LE> /^^^' . bJ3 J^^ A DESCRIPTION OF THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING BY EDWARD G. WARD Superintendent of Schools, Brooklyn, New York 4. /v;/^; SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO 1900 64484 .,,.■ IMPORTANT NOTICE. ^ The Normal Music Course : First Reader Standard Edition. T N presenting this new and enlarged edition of the First Reader, the publishers desire to make their sincere acknowledgments to the great body of distinguished musicians and educators whose appreciative support and generous encouragement have been in- dispensable factors in the remarkable success of the Normal Music Course during the past fifteen years. In no other way has it seemed possible more signally to express this gratitude than by thus increasing its volume and enriching its contents. The Standard Edition of the First Reader contains twenty- four pages of added matter, — comprising valuable exercises for drill and beautiful, attracdve songs. These furnish such valuable material for additional study and recreation as the extension of music work renders important. Appropriate songs are also pro- vided for school anniversaries and festivals ; and songs that correlate readily with nature work and with other branches of school study. Thus increased in size and in value, the First Reader will hereafter, even more richly than heretofore, deserve the constant and remarkable favor which it has increasingly enjoyed from the day of its publication. The Normal Music Course still remains without a peer in the soundness and consistency of the system of instruction which it embodies, and in the surpassing excellence of its musical creations. It can be stated, without fear of successful contradiction, that no other series of books ever published in America, if indeed in the whole world, has so profoundly influenced the methods and modified the materials employed in the teaching of vocal music in the schools ; and it is gratifying to its publishers to be able to say that the circle of this influence is still widening, and bids fair to be even more conspicuous and more potent in the future than in the past. Our Illustrated Catalogue suggests all needed helps in Vocal Music, both for teacher and pupil. Mailed free. Correspondence cordially invited. SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY, UBLISHSRS OF SCHOOL AND CoLLEGB TkXT-BoOKS, MuSICAL InSTRUCTXOK BOCX Standard Literature. Boston. New York. Chicago. Copyright, igoo, by Silver, Bl'Rdett & Company. Office' oVthf JUN 1 6 !»UU ^ DESCRIPTION OF Regitttr of Copyrlgiitti THE RATIONA'L METHOD IN READING By EDWARD G. WARD Supei'hitendent of Schools, Brooklyn, Xeio Yo7'k To make apparent the conditions that gave rise to the Rational Method in Reading, as well as to provide a proper basis for the discussion of that method, it will be necessary — first, to consider what reading is — and second, to exam- ine briefly the several methods that have been employed in teaching it. Reading is tliovght-getting through ivord-getting ; thought- getting being the purpose or fulfillment, word-getting the means. The process then is a double one, mechanical and intellectual, and both mechanical and intellectual skill are necessary to its accomplishment. In the teaching of reading, no method can be called good un- less it leads to independence and rajndity in word-getting, and prevents word-getting from interfering with thought-getting. The power of getting words quickly is the first essential to thought-getting from the written or printed text; and only when the word-getting has become so rapid as to be almost automatic, or the mind has become trained to attend- ing to the mechanical part of the work without neglecting the intellectual, can it be said that word-getting does not interfere with thought-getting. Primary schools, nearly everywhere, are to-day sending out children who have labored four years to learn to read, and yet are not ready or intelligent readers, because slow- ness and uncertainty in word-getting remain as obstacles to thought-getting. During my day no less than three methods of teaching 1 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING reading have been in vogue, each possessing a certain strength, and each a certain weakness. The first of these, the method by which I myself learned to read, was the a, b, c, or spelling method. Under this method, the first step was to teach the letters of the alpha- bet from a to z, inclusive. Next followed simple exercises in spelling, such as b-a, ba ; b-e, be ; etc. When the little ones had acquired a certain proficiency in the recognition of these meaningless combinations, they were introduced tO' the book, where they stumbled along, spelling out the words one at a time, and rarely, in the earlier stages of the work, getting the slightest glimpse of a thought. The mechanical effort required for the mastery through spelling of each successive word, completely obliterated the idea conveyed by the preceding one, and the child reached the end of the sentence with nothing in mind but the last word. It was not until they had read in this way many hundred times^ and, by dint of going over the commoner words again and again, had come to know them as wholes, that the children really began to read in the sense of getting thought from the printed page. And even then they read slowly and imperfectly, for before reaching that point they had formed a habit of reading mechanically, a habit that clung to many of them for years, to many, in greater or less degree, for life. The strength of the method lay in the fact that