boy himself does not wish to talk correctly. The "crowd" 
 talks incorrectly. The juvenile purist is likely to be an 
 object of scorn. At best, the elimination of the more 
 common inaccuracies is a long-drawn-out task. It means 
 drill, drill, drill, not by one teacher, for one year, but by 
 several teachers, for several years, without any let-up. 
 Don't fail, then, to take up again, if necessary, the mistakes 
 of previous grades, and don't under any circumstances 
 try to correct them through lessons in formal grammar. 
 This warning is here repeated at the risk of its becoming 
 monotonous. Grammar will not cause a child to speak 
 correct English. 
 
 The following list is grouped in: 
 
 (1) Verb errors. 
 
 (2) Pronoun errors. 
 
 (3) Colloquialisms. 
 
 (4) Mispronunciations. 
 
 This is for the teacher's convenience only. It is not to 
 be discussed technically with the children. 
 
 [94] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIFTH GRADE 
 
 Incorrect 
 
 (1) Our piano is broke. 
 He hadn't ought to go. 
 You wasn't on the corner. 
 I come to Cambridge last 
 
 week. 
 I've wrote my spelling 
 
 long ago. 
 She is laying down. 
 He done it. 
 It ain't no use. 
 He seen more than you did. 
 He don't know his lesson. 
 Has the bell rang? 
 
 (2) Them words are too hard. 
 Me and you will go. 
 
 I can write better than him. 
 
 (3) I can copy it off the board. 
 They learn you to cook at 
 
 that school. 
 Take your place in back of 
 
 him. 
 My mother took sick. 
 It won't hurt nothin'. 
 I brought it home to my 
 
 mother. 
 He was to his house. 
 She reads good. 
 They left him go. 
 Look where you're at. 
 The answer what you got is 
 
 right. 
 
 (4) The candy is et up. 
 They was a new book here. 
 Her ran ahead a me. 
 Look at 'em. 
 
 Wait till I get me cap. 
 Watch me ketch it ! 
 May I borry a knife? 
 
 Correct 
 
 Our piano is broken. 
 
 He ought not to go. 
 
 You weren't on the corner. 
 
 I came to Cambridge last week. 
 
 I wrote my spelling long ago. 
 
 She is lying down. 
 
 He did it. 
 
 It isn't any use. 
 
 He saw more than you did. 
 
 He doesn't know his lesson. ! 
 
 Has the bell rung? 
 
 Those words are too hard. 
 
 You and I will go. 
 
 I can write better than he. 
 
 I can copy it from the board. 
 They teach you to cook at that 
 
 school. 
 Take your place behind him. 
 
 My mother was taken ill. 
 
 It won't hurt at all. 
 
 I took it home to my mother. 
 
 He was at his house. 
 
 She reads well. 
 
 They let him go. 
 
 See where you are. 
 
 The answer you obtained is right. 
 
 The candy has all been eaten. 
 
 There was a new book here. 
 
 She ran ahead of me. 
 
 Look at them. 
 
 Wait until I get my cap. 
 
 Watch me catch it ! 
 
 May I borrow a knife? 
 
 £. Hints and Helps 
 
 (a) Keep the following points constantly before the 
 pupil : Stand erect. Speak distinctly. Be careful of your 
 " ands." 
 
 (6) Remember that a natural speaking tone is one 
 that can be heard easily by the boy in the last seat. It 
 is not unnatural shouting, any more than it is indistinct 
 muttering. 
 
 [95] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 (c) Look out for the final syllables and consonants. 
 Use the enunciation drills regularly. 
 
 (d) Don't kill the child's spontaneity by interruptions 
 during the oral language period. Correct for one thing 
 at a time. 
 
 (e) Every recitation is an oral language lesson. Pupils 
 should stand up straight, talk distinctly, and with cor- 
 rectness at all times. Teachers should not fill out a pupil's 
 answer or statement in a recitation. 
 
 (f) Fight against the rising inflection. 
 
 (g) Be sure that every pupil is given a chance to talk. 
 Don't develop a few "star performers." 
 
 2. WRITTEN 
 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To give pupils the power to write a short para- 
 graph or letter made up of short, clean-cut sentences. 
 (See standard, page 102.) 
 
 (b) To drill on the words commonly misspelled and 
 on common grammatical errors. 
 
 (c) To secure complete mastery of the few techni- 
 calities noted. 
 
 (d) To insist on neatness and good arrangement in 
 all written work. 
 
 2. Types of Work 
 (a) Sentences 
 
 By this time pupils should have the "sentence sense" 
 pretty well established. If the "Child's Error" still 
 appears, continue to use such devices as those suggested 
 under this same heading for Grade IV. Remember that 
 one of the primary aims of this entire course is to eliminate 
 the over-long sentence and the "non-sentence" from the 
 written page. With this idea in mind, it will still be 
 C96] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIFTH GRADE 
 
 wise to emphasize the short, simple sentence in Grade V. 
 The longer type of the complex variety may be used by 
 many fifth-graders in talking, but the attempt to transfer 
 it to paper often results in the "clause sentence," with 
 which teachers are so familiar. Of course, it goes without 
 saying that the pupil with a natural style is not to be held 
 back. We should be thankful for everything that we may 
 be able to secure beyond the reasonable requirements set 
 down. The majority of the class, however, should be 
 held for those reasonable requirements, especially for the 
 power to use the simple sentence without bungling. Begin 
 to emphasize the use of simple interrogative and exclama- 
 tory sentences by way of variety. 
 
 (b) The Paragraph 
 
 No attempt whatever should be made to study the 
 construction of the paragraph. The form only should be 
 insisted on, with particular attention to the matter of 
 indention and mechanical neatness. In length, it should 
 not exceed more than a half page. Children at this age 
 grow careless unless written work is kept within rather 
 restricted bounds. 
 
 As for the subject matter for these paragraphs, what 
 has been said regarding this point under the head of "Oral 
 English" applies with equal force here. The subjects 
 listed are in the main of the " incident " type, based on 
 the child's own experience. 
 
 Teachers will please bear in mind what has been written 
 in another place concerning the kind of subject that should 
 be assigned, and will see to it that only such subjects are 
 presented to the children. If the paragraph is to be 
 short and bright, rather than long and dull, the subjects 
 must be right. A little precaution in this respect is worth 
 much indeed. 
 
 [97] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 (c) The Short, Familiar Letter 
 
 The letter should form an important part of the written 
 work. Remember that the form of the letter must be 
 just so. Capitalization, punctuation, and general set-up 
 must be not nearly correct, but absolutely correct. A 
 standard form for the friendly letter is given in the Ap- 
 pendix, page 192. This form has presumably been taught 
 in the fourth grade. Make sure, by means of an occasional 
 dictation, that the pupil has it well in mind. The con- 
 tents of these letters should be of the sort already dwelt 
 upon. Pupils should write as they actually feel — 
 intimate, real letters such as they might wish to send to 
 their young friends or to "grown-ups" whom they like. 
 (See models for Grade IV.) 
 
 (d) Copying and Dictation 
 
 These two forms should be employed for the purpose of 
 teaching and testing technicalities. Copies should be set 
 on the blackboard of sentences illustrating correct use of 
 capitals, the letter form, etc. This work is logically 
 followed by the short dictation exercise. This latter 
 may consist of a single sentence at one time and of a whole 
 short paragraph at another. The good dictation exer- 
 cise should be definite and planned for the needs of the 
 class. It should be chosen for a purpose: at one time to 
 teach the punctuation of the grade; at another for the 
 use of capitals, etc. Dictation exercises may often be 
 written on the blackboard and studied with special atten- 
 tion to points of special difficulty. A curtain or map 
 may be drawn over the exercise, and pupils asked to write 
 with one, and only one, reading by the teacher. For 
 correction, let the curtain be removed and comparisons 
 made, the teacher standing by the board and calling 
 attention to the various points. Papers may be exchanged 
 
 [98] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIFTH GRADE 
 
 and additional errors looked for. The pupils may be asked 
 to turn papers over and write again for improved results. 
 Before pupils hand their work to either pupils or teacher, 
 they should look on their papers for the detection of any 
 errors. 
 
 3. Topics for Paragraphs 
 
 SCHOOL 
 
 The School Team. 
 
 Why I Like the Period. 
 
 How I Explained My Tardiness to the Principal. 
 
 A Tree Tells Its Story. 
 
 A Visit to the Office. 
 
 Waiting for School to Dismiss. 
 
 Our Victrola. 
 
 The Snow Rally. 
 
 The Sewing Lesson. 
 
 If I Were Teacher. 
 
 What We Laughed At. 
 
 Staying after School. 
 
 My Favorite Song, and Why I Like It. 
 
 SPOBTS 
 
 How to Make a Kite. 
 
 Playing Croquet. 
 
 Digging Clams. 
 
 My First Fish. 
 
 Making a Snow Man. 
 
 Playing School with My Dolls. 
 
 Our Neighborhood Circus. 
 
 Picking Berries. 
 
 How I Learned to Skate (or Swim, or Ride a Bicycle). 
 
 The First Coast of the Winter. 
 
 A Hot Afternoon. 
 
 An Exciting Swim. 
 
 [99] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 My Lucky Day. 
 
 Indian Relics in Peabody Museum. 
 
 What I Saw when Carrying Dinners. 
 
 A Frightened Animal. 
 
 Burning the Leaves. 
 
 A Ride with the Grocer. 
 
 The Clown. 
 
 Getting the Cows. 
 
 Taking Pictures. 
 
 A Picture in Our House. 
 
 Why I'd Like to Be a Letter Carrier. 
 
 What I Saw at the Aquarium. 
 
 How I Help to Keep the City Clean. 
 
 A Rainy Afternoon Party. 
 
 What I Wish to Be When I Grow Up, 
 
 When Grandma Comes to Visit Us. 
 
 The Policeman on Our Beat. 
 
 How a Boy Makes Good. 
 
 Fun at the Street Fountain. 
 
 Working on a Farm. 
 
 Feeding the Chickens. 
 
 In the Hayfield. 
 
 Startled by a Snake. 
 
 Cleaning My Yard. 
 
 The Street I Live On. 
 
 My Canary Bird. 
 
 An Afternoon at the Theater. 
 
 Working on Saturday. 
 
 My Whirligig. 
 
 When I Got Dinner. 
 
 A Man I Like. 
 
 My Baby Brother (or Sister). 
 
 How to Wash Dishes. 
 
 ElOO] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIFTH GRADE 
 
 b. Technicalities 
 
 (a) Capitals. Titles of compositions. As involved in 
 simple quotations, and in form of familiar letter. Super- 
 scription on envelope. 
 
 (6) Abbreviations and Contractions. Abbreviations as 
 they come up in arithmetic and geography. Of proper 
 names: Mr. Geo., etc. Such common contractions as 
 we're, you're, I'll, etc. Carry these over into the spelling 
 period. 
 
 (c) Punctuation. Punctuation involved in simple direct 
 quotations; and in the heading, salutation, and con- 
 clusion of familiar letters. Superscription on envelope. 
 The possessive singular. 
 
 (d) Grammatical Errors. Common errors as they ap- 
 pear in writing. (See list of spoken errors for Grade V, 
 page 95.) 
 
 5. Words Commonly Misspelled 
 
 all right 
 
 color 
 
 laughed 
 
 tired 
 
 already 
 
 coming 
 
 minute 
 
 too 
 
 beginning 
 
 dropped 
 
 people 
 
 truly 
 
 believe 
 
 easily 
 
 quiet 
 
 until 
 
 busy 
 
 enough 
 
 receive 
 
 weather 
 
 business 
 
 friend 
 
 studied 
 
 women 
 
 carriage 
 
 heard 
 
 their 
 
 written 
 
 caught 
 
 know 
 
 there 
 
 
 answered 
 
 except 
 
 
 trouble 
 
 cities 
 
 handkerchief 
 
 umbrella 
 
 cousin 
 
 neighboi 
 
 
 useful 
 
 cotton 
 
 oblige 
 
 
 village 
 
 different 
 
 pleasanl 
 
 
 whom 
 
 drawer 
 
 replied 
 
 
 woolen 
 
 either 
 
 straight 
 
 
 
 [101] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 6. Hints and Helps 
 
 (a) Talking should almost invariably precede writing. 
 (6) Frequently study and copy short models. 
 
 (c) "Keep the written composition short and repre- 
 sentative of the pupil's best effort. Pupils should be held 
 responsible for the correct form of the composition, for 
 title, margin, indention, correct spelling, etc. They should 
 form the habit of looking over all written work carefully 
 before handing it in, in order to correct their mistakes. 
 A pupil's composition should frequently be copied on the 
 board for his criticism and correction." 
 
 (d) Correct one kind of mistake at a time. 
 
 (e) Don't assign general subjects. Make them specific 
 and limited. 
 
 (f) Make no attempt to analyze the paragraph idea 
 in this grade. Teach the form only. 
 
 (g) Use red ink or blue pencil in correcting. 
 (h) Make corrections few, significant, and neat. 
 
 (i) Don't allow pupils to form wrong habits in copy- 
 ing and dictation work. Read chapter on these topics. 
 
 7. Written Standards 
 
 Do Cats or Dogs Make Better Pets ? 
 I think cats are better pets than dogs, because they are more 
 playful. Some cats are good mousers. When a stranger comes 
 in, a cat will not bark like a dog. I have a cat and a little kitten. 
 Most all the time they are playing together. The little kitten 
 will run up a board. The big cat will climb up after it and bring 
 it down. They are very cunning. 
 
 Last Night 
 Last night we played hospital. The dolls were sick. They 
 all died. They were our children. We were in mourning for 
 them. We had a sorrowful time but we enjoyed it. 
 
 ^ [ 102 ] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: FIFTH GRADE 
 
 A Lucky Accident 
 A few days ago I dropped my pocketbook in a dish pan of 
 water. I told my father about it. He said he would buy me a 
 new one. In it he put a half dollar. I wish accidents of that 
 kind would happen every day. 
 
 My Friend 
 I have a friend who lives next door. His name is Prince. One 
 Saturday his master had to go away. He asked me to take care 
 of Prince while he was gone. We had a fine time together. 
 When his master came back Prince did not want to go home. 
 I hope his master will let him come again. 
 
 What I Saw 
 The other day as I was going home from school I saw a cat 
 with her kittens. The cat had four of them on her back. I 
 think they were going for a ride. They seemed very happy 
 perched up there. I think if I were a kitten I would like to ride 
 on my mother's back. 
 
 The above have been selected as standards simply be- 
 cause they seem to illustrate pretty well the sort of com- 
 position that should satisfy the fifth-grade teacher. No 
 teacher who tries this course out ought to expect, during 
 the first year of trial, to secure English just like these 
 samples from her entire class. The building up of the 
 English habits illustrated is not accomplished without the 
 expenditure of considerable time. If the course has been 
 in use for a reasonable period, however, it is fair to expect 
 that children in the fifth grade should write English com- 
 parable to the above. The few gifted children in the class 
 will do much better. No child should fall far short of 
 doing as well. If the teachers of Grade V will secure in 
 their classes as a whole results such as those illustrated, 
 the teachers of Grade VI will be somewhat content. 
 
 Read Outline for Sixth Grade. 
 
 [ 103] 
 
Sixth Grade 
 
 1. ORAL 
 
 (Read the section on Oral Language, pages 5-16. Read 
 Outline for Fifth Grade.) 
 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To give such thought to the handling of the oral 
 language period that it will cease to be either a terror or a 
 bore to the pupils. 
 
 (6) Still keeping in mind the short sentence as the safe 
 unit in speech, to strive for easy transitions as a step 
 toward fluency. 
 
 (c) To insist and insist in every lesson of the day on 
 clear enunciation and a natural speaking voice. 
 
 (d) To continue the fight against common errors of 
 speech. 
 
 (e) To train children to handle a single phase of a sub- 
 ject and to stick to the point. 
 
 Topics (c) and (d) above have been emphasized in the 
 work of every grade from the first up. It is not to be 
 expected, however, no matter how conscientiously teachers 
 may have labored in the lower grades, that the task is 
 done. Indeed, any sign of a let-up at this time or later 
 will set back lamentably any advance that has been made. 
 It is too often the story in school work that the fruits of 
 victory are never gathered because some teacher stops 
 firing before the enemy is really vanquished. Right habits 
 of speech, distinct enunciation, the development of an 
 easy natural speaking voice — these things will be secured 
 only through the concerted, unremitting efforts of every 
 teacher in every grade, 1 not omitting the teachers in the 
 high school. The task may seem overwhelming at times, 
 when one considers that the school day is only five hours 
 
 1 Of course, for the teacher in the rural or the ungraded school the 
 task is simpler, for pupils of the various grades are in daily classroom 
 contact. 
 ' [ 104 ] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SIXTH GRADE 
 
 long, and that children are exposed for as long a time daily, 
 or longer, to the language habits of the street. The task 
 is a hard one, but it can be accomplished, if every teacher 
 takes up the work where the previous teacher has left off. 
 It must not be confined to fifteen-minute drills now and 
 then, such as have been heretofore suggested. Every 
 lesson is a language lesson. Strive to get clear enunciation 
 in all recitations. Be careful of mumbling and half- 
 audible speech at all times. Remember that the boy 
 in the back seat should hear what the boy (or girl) in the 
 front seat says. And remember, too, that the sixth- 
 grader is not beyond third-grade drill in sounding final 
 consonants and pronouncing "ings." The teacher who in 
 the sixth grade continues to exercise constant vigilance in 
 the matter of pleasing speech will do a very important 
 piece of work. For, as has been said, people talk more 
 than they write. The schools, it would seem, have over- 
 looked this fact in the past. 
 Continue the articulation drills. 
 
 2. Examples of Oral Composition 
 
 The sort of work to be expected from the sixth grade is 
 indicated below. The subject matter for such work will 
 still be based largely on the pupil's experience, and the 
 teacher is advised to turn to the list included in the Out- 
 line for Written Work, "Topics for Paragraphs" (pages 
 116-117), for suggestions as to the subjects themselves. 
 The illustrations cited below begin to show a more easy, 
 flowing style, caused by the occasional use of the complex 
 sentence, and once in a while a good transition phrase. 
 Not all pupils will display power along this line. Some 
 will still confine themselves to the straight "subject, verb, 
 object" sentence, such as we found in the third grade. 
 But even with these non-literary individuals, the teacher 
 
 [105] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 can make a beginning in substituting the more obvious con- 
 nectives for "and," "but," "then." Of course, the sen- 
 tence sense is by this time a sine qua non. The pupil of a 
 linguistic turn may, in this grade, be handling the longer 
 complex sentence with ease. This should not be dis- 
 couraged. Neither, however, should it at this time be es- 
 pecially worked for. Long sentences, even yet, are apt to 
 be dangerous tools. 
 
 One of the aims mentioned in Section 1 is "to train 
 children to handle a single phase of a subject and to stick 
 to the point." This has been mentioned before in the 
 fifth grade. It becomes more and more important as the 
 child goes along. What is meant by handling a single 
 phase of a subject may be best brought out by the con- 
 trast between these two compositions: 
 
 How I Help My Mother 
 
 Every day when I get up in the morning I eat my breakfast, 
 wash the dishes, do the beds, and sweep the floor. Then I get 
 ready to go to school. In the afternoon I just wash the dishes, 
 and my sister sweeps the floor. When I come home from school, 
 I do all the errands. Later I go out to play. When it is five 
 o'clock I go home and stay home. At six o'clock we have supper. 
 When we are all over with supper, I gather the dishes from the 
 table. When I am done, I start to wash the dishes. When 
 I have finished I say my prayers and go to bed. 
 
