The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1909-12-02

with no scientific grouping. Take the
! next lesson" the teacher said at the
conclusion of every recitation.
Every day every child was expected
to learn all these words and review
them at haphazard or perhaps on Fri
day afternoon at class "spell down {"
HICKS changed all this. His first
thought has been system, not chaos" :"
second a method with system that
would hold child's attention and
make him as interested in spelling as
In history or any other study.
immediately after ne came to c,leva-
land the new supervisor sent out word
to every grade teacher in the citv ask
ing that he or she send him a LIST Of
from fifteen to twenty-five words most
persistently misspelled by the children
Since the elementary schools ennIov
more tnan 1900 teachers the conohjned
lists made formidable collection. hut
Hicks took the reports and went ALI
through them. He classified the words
missed generally in the third, fourth
NTH, sixth, sevenths and eighth grades
ana list Of forty words for a written
contest and eighty words for an oral
contest was prepared for each grade.
A time was sent apart the same dav
for these contests. Every elementary
school took part. Careful account was
Kept OF the words missed, and publicity
was given through the newspapers Of
the schools that had the highest per-
centage of words correct through ALI
the grades.
That was Hicks start in making the
children in the schools better spoilers
ana ne made it by centering the chill
dren's attention on the work. He did
mt tell them so much the Importance
Of being good spoilers, but he aroused
their interest by arousing their pride
and commencing a rivalry that grew tn
be not unlike the rivalry between
school football teams.
Contests have been held ever since
IN the schools, an interschool contest
being held four times a year. In the
nrst contest the eighth grade of one
scnool missed on an average each pupil
OF one and one-half words out of the
l2O words to be spelled orally and In
writing. Since that time the number
or words given in each contest has
been doubled, and in the correspond
ing test in 1907, one year after the
Inauguration of the idea, the same
grade missed each pupil less than half
a word
Catch words" the delight of the |
old fashioned teacher, have been ELI
minated in the new system. Hicks |
believes that the child should first he |
taught vocabulary of words in or !
dinary use-taught first how to speiI |
the words correctly, then taught its |
meaning, it's derivation, its use in sem |
tences until all OF It's forms are in i
stantiy familiar. That is the basis OF
his system.
To illustrate his method Hicks has
written spelling book in which only
s12 words are intensfvely taught each /
year. That, he says, Is all the average
child should be expected to learn thor
oughly. These words are the words in |
common use that are most commonly
misspelled. The book covers six school
years, making only 1872 words a child
Is expected TO give real attention to I'm
fun elementary course More words
are written in the book. In fact the
book provides vocabulary of almost
5000 But the others are for prac-
tice only. Unworthy easy words and
unworthy difficult words are eliminat-
ed.
In compiling this book Hicks took
the words he found the children in the
schools most generally misspelling. and
instead Of teaching ten to thirty words
day as the old methods prescribed he
teaches two. These two words are en-
pnasized in his system. They com
prise the lesson. They are taught
thoroughly by the instructor. Eight
words are given for review the same
day. Next day the two words inten-
sively taught the day before 20 into
Lne review column and two new words
are emphasized.
Every Monday morning the ten
words, two each day, taught the week
Defore, are put into one review lesson !
and the process is repeated. In eight
weeks Of school days the child has been
thoroughly taught eighty words and /
contest is held in which these eighty
words are used. The records show