through spelling it provided a key, albeit an extremely clumsy one, the mastery of which made the pupil, so far as mere word- getting was concerned, an independent reader. Its weak- ness I have already described. The next method tried was the pure phonetic method. It was employed here and there for a while, but never came into general use, and never lasted long anywhere. Both its strength and its weakness were largely identical with the strength and the weakness respectively of the a-b-c method. Like that method it provided a key, and this key was better 2 mi THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING than the other, inasmuch as the sounds of the letters were taught instead of their names ; so that, theoretically, at least, all the child had to do to determine a word, was to call off its successive sounds and notice what their combination produced. The weakness bf the method lay, first, in the difficulty the children experienced in perceiving the blend, a. difficulty greatly enhanced by the fact that the letters (as signs of sounds) were taught too rapidly and in a wrong order ; and second, in the fact that, even when the blend was. quite readily perceived, there was, as in the a-b-c method, so much mechanical effort required, as to render intellectual effort almost impossible. Rather more than a quarter of a century ago, some gen- ius, perceiving that the greatest stumbling block in acquir- ing the art of reading lay in the separation of ideas by the intervention of mechanical work, conceived the plan of teaching words as loholes, so that in reading sentences com- posed of words previously taught, the mind of the child, meeting with no intervening obstacles, might pass smoothly from idea to idea, and readily grasp the thought. Thus was invented the famous word method, — a method which, in its legitimate application to the first work in read- ing, has done wonders for the little ones ; but which, unhap- pily, not having been confined to such application, has, in the later stages of the work, largely, if not wholly, undone the benefits it conferred in the earlier ; with the net result that to-day, where this method is exclusively employed, the reading is little if any better at the end of the third year of school life than it was twenty-five or thirty years ago. The old a-b-c method, if it was clumsy and mechanical, at all events, provided the child with a key by which, unassisted, he could get at new words himself. In requir- ing him to use this key, it called upon him to work out to a large extent his own salvation, and so practiced him in conquering difficulties and made him independent. 3 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING The word method, or its later development the sentence method, does nothing of the kind. It keeps the child in absolute dependence upon some one else to tell him the new words, his own effort being confined to memorizing them, and the reading exercises in no way tending to develop within him a spirit of self-reliance. When, after the first term or two, new words come along, as they must, at the rate of fifteen or twenty to the lesson, his memory fails to keep pace with the demands made upon it, and his reading lessons are filled with obstacles to thought-getting, in the shape of unlearned or half-learned words, quite as formi- dable as those that existed when the old method was used. The legitimate function of the word or sentence method as the sole means of teaching reading ceases at the end of the second or third month. After the child has acquired a habit of looking for the thought in what he reads, it is illogical, absurd, and impracticable to insist upon his learn- ing a complete reading or speaking vocabulary, one word at a time. One of our oldest and wisest Brooklyn principals fitly stigmatizes the word method thus overdone, as the Chinese Method. If I were compelled to choose between the word method and the a-b-c method to do the whole work, I should select the latter without a moment of hesitation. No one will dispute, I think, that the acquirement of the art of reading constitutes at least half of any education; for, after all that may be done for him by others, the main work of educating any human being must be performed by himself; and reading so multiplies one's powers for the acquisition of both knowledge and culture, that to overrate its value would be impossible. No one, either, will deny the great desirability of such a method of teaching this art as will make an intelligent reader of the child within two years of his first admission to school. Nothing else so matures a child's mind as reading. Universal experience, I 4 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING think, will bear me out in the assertion that a child of eight that reads well is, for all school work, more than the equal of a child of ten that does not. If, then, we would shorten by a year or two the time that children are obliged to spend in the elementary schools, we must, above all, secure early proficiency in reading; and since it is evident that this cannot be obtained through the use of either the alphabetic or the word method, something better must be employed. It was these considerations that led me some years ago into a course of study and experiment that resulted in the development of what has since been called the Rational Method in Heading. This method is now in use in nearly all the schools of Brooklyn; in many of which, marvelous results have been obtained. In those schools in wdiich it has been mastered, the time formerly devoted to the acquirement of a