 How I Help My Mother 
 
 My share of the housework is washing the dishes. There are 
 six of us at home. So you see we have a great many dishes to 
 wash. I have never tried to reckon it, but I am sure I wash 
 a million in a year. My sister wipes them, and we both wish 
 we lived in the times when people ate out of the same dish with 
 their fingers. We play this game to keep up our courage. We 
 try to do them quicker every week. Last week we gained four 
 minutes. We didn't break any dishes either. 
 
 [106] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SIXTH GRADE 
 
 The above themes are cited in the Lawrence Course of 
 Study as striking illustrations of the right and the wrong 
 way of handling the topic given. The first is a schedule 
 of a day of housework, a mere catalogue of events, correct 
 enough, but wholly uninteresting. The author of the second 
 paragraph chose a single item of the day's work and treated 
 it in a very interesting way. It is this treatment of the 
 paragraph that the sixth grade should strive for. 
 
 How to Keep a Neat Desk 
 
 Keeping a neat desk is a very easy thing to do. The desk 
 must be cleared out once a week, then everything put back in 
 good order, with the books on one side, papers, pencils, and pens 
 on the other. To make it look neat, the larger books should be 
 at the bottom, with the smaller placed on top of them according 
 to their size. If there is a penwiper and other small things of that 
 sort, such as pencil sharpener or penknife, it would be a good 
 plan to have them kept in a little box at the back of the desk. 
 It would be best, if there is a blotter, to put it on top of the papers 
 in the middle. Only as many papers as are necessary should be 
 kept in the desk. The top of the desk should be kept clean 
 and free from dust. The ink-well cover should be closed except 
 when the ink is being used. When leaving school at night, 
 nothing should be left on the top of the desk. 
 
 A Hallowe'en Scare 
 
 Last year at Hallowe'en time the children on the top floor of 
 our house held a Hallowe'en party. Before the guests came, 
 some of the children dressed up as ghosts and hid in a corner in 
 the entry. When the guests came to the corner of the entry, 
 the ghosts came out and frightened them so much that they ran 
 down the steps as fast as they could. Then the ghosts took 
 off their masks, ran after their guests, and invited them to come 
 back to the house. Soon all the children came back into the 
 house, now aware that it was their friends who had frightened 
 them. Games were played and a very happy evening was spent. 
 
 [107] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Getting Up on a "Zero" Morning 
 
 When I awoke one morning this winter, I thought my room 
 looked cold. I happened to glance at the windows. They were 
 so white with frost I could not see out of them ! I knew then that 
 Jack Frost had made a visit during the night. I put my arm 
 outside the bedclothing and a chill went through me. My 
 mother called to me and I shivered at the thoughts of getting up. 
 At last I got up courage enough to jump out of the bed. I 
 immediately ran to the window and closed it, as I had it open all 
 night to let the fresh air in. I felt that I had fresh air enough. 
 While I was dressing I nearly froze. I thought to myself that 
 Iceland or Greenland couldn't be much colder than that room. 
 After I got my clothes on, I went into the bathroom and plunged 
 my face and hands into a bowl of cold water. Then I rubbed 
 my skin with a Turkish towel till it got very red. I felt much 
 warmer and decided that I could go down to breakfast. 
 
 When Mother Goes Away 
 
 When mother goes away, I dress up in her old clothes and make 
 believe that I am the mother. I take care of baby, and make sure 
 to have all the work done when she comes home. I like to get 
 the supper, too, but father always makes fun of my cooking. 
 When mother goes away in the summer and takes baby, I dress 
 my doll up in some of the baby's clothes, so that people think 
 it's a real baby that I am carrying. I take out all my playthings 
 and play house. Mother says I will make a good housekeeper. 
 She then gives me cake and bread, and other things to play with. 
 I invite some of my girl friends, and we have much fun playing. 
 
 An Exciting Game 
 
 Yesterday morning after breakfast I went out in the street 
 to play cowboy. Another boy and I were the sheriffs. My 
 brother and Joe Small were bandits. The truck was the stage- 
 coach. The two sheriffs guarded the stage coach when it went 
 to get the things we called jewels. Our steps were the camp 
 where the cowboys lived. As we got near the camp, the bandits 
 
 [108] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SIXTH GRADE 
 
 attacked the coach. We heard the driver call for help. We ran 
 back and captured the bandits. We put them in handcuffs, 
 which we made out of wire. Then we took the bandits to 
 prison. As we were letting the bandits out of prison we heard 
 the twelve o'clock whistles blowing. That meant that it was 
 time for us to go in to dinner. 
 
 Camping 
 
 I go to Mattapoisett in the summer and play with a little boy 
 who comes from Melrose Highlands. Last summer we made a 
 camp in the yard, all by ourselves. No big boys helped us, 
 either. Mother cooked the potatoes in the house and then let 
 us take them, pot and all, out into the camp. She was afraid 
 to let us make a fire and we did want some smoke. What do 
 you suppose we did? You can't guess? Well, we have some- 
 thing that keeps mosquitoes away, which smokes a lot, and 
 doesn't flame up or burn you. We had two of them, and they 
 made piles of smoke. We had packs of fun. 
 
 3. Errors of Speech 
 
 The errors suggested below are listed for the purpose of 
 hinting at the different kinds of inaccuracies that the 
 teacher may expect to find in the children's speech. Ob- 
 viously it would be a waste of time for a teacher to use this 
 list, textbook fashion, and take up every error regardless 
 of the weaknesses of the children along this line. Much 
 better rather is it for the teacher, bearing in mind the 
 different tendencies toward verb errors, pronoun errors, 
 colloquialisms, and the like, to note these different errors 
 as they actually occur in the classroom, and drill on them. 
 Technical grammar is taught for the first time in this 
 grade. But even at this stage these grammatical mis- 
 takes are not to be corrected through the medium of 
 technical grammar. The only sure way of purifying the 
 child's speech is the way of causing him to repeat the 
 right form, until it becomes natural for him to say it. 
 
 [109] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Use a language game for a few minutes every day. (See 
 Appendix, pages 184-189.) Refer constantly to "Lan- 
 guage Games for all Grades," for ideas as to how the 
 common error is to be dealt with. 
 
 Incorrect 
 
 (1) The ice had broke. 
 The picture is tore. 
 
 I seen him when he done it. 
 I come to school early this 
 
 morning. 
 There was two new boys in 
 
 the yard. 
 He done his work first. 
 You wasn't there. 
 'Taint no good. 
 She don't want them. 
 
 (2) Hand me them books. 
 Who is going, you or me? 
 It was me that lent the 
 
 book. 
 
 (3) John took my knife off me. 
 It sort of makes you afraid. 
 Leave me see. 
 
 I have a book what has no 
 
 cover. 
 Mary talked like he did. 
 Can I speak to her? 
 Here, look 't. 
 He was to church. 
 It went fine. 
 Where are you at? 
 We won't have no school 
 
 today. 
 The water pipe is all froze 
 
 up. 
 
 (4) What are you doin' ? 
 Are they any school? 
 
 I'm a thinkin' a going to- 
 night. 
 Gimme a book. 
 Kin you ketch the ball ? 
 Give it to 'em. 
 
 Correct 
 
 The ice had broken. 
 
 The picture is torn. 
 
 I saw him when he did it. 
 
 I came to school early this morn- 
 ing. 
 
 There were two new boys in the 
 yard. 
 
 He did his work first. 
 
 You weren't there. 
 
 It isn't any good. 
 
 She doesn't want them. 
 
 Hand me those books. 
 
 Who is going, you or I ? 
 
 It was I who lent the book. 
 
 John took my knife from me. 
 It rather makes you afraid. 
 Let me see. 
 I have a book that has no cover. 
 
 Mary talked as he did. 
 
 May I speak to her? 
 
 Here, look. 
 
 He was at church. 
 
 It went well. 
 
 Where are you? 
 
 We won't have any school today. 
 
 The water pipe is completely 
 frozen. 
 
 What are you doing? 
 
 Is there any school? 
 
 I am thinking of going tonight. 
 
 Give me a book. 
 
 Can you catch the ball? 
 
 Give it to them. 
 
 4- Hints and Helps 
 
 (a) Keep the following points constantly before the 
 pupils : Stand erect. Speak distinctly. Be careful of 
 your "ands." 
 
 [110] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SIXTH GRADE 
 
 (6) Make the pupils feel that they are to be credited 
 in language not only for their ability to write, but also for 
 their ability to talk. The one is as important as the other. 
 The boy that talks correctly and interestingly will write 
 in the same way. 
 
 (c) The "and" habit should be completely conquered 
 in this grade. 
 
 (d) Don't kill the child's spontaneity by interruptions 
 while he is talking. Don't allow him to be interrupted, 
 either, by others in the class. 
 
 (e) Look out for the final syllables and consonants. 
 Use the enunciation drills suggested under "Oral English," 
 page 12. 
 
 (f) Be sure that every pupil is given a chance to 
 talk. The easy talker should not monopolize too much 
 time. 
 
 (g) Don't allow a pupil to talk on and on. The class 
 loses interest in the performance, and the pupil himself 
 grows careless in his speech. 
 
 2. WRITTEN 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To complete the work of establishing the sentence 
 sense. 
 
 (6) To develop the power to write a short paragraph 
 with some attention to arrangement of ideas. 
 
 (c) To write and send frequently short, familiar letters. 
 
 (d) To drill on the words commonly misspelled and on 
 common grammatical errors. 
 
 (e) To secure complete mastery of the few technicalities 
 noted. 
 
 (/) To insist on neatness and good arrangement in all 
 written work. 
 
 [Ill] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 2. Types of Work 
 
 (a) Sentences 
 
 The first aim set down above is "to complete the work 
 of establishing the sentence sense." This means just what 
 it says. No pupil who has had six years of continuous 
 instruction in this particular should go on to the seventh 
 grade writing the "comma sentence," the "clause sen- 
 tence," or the quasi-compound sentence sprinkled with 
 "ands." It must not be forgotten, however, that for some 
 time after this course appears, sixth-grade pupils will not 
 have been subjected to all this preliminary drill. At the 
 same time it may be noted that while in general the sen- 
 tence sense is not a difficult thing to impart, there are 
 some more or less subtle phases of it that for a long time 
 baffle children. Pupils who, for instance, would never 
 think of using a comma instead of a period to close a 
 sentence will, nevertheless, use a period instead of a comma 
 before an appended clause, and thus produce the effect 
 of hanging the latter in mid-air. The sixth-grade teacher 
 will be troubled by this. She will also be troubled by the 
 fact that just now her pupils will come to her not well 
 grounded in the more simple aspects of sentence formation, 
 as just noted. Nevertheless, we shall still insist that 
 pupils go to the seventh grade equipped to handle the 
 simple sentence with assurance. If the class is found 
 to be "sentence weak," there should be much blackboard 
 work. If only individuals are weak, they should be 
 coached individually on this point alone, until all traces 
 of weakness disappear. In this grade the sentence exer- 
 cises found in Lewis's Manual of Composition should 
 prove very helpful. Teachers can also continue to use, 
 with profit, the devices suggested in Grades IV and V 
 for sentence betterment. 
 
 On the positive side the teacher may well make a 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SIXTH GRADE 
 
 beginning in this grade of getting the effect of variety 
 by encouraging the use of interrogative and exclamatory 
 sentences. During the previous year the teacher may have 
 done something in this particular, since it has been men- 
 tioned, more or less incidentally, in the outline for the fifth 
 grade. In the sixth grade there is a good opportunity to 
 connect it with the work in formal grammar, which treats 
 of kinds of sentences in some detail. The beginnings and 
 the endings of themes, in particular, may be made dif- 
 ferent, if children can be given some skill in using in- 
 terrogative or exclamatory sentences in those places. 
 
 Work of this kind can be very easily overdone, however, 
 and may result in a forced, unnatural effect that would 
 much better be avoided. The teacher will do well to rely 
 a good deal on the reading of the model for the imparting 
 of language effects of this kind. "Language is caught — 
 not taught." Imitation is a powerful factor in producing 
 English of quality. But pupils do not naturally react 
 quickly to a language stimulus of this sort. The child's 
 power to write anything other than correct English can 
 be trained, but it can't be forced. The teacher should be 
 content with slow progress here. The work will be carried 
 along farther by the teacher in the seventh and in the 
 eighth grade. 
 
 The most important thing for the teacher of the sixth 
 grade to remember is that, regardless of this matter of 
 developing English power, which is more or less optional 
 with her, depending on the linguistic ability of her class, 
 she must send pupils to the seventh grade with the sentence 
 sense established, to the end that in the seventh grade 
 effective work may be done along more advanced lines. 
 
 (6) The Paragraph 
 
 In this, as in previous grades, the word "paragraph" 
 is intended to indicate simply the length of the pupil's 
 
 [113] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 effort. Themes should not exceed, in general, fifteen 
 lines, just about the number that would normally con- 
 stitute a paragraph. The mechanical form is to be rigidly 
 insisted on; i.e., indention, the set-up of the page, and so 
 on. But the technical structure is not to be studied. 
 At the same time pupils can be led to appreciate the differ- 
 ence between the paragraph that has some unity (though 
 this word is taboo) and the one that is a mere uninteresting 
 catalogue of facts. This distinction has been already 
 brought out and illustrated under the head of "Oral 
 Language" for this grade (page 106). What has there 
 been said applies here. Oral language and written lan- 
 guage are but two halves of a whole. 
 
 (c) The Familiar Letter 
 
 The form of the letter and of the envelope should be 
 just so. It is true that there is more than one form in 
 good use. It has seemed best, however, to require that 
 in the elementary school we teach only one and insist on 
 that. Pupils may indulge their own tastes in the matter 
 later. For the present they must learn thoroughly how 
 to punctuate and capitalize, exactly as prescribed in the 
 model form. (See Appendix, page 192.) Nothing is so 
 inexcusable as to allow our pupils to graduate without 
 a certain-sure knowledge of the form of social corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 The content of these letters is, however, the side of this 
 work that should most concern the teacher. It has been 
 said in another place that school compositions are often 
 dull and lifeless because children see no purpose in the 
 writing of them. Children can be made to see a purpose 
 in writing letters, especially if the teacher frequently sees 
 to it that these letters go to some destination other than 
 the wastebasket. Lacking other correspondents, pupils 
 
 [114] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SIXTH GRADE 
 
 may be allowed to write letters even one to another. 
 It is not difficult to furnish the element of purpose 
 to this work, if some little thought is given to it. 
 Only by doing this can teachers secure anything ap- 
 proaching a real letter, the kind that is written be- 
 cause of a real desire on the part of the pupil to tell 
 something to somebody. It goes without saying, of 
 course, that all letters written in the classroom can't 
 be actually sent. It is true, however, that the clever 
 teacher will not find it necessary to send them all, or 
 nearly all, in order to maintain interest. A little atten- 
 tion here goes a long way. 
 
 (d) Copying and Dictation 
 
 By this time the pupil should have attained such fa- 
 cility in copying that less time need be devoted to 
 it. If, however, such is found to be not the case, by 
 all means let it be kept up. Children are given practice 
 in this work so that they may learn to copy with ab- 
 solute correctness and without undue loss of time. 
 Generally speaking, our upper-grade pupils are weak 
 in these particulars today because of lack of sufficient 
 intelligent attention to the work of copying lower down. 
 That the power to copy correctly and rapidly is of 
 practical value is given ample evidence by the im- 
 portance attached to it in the world of business. Time 
 can be wasted in this exercise, however, very easily. 
 For mistakes to be avoided, the teacher is referred to 
 what has been written on this topic under "Written 
 Language" (pages 34-38). 
 
 The dictation exercise is to be given mainly to test the 
 pupil's power to use correctly the technicalities that the 
 pupil is supposed to know. It is not a sure test, as else- 
 where stated, because it is no extraordinary thing for a 
 
 [115] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 pupil to set down a quotation, for instance, correctly in 
 the dictation exercise, and yet slip up on the same point 
 when writing a theme. Nevertheless, it is a great aid in 
 clinching language forms, and the oftener used, the more 
 certain are those forms to become matters of habit. The 
 correct form of the letter, correct capitalization, and 
 such other technicalities as the needs of the class require 
 should be frequently tested. (For more on this point see 
 under the same heading for Grade V, page 98.) 
 
 3. Topics for Paragraphs 
 
 SCHOOL 
 
 The School Yard at Recess. 
 
 The Boy (Girl) in Front of Me. 
 
 How to Keep a Neat Desk. 
 
 My First Day in School after a Month's Absence. 
 
 How the Ink was Spilled. 
 
 Running Errands for the Teacher. 
 
 The Spelling Match. 
 
 Our Christmas Entertainment. 
 
 Listening for the No Session Bell. 
 
 Monologue — by a School Clock. 
 
 Why I Wasn't Promoted. 
 
 At Dancing School. 
 
 What I Saw a Boy (Girl) Do. 
 
 SPORTS 
 
 Coasting. 
 
 A Potato Roast. 
 
 Doing the Dead Man's Float. 
 
 My First Night Sleeping on the Ground. 
 
 A Bicycle Ride. 
 
 Fishing through the Ice. 
 
 A Hallowe'en Scare. 
 
 How to Play Golf. 
 
 My New Toy. 
 
 [116] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SIXTH GRADE 
 
 Camping Out. 
 
 An Automobile Ride. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 The Scarecrow. 
 
 Getting Up on a Zero Morning. 
 Our Program on the Afternoon before April 19. 
 How to Procure a Library Card. 
 How to Treat a Frightened Horse. 
 Vn Anecdote about Washington. 
 When My Ship Comes in. 
 Being Housekeeper. 
 A Week-End Vacation. 
 Experiences of a Messenger Boy. 
 The Boy Who Plays with Me. 
 My Birthday Party. 
 The Story I Like Best. 
 What I Would Do in Case of Fire. 
 The Mysterious Disappearance. 
 An Important Telephone. 
 
 Going to the Store in the Morning for Mother. 
 When Mother Goes away. 
 If I Had My Own Way. 
 The Busy English Sparrow. 
 How I Made My Garden. 
 How We Earned Our Christmas Tree. 
 How to Sew on a Button. 
 Our Silly Puppy. 
 My First Long Trousers. 
 The First Time I Fired a Gun. 
 A Peculiar Mistake. 
 Playing Soldier. 
 Taking Pictures. 
 At the Moving Pictures. 
 Climbing Bunker Hill Monument. 
 The Baby at Our House. 
 What Frightened Me. 
 
 [117] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 £. Technicalities 
 
 (a) Capitals. Titles of persons; religious denomi- 
 nations; political parties; north, east, etc., as parts of 
 country; rivers, lakes, etc., when used with proper names. 
 
 (b) Abbreviations and Contractions. States and months. 
 Dr., Mr., Rev., a.m., p.m., and others in very common 
 use. Such contractions also as are commonly used: 
 I'll, didn't, they're, let's, o'clock, etc. Review work of 
 previous grades. 
 
 (c) Punctuation. Drill insistently on the punctuation 
 involved in the form of familiar letters and on envelopes. 
 Punctuation involved in the work on simple quotations. 
 Do not spend time on comma in a series and comma after 
 name of person addressed. 
 
 (d) Grammatical Errors. Drill on common errors as 
 they reveal themselves in the written work. See list under 
 "Oral English," page 110. 
 
