The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-02-08

| lowing vowel, as IN cue, noe, SnOe,
or preceding ~, as in new, dence or
% in pea, coal, or in as in tool or
in u, as in four, youth or in 10, as in
o'on) or in a silent consonant (9h, as
in nigh, though, taught @ before ~
in sign, impugn; after M in climb.
or 1t consists of the consonants nd,
or I'd, following an i (as in wind,
child, or Id, u, rt, 50, following an
Gas in Old, colt, port, hosO. The
pupils are made to find out which is,
in the cases given, the sign of long
vowel, till they have in this manner
acqulre1 confirmed habit of OBJ.
serving these conditions. Besides
they learn the ruie that most endtngs
render long voaoeJ-sound of the
root short in the branch ,cord, and
that these entlings hare short or
shortened co,ceL.
"These are all the rules required
from pupils in the Primer and First
Reader. That the same are easily
mastered by them, we can attest from
practice of many years in the school,
! room.
" The rules themselves are not to
6e stated by the teacher, bit to be
discocered By the pupil, and then es
pressed IN their o1cn CORDS the
teacher leading them thereto by ques-
tlons and answers, and correcting
their blunders by making them see
for themselves that they are wrong"
The author of this method says
The teacher should commence the
hrst lesson by placing on the black
board, In printed and in written charac-
tiers, one of the following sentences
that man has an AK, or that lad has
caps, or that cat ran at that fat rat,
or any other sentence composed ex.
cluslvely of the words of the first
| lesson"
The teacher tells the children what
the sentence written on the blackboard
means, or says, and ask them to re-
peat 1t as he moves his pointer along
from word to word. When all can
repeat It, he asks each how many
words the sentence contains, and
which means ar, which man, which
has, which that, which an. Next he
asks which word stands first on the
blackboard, which second, &c, which
word they hear first, which second, &c.
The next step consists in finding
the sounds of which the word man
consists. To find the sounds, the
teacher pronounces the word slowly
and distinctly -ma-n, and asks the
children to repeat the sounds several
times. When they can repeat the
sounds he asks. What is the first
sound the second ? and so on, and
what letter or sign on the blackboard
stands for the first soundr the
second ? &c.
The class is now prepared to make
the transition from analysis to
syathests. OF this order of proceed
ure,-hrst analysis, then synthesis-
the learned author says: All truly
rational teaching begins with making
the pupil himself resolve the object
to be mastered into its component
elements, and as soon as these are
understood, it proceeds with recon-
struction of the object which they
compose, so that all rational teaching
is object teaching
Questions should be asked on the
objects whose names appear in the
sentences which the children read.
In the sentence, ".that man has an
AK" questions should be asked about
an ak. If possible an ak should be at
hand to be examined by the children.
The other vowel sounds are intro
duced in sentences, like that of in
ar. For example, is introduced with
the sentence, "the hen has seven
eggs"
In the Primer the words are ar
ranged in families, according to siml.
larlties OF vowel sounds, the consonants
being regarded mostly as modifers of
vowels in the sense OF diacritical signs,
or marks.
AS will be noticed, no diacritical
signs are used but those which the
orthography itself furnishes.
| This method is in substance, and
largely in the order Of procedure
that of the Toronto (Canada) schools,
and is the only phonetic method that
is worthy of attention all others are
mostly carricature limitations of it and
of the one of which the next article
will treat.
There is so much of value to teachers
in the series of Rational Readers, that
it will pay wide awake ones to pur-
chase the Manual, at least, if they do
not feel able or willing to buy the
Readers. The price of the Manual
for Teachers is 3octs., and the pub.
fishers are L. Steiger & Co., IS Park
Place, New York.