reading vocabulary of two hundred words, now gives the children one of more than a thousand, while their enunciation is clearer, and their reading is more spirited and in every other respect better than formerly. Nor does the improve- ment end here; for it is a matter of general observation where this method is employed, that in all their studies the pupils do far more to help themselves, than they did before its introduction. The rational method is a peculiar combination of the sen- tence and the phonetic method. It utilizes each for that part of the work to which it is more particularly adapted. The sentence method is used, first as principal, because of its value in developing a habit of reading thoughtfully, and afterward as auxiliary, to remedy the shortcomings of the phonetic method, and increase the stock of word phonograms. The phonetic method, which is introduced by easy stages during the ascendency of the sentence method, finally becomes itself the principal means of growth and progress. 5 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING Its proper use develops great power, while it supplies the key which the other method is inadequate to give. The presentation of the phonetic part of the work is in many important respects unlike any presentation of phonics formerly made, the differences being based upon principles not hitherto clearly understood, or, at any rate, not properly recognized. I claim for the rational method when intelligently ^ fol- lowed : — 1. That it makes the child a thoughtful reader. 2. That it not only makes him independent in his read- ing, but that it also assists greatly in making him generally self-7'eUant. 3. That it enables him to read a vastly greater amount than heretofore in a given time, "and thus to acquire both a fuller vocabulary, and greater maturity of mind. 4. That it puts him into possession, during the first year and a half of school life, of a complete key to the language, so that, no matter how soon thereafter his schooling may cease, his ability to read is assured. Before going further, it will be necessary for me to ex- plain a few technical terms that belong to the method, as I shall have to use several of them in what follows. These terms are : — .1. Sight word. — A word that has been taught as a whole, and is therefore recognized by sight alone. 2. Sight reading. — The reading of sight words either singly or in sentences. 3. Phonogram. — A written or printed representation of a sound, either simple or compound. Examples : f , S, 1, illg, igllt. 4. Simple x>honogram. — A phonogram containing but one letter. _ ^ Examples: S, 1, 0. THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING (Excei^ting i, which represents a union of the sounds of a and e, the simple phonograms stand for one sound each.) 5. Compound phonogram. — A phonogram containing more than one letter. Examples: illg, igllt, ip, 1111, IIGSS. (Every compound phonogram represents a compound sound, which, however, is taught as a unit.) 6. Phonetic word. — A word to be read by means of its phonograms. 7. Phonetic reading. — The reading of phonetic words •either singly or in sentences. 8. Word p)honogram. — A sight word used as a phono- gram in the representation of a longer word. Examples: olcl 111 fold, ail ill scdl, ail ill 7nan. The following are the leading features of the phonetic part of the work : — 1. The presentation of the sounds and their symbols (phonograms) m a rational order ; that is, an order in which the easier precede the harder. The easiest sounds to use in phonetic reading are those that may be indefinitely pro- longed, and the blending of which in words may therefore be most readily shown as well as perceived. With these sounds (1, m, s, etc.) the rational method deals first. 2. The teaching of an initial stock of i^honograms before any phonetic reading is done. — This makes provision whereby, when such reading has once been commenced, it may be carried on continuously, and with sufficient wealth and variety of material. 3. The training of the ear in the perception of phonetic blends •before phonetic reading is begun. — This is accomplished by the teacher pronouncing words, sound by sound, and the 7 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING children trying to determine in each case the word thus pronounced. 4. An extensive and systematic use of word 2Jlionograms and other compound 2^honograms. — The difficulty the child expe- riences in determining a new word is, in general, directly jn-oportional to the number of parts he has to recognize in it. By the use, then, of compound phonograms, which, being taught as wholes, are no harder to recognize than simple ones, hundreds of long and hard words are practically transformed into short and easy ones. Thus the word liyhtning, which the child learning by this method reads, l-ight-n-ing, he finds no more difficult than the short word left, in which, also, he has to recognize and put together four separate sounds.^ 5. A careful grading of the j^honetic ivords introduced. — The first phonetic words presented contain but two phono- grams each, the next but three, and so on. 6. A gradual introduction of phonetic words into the sen- tence reading. — At first, not more than one such word is used to a sentence. This prevents the phonetic work from offering any serious impediment to the thought-getting. As the child's perception of the blend becomes quicker and clearer, the proportion of phonetic words is constantly in- creased. Finally, when this perception has become auto- 1 Other good examples are : — m-other-less recognized in three parts ; former phonetic teachers making eight of it. f-r-ight-ful, four parts, formerly seven, f-old-ed, three parts, formerly six. s-corn-ful-ly, four parts, formerly nine, boy-ish, two parts, formerly four, cr-eat^ure, three parts, formerly six. r-est-less-ness, four parts, formerly ten. f-ish-er-man, four parts, formerly eight, r-e-p-eat-ed-ly, six parts, formerly nine. I THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING matic, or nearly so, the reading is made almost wholly phonetic. 