 5. Words Commonly Misspelled 
 
 already different oblige their 
 
 all right 
 
 enough 
 
 pleasing 
 
 there 
 
 beginning 
 
 except 
 
 quite 
 
 too 
 
 believe 
 
 friend 
 
 really 
 
 truly 
 
 bicycle 
 
 having 
 
 receive 
 
 using 
 
 business 
 
 heard 
 
 replied 
 
 woolen 
 
 coming 
 
 minute 
 
 studying 
 
 writing 
 
 absence 
 
 describe 
 
 separate 
 
 
 allowed 
 
 hurried 
 
 several 
 
 
 attacked 
 
 library 
 
 speech 
 
 
 certainly 
 
 occurred 
 
 surprised 
 
 
 clothing 
 
 seized 
 
 
 
 6. Hints and Helps 
 
 As a rule, compositions should not be rewritten. The 
 pupil should feel that he must give the teacher a careful, 
 
 [118] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SIXTH GRADE 
 
 good-looking piece of work. He should not be asked to 
 dash it off without chance for correcting and remodeling. 
 Rather he should be encouraged to consult dictionaries, 
 to erase and rephrase — on a first rough draft — until 
 it is his best effort. Then a copy is made for the teacher. 
 Further rewriting, in general, should be only for sloven- 
 liness. Weaknesses noted by the teacher should be talked 
 over with the class. It is good policy to concentrate on 
 one or two at a time. Errors should be indicated rather 
 than corrected. Pupils should revise their own work. 
 
 7. Written Standards 
 
 The School Yard at Recess 
 
 The recess bell rings at half-past ten, the drum begins to beat 
 and we file out to the playground. When we are once on the 
 playground, there is an awful rush. Some are playing ball, 
 others are playing jump-rope and "take away." From the 
 playground you can see everything that goes on in the street. 
 The playground is all humps and rather sandy, so that your 
 shoes are all dust when you stop playing. At quarter of eleven 
 the bell rings to go in, and we get in line and go back to work. 
 
 Tanks 
 While visiting a friend a short time ago, I saw a whippet tank. 
 It was being exhibited to boost the Liberty Loan. The men 
 who were driving the tank said it had been "over the top." 
 On its tower was a machine gun. This was fired by the men 
 who were concealed in the tank. I think a tank would be a 
 safe house during a battle. 
 
 A Fright 
 At ten o'clock one night I was walking very quickly down the 
 road toward home. Many stories were told how people had 
 been chased down this road. Suddenly I heard a noise in the 
 bushes. I was almost running by this time. The noise seemed 
 almost beside me. A cat rushed by me. I couldn't have been 
 more frightened if it had been a bear. 
 
 [119] 
 
Seventh Grade 
 
 1. ORAL 
 
 (Read the section on Oral Language, pages 5-16. Read 
 
 Outline for Sixth Grade.) 
 1. Aims 
 
 The teacher who has read this course carefully up to this 
 point — and every seventh-grade teacher should have done 
 this — cannot help appreciating that all the way along 
 we have been insisting in this oral work on a few very 
 specific things. In every grade it has been laid down that 
 pupils should be trained to talk in sentences; that they 
 should be induced to talk with clear enunciation and in 
 a natural speaking tone; that they should be drilled and 
 drilled in correct English forms. Other aims have been 
 set down here and there. But those just mentioned have 
 been kept constantly before the minds of the teachers, and 
 — it is hoped — before the minds of the pupils also in 
 the work of the first six grades. The pupil, accordingly, 
 who comes to the seventh grade after six years of such 
 training should have developed the power of talking for 
 a few minutes upon a subject familiar to him in simple, 
 clear, and grammatical English, with clear enunciation 
 and a natural pitch of voice. Let there be no mistake here. 
 Not every pupil will register one hundred per cent in 
 these particulars. The teacher will continue to find in 
 the seventh grade those upon whom the language of the 
 street still has its hold. She will still find the non-linguistic 
 individual who is panic-stricken into incoherence or dumb- 
 ness when called upon to talk to the class. And most cer- 
 tainly will she find pupils lapsing back into all the errors and 
 all the slovenliness of speech that have been drilled upon, 
 unless she watches with vigilance and works with diligence. 
 The point is, however, that six years of careful training 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SEVENTH GRADE 
 
 even in such a difficult field should have laid a fairly 
 firm foundation for further building. The seventh- 
 grade teacher, while ever watchful to conserve the 
 foundation, should aim to build further along the 
 following lines: 
 
 (a) She should aim to give a real vital purpose to this 
 work of oral language. This has been said several times 
 before. But its importance becomes greater as the pupil 
 advances through the grades. It is a common thing for 
 upper-grade teachers to affirm that it becomes increasingly 
 difficult to get the more advanced pupils to talk, because 
 of increasing self -consciousness. There may be some good 
 psychology in this. It may also be, however, that the 
 older pupil in the past hasn't talked very readily, be- 
 cause he hasn't seen any particular sense in the perform- 
 ance. The oral composition period will always remain 
 a perfunctory time killer, unless the teacher recognizes that 
 she must bring to it just as much thought and skill as she 
 would expend on the developing of a lesson in geography. 
 If she doesn't do this, the work does indeed become per- 
 functory, and the boy or girl of twelve, who is shrewd 
 enough to recognize it as such, soon becomes indifferent. 
 The remedy is to charge this period with interest. The 
 seventh-grader is interested in things just as is the second- 
 grader, and will talk about them if properly stimulated. 
 His interests and activities are, of course, different. He 
 begins to have views, opinions. The teacher should know 
 this and should try to bring them forth. In this grade the 
 oral composition may well call for more sustained effort. 
 The pupil should make a start in expressing his opinions 
 (original or gathered from his reading) of persons, meas- 
 ures, events, books, historical and literary characters. 
 In this grade also it is well to give out topics several days 
 in advance, so that real preparation can be made with 
 
 [121] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 a view to oral presentation. There is no good reason why 
 pupils in the upper grades should wish to have the oral 
 language task done with as soon as possible. The best 
 oral language lesson that the writer has ever witnessed 
 was presented a short time ago by a group of pupils in 
 a Cambridge eighth grade. The boys explained with 
 the aid of blackboard illustrations certain games that 
 were more or less unfamiliar to the girls. The latter recip- 
 rocated with similar illustrated talks on girls' activities. 
 Both boys and girls felt that it was incumbent upon them 
 to make things clear to people who knew nothing about 
 the topic in hand. And they strove with interest to do 
 it. Here was a dynamic situation. No indifference was 
 evident. There will be none, if upper-grade teachers use 
 their ingenuity to insure that pupils "have something 
 to say." 
 
 (b) Building up a vocabulary. This topic has been al- 
 ready considered in the section on " Oral Language " (page 
 15) . In the two upper grades the teacher can do some tell- 
 ing work of this kind. The child's stock of connectives and 
 of transitional words and phrases should be enlarged. Up 
 to now we have been warring against "and," "but," 
 "so," and other such overused connectives. The result 
 has been a certain "choppiness" of style, as the illustra- 
 tions in the previous grades show. Now pupils must use 
 connectives, if their talk is to be at all easy or fluent. 
 The task is to familiarize them, from time to time, 
 with connectives that are in good use. As suggested 
 elsewhere, they may be required to learn lists of such. 
 The teacher would do better, however, to rely on the 
 use of the model in her handling of this phase of 
 language teaching. 
 
 Through the use of the model also the teacher should 
 aim to inculcate a sense of word values. It is not expected 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SEVENTH GRADE 
 
 that grammar school children will become expert in the 
 use of exact, appropriate, and expressive words. All that 
 teachers should hope to do, or try to do, is to awaken in 
 their pupils the beginnings of an appreciation of words., 
 so that some of them, at least, will not be satisfied with the 
 meager stock of worn-out words with which many people 
 are content to express themselves both in speech and 
 writing. Most people stop learning words as soon as they 
 have accumulated a vocabulary sufficient to communicate 
 their commonest wants, and go through life on a fourth- 
 grade vocabulary. The school, therefore, ought to do a 
 little more than it has done to start the current of children's 
 thought in the direction of a better choice of words in their 
 speech and their writing. It is work that will not take 
 much time. Occasional talks upon the value of expressive 
 words, illustrated and reinforced by the reading of selec- 
 tions from writers who are acknowledged masters of the 
 art of diction, will do much to arouse a desire in the pupils 
 to use a livelier verb here or a more expressive adjective 
 there in their written paragraphs. As the pupil listens 
 to something finely said by a master, he catches here and 
 there the choice word and the happy phrase. "Language 
 is caught, not taught." This applies especially to the 
 work of vocabulary building. 
 
 2. Examples of Oral Composition 
 
 The illustrations entered below are not set up as stand- 
 ards. They are samples only of oral work that has actu- 
 ally been secured from Cambridge classrooms during the 
 past year. They are satisfactory in that they are free from 
 errors that we have been fighting thus far. On the 
 positive side, moreover, they show a tendency toward 
 fluency and a clever turn here and there that mark the 
 faint beginnings of "style." The teacher may feel 
 
 [123] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 highly pleased if the majority of her class can talk in the 
 way illustrated. 
 
 Read also what has been written under this heading for 
 the sixth grade (page 105). 
 
 An Amusing Mishap in School 
 
 Several years ago, I remember that there was a httle boy who 
 used to enter our school every morning. Being just a little fel- 
 low, he thought it great fun to go to school. He appeared to be 
 between three and four years of age. He was a poor boy also, 
 I should think, for he had very ragged clothes. One morning 
 he came in the front door and walked along the corridor to our 
 room. Looking in, he was amazed to see all the children. But 
 he walked in just the same and was going to sit down when 
 the teacher opposite us appeared. She asked us why we were 
 laughing. When we told her, she asked a boy to take the 
 intruder home. The poor boy was now very much afraid and 
 never entered the school again. 
 
 An Argument 
 
 Some people think boys are more useful to their parents than 
 girls. Well, maybe they are in some ways, but in my judgment 
 girls are more useful. The boys are very handy in chopping 
 wood and bringing up the coal from the cellar and beating carpets 
 and cleaning up the yard and such things as that. But they 
 can't take a mother's place in the housework. The girls can take 
 a mother's place anywhere. The boys may try, but I don't 
 think they succeed. Then besides, when a boy is playing with 
 his comrades at baseball or anything that is very interesting, 
 you can never get him to do an errand. The girls, on the other 
 hand, think a good deal about what is next to be done at home. 
 
 The houses are kept cleaner when taken care of by a girl. 
 A girl would never think of going out without having the house 
 clean. The most of the boys say, "I will do the work when I 
 come in." But they seldom do. People, of course, think 
 different ways, but I think girls are more useful to their parents. 
 
 [124] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SEVENTH GRADE 
 In the Old Garret 
 
 One afternoon, Elsa and her cousin Alice planned to search 
 their grandmother's garret, for she had many old-fashioned 
 dresses that the children delighted in. 
 
 In the garret it was cool, and Elsa and Alice reached the old 
 cedar chest in which grandma kept the lovely dresses with a 
 sense of pleasure. As they took the clothes out, Alice suddenly 
 declared she would try some of them on, and Elsa followed her 
 example. 
 
 And so, the two girls spent a happy hour in the old garret, 
 parading up and down in front of the long mirror kept there. 
 When the girls went to bed that night I am sure they dreamt 
 the pleasantest of dreams. 
 
 John's Fire 
 
 John counted one, two, three, four, and so on up to sixty- 
 eight. It was a fire! Now John's mother had forbidden him 
 to go to fires. But John's mother was away, and so John thought 
 that he'd " take a chance." The house was burned to the ground. 
 The firemen saved a few things, but not many. Luckily the 
 property was insured, and the people got something from the 
 insurance company. John got something, too, when he got 
 home. But it was not from the insurance company. 
 
 3. Errors of Speech 
 
 The following errors are to be drilled on through the 
 medium of the language games, if the teacher finds that her 
 class needs drill on these particular errors. The teacher 
 should feel free to work on all, or some, or none of these 
 errors, according to the needs of her class. She should 
 also feel perfectly free to drill on other errors that may crop 
 out from time to time. These inaccuracies will never be 
 corrected by relying on the lessons in formal grammar. 
 Correct speech is not acquired in this way. The fact that 
 pupils in this grade know some grammatical rules will be 
 
 C125] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 of considerable help. And the teacher will, of course, be 
 sure to make the child's knowledge of formal grammar 
 function in his everyday speech. When all is said and 
 done, however, it is constant practice under never failing 
 watch and correction that makes .pupils talk well. 
 
 Some of the errors noted below, and others that the 
 teacher may note, are made simply because children 
 mumble and bite off their words. Use the enunciation 
 drills constantly. 
 
 Incorrect 
 
 (1) That book learns you how 
 
 to take care of animals. 
 Shall I bring this book 
 
 home? 
 My pen don't write good. 
 
 (2) Who are you going for? 
 Where's them two tickets? 
 Me and my brother wrote it. 
 
 (3) Is every one in their place ? 
 Those kind of flowers ain't 
 
 pretty. 
 I didn't go no place. 
 We were to the show. 
 I wouldn't be left do it. 
 He had kind of a hard time. 
 Draw it like I said. 
 
 (4) He wouldn't of gone. 
 Are they any pencils? 
 I'm doin' my work. 
 
 She uster live on Elm St. 
 Can't you see 'em? 
 Doncher see? 
 
 Correct 
 
 how to 
 
 That book teaches you 
 
 take care of animals. 
 Shall I take this book home? 
 
 My pen doesn't write well. 
 
 For whom are you going ? 
 Where are those two tickets? 
 My brother and I wrote it. 
 
 Is every one in his place ? 
 
 That kind of flowers is not pretty. 
 
 I didn't go anywhere. 
 
 We were at the show. 
 
 I wouldn't be allowed to do it. 
 
 He had rather a hard time. 
 
 Draw it as I said. 
 
 He wouldn't have gone 
 Are there any pencils? 
 I'm doing my work. 
 She use to live on Elm St. 
 Can't you see them? 
 Don't you see? 
 
 4. Hints and Helps 
 
 In a recent survey of classroom teaching in the city of 
 New York, shorthand reports of eighteen recitations 
 showed that all the pupils together used about five thou- 
 sand words, while their teacher used about nineteen thou- 
 sand words. Who does the most talking in your room ? 
 
 "When a boy's slouching, nerveless posture against his 
 desk, and his slovenly enunciation of disjointed half- 
 
 [ 126] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SEVENTH GRADE 
 
 sentences, have been exchanged for a body held erect, 
 a voice and an enunciation that carry thought clearly 
 stated, you have a boy who has gained in character as 
 well as in ability to talk correctly upon his feet." 
 
 Remember that every lesson is a language lesson. 
 When pupils read, when they explain a problem in arith- 
 metic, when they recite in history — at all times when 
 they talk, they should be held responsible for good English 
 and a good, clear tone. This can't be said too often. 
 
 2. WRITTEN 
 
 (Read the section on "Written Language," page 16.) 
 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To work for sentence betterment. 
 
 (b) To develop further the power of effective arrange- 
 ment of ideas in the short paragraph. 
 
 (c) To drill on words commonly misspelled. 
 
 (d) To secure complete mastery of the few technicalities 
 noted. 
 
 (e) To insist on neatness and good arrangement in all 
 written work. 
 
 2. Types of Work 
 
 (a) Sentences 
 
 Up to this point we have striven to establish the sen- 
 tence sense. The first aim set down for the sixth grade 
 is "to complete the work of establishing the sentence 
 sense." Acting on the assumption that this has been done, 
 the seventh-grade teacher may take up work in "sentence 
 betterment." What this term means is too well known 
 to the upper-grade teachers of Cambridge to call for any 
 explanation of it here. A few suggestions are given as 
 to the more simple aspects of this work that might be 
 
 [127] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 handled with profit in this grade. One cannot help 
 expressing the caution here against an overdoing of this 
 sentence manipulation. Such a course must inevitably 
 result in so confusing pupils as to bring about an awkward- 
 ness of style, an artificial effect, that should be avoided 
 at any cost. The primary and most fundamental aim of 
 this course is to teach children to express themselves in 
 speech and on paper clearly and simply. Any work that 
 tends to befog clearness of expression, or to render the 
 child's effort artifically "stylish," is bad. The teacher 
 with good language sense will know when to put the brakes 
 on. It goes without saying, incidentally, that the teacher 
 with good language sense will attempt to do very little 
 in the way of securing any conscious attempts at style 
 unless the assumption expressed above — that the sen- 
 tence sense is established — is, in truth, not an assumption, 
 but an actuality. 
 
 Try to better the sentence in the following ways: 
 
 (1) Exercises in securing variety in beginning sentences. 
 
 (2) Exercises in combining, expanding, and contracting 
 sentences. 
 
 (3) Exercises in using complex sentences. 
 
 (4) Exercises in selecting sets of simple sentences that 
 have unity and combining them into complex sentences. 
 
 Watch for the following awkwardnesses: 
 
 (1) The "and" habit. 
 
 Example: 
 
 Hans was walking backward and forward on the mountain 
 side, and his eyes were fixed on the ground, and he did not see 
 me approach. 
 
 (2) Change from active to passive voice. 
 
 (3) Change of tense. 
 
 (4) The monotonous use of "but." 
 
 [128] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SEVENTH GRADE 
 
 (6) The Paragraph 
 
 From time immemorial it has been customary for 
 seventh-grade teachers to spend a great deal of their lan- 
 guage time in working on the technical structure of the 
 paragraph. This course does not call for any intensive 
 study of the paragraph idea. Children are induced 
 to try for interesting beginnings. They are trained, as 
 suggested in Grade VI, to pick out a rather restricted 
 phase of a subject, to treat it with brevity, and to stop 
 when they have finished. The subjects listed in every 
 grade have been of a concrete variety, adapted to this 
 sort of treatment. Indirectly, training of this kind makes 
 for both unity and emphasis. It is thought better to 
 secure these very desirable elements of style in this 
 indirect way. Conscious work in paragraph analysis 
 has never been very profitable in the average seventh 
 grade. At the same time it must be always borne in 
 mind that we exclude certain lines of effort as less valuable 
 only because others are more valuable. If a seventh 
 grade can work with profit on the paragraph idea, no harm 
 is done by teaching it. 
 
 (c) Familiar Letters and Business Correspondence 
 
 The seventh-grade teacher is advised to read the chapter 
 on "Letters" in Goldwasser's Method and Methods in the 
 Teaching of English. As already stated in the Outline 
 for the Fourth Grade, this chapter is most helpful in the 
 way of setting forth the conditions that make for real 
 letter writing. The teacher can do no better than model 
 the work of her pupils on the illustrations cited in this 
 book. The form of the familiar letter is shown in the 
 Appendix. Here, too, is set forth the form of the business 
 letter, which is taught for the first time in this grade. 
 Under the general head of "Business Correspondence" 
 
 C 129 ] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 we shall include such items as : (1) Applications for a 
 position ; (2) ordering goods ; (3) bills, checks, etc. It 
 must be remembered that, in so far as form goes, all varie- 
 ties of business correspondence must be 100 per cent correct. 
 That is the standard of business. 
 
 (d) Copying and Dictation 
 
 See under this heading for Grade VI. Copying and 
 dictation may be profitably used in Grade VII for teaching 
 and testing accuracy in the handling of business forms. 
 
 3. Topics for Paragraphs 
 
 SCHOOL 
 
 What the School Clock Saw. 
 
 When the Master Comes in for a Lesson. 
 
 A Grand Army Man at Our School. 
 
 Does it Pay to Stay in School until Graduation? 
 
 My Hopes on Promotion Day. 
 
 Compare a Schoolhouse and a Beehive. 
 
