Durango semi-weekly herald., 1907-08-26

| light on reading than anything else |
In psychology. The speaker described |
the different stages OF his progress
from thinking In letters until those
| letters became units, when he thinks
in words; then his speed Increases;
and finally he gets the ability to hold
a sentence. and the sentence becomes
the unit, when he becomes an expert"
| "The child must take In the letters"
| she said, mo matter II you put before
him whole words or sentences; and
there must be a stage in which he
masters words as sounds. Reading
must come through much reading.
Calling OF words is not reading. We
have good readers, but it is in spite
OF all methods. A child must learn
to read through reading. You must
awaken the desire in the child to learr
to read. Supply him with attractive
books. Let your children read to
eyes and faces, and do not have them
all read the same set thing. but let
each child read something new. and
have his classmates listen while he
reads. and this general interest will
create stimulus that will tend to
hasten results. The conclusions OF
psychologists go to prove that, other
things being equal, the more rapidly
one reads the more accurately one
reads. To this end association OF
ideas, mental coordination is neces-
sary. The skilled player on the piano.
not having to think of the mechanism
necessary to his piece of music, Is
all the more accurate. The same law
holds good in everything else" The
speaker deplored the fact that teach
ers, as a rule, read more slowly than
any other class of people, n habit
acquired through teaching the chill
dren by tiny steps, and she urged
them to cultivate rapid reading. say
j, Ing that 1t was necessary If they wish
ed to become familiar with the great
| lIttlhluIe VI lit NOIiu, dS iltii biilit
was limited and such literature so vo-
!, luminous. She said that one who un-
, derstood the art of reading should
q. read one of Shakespeare's plays
through in an evening and have a
:, complete idea of the whole. She beg
ged her listeners, from the very first
work given children to get away from
. the partial reading and have the child
read a unit instead of a paragraph to
day and another tomorrow; If the Sc
lection was too long for a single sit
She told the class how TO get children
- TO know new words, by familiarizna
them with such words in advance oi
the lessons in which they were tC
e appear The different methods fo'
teaching reading, from the a b meth
u cd down to the present abomniablt
word method, so popular in oui
schools, were discussed by the speak
er, and even the later synthetic ol
phonetic method, which begins witt
n the assumption that the simplest ele
lie ment in language is sound, and thI
p child must begin with the sound ant
it's symbol the chief thing being read
n ing for sound, the learning of tn,
IL sound values of each vowel and conso
II nant By this method the child learn.
to call words remarkably fast. learn
t. words of long and several syllables in
N side of year The speaker. whil'
re admitting the advantages of this meth
cd deplored the fact that the child wa
taught from the beginning that Ian
m guage stands for sound instead o
II thought. The rational method, whicl
lie is phonetic method, will be tn
I'd subject on Monday, and it may b.
Id hoped that much good may result from
to this mastery handling of the subjec
n of Reading by Mrs. Bell. 1t is a rar
ir opportunity for teacher pupil or think
at er to hear these lectures, and mex
to week will doubtless find the assembl
lis hall too small for the many who woul
lie hear them.