7. Separate daily drills in the recog^iition of the individual pJionograms, and the reading of single phonetic words. — These serve two purposes; they lead to expertness, and they generate power. Without them, the average child would never acquire sufficient facility in sound or word recognition to make successful phonetic reading a possibil- ity ; while the drill on the phonograms, properly conducted, develops great ability in quick conceyitration, and that on the phonetic words creates a habit of self help. I will now state as well as I can, in a brief way, just how the work of teaching children to read by this method is done. FIRST HALF-YEAE The work of the first half-year is divided into three dis- tinct stages, the first of which, under ordinary circumstances, requires for its accomplishment, from eight to ten weeks ; the second, from three to five weeks ; and the third, what- ever remains of the twenty weeks included in the half-year. During each of these stages, there are three separate lines of work to be done every day. Of these three lines of work, one is always principal and two auxiliary. The principal line of work is the reading lesson proper (the thought work), and the other, or auxiliary lines, are mechanical drills to develop expertness in sound and word recognition, and to cultivate concentration and self-reliance. FIRST STAGE OF THE WORK The three daily lines of work carried on during the first stage, are : — 1. SIGHT-READING FROM THE BLACKBOARD. 2. Eye Training. Drill on the initial stock of phonograms. 3. Ear Training. Words sounded by teacher, named by scholars. 9 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING- Of these three, the principal is the sight-reading. The other two are auxiliary, or rather, during this stage of the work, preparatory ; as they are designed to lay a foundation for the first simple phonetic reading, which begins during the next stage of the work. The sight-reading, as the name indicates, is reading by the sentence method. The material used is an initial stock of simple words numbering in all about eighty, and includ- ing twenty or thirty which later may be used as phono- grams. These are taught in script only, on the blackboard. Sentences are used from the beginning. As far as possible these are worked up in conversation or story style, several in succession relating to one topic. The sentences are con- structed by the teacher herself. They are very short and simple, and as interesting as she can make them. No scholar is ever permitted to utter a sentence until he can do it ivithout looking at the blackboard and without a break. At the very first symptom of hesitation, he is stopped and told that he must not read until he has his sentence all ready. He is not required to hurry ; he is required simply to read in a natural manner without breaks. This simple expedient is more valuable as an aid to thought-getting than any other with which I am ac- quainted. Let me demonstrate. Suppose I should call off before an audience of a hundred intelligent adults, eight or ten unrelated words; say, for example, reason, connection, provide, delivery, Scope, perusal, benefited, either. How many do you think could repeat the list in the order given ? I should be very much surprised to find three who could do so. But let me read before them an intelligible sentence containing twice or thrice as many words, and I should be as greatly surprised to find three who could not repeat it. Now the mind of the little child works in this respect exactly as our minds do. He is called upon to give his sentence as a whole, and, in order to do so, he instinc- 10 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING tively seeks the associations that bind the words together ; that is, he seeks and finds the thought. If, on the contrary, he is allowed to call off the words one or two at a time, he is more than likely, by whatever method he is taught, to read mechanically, either missing the thought altogether or getting it very imperfectly. Do not infer, however, that this expedient, valuable and, indeed, indispensable as it is, is the sole means employed to produce thoughtful reading. All the expedients recom- mended by the advocates of the sentence method ; — discus- sion of and questioning on the subject-matter, manifestation of interest by the teacher to catch by sympathy the interest of the child, etc., are recommended and practiced. The drill on the phonograms (Eye Training) and the word naming (Ear Training) constitute, as I have already stated, a preparation for the phonetic reading to come later. The material for the former is the Initial Stock of phonograms, which comprises six consonants, f, 1, m, n, r and s ; three long vowels a, e and o, and four compounds, ing, ings, ight and ights. These, in correspondence with the blackboard reading, are taught only in script, and the scholars are drilled upon them until they can name them as rapidly as the teacher can present them. Blackboard presentation having proved too slow to produce the best results, large cards have been prepared to hold