 Why Grammar is an Essential Study. 
 
 An Interesting School Exercise. 
 
 When the Master Came In. 
 
 The First Day of School. 
 
 An Amusing Mishap. 
 
 How I Got My Newsboy's License. 
 
 My First Day in the Grade. 
 
 In Our Assembly Hall. 
 
 Friday Afternoon. 
 
 Our Last Holiday Exercise. 
 
 Why We Should Play Fair. 
 
 How to Behave When Your Teacher is Sick. 
 
 What Made the Teacher Laugh. 
 
 How Different Children used Me. (A library book.) 
 
 SPORTS 
 
 My First Experience on Skates. 
 Feeding the Elephants. 
 
 [130] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SEVENTH GRADE 
 
 A Dangerous Moment in the Auto. 
 What the Audience Laughed At. 
 My Visit to the Circus. 
 
 The First Baseman. (Each position to be made the subject 
 of a paragraph.) 
 A Boy-Scout Hike. 
 Celebrating Our Victory. 
 Bobbing for Apples. ' 
 
 How to Lay out a Baseball Diamond. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 When Our Engine Goes to a Fire. 
 
 The Curfew Bells. 
 
 The Organ Grinder Comes. 
 
 The Store Windows at Christmas. 
 
 A Neglected Tenement House. 
 
 How to Behave in a Boat. 
 
 Why I'd Rather be a Boy. 
 
 How My Bird Changes His Clothes. 
 
 When the Circus Came to Town. 
 
 A Fireman on Duty. 
 
 Caught in the Act. 
 
 The Secret Chest. 
 
 Watching the Cat Go to Sleep. 
 
 Why Washington was CaUed "The Old Fox." 
 
 A Midnight Adventure. 
 
 Resolved : That Girls are More Useful to their Parents than Boys. 
 
 Resolved : That Country Life is More Enjoyable than City Life. 
 
 How I Made My Garden. 
 
 Why I Prefer to Live in the City. 
 
 An Experience as a Newsboy. 
 
 The Ambulance Goes By. 
 
 My Most Interesting Neighbor. 
 
 A Good Citizen. 
 
 How I Earned My First Money. 
 
 How to Get Off a Car. 
 
 Why Boys and Girls Should Learn to Swim. 
 
 [131] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 An Unexpected Pleasure. 
 
 What I Saw a Caterpillar Do. 
 
 A Fire in the Night. 
 
 A Dream. 
 
 The First Money I Saved. 
 
 Why I Am Kind to Animals. 
 
 Christmas Eve. 
 
 Getting Ready for Santa Claus at Bedtime. 
 
 Banishing the Fly. 
 
 Resolved: That Cats Make Better Pets than Dogs. 
 
 Why I Should Like to Live in the Country. 
 
 "Safety First." 
 
 My Garden in August. (Or any other month.) 
 
 Playing School. (Tell a little girl no older than you.) 
 
 An Afternoon of Christmas Shopping. (Tell your chum about 
 going with your mother to buy your gifts for the rest of the 
 family, and to "see the sights.") 
 
 Taking My Little Brother to School. (Write something that 
 would interest your grandmother.) 
 
 An Hour Alone with Our Baby. (Tell your mother, who has 
 just returned from a call on a friend.) 
 
 Learning to Tell Time. (To Uncle Charles.) 
 
 A Coast on My New Double Runner, (a. Tell the person who 
 gave it to you. b. Tell the boy who lives next door.) 
 
 My First Row of Knitting. (Tell a friend who has not yet 
 learned how.) 
 
 My First Seam on a Sewing Machine. 
 
 Bill's Stolen Ride on a Pony. (Tell the boys who were not 
 there.) 
 
 Hunting for a Lost Pocketbook. (a. Tell your chum. 6. 
 Tell the class.) 
 
 .4. Technicalities 
 
 Review the technicalities taught up to this point. 
 The teacher will note that they are few. But in the large 
 they are sufficient to enable children to write correct 
 English. In this grade we shall add the following: 
 
 Ik 132 ] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SEVENTH GRADE 
 
 (a) Possessive forms. Correlate with the lessons in 
 formal grammar and with spelling sentences. 
 
 (6) Capitalization, punctuation, and abbreviations as 
 found necessary in the teaching of business forms. 
 
 (c) Quotations. 
 
 (d) The comma in complex sentences. 
 
 The old favorites, the comma in a series and the comma 
 in direct address, are still missing. The use of the comma 
 in complex sentences is inserted here, because the work in 
 expanding sentences set down for this grade will naturally 
 call for its use. The teacher should be cautioned, however, 
 against spending overmuch time on this topic. Children, 
 like older people, get a sense for this kind of punctuation 
 through their reading. If they don't get it fully in the 
 seventh year, the eighth year is ahead. At any rate 
 conscious drill in the use of the comma is more than likely 
 to result in a comma-besprinkled page. Every teacher 
 has had this experience. 
 
 It is poor business, likewise, to drill, drill, drill on the 
 quotation. This technicality appears for the first time 
 in the sixth grade. Heretofore great stress has usually 
 been laid upon it from Grade III on. As a matter of fact, 
 children don't naturally use quoted sentences in their 
 themes. Much of the time spent on this technicality has 
 been spent most uneconomically. It is felt that in this 
 grade pupils, because of their more mature intelligence, 
 should be able to get hold of the quotation without much 
 difficulty. 
 
 5. Words Commonly Misspelled 
 
 absence attacked chief 
 
 all right believe choose 
 
 already certainly copied 
 
 anxious changing cordially 
 
 [133] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 describe 
 
 laughed 
 
 respectfully 
 
 despair 
 
 library- 
 
 sincerely 
 
 disagreeable 
 
 loose 
 
 surprised 
 
 disappeared 
 
 minute 
 
 their 
 
 finally 
 
 necessary 
 
 there 
 
 friend 
 
 perhaps 
 
 too 
 
 foreign 
 
 precede 
 
 truly 
 
 government 
 
 principal 
 
 weather 
 
 grammar 
 
 probably 
 
 written 
 
 judgment 
 
 really 
 
 
 6. Hints and Helps 
 
 (See also under this heading for the Sixth Grade, page 118.) 
 Suggestions as to method in quotation work: 
 
 Call on different children to make statements, ask 
 questions, give commands, and make exclamations. 
 Have these written on the blackboard, e.g.: 
 
 Mary's statement: "We are now studying about La Salle in 
 history." Who said this? Mary said it. Then these various 
 forms may be written: 
 
 Mary said, "We are now studying about La Salle in history." 
 
 "We are now studying about La SaUe in history," said Mary. 
 
 "We are now," said Mary, "studying about La Salle in 
 history." 
 
 Use these sentences and others like them as mediums 
 for drilling on the use of capitals and marks of punctuation, 
 both in simple and in broken quotations. Work of this 
 kind tends to appeal to children because the sentences are 
 their own. Incidentally it is an excellent plan to allow 
 groups of children, six or eight at a time, to write quotation 
 sentences on the board before school, to be corrected at 
 some odd time during the day. Kept up for three months, 
 
 [134] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: SEVENTH GRADE 
 
 this will make the correct writing of quotations a fixed 
 habit. Read frequently to the pupils the letters of Stev- 
 enson, Brooks, Carroll, and others. Every teacher in this 
 grade should have a copy of Children's Letters by Colson 
 and Chittenden (Hinds, Hay den & Eldredge, New York). 
 
 7. Written Standards 
 
 When the Organ Grinder Comes to Our Street 
 Whenever the organ grinder comes to our street, he is sure to 
 have a big crowd of boys and girls following him round. One 
 man that comes to our street has a large dog. The boys throw 
 sticks to the dog and he catches them in his mouth, puts them 
 on the ground, and puts his paws on them. Once in a while 
 a man comes round who has a monkey. He is sure to have a 
 great crowd of children following him for a long distance. When- 
 ever the monkey does anything they all shout in great delight. 
 I haven't seen an organ grinder now for some time. They seem 
 to come in the spring, and then disappear. I wonder where they 
 
 S° ? A Fall 
 
 The telephone bell rang. I was upstairs. In my hurry to 
 answer it I missed the first step. On the way down my foot 
 touched only three steps. I got up carefully when I reached the 
 bottom. There was no answer to my "hello." Though I had 
 come down more quickly than usual, there was no one on the 
 line. Whoever it was must have heard me coming. 
 
 An Exciting Incident 
 One beautiful afternoon my brother, Henry, and I decided to 
 visit my grandmother. My mother had forbidden us to go. 
 We walked till we came to a stream. Both of us could not cross 
 the stream at once as there was only a narrow plank across it. 
 I decided to carry Henry on my back. We walked to the middle 
 of the plank. I stopped to tell Henry to be sure and hold on 
 tightly. The next step I took both of us fell into the stream. 
 We struggled in the water for some time till we reached the other 
 side. Dripping we hurried home. I will let you guess what 
 mother did. 
 
 [ 135 ] 
 
Eighth Grade 
 
 1. ORAL 
 
 (Read Outline for Seventh Grade. Read the section on 
 Oral Language, pages 5-16.) 
 1. Aims 
 
 The aim of the course in oral language has been set 
 forth as follows: "To turn out pupils able to talk or recite 
 for a few minutes in an interesting way, using clean- 
 cut sentences and good enunciation." This, of course, 
 becomes the aim of the eighth-grade teacher. Now the 
 matters of good enunciation, speaking in sentences, and 
 avoiding grammatical inaccuracies have all been dwelt 
 upon in the work of every grade. It was stated in the 
 seventh-grade outline that pupils in the seventh grade 
 should display very little weakness in these technical 
 particulars. It is repeated here that pupils in the eighth 
 grade should most decidedly display very little weakness 
 in these technical particulars. If such weakness exists 
 in the class, after seven years of drill that has been sup- 
 posedly so systematic, something is wrong. Pupils should 
 not only go from the eighth grade, but should in reality 
 come into the eighth grade with the more mechanical 
 phases of good English speech well in hand. 
 
 The work of the eighth-grade teacher under favorable 
 conditions should be concerned with the business of 
 making the oral English product interesting. This term 
 "interesting" has been already discussed at length 
 several times in this course. In various places it has been 
 stated that the interest the pupil takes in this oral lan- 
 guage performance depends in great measure on the type 
 of subject suggested or assigned. (Read the section on 
 "Subjects for Compositions," page 27.) In the seventh- 
 grade outline the point was brought out that as the pupil 
 [136] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 advances in the grades it becomes more and more im- 
 portant for the teacher to get a real, dynamic purpose 
 into her work from day to day, in order to ward off class- 
 room ennui. There is no need of a detailed reiteration 
 of these discussions. It may be said with profit, however, 
 that the clever eighth-grade teacher, in her endeavors 
 to inject interest into the oral composition period, will 
 broaden the range of her topics and allow much individual 
 freedom of choice. The debate is always a good medium 
 for training in talking. The management by the pupils 
 of the regular morning exercise, of special-day exercises, 
 and occasionally of the recitation, gives opportunity for 
 the use of initiative and responsibility, and cultivates 
 self-possession and poise. 
 
 The eighth-grade pupil will be interested in such activi- 
 ties. He will readily become interested also in improving 
 his speech by fashioning it after the models that the teacher 
 reads. Models should be freely used in this grade. In 
 the outline for written work we find various points of 
 style noted for treatment. The pupil is expected to learn 
 something more about sentence manipulation. He is 
 familiarized with various points of technic that make for 
 effect, emphasis, variety, and so on. The use of the model 
 as a medium for teaching these things is almost prescribed. 
 Now it is obvious that everything that is said regarding 
 these matters of style with reference to written language 
 applies with equal force to oral language as well. Exactly 
 the same points should be dwelt on in both the oral and 
 the written language periods, and in exactly the same way 
 — through the use of the model. It's a way that appeals 
 to pupils. And it's the most effective way of infusing a 
 touch of style, a quality of "differentness" into the pupil's 
 speech and into his written efforts as well. "Language 
 is caught, not taught." We have always believed this 
 
 [137] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 with reference to the bad things in speech. We must 
 remember that it is true with reference to the good things 
 as well. 
 
 The teacher in this grade should use the particular 
 model, and should make use of all the literature read in 
 the grade as well, to teach the value of expressive words. 
 This point was first suggested for treatment in the seventh 
 grade. The eighth-grade teacher, continuing the work, 
 should do all she can to enlarge the pupil's stock of con- 
 nectives and of those parenthetical words and phrases that 
 make for an easy, flowing style. In addition, conscious 
 attempts should be made to add to the child's vocabulary 
 those apt, expressive words, especially adjectives, that 
 distinguish language that is good from language that is 
 just passably correct. Too conscious attempts along 
 this line of course result disastrously. We must guard 
 against those "flowery" effects, against that overadorn- 
 ment of language, that will inevitably creep in when chil- 
 dren feel that they are expected to use new and strange 
 words. In this work, as in everything else, the skillful 
 teacher will use moderation. Through the frequent use 
 of the model, she will accustom her pupils to the sound 
 of things finely said by masters of style. She will encour- 
 age imitation of these masters. But she will not expect 
 that eighth-grade children will become expert in the use 
 of words in a single year. After all, the chief thing to be 
 sought through this kind of teaching is to train children to 
 give attention to the words they read and the words they 
 write, so that all of them will not be content all the time 
 to put down the first word that comes into their minds. 
 
 By way of illustrating the use of the model as a medium 
 for vocabulary building, it is suggested that the teacher, 
 before asking her class to write about a snowstorm, read 
 to the class some of the following selections: 
 [138] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 Aldrich— "Snow Flake." 
 Bryant — "Snow Shower." 
 Cowper — "Snow." 
 Dodge, Mary M. — "Snowflakes." 
 Emerson — "The Snow Storm." 
 Hawthorne — "Snow Image." 
 Larcom — "Snow Song." 
 Longfellow — "Snow Flakes." 
 Lowell — "First Snow Fall." 
 Van Dyke — "A Snow Storm." 
 Whittier— "Snow Bound." 
 
 No pupil can listen to the reading of a few of the 
 above without catching a happy phrase or an occa- 
 sional telling word. The teacher will find it very much 
 worth while to take the trouble of making similar lists 
 of models. 
 
 2. Examples of Oral Composition 
 
 These examples have been selected because they reveal 
 good choice of English, easy-flowing sentences, and a 
 sense for effect. Not all eighth-graders can be expected 
 to talk in the way illustrated. Some will talk at best 
 merely correctly. In the case of those who are linguisti- 
 cally minded, however, the teacher should consciously 
 work for themes like the samples. 
 
 The School Yard at Recess 
 
 Big and little, young and old, all join in the laughter and gayety 
 at recess. A bird on the wing passing over our yard might mis- 
 take the gayly clad children for a bed of variegated flowers 
 nodding to and fro in the breeze. Some jump rope, others chase 
 somebody else all over the playground in a game of tag, until 
 the pursued party calls for "time." You can see still others 
 playing ball. Whatever he or she is doing, one and all seem to 
 be enjoying themselves greatly. You can hear the big boys' 
 
 [139] 
 
 . 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 shouts, mingled with the little children's crows of delight 
 as the head of the line tries to catch the end in a game of 
 "Fish's Tail." 
 
 For fifteen minutes our play continues. Then we go to our 
 rooms for another hour of study. 
 
 How I Lost My Belief in Santa Claus 
 
 Several years ago, I began to lose faith in Santa Claus in this 
 way: About a week before the 25th, I saw many times pieces 
 of red flannel on which my mother was industriously working. 
 Although she told me nothing, I had my suspicions, for only the 
 year before I wondered why Santa wore cuffs resembling my 
 father's. He seemed to have a familiar voice, also. 
 
 Now one day when I was thinking the question over, I came 
 upon a bright idea. I asked mother if I might have a piece of 
 red cloth on which she was working. Not suspecting my plan, 
 she consented, and I possessed a piece of flannel which was suffi- 
 cient for my purpose. Taking a common pin I thrust it through 
 the material, enabling me to attach it to anything that was soft. 
 When Santa arrived, I got as close as possible and pinned it on 
 the suit. It matched. 
 
 A Mishap at a Picnic 
 
 Last year our class wanted to have a picnic before the scholars 
 left for the summer. After much discussion, Nantasket Beach 
 was chosen as the most desirable place. The day was a beautiful 
 one, and all in the class were able to go. An early start was 
 made, as we wanted time for some games. In the morning the 
 boys had a fine game of baseball, with the girls as their audience. 
 When luncheon time came, a committee of six was appointed 
 to set the table. One of the girls, who was very much afraid 
 of spiders, was putting something on for lunch when she saw 
 one of these dreaded creatures walk out from under the cloth. 
 It scared her so that in trying to get away she stubbed her toe 
 and sat right down on a blueberry pie. You can imagine her 
 predicament. 
 
 [140] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 3. Common Errors of Speech 
 
 The list below should be drilled on if the teacher finds 
 it necessary. Read carefully all that has been written 
 up to this point on this topic, and see also the Appendix. 
 Remember the enunciation drills. Eighth-graders are 
 much more likely to be slovenly in their speech than pu- 
 pils in lower grades. Remember also that every lesson is a 
 language lesson. But don't take the interest out of every 
 lesson by too frequent interruptions because of oral 
 technical errors. Use the language games. 
 
 Incorrect 
 
 (1) There is enough pencils. 
 I done my examples. 
 You was right. 
 
 Neither of the girls have it. 
 It don't seem right. 
 
 (2) Who did this come from? 
 He'll meet you and I. 
 
 I like them colors. 
 
 I heard of you leaving. 
 
 (3) I left my book to home. 
 She is all better today. 
 
 I have quite a few pears. 
 
 I like these kind of examples. 
 
 They wouldn't leave him 
 play. 
 
 They done it pretty good. 
 
 Can I take my history 
 home? 
 
 That's different than I ex- 
 pected. 
 
 I don't know if I shall go. 
 
 Do it like they do. 
 
 Where are you at? 
 
 Each may take their pencils. 
 
 The lesson ain't in the book. 
 
 (4) I must of been late. 
 
 I reco'nized the story. 
 He makes 'em think ! 
 
 Correct 
 There are enough pencils. 
 I have done my examples. 
 You were right. 
 Neither of the girls has it. 
 It doesn't seem right. 
 
 From whom did this come? 
 He'll meet you and me. 
 I like those colors. 
 I heard of your leaving. 
 
 I left my book at home. 
 She is entirely well today. 
 I have a good many pears. 
 I like this kind of examples. 
 They wouldn't let him play. 
 
 They did it pretty well. 
 
 May I take my history home? 
 
 That's different from what I ex- 
 pected. 
 I don't know whether I shall go. 
 Do it as they do. 
 Where are you? 
 Each may take his pencil. 
 The lesson isn't in the book. 
 
 I must have been late. 
 I recognized the story. 
 He makes them think ! 
 
 4. Hints and Helps , 
 
 (a) Care must be taken that prepared oral compositions 
 are not memorized. It is proper that pupils should fix 
 in their minds the chief points of the matter they intend 
 
 [141] 
 
 , 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 to talk about in class; but the practice of learning the 
 matter of their oral compositions by heart should never 
 be permitted. 
 
 (6) The following suggestions as to the conduct of oral 
 work have been contributed by various teachers: 
 
 (1) "In visualization I often ask pupils to close their eyes and 
 try to get a mental picture. After a few minutes I call on indi- 
 viduals to tell me what they saw. We then talk about proper 
 introductions — where the pupil stood in relation to his picture; 
 then some of the most imaginative tell their stories. Usually 
 they precipitate the climax and they have an object lesson in our 
 waning interest. Then all write their stories and when written 
 some are read, and we notice central points of interest. 
 
