Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-07-31
EDUCATIONAL.
The Experience of a Boston Educator In
Teaching Pupils to Form Cor
rect Sentences.
Teaching as Professionalism Light In
SchOolroOms - Short Paragraphs
from the Pens of Teachers.
Uphill Work in Teaching.

| "a ooSlou tcdCueI writes 10 the oOIT.
nal of Education:
"After having taught for many
| years in school where the children
talked and wrote freely with very lit
tie effort on my part beyond that of di-
recting their thoughts it was quite a
change when took, this fall, class of
children who came from homes where
they seldom heard correct sentences
and who seemed content to answer
every question in monosyllables.
Il had secured such good results at
my former school that I had felt some
| little pride in my success as teacher
OF language, but | found that this sue
cess had been largely due to the quail
| ty of the class.
| 81 tried my new class with stories;
the children listened to them eagerly,
more SO than my former class; but
| after the reading, the interest in the
stories tagged, and it was almost i'm
| possible to get an answer to any of
| my questions. | tried them with pic
| lures; the result was even worse. |
| found that during the summer vaca-
ton they had lost the greater part of
what they had learned the previous
year, and that must begin at the be-
ginning. [ resolved that they should
answer in complete sentences, if they
| did not do another thing in language
| the whole year.
cit was hard work at first, and ]
| paid more attention to the wording of
the sentence than to the fact contained
in it; and if a boy had said Nine and
five is thirteen" [ should have correct
ed him, and said, Nine and five are
thirteen" without regard at first to
the mistake in addition, until the
| fault in language had been corrected.
| 1t seemed as if [ had to remind the
class continually, but one day 1 had
my reward, when the principal, after
| questioning them in arithmetic, COM
| plimented them upon their way of an
| sWering.
Every afternoon at the close of
school asked them to notice the moon
! in the evening, or come prepared to
| tell me something about the wind, or
| the FROST or whatever was available.
In the morning they found on the
| board sentences similar to these:
"Write a statement about the moon,"
| or ''Iell me something about to-day"
The statements they wrote upon their
| states before school, and after the de-
! votional exercises read them to me.
| This took about ten minutes, and was
well spent, for | questioned them
about the capital and period, and if
there was word used that | thought
! might be misspelled, | had it written
on the board and copied into small
| bankbook directly after the writing
| lesson. At first the sentences were
| very crude, but they grew better and
better, until now | can find very little
! fault with them.
After using such subjects as the
wind, snow, hail, ETC., | put words on
! the board, as hear and here, and had
| them put them into sentences each
| one in separate sentence, and later,
! the two combined into one sentence.
In this way | killed three birds with
one stone, for | taught spelling and
sentence making. and also passed
around the class quickly and marked
the states for neatness of work.
Il next tried stories. Tread to them
for several days without any comment
on what | had read, then [ began to
ask for the title and main facts. and
sometimes | told the story in my own
words. After this, l began to get the
| title and the various sentences in the
story by questions, and made what the
boys called "a talking story
| ''One boy gave the title and stepped
| to the back OF the room; another gave
| the first sentence and took his place
beside the title, making sure to keep
| quite space between them; then the
! next sentence went out, and so on, IN
! til the whole story was on the floor.
| Then the children Photographed it, and
each para graph, with its one or more
sentences, as the case might be, moved
slightly away from the paragraph be-
, fore it. This pleased the children very
! much, and after the story told itself"
! 1t was written on the states.
! picture reading was our rock ahead,
but even that was soon robbed Of its
terrors. At first the children told me. in
simple statements, what they saw in
the picture; but later the principal OBJ
! ject, and described it.
''When found they could read the
picture, or describe it so that others
could see it, | turned their attention to
story making. At hrSt L asked them
for the title only, and keeping the I'll
tie in mind, l told the story of pic
ture suggested to me. This | did for
several days. and then l began to get
the story from them by questions only
one sentence from each volunteer.
This story was read and Photographed
as the first story was, and oftentimes
was written on the board.
Il began afterwards to get the story
from them by suggestions and topics;
and, as soon as l feel they are ready
for it, shall give them picture and
ask them to tell story about it with
! out any SUGGESTIONS from me-