up before the class, each bearing one of the phonograms in script on one side and in print on the other. The reason for the selection of these phonograms as the Initial Stock, is, briefly stated, that they are at once the easiest to use and the most prolific as word builders. The word naming (Ear Training), like the drill on phono- grams (Eye Training), begins at the very commencement of the term, and is practiced daily. The teacher at first conducts this exercise by telling little stories, giving every here and there some very short and 11 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING simple word by its sounds instead of as a whole. The sounds she utters rapidly, but sejKtrately, thus: f-old, s-t-e-p, sh-ip, sh-oe, s-k-ip, s-pr-ing. The children name the word in each case as soon as she has thus pronounced it. After a few days of this work, most teachers find that such a liking for the exercise has developed among their pupils, that they dispense with the story-telling and give only the words to be determined, thereby being enabled to do considerably more drilling in the same time. This exercise briskly conducted should never consume more than five or ten minutes a day. SECOND STAGE OF THE WORK In describing the Second Stage of the work, I must remind my readers of a statement I made at the outset, that in every stage there are three separate lines of work to be practiced every day. In this stage, as in the First, the principal work of the day is the Sight Reading or thought work ; but this, instead of being done from the blackboard, with lessons in script, is now done from Part I. of the Primer. The material con- sists of the same eighty words that were learned during the Pirst Stage, not a single new word being added. The sen- tences, however, and the little conversations or stories that contain them are new. The object of this work is twofold. In the first place, it accomplishes the transition from script reading to print reading; and in the second, it presents the words already learned, so often, that before the stage is completed the children have become wonderfully ready in recognizing them. In my Manual of Instruction for Teachers, I have described special expedients which may be employed in making the change from blackboard to book ; but in Brooklyn the best teachers regard all special expedients as 12 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING superfluous. They put their pupils into the book without any particular preparation, and within a week at most, the print is read as easily as the script. The first auxiliary line of work, the drill on the phono- grams, proceeds as in the First Stage, and with the same material, but now the print phonograms are used as well as those in script. The reason for this is obvious. For the second auxiliary •line of work followed in the First Stage, is now substituted what is called the Drill on the Blend, a combined eye and ear drill, which is, in reality, the first plwnetic reading. The material used is a stock of about 225 phonetic words containing only such phonograms as are included in the initial stock already mentioned, and such word phonograms as are found in the initial stock of sight words. I^one of these 225 phonetic words contains more than three phonograms and those first presented contain but two each. The teacher at the beginning writes upon the blackboard some simple phonetic word like fan. Covering the an she asks what the / is. The scholars answer by giving the sound. She then covers the / and asks what the an is. Finally she uncovers the whole word and asks the schol- ars to tell what vjord the two sounds together make. If they cannot do this, she herself tells, making the /, when she pronounces the word, long and prominent. She then uses in the same way the other an words, — man, ran, etc., — and then words of other series. As soon as the pupils have acquired ability to read words in this way, the teacher ceases to present them in series, and henceforth selects them irregularly. She ceases also to assist the pupils by the alternate covering and uncovering of the two phonograms in the word. There are three great essentials to the successful accom- plishment of this stage of the work : — 13 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING First, after the first few days of blend work, large num- bers of words should be determined daily by the scholars ; for perception of the blend comes slowly to many, and prac- tice only will make them perfect. Second, easier words than those provided for the majority of the class should be given in abundance for the weaker scholars, and these scholars should be constantly exercised. The stronger scholars will le^rn whether they are called upon to recite or not. They are interested in whatever is going on, and will practically take care of themselves; but the weaker ones, unless something is constantly demanded of them, will make little or no progress. Third, the teacher should say something interesting, if pos- sible, about every word given to the scholars to determine. A drill on twenty words concerning which their curiosity is thus excited, will prove far more effective than a drill on fifty conducted mechanically and without special interest THIRD STAGE OF THE WORK The book-reading, or thought work, which constitutes the main daily line of work during the Third Stage, is done from Part II. of the Primer. It differs from that in Part I. in this : That nearly every sentence contains some phonetic reading. At first the quantity is small, but one or two pho- netic words being used in a