 "For work of this kind I use topics such as these: 
 
 "Aunt Polly sat in the kitchen paring a panful of red apples. 
 "An old wooden pump with a broken handle stood by the 
 
 back door. 
 "Up in grandmother's garret was an old spinning wheel with 
 
 spider webs on it. 
 "A young girl sat in a window dreaming daydreams. 
 "A young man stood by the door of his tent, fishing rod 
 
 in hand." 
 
 (2) " Read humorous stories to class. Can they see the point? 
 Encourage telling of humorous stories." 
 
 (3) Debates. 
 
 Once a month, from January to June. Form a club. Presi- 
 dent, Vice-President, Secretary, Executive Committee. Four 
 speakers. Each paper read to the teacher before the debate. 
 Every pupil write one argument and submit to teacher for 
 correction before the debate. Let the children debate on the 
 side they prefer, regardless of uneven division. It is not num- 
 bers that count. 
 
 (4) Rules to apply in telling stories: 
 "Know beforehand all you want to say. 
 
 "Begin with time and place, and as interestingly as you can. 
 
 [142] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 "Tell directly and in the order of its happening. 
 
 "Do not bring in unnecessary details. 
 
 "Do not repeat except for emphasis. 
 
 "Exclamatory and interrogative sentences give strong effect 
 or emphasis, and when not overdone, lend variety. 
 
 "Make your reader see, feel, and hear just what you see, 
 feel, and hear, by keeping him in your mind and talking to him 
 in your story. 
 
 "Stop when you have made the point of your story." 
 
 2. WRITTEN 
 
 (Read the section on " Written Language," page 16.) 
 
 1. Aims 
 
 (a) To continue the work in sentence betterment. 
 
 (6) To infuse into the short paragraph a few touches of 
 style. 
 
 (c) To banish common awkwardness of expression 
 (see below). 
 
 (d) To drill on words commonly misspelled. 
 
 (e) To secure complete mastery of the few technicalities 
 mentioned in this course. 
 
 (/) To insist on neatness and good arrangement in 
 all written work. 
 
 The aim of the course as a whole becomes the minimum 
 aim of the eighth-grade teacher — "to turn out pupils 
 able to write an interesting page of clean-cut sentences, 
 unmarked by poor spelling or by common grammatical 
 errors." We say that this is the minimum aim. But, as 
 intimated in the outline for Grade VII, if the teaching has 
 been good, this aim should have been in large measure 
 attained before the pupils reach Grades VII and VIII. 
 The term "interesting," however, is an expansive one. 
 It carries with it the connotation of some skill in the han- 
 
 [143] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 dling of sentences, some power of selection in the use of 
 words and phrases, some notions as to the way to get 
 effects — in short, some evidences of what might be called 
 style. It goes without saying that if the more fundamental 
 habits have not been established, the teacher must even 
 now go back and establish them. Pupils must write in 
 sentences, however crude. Pupils must spell correctly. 
 Pupils must hand in papers free from such gross gram- 
 matical errors as have been drilled on all through the 
 grades. Assuming, however, what should be true, that 
 the training prescribed year after year has taken care of 
 these fundamental things, then the eighth-grade teacher 
 may attempt, with moderation, some advance work as 
 suggested under the next heading. 
 
 2. Types of Work 
 
 (a) Words. Read what has been said on the choice 
 of words in the "Outline for Oral Language" (eighth 
 grade) . Pay particular attention to the pupil's vocabulary 
 of adjectives. The several language books available 
 will furnish material. 
 
 (b) Sentences. Continue the work of sentence better- 
 ment begun in Grade VII, carrying out along more 
 advanced lines the suggestions found in the outline for 
 that grade. The aim of this work in sentence betterment 
 is to substitute the more easy-flowing complex sentence 
 for the shorter, cruder, simple sentence that the children 
 have been heretofore taught to use. This work has 
 attendant dangers. It may result in a cumbersome 
 style. It may be, too, that the pupil, getting the notion 
 that he is to write longer sentences, will take up the 
 compound sentence as his favorite medium. Now the 
 compound sentence must be avoided, as one avoids a 
 sharp tool. Such sentences, handled by eighth-graders, 
 
 [144] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 almost invariably lack unity. Without troubling to dwell 
 on what "unity" means, the teacher should train her 
 class not to write, under any circumstances, such sentences 
 as, "Washington died at Mt. Vernon, and he was six feet, 
 three inches tall." Pupils should realize that the fol- 
 lowing: "Our school is named for Harry Ellis, and he was 
 a teacher in the Rindge Technical School," can be greatly 
 improved by using the appositive or the adjective clause. 
 In the teaching of this sentence manipulation, technical 
 grammar will be a help. And the teacher who plans 
 economically will so correlate her grammar teaching with 
 her work in language proper as to enable the pupil to 
 apply his knowledge of technical grammar from day to 
 day. Pupils in the eighth grade should be able to tell 
 a noun in apposition, a complex sentence with an adjective 
 or an adverbial clause; and they will find a knowledge 
 of the participle helpful, for although its use should not 
 be too much emphasized, it is a helpful means of combin- 
 ing one's thoughts. Given a working knowledge of those 
 grammar forms that best serve language ends, the teacher 
 may use with profit such exercises as this: 
 
 Teacher. Make a complex sentence with one adjective 
 clause. 
 
 Pupil. Many thousands of acres of cypress trees have been 
 destroyed in a single season by the action of these insects, which 
 are not larger than a grain of rice. 
 
 Teacher. Make a complex sentence, periodic, with one 
 adjective clause. Use "forgetful" as an appositive adjective. 
 
 Pupil. Forgetful of everything round him, and intent only 
 upon some subject which absorbed his mind, he paced up and 
 down the room. 
 
 As an important phase of this work in sentence better- 
 ment, just outlined, there must be handled in this grade 
 
 [145] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 the work of ridding the sentence of those very conspicu- 
 ous "awkwardnesses" that so often mark the school- 
 boy's theme. Just what is meant by this term is 
 illustrated by the following samples of beautiful English, 
 all perpetrated in a Cambridge eighth grade during the 
 past year, and jotted down by the teacher as material 
 for drill: 
 
 My parents, after hearing the story of the wreck, they were 
 very glad to see us. 
 
 The first thing you will see are a pair of old pistols. 
 
 On the train looking out of the windows could be seen vast 
 forests and cows feeding in the pastures. 
 
 The sun seemed to dance in the heaven on arriving there. 
 
 While sailing along, my brother's hat fell in the water. 
 
 After the bee and the butterfly have performed its work, the 
 flower fades. 
 
 The sleigh was very large composed of twenty-five boys and 
 girls. 
 
 The score was about five to two in favor of the Red Sox, and 
 also there was a very large attendance. 
 
 There was a large crowd at the park which was waiting for the 
 game to begin. 
 
 It would be a great idea, mother, if we took our books and our 
 luncheon and go to the woods. 
 
 He is playing an accompaniment for the children standing 
 before him on the base violin. 
 
 We see a little Indian boy clothed in the dress of his tribe, 
 and is kneeling on his bow and arrow. 
 
 Once in a while they take the mules that can see out of the 
 mines. 
 
 English of the above sort is all too familiar to eighth- 
 grade teachers. The writer recommends that every 
 teacher make lists, of the kind indicated, and keep them 
 for reference from year to year. 
 
 [146] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 (c) The Paragraph. Under the heading of "Aims" 
 for this grade we have included "to infuse into the short 
 paragraph a few touches of style." Eighth-grade teachers 
 in Cambridge know what is connoted by this requirement. 
 The following suggestions as to ways of getting effects 
 may be helpful: 
 
 (1) Narration. 
 
 (a) Importance of interesting beginnings. 
 
 Example: 
 
 "Clear the track!" was the cry on a bright December afternoon, 
 when all the boys and girls in Hormon Village were out enjoying 
 the first good snow of the season. 
 
 (b) Teach climax of story. 
 
 Read : "The Notary " — Longfellow. 
 
 (c) Exclamatory and interrogative sentences give 
 
 strong effect or emphasis. 
 
 Read : ' ' The Chipmunk's Escape ' ' — Burroughs . 
 
 (d) Transposed or inverted sentences give variety. 
 
 Example: "Into the Valley of Death Rode the Six 
 Hundred." 
 
 (e) Short sentences hurry; longer ones linger. 
 
 Read: "The Killing of a Bear" — Warren. 
 
 "The Race for the Silver Skates" — Mary Mapes 
 
 Dodge. 
 "The Voyage" — Irving. 
 
 (f) Figurative language lends interest. Teach simile, 
 
 metaphor, etc., in connection with the read- 
 ing of Evangeline and other pieces of eighth- 
 grade literature. 
 
 [147] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 (2) Description. 
 
 (a) Teach point of view — stationary or progressive. 
 
 Read : " Ice-storm " — Twain. 
 
 "An Arctic Night" — ■ Nansen. 
 "A Dakota Wheat Field" — Garland. 
 "An Old-fashioned Snowstorm" — Warner. 
 "Glen Doone" — Blackmore. 
 
 (b) In describing persons let first sentence give a 
 
 general idea of person — other details added. 
 
 Read : " Scrooge " — Christmas Carol. 
 
 "Ichabod Crane" — Sleepy Hollow. 
 "Artful Dodger" — Oliver Twist. 
 "Man Friday" — Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 (c) Description of animals. 
 
 Read: "Jonathan" — F. Hopkinson Smith. 
 "Rab and His Friends" — Brown. 
 "Gunpowder" — Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 (d) Description of buildings. 
 
 Read: "Old House" — David Copperfield. 
 "Schoolhouse" — Sleepy Hollow. 
 "House" — The Pioneers, Cooper. 
 "The Pyncheon House" — The House of the Seven 
 Gables, Chapter I. 
 
 (e) Description of rooms. 
 
 Read: "A Boy's Study" — Tom Brown's Schooldays. 
 
 "A Garret" — A New England Girlhood, Lucy 
 
 Larcom. 
 "A Sitting Room" — Main Travelled Roads, 
 
 Garland. 
 
 The resourceful teacher should have at hand dozens 
 of models, many of them far better than those indicated, 
 [148] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 for use in this work of teaching effects in writing. In 
 passing, it might be said that the search for these 
 models should not be confined to the field of standard 
 literature. The current magazines often furnish splen- 
 did material. In passing, also, it must be said that 
 the teacher must not overdo this attempt to get effects 
 into the child's writing. Expose your pupils to good 
 writing all you can; but don't be too disappointed if 
 many of them seem almost immune. You have really 
 done your duty if your charges write clearly and cor- 
 rectly. Beyond that, everything may be regarded as an 
 extra dividend. 
 
 (d) Familiar Letters and Business Correspondence. See 
 the forms given in the Appendix. For suggestions as 
 to content of letters, see under this heading for the 
 several preceding grades. Pupils in this grade should 
 be able to write a personal letter that is "different." 
 They will do this, if they see some purpose in the 
 performance. As far as possible, the eighth-grade 
 teacher should invent and avail herself of situations 
 that will call for real letter-writing on the part of the 
 pupils. 
 
 (e) Copying and Dictation. Be sure that pupils, before 
 leaving the eighth grade, can copy accurately and without 
 undue expenditure of time. Remember also that the 
 ability to take down dictation at a fair rate of speed is a 
 valuable asset at any time. 
 
 3. Topics for Paragraphs 
 
 In the attempt to make eighth-grade English, either oral 
 or written, interesting, the teacher will do well to choose 
 her subjects carefully. A good subject is half the battle. 
 The following list contains some good subjects. Every 
 teacher knows others just as good. Remember what the 
 
 C149J 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 factors are that go to make a subject suitable for handling 
 in the elementary school. Note the different devices 
 presented in the list for getting effects of one kind or another 
 into the theme. These devices were all contributed by 
 one Cambridge teacher. Have you any of your own? 
 
 SCHOOL 
 
 When a Visitor Comes. 
 
 Why I Like School. 
 
 Something Not on the Program. 
 
 Why History (or any other study) is the Best School 
 
 Study. 
 Why Geography is the Most Useful Study. 
 
 Why Won the Spelling Match. 
 
 What School Means to a Boy. 
 
 How Different People Used Me. (A book.) 
 
 When the Bell for Fire Drill Rings. 
 
 Why I Want to Stay in School after I am Fourteen. 
 
 Why I want to Go to Work when I am Fourteen. 
 
 Convince Your Teacher that You Ought to Have an Extra 
 
 Holiday. 
 My Plans for High School. 
 How We Can Improve the Filing. 
 
 SPORTS 
 
 Fun at a Swimming Lesson. 
 The Play that Won the Game. 
 Being a Camp-fire Girl. 
 "A Man on Second and Two Gone." 
 Making a Raft. 
 A True Fish Story. 
 A Hero of the Baseball Team. 
 A Thrilling Lesson. 
 Being a Boy Scout. 
 A Game that Trains Me to be Quick. 
 A Mishap at the Picnic. 
 [150] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 "Making Up" for the Hallowe'en Party. 
 How Baseball is Played. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 A Package I Found. 
 
 How I Paid for a Broken Window. 
 
 When Mother Calls "Get Up." 
 
 How I Lost My Belief in Santa Claus. 
 
 A Balloon Man on Circus Day. 
 
 My First Night in a Tent. 
 
 Waiting for the Postman on Christmas Morning. 
 
 Our Memorial Day Program. 
 
 When the City Awakes. 
 
 What I Should Do with Five Dollars. 
 
 How to Give First Aid to the Injured. 
 
 Why Winter is Better than Summer for Fun. 
 
 The Newsies on Election Night. 
 
 What I Found. 
 
 The Broken W T indow. 
 
 My Paper Route. 
 
 A Busy Corner. 
 
 Wearing a New Suit to School. 
 
 My Collection of Stamps. 
 
 My Yard after a Snow Storm. 
 
 Sounds on a Cold Winter Morning. 
 
 Our Garden Toad. 
 
 A Fireless Cooker. 
 
 How to Make out a Money Order. 
 
 How to Set an Alarm Clock. 
 
 Why I Like the "Christmas Carol." 
 
 On the Steamer "Miles Standish" in a Thunder Storm. 
 
 (Tell your mother as soon as you reach home.) 
 How I Learned to Run the Sewing Machine. 
 A Joke on Me. 
 A Day that Went Wrong. 
 How I Was Helped out of a Difficulty. 
 How I Learned to Cook. 
 
 [151] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Various Suggestions 
 
 (a) As a substitute for the title of a composition, give 
 a few lines that start the suspense of the story. After 
 reading the lines, ask pupils what questions come into their 
 minds to make them want either to hear more, or to read 
 the rest of the story. Lead pupils to tell the part of the 
 story in which the question should be answered. 
 
 (1) On a pleasant afternoon last August three boys — who 
 were enjoying a ride on their bicycles — came to a large orchard 
 whose trees were loaded with apples. 
 
 (2) Seeing a rowboat fastened — as she supposed — to the 
 old pier on which she was running, little Mary said to her play- 
 mate, "Oh, what fun to make the boat rock! Let us get into it." 
 
 (3) John Holbrook, Jr., saw his father's automobile standing 
 idle in the driveway. For many weeks the little fellow had been 
 longing to be a chauffeur. 
 
 (4) As William was walking through the woods late one 
 summer afternoon, he heard a strange sound as of something 
 moving among the trees — a sound that came nearer and nearer. 
 
 (5) "I am sure that a carriage is coming up the road," said a 
 child who was looking eagerly from the side-door of a farmhouse 
 near the top of a hill. 
 
 (6) In his stocking on Christmas morning, little George found 
 a knife. 
 
 (&) To get "emotion" into story writing. 
 
 (1) Fact: John saw a bear. 
 
 Group A — Make us laugh. 
 Group B — Make us afraid. 
 Group C — Make us sorry. 
 
 (2) Fact: Mary spent two days in the country. 
 
 Group A — She was homesick. 
 Group B — She was happy. 
 Group C — She admired many things. 
 Group D — She was puzzled by some of the sounds she 
 heard. 
 [152] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 (c) To train pupils in "producing an effect." 
 
 (1) Give details that reveal an emotion. 
 
 Group A — Oh, how tired I was ! 
 Group B — Oh, how glad I was ! 
 Group C — Oh, how lonely I was! 
 Group D — Oh, how frightened I was! 
 
 (2) Give details that produce the effect of: 
 
 a. Heat. 
 
 It was high noon on the fifteenth of June. 
 
 b. Moisture. 
 
 It had rained for a week. 
 
 c. Hurry. 
 
 "Oh, Jack! " said his mother, "it is ten minutes after 
 eight, and you are not up yet." 
 
 (3) On the evening of the twenty-fourth of December, 
 
 Mr. took a half -hour's walk. 
 
 Group A — Cold. 
 Group B — Excitement. 
 Group C — Beauty 
 Group D — Pleasure. 
 
 (d) For practice in describing, the following may be 
 found useful: 
 
 (1) Subject: A Walk through the Woods. 
 
 Group A — Tell what you see. 
 Group B — Tell what you hear. 
 
 (2) A Thanksgiving Dinner. 
 
 Group A — Sights. 
 Group B — Odors. 
 Group C — Tastes. 
 
 (3) Following a Brook. 
 
 Group A — Motion words. 
 Group B — Color words. 
 
 [153] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Jf. Technicalities 
 
 General review of the technicalities listed in previous 
 grades. Don't touch the use of the semicolon. Don't 
 put in time on any uses of the comma except those indi- 
 cated. In this grade, the principal point of punctuation 
 to be dwelt upon should be the use of the comma after 
 the subordinate clause in complex sentences. Make cer- 
 tain that your pupils have complete command of the punc- 
 tuation and capitalization involved in the forms of friendly 
 letters and business correspondence. As a phase of 
 applied grammar, and through the medium of spelling 
 sentences, continue to teach the correct use of the posses- 
 sive. 
 
 5. Words Commonly Misspelled 
 
 almost 
 
 friend 
 
 receive 
 
 anxious 
 
 government 
 
 respectfully 
 
 beginning 
 
 grammar 
 
 separate 
 
 believe 
 
 heard 
 
 sincerely 
 
 business 
 
 judgment 
 
 their 
 
 changing 
 
 knew 
 
 there 
 
 chief 
 
 laughed 
 
 too 
 
 coming 
 
 minute 
 
 tried 
 
 different 
 
 necessary 
 
 truly 
 
 disappeared 
 
 oblige 
 
 using 
 
 disappoint 
 
 principal 
 
 written 
 
 foreign 
 
 really 
 
 
 accept 
 
 knowledge 
 
 college 
 
 ninth 
 
 
 disease 
 
 occasion 
 
 
 eighth 
 
 preferred 
 
 finally 
 
 proceed 
 
 
 immediate!} 
 
 r 
 
 
 [154] 
 
OUTLINE BY GRADES: EIGHTH GRADE 
 
 6. Hints and Helps 
 
 The following suggestions have been contributed by 
 various teachers: 
 
 (a) Choice of Words 
 
 "Call pupils' attention to variety of nouns, verbs, 
 adjectives, and adverbs used in good literature in readers. 
 Require pupils to use these same words in original sen- 
 tences. Give frequent practice in trying to discover just 
 the right word to fit an idea." 
 
 (6) Sentence Relation 
 
 "Lay foundation for coherent writing by teaching 
 relation between sentences in the same paragraph. Ex- 
 amine selections from readers, e. g., 'Rip Van Winkle ' 
 and 'The Great Stone Face,' to find the words or phrases 
 that link one sentence to a preceding one, the words or 
 phrases that carry the thought smoothly from one sentence 
 to the next." 
 
 (c) "In description I have two aims: To teach truth 
 and to make truth interesting. To accomplish the first, 
 I often ask for a concise description of something and criti- 
 cize closely any deviation from fact. To make truth 
 interesting I encourage individual touches — the quaint 
 old leather-covered trunk in the attic suggests grand- 
 mother's wedding journey — adorning the truth by 
 visualization." 
 
 7. Written Standard 
 
 A sample of the best that may be expected. It is entered 
 here because it illustrates all those points of good English 
 style that the eighth-grade pupil should strive for. 
 
 A Picture in Our Schoolroom 
 
 As I sit at my desk and write, I can see, if I look at the wall 
 on my right-hand side, a copy of "The Angelus" by Millet. 
 
 [155] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 When I study this picture carefully, I seem to see the whole 
 of the scene that it represents passing before my eyes. The 
 autumn sun is setting, and the gloaming that is descending upon 
 the plain will soon overtake the two peasants, who have been 
 digging potatoes. Suddenly, the deep, solemn-toned bells are 
 heard, pealing forth on the air. It is the Angelus bell, which 
 tolls thrice a day to remind the people of the birth of the Savior. 
 Both the man and his wife stop working and bow their heads in 
 prayer. All the earth is clothed in a glorious beauty by the 
 soft, yellow light of the sunset, and but for the bells, all is silent. 
 Who knows but that the angels are hovering near, though 
 unseen, ready to carry to the Almighty in heaven the prayers 
 of these two faithful souls? 
 
 [156] 
 
LITERATURE OUTLINE 
 
LITERATURE OUTLINE 
 
 (Prepared by Lillian R. Hartigari) 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 "... And books, we know, 
 Are a substantial world both pure and good; 
 Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, 
 Our pastime and our happiness will grow." 
 
 The aims of this course are twofold : first, to work toward 
 the development of right feeling, right thought, and right 
 action. Secondly, to awaken in children an increasing 
 love of noble literature through early and happy asso- 
 ciation with it. 
 
 If service is the only legitimate end of education, it is 
 also its indispensable means. Every subject taught in 
 the schools should be taught with direct reference to its 
 service to others. 
 
 When a child is born into the world he finds himself 
 surrounded by visible objects and invisible forces. In 
 due process of time he learns that he is related to the things 
 nearest him, to father and mother, to brother and sister, 
 to the home, to other children with whom he associates. 
 He learns that he is affected by all these and that he 
 in turn affects them. As his powers develop, he learns 
 that he is vitally related not only to things at hand, but 
 also to things remote. When the child enters the school 
 he finds himself a part of a larger social body than he has 
 known before. Here are new relationships to establish; 
 a larger social idea must prevail. 
 
 The only legitimate end that the child may hold for a 
 recitation in any subject is to serve his classmates by 
 
 [159] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 directing their thinking, by enriching their lives with inter- 
 pretative pictures, significant facts, and vital stories. 
 When the idea of social unity is established in the school- 
 room, each pupil being alternately the earnest teacher and 
 the eager, expectant listener, then the school becomes 
 the best preparation for life, because it is life itself, a life 
 of aspiration and of service. 
 
 Reading is an art by which one mind moves other minds 
 to act. This applies not only to the giving forth of memo- 
 rized words, but also to the work done in the general 
 reading period. The reader is the teacher. Every time a 
 pupil recites or reads before his class he should be asked 
 to teach his classmates something. Here it is the duty 
 of the teacher so to work that something is impressed on the 
 child's mind which he in turn may express to others. 
 
 In the first three grades the teacher should work to 
 stimulate right feeling. Undoubtedly the first feeling 
 aroused in a child is love of home, father, and mother. 
 Dwell on this feeling — have the child tell little loving 
 experiences, then take up the poems which deal with such. 
 Now, go out from the home and touch on animals. Awaken 
 the love and desire to protect God's creatures. Every 
 child has a pet cat or dog or possibly a rabbit. Encourage 
 conversation about their pets — what they are — what 
 they do. The children are usually enthusiastic and eager 
 to talk. Now they are ready to be told other people's 
 feelings for the great outdoor creatures. Dwell not 
 only on the poems to be memorized, but also on the sug- 
 gested poems. Read a poem to the class — ask what it 
 means, find out if any one has an experience like what the 
 poet has expressed. If so, let the child tell the class; 
 then, while the memory of the personal experience is fresh 
 in the mind, let the child read the poem. 
 
 At this stage the child will begin to wonder and think 
 
 [160] 
 
LITERATURE OUTLINE 
 
 why he should love and care for pets. Now comes the test 
 of directing the reasoning. Thought has been in the 
 teacher's mind, but not in the pupil's. It has been in 
 the teacher's so that she might consciously awaken the 
 foremost note, right feeling, in the pupil's. 
 
 Right thinking should be the dominant note throughout 
 the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. Here we find the child 
 beginning to think and reason for himself. The eternal 
 questions of "the what, the how, the why," have demanded 
 recognition, and the child's mind has received them. 
 To know why a poet has expressed his emotions and 
 thoughts, the child must feel and think along with him. 
 Devise a good method of approach and by so doing arouse 
 the child's expectation. It will be wise to get an outlook 
 upon the poem as a whole as soon as possible, for a boy sees 
 a whole fire engine, a girl a whole doll, before the mind 
 begins to analyze the parts. A child cannot learn every- 
 thing at once. Therefore let the work be step by step; 
 let the child get the spirit of the thing, then arouse thought 
 and imagination by leading questions, pictures, or stories. 
 
 How can we stimulate the imagination in William 
 Martin's "Apple Blossoms"? Take the following: 
 
 "Have you plucked the apple blossoms in the Spring? 
 
 In the Spring? 
 And caught their subtle odors in the Spring? 
 Pink buds bursting at the light, 
 Crumpled petals baby-white, 
 Just to touch them a delight! 
 
 In the Spring!" 
 
 Color appeals to a child; ask him what color he thinks 
 apple blossoms are. "Do you think the crumpled petals 
 are soft like velvet?" "Why does the poet call them 
 baby-white?" Here you may find the child connecting 
 
 [161] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 the soft touch of the petal with the velvet smoothness 
 of his baby brother's skin. How does he feel and think 
 when he is permitted to hold his baby brother? Would 
 he experience the same delight and pleasure in holding 
 and touching the apple blossom? 
 
 Having awakened right feeling and right thinking in the 
 lower grades, it remains for the teachers of Grades VII 
 and VIII to promote right action. Up to this point we 
 have been consciously educating and developing the inner 
 life of children; now we must help them to express this 
 growth in word and action. A skillful teacher will gradu- 
 ally unfold and reveal tendencies and aptitudes hitherto 
 unrecognized, so that the wondering mind of the pupil 
 will say, "Is that what it means?" "Is life like that?" 
 "There is a character like me." "I like that poem." 
 Literature represents life not only as it is, but as it may and 
 ought to be. From literature a pupil may gain not only 
 a refined pleasure, but also a knowledge of life and of him- 
 self. Literature will help him to find his real self, to recog- 
 nize his strength and discover his weaknesses. In order 
 to be worth while not only to himself but to the world, 
 he might take and use the admonition over the temple at 
 Delphi, "Know thyself," and then link with it Polonius' 
 advice to his son, Laertes: 
 
 "To thine own self be true; 
 And it must follow as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man." 
 
 It may be noted that no mention has been made of the 
 various forms of emphasis in vocal expression, i.e., pitch, 
 inflection, force, and so on. This has not been done be- 
 cause, as a matter of fact, the important phase of this 
 task of teaching literature is getting pupils to think. If 
 this can be done, the expression will largely take care of 
 
 [162] 
 
LITERATURE OUTLINE 
 
 itself. If thought and imagination have stimulated the 
 child's mind, there will be an indefinable yet recognizable 
 quality in the voice which expresses sympathy, under- 
 standing, and appreciation of the author's thought. 
 For, after all, to read well is to express sincerely the 
 thoughts and feelings that we have discovered behind the 
 printed words. 
 
 Here it may be well to caution against the teaching of 
 literature as a language lesson. Do not burden the lesson 
 with grammatical work. Clear up only those difficulties 
 which stand in the way of essential meanings, and never 
 let it be forgotten that in literature words are always used 
 with literary suggestiveness, not scientific precision. 
 Don't overwork the dictionary. In literature, dictionary 
 meanings do not always hold, and besides we grow to know 
 the meaning of words through constant hearing and use. 
 Encourage the habit of getting at the meaning of a word 
 through the context. Reread the phrase containing the 
 perplexing word, and by emphasis try to answer questions 
 as to meaning. 
 
 The following paragraph hints at the way in which 
 right feeling, thought, and action may be developed in 
 the handling of a typical selection, — the "Gettysburg 
 Address." 
 
 In the "Gettysburg Address," where can you stimulate 
 right feeling? The love for neighbor — mankind — is 
 stimulated by the phrase "all men are created equal," 
 a love for country by the phrase "who gave their lives that 
 that nation might live." Right thinking is aroused when 
 we begin to ponder why "we cannot dedicate or hallow this 
 ground." By tactful leading questions, the teacher can 
 have the child think under and around Lincoln's words 
 and not accept them merely on their face value. Why 
 have the brave men living and dead consecrated it above 
 
 [163] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 our power to add or detract? When we have found out 
 why they have done so, then it rests with us to discover 
 what we can add. Then by right thinking and right action 
 we can "dedicate ourselves to the great task remaining 
 before us," so to feel, think, and be that we shall leave the 
 world better for having worked in it. 
 
 "And grant it, Heaven, that all who read, 
 May find as dear a nurse at need, 
 And every child who fists my rhyme, 
 In the bright, fireside, nursery clime, 
 May hear in it as kind a voice, 
 As made my childish days rejoice!" 
 
 "A great bank of darkness envelops the world. Every true 
 teacher is a torch bearer, advancing into that darkness. We 
 cannot add to the general illumination of the world by extin- 
 guishing the torches of others." 
 
 GRADE I 
 
 "Who keeps one end in view makes all things serve." 
 
 1. To be memorized or studied by children. (Do not 
 memorize more than four poems.) 
 
 Whole Duty of Children Stevenson 
 
 A Thought Stevenson 
 
 Looking Forward Stevenson 
 
 My Bed is a Boat Stevenson 
 
 A Good Boy Stevenson 
 
 Rain Stevenson 
 
 Bed in Summer Stevenson 
 
 A Child's Morning Hymn Coleridge 
 
 The Lamb Black 
 
 Good Night and Good Morning . Lord Houghton 
 
 Mary's Lamb S. J. Hale 
 
 The Swing Stevenson 
 
 [164] 
 
LITERATURE OUTLINE 
 
 Shadowtown Ferry Rice 
 
 The Little Star Jane Taylor 
 
 A Boy's Song James Hogg 
 
 Babyland George Cooper 
 
 2. For reading to children: 
 
 The Nurse's Song Blake 
 
 A Child's Thought of God E. B. Browning 
 
 A Child's Evening Prayer Coleridge 
 
 Autumn Fires Stevenson 
 
 The Lamplighter Stevenson 
 
 The Land of Counterpane Stevenson 
 
 Winter Time Stevenson 
 
 A Real Santa Claus F. D. Sherman 
 
 Queen Mab Hood 
 
 3. Books recommended: 
 
 Child's Garden of Verses R. L. Stevenson 
 
 Verses for Children Lucas 
 
 Poems Every Child Should 
 
 Know Burt 
 
 How to Tell Stories to 
 
 Children C. S. Bailey and C. M. Lewis 
 
 Under the Nursery Lamp Anson D. F. Randolph 
 
 GRADE II 
 
 "Nothing worth while is ever accomplished without infinite 
 labor and work." 
 
 1. To be memorized or studied by children. (Do not 
 memorize more than four poems.) 
 
 Mother and Child Eugene Field 
 
 Why Do the Bells for Christmas 
 
 Ring? Eugene Field 
 
 The Night Wind Eugene Field 
 
 A Norse Lullaby Eugene Field 
 
 The Land of Thus-and-So James W. Riley 
 
 [165] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Good Children Street Eugene Field 
 
 Sugarplum Tree Eugene Field 
 
 The Rock-a-by Lady Eugene Field 
 
 Wynken, Blynken, and Nod .... Eugene Field 
 The Gingham Dog and the 
 
 Calico Cat Eugene Field 
 
 2. For reading to children: 
 
 St. Francis and the Birds Longfellow 
 
 The Emperor's Bird's Nest Longfellow 
 
 The Four Winds Sherman 
 
 Shadow Children Sherman 
 
 Answer to a Child's Question . . . Coleridge 
 
 The Lost Doll Kingsley 
 
 The Pet Lamb Wordsworth 
 
 To a Butterfly Wordsworth 
 
 I Love Little Pussy Jane Taylor 
 
 3. Books recommended: 
 The Eugene Field Book 
 
 Child Life in Poetry Whittier 
 
 The Listening Child Thacher 
 
 The Golden Windows Richards 
 
 Uncle Remus Harris 
 
 Puss in Boots and Reynard, 
 
 the Fox M. P. Chadwick 
 
 iEsop's Fables 
 Book of Knowledge 
 
 GRADE ill 
 
 "It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is 
 done, but by making the best of what we are. It is not by 
 complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well 
 the tools we have." 
 
 1. To be memorized or studied by children. (Do not 
 memorize more than four poems.) 
 [166] 
 
LITERATURE OUTLINE 
 
 The Sandman Vandegrif t 
 
 How the Leaves Came Down . . . Coolidge 
 
 The Corn Song Whittier 
 
 The Children's Hour Longfellow 
 
 Hiawatha's Childhood Longfellow 
 
 Hiawatha's Sailing Longfellow 
 
 Hiawatha's Friends Longfellow 
 
 In School Days Whittier 
 
 My Playmate Whittier 
 
 The Barefoot Boy Whittier 
 
 Daybreak Longfellow 
 
 The Kitten and the Falling 
 
 Leaves Wordsworth 
 
 To a Butterfly Wordsworth 
 
 Sweet and Low Tennyson 
 
 The Brook Tennyson 
 
 Songs from Pippa Passes Browning 
 
 For reading to children: 
 
 Lucy Gray Wordsworth 
 
 Fifty Famous Stories Retold .... Baldwin 
 
 Friends and Helpers Sara J. Eddy 
 
 Just-So Stories Kipling 
 
 The Child Musician Austin Dobson 
 
 The Months Sara Coleridge 
 
 Sunset Land Joe Lincoln 
 
 A Child's Thought of God E. B. Browning 
 
 The World William B. Sands 
 
 The Wind in a Frolic William Howitt 
 
 The Voice of the Grass William Howitt 
 
 St. Christopher and the Christ 
 
 Child Howells 
 
 Books recommended: 
 
 Verses for Children E. V. Lucas 
 
 Zuni Folk Tales Cushing 
 
 Open Sesame: Books I and n 
 
 [167] 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Prose and Verse for Beginners . . Scudder 
 
 For the Children's Hour CM. Lewis and C. S. Bailey 
 
 Book of Knowledge 
 
 GRADE IV 
 
 "A great poem is a fountain forever overflowing with the 
 waters of wisdom and delight." 
 
 1. To be memorized or studied by children. (Do not 
 memorize more than four poems.) 
 
 October's Bright Blue Weather . Jackson 
 The Mountain and the Squirrel . Emerson 
 
 The Windmill Longfellow 
 
 All Things Bright and Beautiful . Alexander 
 
 Thanksgiving Day Child 
 
 A Child's Thought of God E. B. Browning 
 
 A Visit from St. Nicholas Moore 
 
 Boy's Song Hogg 
 
 Robin Redbreast Allingham 
 
 The Village Blacksmith Longfellow 
 
 The Sparrows Thaxter 
 
 In March Wordsworth 
 
 America Smith 
 
 2. To be read by the children or to the children: 
 
 Thirty More Famous Stories 
 
 Retold Baldwin 
 
 Stories from Andersen and Grimm 
 
 Robin Hood Scribner Edition 
 
 Alice in Wonderland Carroll 
 
 Alice Brand (from the Lady of 
 
 the Lake) Scott 
 
 Excelsior Longfellow 
 
 The Birds' Christmas Carol .... Wiggin 
 
 Child Life in Poetry Whittier 
 
 Child Life in Prose Whittier 
 
 Paul Revere's Ride Longfellow 
 
 Old Ironsides Holmes 
 
 [168] 
 
LITERATURE OUTLINE 
 
 GRADE V 
 
 "There is no substitute for thoroughgoing, ardent, and sincere 
 earnestness." 
 
 1. To be memorized or studied by children. (Do not 
 memorize more than four poems.) 
 
 Paul Revere's Ride Longfellow 
 
 Inchcape Rock Southey 
 
 Apple Blossoms W. W. Martin 
 
 Brook Song Riley 
 
 Farm Yard Song Trowbridge 
 
 The Rainbow Wordsworth 
 
 A Farewell Kingsley 
 
 Under the Greenwood Tree .... Shakespeare 
 
 Going a Nutting Stedman 
 
 Today Carlyle 
 
 Old Ironsides Holmes 
 
 Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind . Shakespeare 
 
 Bugle Song Tennyson 
 
 Lochinvar Scott 
 
 2. To be read by the children or to the children: 
 
 Charge of the Light Brigade .... Tennyson 
 Incident of the French Camp . . . Browning 
 
 The Ancient Mariner Coleridge 
 
 The Tales of a Wayside Inn .... Longfellow 
 
 King Robert of Sicily 
 
 The Birds of Killingworth 
 
 The Bell of Atri 
 
 Herve Riel Browning 
 
 Jackanapes (Read to children) . . . Ewing 
 King of the Golden River (Read 
 
 to children) Ruskin 
 
 Gulliver's Travels Swift 
 
 [169 3 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 GRADE VI 
 
 "It is better to inspire the heart with a noble sentiment than 
 to teach the mind a truth of science." 
 
 1. To be memorized or studied by children. (Do not 
 memorize more than four poems.) 
 
 The Star-Spangled Banner Key 
 
 The Sea Barry Cornwall 
 
 Charge of the Light Brigade. . . .Tennyson 
 
 Hohenlinden Campbell 
 
 Song of Marion's Men Bryant 
 
 A Day of Sunshine Longfellow 
 
 Ye Mariners of England Campbell 
 
 The Wreck of the Hesperus .... Longfellow 
 
 Concord Hymn Emerson 
 
 The Flag Goes By Bennett 
 
 Incident of the French Camp Browning 
 
 Chiquita Bret Harte 
 
 How They Brought the Good 
 
 News from Ghent to Aix Browning 
 
 He Prayeth Best Coleridge 
 
 The Day is Done Longfellow 
 
 2. To be read by the children or to the children: 
 
 The Voice of Spring Felicia Hemans 
 
 The Leak in the Dike Phoebe Cary 
 
 The Emigration of the Pilgrim 
 
 Fathers Edward Everett 
 
 The Pied Piper of Hamelin Browning 
 
 Ring Out, Wild Bells (In 
 
 Memoriam) Tennyson 
 
 Stories from Homer and Virgil . . Alfred J. Church 
 
 Longing Lowell 
 
 The Burial of Moses Alexander 
 
 The Boy and the Angel Browning 
 
 [170] 
 
LITERATURE OUTLINE 
 
 King Solomon and the Ants. . . .Whittier 
 
 Tales from Shakespeare Lamb 
 
 Legend of St. Christopher H. H. Jackson 
 
 Pipes at Lucknow Robert Lowell 
 
 The World is Too Much with Us . Wordsworth 
 The Courtship of Miles Standish. Longfellow 
 
 GRADE VII 
 
 "One half of education consists of knowing where to find 
 knowledge." 
 