sentence, for the reason that the children being yet somewhat slow in perception of the blend, too many phonetic words would prove an obstruction to thought-getting. New sight-words are added from time to time, and new phonograms are taught, but in no case are both presented in the same lesson. In this mixed sight and phonetic reading, as in the first sight reading, no pupil is ever allowed to read a sentence until he is ready to do so without a halt or break. The scholars are now being trained to attend to the mechanical without neglecting the intellectual, and more than ever 14 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING they require to be kept looking for the thought. You are not, however, to infer from this statement, that there is any marked tendency toward the mechanical. On the contrary,, pupils generally, that have reached this point under good teaching, manifest an interest in their work that I have never seen equaled at the same point among children that have been taught by other methods. The daily drill on the old phonograms is continued, and new phonograms are taught, but these are introduced only as they are needed, none preceding by more than a day or two the lesson in which it is first required. The drill on the blend is also continued, a large number of single phonetic words being determined by the pupils every day. The reason for this is that the practice in phonetic reading afforded by lessons in which there are but one or two phonetic words to the sentence, falls far below the amount required to insure reasonable proficiency. In the Manual which accompanies the readers are lists of words from which to make selections for this drill. • LATER WOEK SECOXD HALF-YEAR The work of the second half-year does not differ essen- tially from that of the Third Stage in the first half-year. New phonograms are, of course, introduced from time to time, as well as new sight words ; while the subject-matter becomes less simple, and the sentences grow longer. During the first and second half-years, the use of sup- plementary readers is not recommended ; though many Brooklyn teachers employ them after the first half-year very successfully. I believe that the best possible pro- vision of additional matter, throughout the first year, is that which every thoughtful teacher will make for herself, in the shape of blackboard lessons in script, which will afford 15 THE RATIONAL METHOD IN READING extra drill upon words and phonograms already learned. Through these blackboard lessons, by teaching in each case such additional sight words as the subject may require, the teacher may bring the reading into close correlation with animal and plant study, etc. THIRD AND FOURTH HALF-YEARS The last of the phonograms is taught about the middle of the third half-year, and the time has then arrived for the free use of supplementary readers. Otherwise, the work of this half-year differs from that of the preceding one, only in grade. In the fourth half-year, the only important change made beside the provision of subject-matter of a higher grade, is the introduction of many phonetic words without the dia- critical marks to Avhich the scholars have been accustomed. During the third and fourth half-years, i.e. during the second year, scholars that have been well taught, will, without difficulty, complete from ten to fourteen supple- mentary readers, and their mental horizon, if the books have been well chosen, will be correspondingly extended. FIFTH AND SIXTH HALF-YEARS In the fifth and sixth half-years, the latter of which com- pletes the course, still more advanced subject-matter is pro- vided, and the diacritical marks are entirely omitted from the text, though they are still used in blend drills, one of which is given at the head of each lesson as a preparation therefor. Both of the mechanical drills are practiced daily through- out the course of three years to secure full development of power as well as to bring together those scholars that have pursued the course from the outset and those that have entered upon it at various times thereafter. 16 The Cecilian Series op Study and Sonq. BY JOHN W. TUFTS. BOOK L FOR One VOICE. In cloth. Introductory pries, A8 cents, BOOK II. For Soprano and Alto Voices. In cloth. Introductory price, 60 cents. BOOK III, For Unchanged Voices, with Added Notes for Basses and Tenors. In cloth. Introductory price, 84 cents. BOOK IV. For Mixed Voices. In cloth. Introductory price, S4 cents. 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Introductory price, ^1.50. POLYHYMNIA. A COLLECTION OF QUARTETS AND CHORUSES FOR MALE VOICES. Compiled and arranged by John W. Tufts. Every needed help in vocal music, for pupil and teacher, supplied in the best and most available form. Correspondence invited. SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY, 2 J 9-223 Columbus Avenue, Boston^ 29-3J B 19th St. 378-388 Waba«h Ave. 1328 Arch St. NEW YORK. CHICAGO. PHILADELPHIA. t!!N IP LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SfSIsE THE RATIONAL METHOD First Year Second Year 019 843 698 7 PRIMER Material : Conversations Complete Book. — Introductory price, 36 cents. Part I. — Reading by the Word Method. Introductory price, 22 cents. Part II. — Sight and Phonetic Reading Combined. Introduc- tory price, 24 cents. FIRST READER Material : Conversations and Stories Complete Book, — Introductory price, 36 cents. Part I. — Sight and Phonetic Reading. Largely Review Ex- ercises. Introductory price, 22 cents. Part II. — Sight and Phonetic Reading. Advance Work. 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