 1. To be memorized or studied by children. (Do not 
 memorize more than four poems.) 
 
 Battle Hymn of the Republic. . . Julia W. Howe 
 
 Columbus Joaquin Miller 
 
 Abou Ben Adhem Leigh Hunt 
 
 The Landing of the Pilgrims . . . Felicia Hemans 
 
 To a Skylark Wordsworth 
 
 To a Mountain Daisy Burns 
 
 The Daffodils Wordsworth 
 
 Snow Flakes Longfellow 
 
 The Passing of Arthur Tennyson 
 
 "And slowly answered Arthur from the barge: 
 The old order changeth, yielding place to new." 
 The Courtship of Miles Standish . Longfellow 
 
 Thanatopsis Bryant 
 
 Sir Galahad Tennyson 
 
 The Antiquity of Freedom Bryant 
 
 Vision of Sir Launf al Lowell 
 
 "What is so rare as a day in June?" 
 
 2. To be read by the children or to the children: 
 
 The American Flag Beecher 
 
 What Constitutes a State? Sir William Jones 
 
 The Character of Washington . . Thomas Jefferson 
 
 [171] 
 
 i 
 
STANDARDS IN ENGLISH 
 
 Nolan's Speech (Man without a 
 
 Country) Hale 
 
 To the Dandelion Lowell 
 
 Scrooge's Christmas Dickens 
 
 Lay of the Last Minstrel Scott 
 
 Stories of King Arthur and the 
 
 Round Table Beatrice Clay 
 
 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow . . .Irving 
 
 The Hurricane Bryant 
 
 The Shepherd of King Admetus . Lowell 
 
 Breathings of Spring Hemans 
 
 The Cloud Shelley 
 
 St. John Chap, xiv: 1-27 
 
 The Cotter's Saturday Night. . .Burns 
 
 The Spacious Firmament Addison 
 
 The Uprising of the North. . . „T. B. Reed 
 The Explorer Kipling 
 
 GRADE VIII 
 
 "The great poems of the world, the great books of the world, 
 are written in invisible ink. It is your own personality which 
 brings out the writing." 
 
 1. To be memorized or studied by children. (Do not 
 memorize more than four poems.) 
 
 Recessional Kipling 
 
 Address at Gettysburg Lincoln 
 
 The Chambered Nautilus Holmes 
 
 I Would Be True Van Dyke 
 
 Breathes There the Man with 
 
 Soul So Dead Scott 
 
 (Lay of the Last Minstrel) 
 Once to Every Man and Nation 
 
 (The Crisis) Lowell 
 
 O Captain, My Captain Whitman 
 
LITERATURE OUTLINE 
 
 The Coastwise Lights of Eng- 
 land Kipling 
 
 Eve before Waterloo Byron 
 
 Song of the Chattahoochee Lanier 
 
 Flower in the Crannied Wall . . . Tennyson 
 
 To a Waterfowl Bryant 
 
 The Rhodora Emerson 
 
 Polonius's Advice (Hamlet, Act 
 
 I, Scene 3) Shakespeare 
 
 St. Paul to the Corinthians Chap, xiii: 1-13 
 
 To be read by children or to children: 
 
 A Definition of a Gentleman . . . Cardinal Newman 
 
 (The Idea of a University) 
 Extracts from Washington's 
 
 Farewell Address 
 South Carolina and the Union. .Hayne 
 
 Reply to Hayne Webster 
 
 Supposed Speech of John Adams . Webster 
 
 England and Her Colonies Burke 
 
 Emmet's Vindication 
 
 The Marshes of Glynn Lanier 
 
 The Vision of Sir Launfal Lowell 
 
 Snow-Bound Whittier 
 
 Evangeline Longfellow 
 
 The Great Stone Face Hawthorne 
 
 Rip Van Winkle Irving 
 
 Treasure Island Stevenson 
 
 Apostrophe to the Ocean Byron 
 
 (Childe Harold, Canto IV) 
 
 The Bells Poe 
 
 The Perfect Tribute Andrews 
 
 Tad and His Father Bullard 
 
 [173] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 A. PICTURE LIST 
 
 GRADE I 
 
 Adam, J. : The Cat Family. 
 
 Barnes, E. C: Family Cares. 
 
 Bonheur, Rosa: Lions at Home. 
 
 Boughton, George H.: Pilgrims Going to Church. 
 
 Correggio: Holy Night. 
 
 Dupre, Jules: Escaped Cow. 
 
 Gardner, Elizabeth: Soap Bubbles. 
 
 Herring, J. F. : The VUlage Blacksmith. 
 
 Jacque, Charles Emile: Feeding the Chickens. 
 
 Keppers, J.: Feathered Pets. 
 
 Lambert: Kittens. 
 
 Landseer, Edwin: Saved. 
 
 Millet, Jean Francois: Nestlings; The First Step. 
 
 Murillo: Children of the Shell. 
 
 Parrish, Maxfield: Air Castles. 
 
 Smith, Jessie Wilcox: Illustrations. 
 
 Weber, Otto: Greedy Calves. 
 
 Longfellow in His Study. 
 
 Portrait of Longfellow; of Washington. 
 
 Christmas Subjects. 
 
 Illustrations for Mother Goose. 
 
 grade n 
 
 Bonheur, Rosa: Ploughing. 
 Bremen, Meyer von: The Pet Bird. 
 Dupre, Jules: The Haymakers. 
 Holmes, G. A.: Can't You Talk? 
 Israels, Josef: Motherly Cares. 
 Millet, Jean Frangois: Feeding Her Birds. 
 Ranouf , E. : The Helping Hand. 
 Rotta, Antonio: Pussy's Temptation. 
 
 [177] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Smith, Jessie Wilcox: Rain, rain, go away. 
 
 Her pictures of children. 
 Stevens, A. B. : The Broken Flower Pot. 
 Swinstead, G. H.: The First Step; The Trial of Patience; The 
 
 Country Joiner. 
 Christmas Subjects. 
 
 grade in 
 
 Bonheur, Rosa: Brittany Sheep. 
 
 Bremen, Meyer von: Toll Paid Here. 
 
 Breton, Jules : The Song of the Lark. 
 
 Brooks: Grace Darling. 
 
 Dupre: In the Pasture. 
 
 Jameson, M. : The Fisherman's Daughter. 
 
 Landseer, Edwin: A Pair of Nutcrackers; Shoeing the Horse. 
 
 Lins, Adolph: Song without Words. 
 
 Millet, Jean Frangois: The New-born Calf ; The Churner. 
 
 Morgan, J. : A Heavy Load. 
 
 Raphael: Madonna of the Chair. 
 
 Reni, Guido: The Aurora. 
 
 Portraits of Raphael; Phoebe Cary. 
 
 GRADE IV 
 
 Bonheur, Rosa: Changing Pastures; Denizens of the Highlands. 
 
 Bremen, Meyer von: Who'll Buy a Rabbit? Wounded Lamb. 
 
 Douglass, Edwin: Aldernay. 
 
 Dupre, Jules: Pitching Hay; In the Open Country; The Prairie. 
 
 Greuze, Jean Baptiste: Girl with Apple. 
 
 Landseer, Edwin: The Connoisseurs; Wild Cattle of Chillingham. 
 
 L'Hermitte, Leon: Paying the Harvesters. 
 
 Mason, George: Harvest Moon. 
 
 Mauve, Anton: In Charge of the Flock; Sheep Going to Pasture; 
 
 The Returning Sheep. 
 Millet, Jean Frangois: The Shepherdess; Going to Work; 
 
 Sheep Shearing. 
 Ruysdael, Jacob: The Windmill. 
 
 [178] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The Boy Columbus. 
 
 Portrait of Edwin Landseer; Abraham Lincoln; Longfellow. 
 
 Christmas Subjects. 
 
 grade v 
 
 Benner, Jean: Shady Corner at Capri. 
 
 Bonheur, Rosa: An Old Monarch. 
 
 Breton, Jules: The Reapers; Summer Day. 
 
 Chica, E. I. : Race of Roman Chariots. 
 
 Dupre, Jules: Haymaker's Rest. 
 
 Gerome, J. L.: Circus Maximus. 
 
 Haquette, G.: Drawing the Nets (Copley). 
 
 Millet, Jean Francois: The Sower; Calling the Cows. 
 
 Murillo: Fruit Venders. 
 
 Ostade, Isaac van: Camp in Holland (Copley). 
 
 Rembrandt: The Mill. 
 
 St. Gaudens: Shaw Memorial. 
 
 Troyon, Constance: Return to the Farm; In the Woods. 
 
 Van Marcke, E.: Cattle in a Marsh 
 
 Portraits of Webster; Audubon. 
 
 Christmas Subjects. 
 
 GRADE VI 
 
 Bonheur, Rosa: Brittany Cattle. 
 
 Boughton, George H. : The Return of the Mayflower. 
 
 Bouveret, Dagnan : At the Watering Trough. 
 
 Breton, Jules: The Washerwoman. 
 
 Corot, Jean Baptiste: Spring. 
 
 Dupre, Julien: The White Cow. 
 
 Hoffman, Heinrich: Christ and the Doctors. 
 
 Homer, Winslow: Fog Warning. 
 
 Knight, Ridgeway: Calling the Ferryman. 
 
 Laux, M. : A Resting Place; Swallows. 
 
 Le Rolle, H.: By the Riverside; The Shepherdess. 
 
 Millet, Jean Francois: Potato Planting. 
 
 Morgan, F.: The Tug of War. 
 
 Murillo: Melon Eaters. 
 
 [179] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Pasini: Curiosity. 
 
 Steffeck: Queen Louise and Her Sons. 
 
 Thorwaldsen, Bertel: The Lion of Lucerne. 
 
 Turner: The Grand Canal, Venice. 
 
 Rome: Forum; Coliseum; Arch of Titus; Vatican; St. Peter's. 
 
 Florence: Cathedral; Giotto's Tower; Doors of Baptistry. 
 
 Venice: St. Mark's; Doge's Palace; Grand Canal; Rialto; 
 
 Bridge of Sighs. 
 Spain : The Alhambra. 
 Cathedrals: Amiens; Cologne; Canterbury; Notre Dame; 
 
 Milan; York. 
 Portraits of Hawthorne; Hamilton; Whittier; Columbus. 
 
 grade vn 
 
 Abbey, Edwin: Quest of the Holy Grail (Copley). 
 Angelo, Michael: David. 
 Barclay, Edgar: Old Steps at Capri. 
 Bonheur, Augusta: Cows at a Watering Place. 
 Breton, Jules: End of Labor. 
 Chapu, H. M. : Jeanne D'Arc. 
 Corot, Jean Baptiste: The Willows. 
 Donatello: David; St. George. 
 Landseer, Edwin: Monarch of the Glen. 
 Flameng, A. : Fishing Boats at Dieppe. 
 Leutze, E. : Washington Crossing the Delaware. 
 Millais, John Everett: The Princes in the Tower. 
 Millet, Jean Francois: The Gleaners. 
 Robbia, Luca della: Singing Children. 
 Sarto, Andrea del: St. John. 
 Schreyer, Adolph: The Arabian Chargers. 
 Titian: Presentation of the Virgin. 
 
 Trumbull, John: The Signing of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence; Alexander Hamilton; The Surrender of Burgoyne. 
 Turner: The Fighting Temeraire. 
 Arabian Nights : Illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. 
 Vecchio, Palma: Santa Barbara. 
 Watts, G. F.: Galahad. 
 
 E180] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Bronze Statue of King Arthur at Innsbruck. 
 England: Houses of Parliament; Tower of London; Windsor; 
 Westminster Abbey. 
 
 grade vin 
 
 1 . Comparison of several works by the same artist, for example : 
 
 Joseph Mallord W. Turner: Fighting Temeraire. 
 
 Slave Ship (Museum of Art, 
 
 Boston). 
 Dido Building Carthage. 
 
 Jean Francois Millet: Sower. 
 
 Gleaners. 
 Shepherdess. 
 Man with the Hoe. 
 
 Raphael: Madonna della Sedia. 
 
 Madonna Grand Duca. 
 Transfiguration. 
 
 Works of other artists, viz., Rosa Bonheur, Copley, 
 Stuart, Winslow Homer, Whistler, Sargent. 
 
 2. Works of art in Boston: 
 
 Shaw Memorial — St. Gaudens. 
 Death and the Sculptor — French. 
 Public Library Decorations. 
 Treasures in Museum of Fine Arts. 
 
 3. A list of twelve famous paintings and the galleries where 
 
 they are: 
 Angel Heads : Sir Joshua Reynolds. 
 
 National Gallery, London. 
 Assumption of the Virgin: Titian. 
 
 Academy, Venice. 
 Aurora: Guido Reni. 
 
 Rospigliosi Palace, Rome. 
 Descent from the Cross: Rubens. 
 
 Cathedral, Antwerp. 
 
 [181] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Holy Night: Correggio. 
 
 Dresden Gallery. 
 Last Supper: Leonardo da Vinci. 
 
 Monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. 
 Madonna della Sedia: Raphael. 
 
 Pitti Gallery, Florence. 
 Madonna di San Sisto: Raphael. 
 
 Dresden Gallery. 
 Madonna of Murillo. 
 
 Pitti Gallery, Florence. 
 Night Guard: Rembrandt. 
 
 Museum, Amsterdam. 
 Santa Barbara: Palma Vecchio. 
 
 Santa Maria Formosa — Venice. 
 Three Fates: Drawn by Michael Angelo. 
 
 Pitti Gallery, Florence. 
 
 B. COMMON ERRORS AND THEIR 
 CORRECTION 
 
 The following table appears in a report recently sub- 
 mitted by Professor Charters on the range of grammatical 
 errors occurring in the schools of Kansas City, Mo. This 
 table, and a discussion of it, may be found in the Semi- 
 annual Report of the Division of Reference and Research, 
 Department of Education, New York City (Publication 
 No. 12). It is entered here for the purpose of bringing 
 home to teachers what has been said a dozen times in this 
 course — that the range of children's errors is a limited 
 one. Note that errors in the use of the verb (errors 8 
 to 13) make wp fifty-seven per cent of the total. 
 
 [182] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 I 1 ! 
 
 <f W H SI M 
 
 ■**»■*>« 
 
 «IOi-i©'*Oi-iOOfH 
 
 _ «2 * «o «o co 
 
 fH <n oo «* us «p 
 
 9 O H Jl M 'f «i ffi N 00 
 
 [183] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 LANGUAGE GAMES AND DRHiLS 
 
 These drills are based on the following principles: 
 
 1. Repetition. That we speak the language we hear is 
 axiomatic. In order to establish correct habits of speech, 
 the ear must learn to recognize and expect accepted forms. 
 Then, given reasonable opportunity for practice, the tongue 
 will reproduce them naturally. Therefore much repeti- 
 tion is necessary. 
 
 2. Interest. The drill should be made interesting to 
 the end that attention may be effortless and recollection 
 pleasant. In fact, the play's the thing. 
 
 3. The Mind. There should be some apparent occasion 
 for the use of the required expression. 
 
 4. The Body. Bodily movement associated with mental 
 activity strengthens and fixes impressions. 
 
 Drill 1 
 
 "I threw it," not "I tru it." 
 
 Pupils in seats as usual. One child has a bean bag. 
 
 Teacher (calling from cards). "Sadie." 
 
 Pupil (tossing bag). "I threw it to Sadie." 
 
 Teacher (from cards as before). "Tony." 
 
 Sadie (tossing). "I threw it to Tony." 
 
 Continue until every child has had his turn. The accidentally 
 long or short tosses add to the fun. Practical variations will 
 readily occur to the teacher. 
 
 Drills 
 
 Leader. " I ' ve thought of a word that rhymes with 'door.' " 
 
 Jimmie. "Is it part of an apple?" 
 
 Leader. "No, it isn't 'core.' " 
 
 Ethel. "Is it what I did to my dress?" 
 
 Leader. "No, it isn't 'tore.' " 
 
 Jean. "Is it what lions do?" 
 
 Leader. "Yes, it is 'roar.' " 
 
 [184] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Now, Jean, the successful, "thinks of a word," and the guess- 
 ing continues by definitions. 
 
 This game never fails to give pleasure. Ideas struggle for 
 expression in comprehensible definitions, and the rhythmic 
 
 formula "No, it isn't ," repeated again and again, makes 
 
 the correct verb form pleasantly familiar. 
 
 Drill 3 
 
 Drill on Use of "Saw" 
 
 Place a number of objects on teacher's desk. 
 
 Have a row of children pass the desk and tell what they saw. 
 
 Limit them to the number of objects they must tell, by saying: 
 
 "You may tell two objects." 
 
 "You may tell three objects," etc. 
 The next child may tell four objects. 
 Look out for careful placing of "and." 
 
 "I saw a cap." (Not "sorra cap.") 
 
 "I saw a cap and a book." 
 
 "I saw a book, a marble, a top, and a ball." 
 In like manner: 
 
 take — took 
 
 find — found 
 
 bring to me — brought 
 
 Drill 4 
 Game 1 
 Teacher. "Today I'm going to play borrowing. John, 
 lend me your umbrella." 
 
 John. "I ain't got no umbrella." 
 Katie. "I have no umbrella." Etc. 
 
 Game 2 
 Teacher. "Mary and Alice may walk across the room. 
 Mary, tell me what you and Alice did." 
 
 Mary. "Me and Alice walked across the room." 
 Alice. "I and Mary walked across the room." 
 Teacher. "The polite way is to name Mary first." 
 
 [185] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Alice. "Mary and I walked across the room." 
 
 Teacher. "Alice told me very nicely. Mary, you tell me." 
 
 Other corrections may be taken up in this way. 
 
 Drill 5 
 
 A child stands in the corner blindfolded. Another pupil 
 stands beside him not blindfolded. A third child steps up and 
 taps the first one on the back. Number one says, "Who is it?" 
 The child who did the tapping says, "It is I." The blindfolded 
 pupil then gives the name of the child he thinks it is. If he 
 guesses correctly, the pupil not blindfolded says, "It is he" 
 or "It is she." If not, he says, "It is not she," or "It is not he." 
 
 Drill 6 
 
 To correct common errors, such as these: "7 seen it"; "he done 
 it "; " me and him "; "7 got it off him," etc. 
 
 Hold up a book or pencil. Ask these questions of different 
 pupils: "What do you see?" "What did he see?" "What has 
 he seen?" "What have they seen?" "What did they see?" 
 The answers to these questions and many more of the same type 
 will call for the correct use of see, saw, seen. 
 
 "What did John and you see?" "What did he and you see?" 
 These questions call for answers with the correct use of "he 
 and I." 
 
 "Mary, get a ruler from Annie." "From whom did you get 
 the ruler?" "From whom did Mary get the ruler?" This may 
 be continued, calling on different children and making use of 
 different objects. "Where did you get it?" "Where did I, 
 he, she, we, they get it?" The answers to questions of this sort 
 will teach the children to use from instead of off. 
 
 Drill 7 
 Game 1. Drill on "I haven't any," or "7 have no." 
 "You may tell me about some things which you haven't. 
 If you haven't a book, how would you tell me?" 
 " I haven't any book." 
 
 [186] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 "Tell it another way." 
 "I have no book." 
 
 "I haven't any ink." 
 
 "I haven't any pen." "I have no pen." 
 
 "I haven't a paper. " "I have no paper." 
 
 "I haven't a crayola." "I have no crayola." 
 
 Game 2. Use of "doesn't." 
 "Tell me some things your mother doesn't do; your father; 
 your teacher; a squirrel; a robin." 
 "My mother doesn't talk English." 
 "My mother doesn't work in the mill." 
 "My mother doesn't start the fire." 
 "My mother doesn't chop wood." 
 "My mother doesn't like dirty boys." 
 
 Drill 8 
 Oral Dictation — Correct Verb Forms 
 
 "John, go to the closet, get a ruler, and put it on Mary's 
 desk. Tell me what you did." 
 
 "I went to the closet, got a ruler, and jmt it on Mary's desk." 
 
 "Mary, go to my desk, get two pencils, an eraser, and a key, 
 and give them to Miss — — . Tell me what you did." 
 
 "I went to your desk, got two pencils, an eraser, and a key, 
 and gave them to Miss ." 
 
 Drill 9 
 
 Requests. Planned to eliminate the habits "Please, may I 
 change my seat?" and "Can." 
 
 "Miss , may I change my seat?" 
 
 "Miss , may I go home at eleven o'clock?" 
 
 "Miss , may I have another paper?" 
 
 "Miss , may I have a book?" 
 
 "Miss , may I leave the room?" 
 
 "Miss , may I close the window?" 
 
 C187 3 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Drill 10 
 Use of "Isn't" 
 Have a list of words on the board. A child steps out of the 
 room, while one of the class goes to the board and selects a 
 word. Then the first child comes in, and points to the word he 
 thinks the boy selected, and asks : 
 "Is it 'every'?" 
 "No, it isn't 'every,'" 
 
 or 
 "Yes, it is 'every.'" 
 
 Drill 11 
 
 Game of Fortune Telling. Correct Use of "Saw" 
 
 To play this game the class should be divided into fortune 
 
 seekers and fortune tellers. On the teacher's desk should be 
 
 many pieces of paper, each having a picture on the under side; 
 
 the upper side should be blank. 
 
 Each fortune seeker in turn should go to the desk, take a paper, 
 peep at the under side, and then, turning to a fortune teller, 
 say what he saw. The fortune teller should at once tell the 
 seeker's fortune. Thus, if a fortune seeker should say, "I was 
 a ship," the fortune teller should say, "You will be a sailor." 
 The following suggestions will help in the beginning, but the 
 teacher and pupils should be able to think of other pictures and 
 fortunes : 
 
 "I saw a club." "You will be a policeman." 
 
 "I saw a hat." "You will be a milliner." 
 
 "I saw a ladder." "You will be a fireman." 
 
 "I saw an automobile." "You will be a chauffeur." 
 
 Drill 12 
 A Group of Similar Games 
 Game 1. This game is like a spelling match. The teacher 
 gives out the following words, one by one: 
 
 a bubble a tulip a riddle 
 
 a potato a whistle a wagon 
 
 [188] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 a lesson 
 a bean bag 
 a horn 
 
 a picture 
 a ball 
 a leaf 
 
 a kite 
 
 a flag 
 an answer 
 
 The pupil whose turn it is should reply instantly, choosing 
 the most fitting answer from the following sentences. It is a 
 failure to hesitate or to give the wrong answer: 
 
 I grew it. 
 I threw it. 
 
 I blew it. 
 I drew it. 
 
 I flew it. 
 I knew it. 
 
 Game 2. For another game, the teacher may give out the 
 same words, and the pupil whose turn it is may respond instantly 
 with one of the following questions : 
 
 "Have you ever known one?" 
 "Have you ever blown one?" 
 "Have you ever shown one?" 
 "Have you ever flown one?" 
 "Have you ever thrown one?" 
 "Have you ever grown one?" 
 
 Game 3. Make up a similar one for the class to play, using 
 these words : 
 
 bought caught 
 
 thought taught 
 
 fought brought 
 
 Game 4. A similar game may be made, using the following 
 sentences, only there will be no rhyming words in it: 
 
 I saw it. 
 
 I stuck it. 
 
 I shook it. 
 
 I did it. 
 
 I drove it. 
 
 I swung it. 
 
 I chose it. 
 
 I ate it. 
 
 I rang it. 
 
 I wrote it. 
 
 I lost it. 
 
 I dug it. 
 
 I broke it. 
 
 I took it. 
 
 I said it. 
 
 I tore it. 
 
 I gave it. 
 
 I showed it. 
 
 I wore it. 
 
 I sang it. 
 
 I strung it. 
 
 I spun it. 
 
 I hit it. 
 
 I wove it. 
 
 I drank it. 
 
 I bit it. 
 
 
 [189] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 WORDS FREQUENTLY MISPRONOUNCED 
 
 This list is suggestive only. 
 
 
 GRADE IV 
 
 
 address 
 
 end 
 
 just 
 
 throat 
 
 again 
 
 evening 
 
 knew 
 
 through 
 
 against 
 
 father 
 
 nothing 
 
 told 
 
 and 
 
 February 
 
 often 
 
 tomorrow 
 
 apron 
 
 follow 
 
 parade 
 
 towards 
 
 because 
 
 fourth 
 
 pen 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 been 
 
 gave 
 
 picture 
 
 using 
 
 beginning 
 
 geography 
 
 polite 
 
 walking 
 
 bouquet 
 
 give 
 
 rhubarb 
 
 was 
 
 catch 
 
 has 
 
 saw 
 
 which 
 
 chimney 
 
 have 
 
 something 
 
 window 
 
 could have 
 
 hold 
 
 stayed 
 
 with 
 
 couldn't 
 
 into 
 
 ten 
 
 writing 
 
 didn't 
 
 iron 
 
 thread 
 
 you 
 
 drowned 
 
 Italian 
 
 three 
 
 
 elm 
 
 I wish 
 
 threw 
 
 
 
 All words ending in "ing " 
 
 
 
 GRADE V 
 
 
 across 
 
 elegant 
 
 kept 
 
 strength 
 
 arctic 
 
 eleven 
 
 length 
 
 strongest 
 
 arithmetic 
 
 elm 
 
 moving 
 
 subtraction 
 
 ask 
 
 escape 
 
 no 
 
 ten 
 
 attack 
 
 February 
 
 nobody 
 
 three 
 
 aunt 
 
 flew 
 
 nothing 
 
 through 
 
 been 
 
 geography 
 
 often 
 
 thrown 
 
 catch 
 
 get 
 
 other 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 comfortably 
 
 getting 
 
 pen 
 
 vegetables 
 
 crept 
 
 got 
 
 perhaps 
 
 vicious 
 
 desk 
 
 guessed 
 
 promoted 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 drawing 
 
 height 
 
 reading 
 
 what 
 
 eighth 
 
 just 
 
 slept 
 
 when 
 
 [190] 
 
 
 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 where 
 
 why 
 
 with 
 
 yet 
 
 which 
 
 winding 
 
 writing 
 
 
 white 
 
 window 
 
 yes 
 
 
 
 All words en 
 
 ding in "ing ** 
 
 
 
 GRADE VI 
 
 
 again 
 
 blouse 
 
 forehead 
 
 soldier 
 
 against 
 
 blue 
 
 just 
 
 strength 
 
 attacked 
 
 captain 
 
 length 
 
 theater 
 
 aunt 
 
 catch 
 
 library 
 
 wharf 
 
 arctic 
 
 chimney 
 
 often 
 
 when 
 
 because 
 
 drowsed 
 
 pen 
 
 while 
 
 been 
 
 engine 
 
 saw 
 
 
 
 All words ending in "ing " 
 
 
 
 GRADE VII 
 
 
 allies 
 
 duty 
 
 hoist 
 
 pillow 
 
 arithmetic 
 
 elm 
 
 horse 
 
 poem 
 
 athletic 
 
 every 
 
 idea 
 
 saucy 
 
 berry 
 
 faucet 
 
 kettle 
 
 student 
 
 bureau 
 
 February 
 
 library 
 
 telephone 
 
 cellar 
 
 gather 
 
 many 
 
 thought 
 
 clothes 
 
 government 
 
 mountain 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 coffee 
 
 height 
 
 new 
 
 window 
 
 creek 
 
 history 
 
 nothing 
 
 
 
 All words ending in "ing" 
 
 
 
 grade vm 
 
 
 amateur 
 
 drouth 
 
 iron 
 
 since 
 
 architect 
 
 extraordinary 
 
 Italian 
 
 soda 
 
 at all 
 
 forbade 
 
 italic 
 
 steady 
 
 attorney 
 
 genuine 
 
 learned (a) 
 
 stupid 
 
 bade 
 
 geography 
 
 leisure 
 
 sirup 
 
 bouquet 
 
 glacier 
 
 loam 
 
 thought 
 
 catch 
 
 haunted 
 
 mischievous 
 
 throat 
 
 column 
 
 illustrate 
 
 neuralgia 
 
 
 deaf 
 
 influence 
 
 potato ,. 
 
 
 All words ending in "ing 
 
 C191] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 C. MODEL LETTER FORMS 
 
 The two forms entered below have been adopted as 
 official standards in the Boston Public Schools. They 
 are used here through the courtesy of the Committee on 
 Standards in English, Mr. Charles L. Hanson, Chairman. 
 
 MODEL FORM OF FRIENDLY LETTER 
 
 316 Summit Street, 
 Pomona, Cal., 
 
 September 2, 1913. 
 Dear Marion, 
 
 Mother and I reached home yesterday after our visit of three 
 months in the East. Although we had a pleasant time with 
 our relatives in Maine and Massachusetts, we are glad to be at 
 home once more. 
 
 The peaches and plums are ripe now, and we spend all day on 
 the ranch helping the men gather the crop. I wish that you 
 could be here to help eat our peaches, but I suppose you are 
 enjoying your good Massachusetts apples. 
 Give my love to your mother and write soon. 
 Your loving friend, 
 
 Helen Garland. 
 
 MODEL FORM OF BUSINESS LETTER 
 
 321 Beacon Street, 
 Boston, Mass., 
 
 January 20, 1914. 
 Charles Lowell & Company, 
 36 State Street, 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Dear Sirs: 
 
 In reply to your advertisement in today's Herald for a clerk 
 in your office, I wish to submit my application. 
 I am fourteen years of age and am a graduate of the Prospect 
 
 [192] 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 School. My report card shows my standing in arithmetic and 
 spelling. This letter is a specimen of my handwriting. 
 
 I refer to Mr. John L. Stevens, principal of the Prospect 
 School, and to the Rev. George Chase, 25 Wilson Road, Boston. 
 Trusting that you will consider my application favorably, I am, 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 Richard H. Williams. 
 
 D. TIME ALLOTMENT IN LANGUAGE 
 
 Minutes 
 
 weekly 
 
 All oral 
 
 One fourth written, three fourths oral 
 One fourth written, three fourths oral 
 One third written, two thirds oral 
 One third written, two thirds oral 
 One half written, one half oral 
 One half written, one half oral 
 One half written, one half oral 
 
 The above schedule does not include time for grammar. 
 The suggestions as to the proportion of time to be spent 
 on oral and on written work need not be taken too literally. 
 It is important, however, to give to oral work about the 
 amount of time indicated. 
 
 Grade I 
 
 100 
 
 Grade U 
 
 100 
 
 Grade HI 
 
 100 
 
 Grade IV 
 
 150 
 
 Grade V 
 
 150 
 
 Grade VI 
 
 120 
 
 Grade VII 
 
 120 
 
 Grade VIII 
 
 120 
 
 [193] 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aims, discussion of, 4, 16-18. 
 
 by grades (oral), 41, 51, 62, 
 
 73, 90, 104, 120-123. 
 
 by grades (written), 58, 68, 
 
 78, 96, 111, 127, 143. 
 
 Articulation, discussion, 6, 10, 78, 
 
 95-96. 
 
 exercises in, 12, 190-191. 
 
 Awkward constructions, 128-146. 
 
 Blackboard work, 71, 87-88. 
 Business letters, 129-130. 
 
 Common errors of speech, discus- 
 sion, 12, 15, 47, 66, 94, 109. 
 corrective exercises in, 184- 
 
 189. 
 lists, 48, 55, 66, 77, 95, 110, 
 126, 141. 
 
 Composition subjects, discussion 
 of, 6, 9, 27, 42, 52, 74. 
 development of, 43, 63, 71. 
 
 Conferences, 32. 
 
 Connected talking, how secured, 8, 
 43, 90, 121-122, 136-137, 
 142-143, 152-153. 
 illustrations, 41-47, 53-55, 65, 
 75-76, 106-109, 139-140. 
 
 Copying, 34-38, 60, 83, 98, 115. 
 
 Correction of compositions, 30-34. 
 
 Correlation, 2, 9. 
 
 Criticism of compositions, 30-34, 
 87. 
 
 Description, models for, 148. 
 Dictation, 34-38, 71, 83, 98, 115. 
 Drills, oral language, 13-15, 67. 
 
 English, interesting, 18-20, 73, 90, 
 121, 136, 152. 
 
 Errors of speech, discussion, 12-15, 
 
 47, 66, 94, 109. 
 corrective exercises in, 184- 
 
 189. 
 lists, 48, 55, 66, 77, 95, 110, 
 
 126, 141. 
 
 Fitzgerald, M. E., ix. 
 
 Games and drills, 184-189. 
 Goldwasser, E., 82. 
 Grammar, value of, 2, 13, 24, 109, 
 125-126. 
 
 Habits, formation of good, 48, 49, 
 56, 68, 72, 78, 95, 104, 110, 
 126. 
 
 Interesting English, how secured, 
 18-20, 73, 90, 121, 136, 152. 
 
 Jones, W. Franklin, 25. 
 
 Letter, the, discussion of, 81, 114. 
 
 business, 129-130. 
 
 models for, 82-83, 135, 192- 
 193. 
 Literature, selections, 164-173. 
 
 Model, use of, 20, 137-138. 
 Models for description, 148. 
 
 Narration, models for, 147. 
 
 Oral language, general principles, 
 5-16. 
 drills in, 13-15, 67. 
 how secured, 8, 43, 90, 130- 
 132, 136-137, 142-143, 152- 
 153. 
 illustrations, 43-47, 53-55, 
 65, 75, 106, 139. 
 
 [197] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Paragraph, the, discussion of, 21, 
 
 80, 97, 113-114, 129. 
 topics for, 84-85, 99-100, 116- 
 
 117, 180-131, 150-151. 
 Penmanship, 72. 
 Pictures, lists of, 177-182. 
 Power in English, how secured, 
 
 18-20, 90, 121, 136, 152. 
 Pronunciation, discussion of, 10, 
 
 78, 95-96. 
 exercises in, 12, 190-191. 
 
 Reproduction, 9. 
 Rewriting, 119. 
 
 Self-expression, 18, 19. 
 Sentences, discussion of, 22, 79, 91, 
 
 97, 105, 112. 
 exercises in, 128, 145. 
 Sheridan, B. M., ix. 
 Spelling, discussion, 25, 26. 
 
 lists of misspelled words, 59, 
 
 68, 86, 87, 101, 118, 133, 
 
 154. 
 Standards, discussion, vi, 4, 69, 
 
 103. 
 
 illustrations of written, 60, 70, 
 88, 102, 119, 135, 155. 
 Subjects for compositions, discus- 
 sion, 6, 9, 27, 42, 52, 74. 
 
 Technical grammar, 2, 7, 13, 24, 
 
 109, 125-126. 
 Technicalities, written discussion, 
 
 17-18, 133. 
 lists, 58, 68, 86, 101, 118, 133. 
 Themes, length of, 20-22. 
 
 Vocabulary building, 15, 122, 138, 
 
 155. 
 Voice, quality of, 11, 48, 67. 
 
 Waste, vii. 
 
 Writing, preparation for, 57. 
 
 first steps in developing, 71. 
 
 Written language, general prin- 
 ciples, 16-38. 
 
 Written standards, 60, 70, 88, 102, 
 119, 135, 155-156. 
 
 Written technicalities, discussion, 
 17-18, 133. 
 lists, 58, 68, 86, 101, 118, 133. 
 
 [198] 
 
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 2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 
 
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 A COLLECTION OF THE WORLD'S BEST LITERA- 
 TURE FOR CHILDREN 
 
 I TYPES OF CHILDREN'S ! 
 LITERATURE 
 
 E = 
 
 Collected and Edited by Walter Barnes 
 
 I Head of the Department of English, State Normal School, Fairmont, W. To. 
 
 THIS book for the first time presents in convenient | 
 form the source material that teachers and students 
 of the literature of childhood most need to have 
 { available. It is made up of classified masterpieces that 
 were selected after a thorough sifting of every type of 
 children's literature. The different forms of poetry and 
 i narrative, and descriptions, sketches, essays, and letters 
 f are represented. 
 
 Every piece is a complete unit or is at least easily de- 
 I tached from its original setting, like an Uncle Remus or 
 
 an Arabian-Nights story. The selections are arranged | 
 
 as nearly as maj be in the order of increasing difficulty. 
 i The versions given are the definitive and authoritative 
 
 ones. The space devoted to each type of writing has 
 § been justly apportioned. | 
 
 | A bibliography, index to authors, titles, and first lines of 
 poems and helpful notes are included. It is attractive 
 in appearance. Though primarily designed for use in 
 normal-school, college and library classes, it will interest 
 teachers and parents generally, and it should be put into 
 
 i the hands of children. 
 
 i <#> 1 
 
 xiii -\- 462 pages. Price, $1.50 
 
 WORLD BOOK COMPANY 
 
 YotJKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 
 
 2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 
 
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 PLAY SCHOOL SERIES 
 Edited by Clark W. Hetherington 
 
 Educating by Story-Telling 
 
 1 SHOWING THE VALUE OF STORY-TELLING AS AN EDUCA- 
 TIONAL TOOL FOR THE USE OF ALL WORKERS WITH CHILDREN | 
 
 By Katherine Dunlap Cather 
 
 TATELY an understanding has been growing of the | 
 
 | -I— ' usefulness of the story as a tool for imparting infor- | 
 
 | mation, for leading to an appreciation of the beautiful in | 
 | literature and art, and for establishing higher standards 
 
 | of thought and actions besides being a means of enter- | 
 | tainment. 
 
 In this book the various story interests of children are 
 
 I analyzed and classified, the construction of stories suit- | 
 
 I able to be told to children is explained. The principles | 
 
 | of story-telling are discussed and helpful suggestions on | 
 | the manner of telling are given. 
 
 Finally there is a discussion of types of stories that lead | 
 
 | to appreciation of music and art, and that supplement f 
 
 | history, geography, nature study, and manual training | 
 | lessons. The teaching of ethics through story-telling 
 
 | is discussed and attention is directed also to the use of § 
 
 1 story-telling as a basis for dramatization. Each chapter f 
 
 | ends with a bibliography of stories of the type considered | 
 
 1 in the chapter. There is a general bibliography of story | 
 
 | literature and a list of stories arranged by grades for use | 
 
 | in each month of the year. § 
 
 | The book contains thirty stories, models of simple and | 
 
 I direct narrative, many of which will be new even to | 
 
 | experienced story-tellers. | 
 
 It will give experienced story-tellers many new ideas and § 
 § give help and encouragement to the inexperienced. 
 | The author is perhaps the best known writer on story- 
 telling in this country. 
 
 Cloth, xx -\- 396 pages. Price $iJSo 
 
 WORLD BOOK COMPANY 
 
 S 5 
 
 yonkers-on-hudson, new york 
 2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago 
 
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