The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1912-03-12

with expression enjoys his reading,
and it is our duty as teachers to
help him to enjoy his reading by
getting him to express himself free
| ly.
| A teacher. in order to get her pu-
pills to read naturally, must have
their full confidence. lie a child is
frightened, you can never in the
wide world get him to read freely.
Diffidence is fatal to free expression.
think we will all concede that
expression in reading is absolutely
necessary. So the next question is,
how to get it. There are devices
and devices, some of which succeed
with one child, some with another.
| will tell a few methods | have
used, and which have proved sue
cessful.
We have the most fun of all in
having different pupils read the
different parts of the stories. ap-
point first somebody to read the
parts between This is consid
cred a great honor, for the pupil
chosen must pay strict attention,
must be able to read smoothly, and
by his expression, show how each
persons part must be read. For
instance, take the sentence, 'Then
the giant roared loudly, Give me
the golden cup. !" The parts be-
tween" pupil must emphasize giant,
roared and loudly so that the one
who takes the part of the giant may
know just how to read his part. So
even in parts between" we can get
expression. Then | assign the other
parts.
Dramatizing, | think, is one of
the greatest factors in gaining ex-
preston. The child who reads
where shall | hide?" with no ex-
preston at all. will astonish you by
a wild where shall | hide" when
playing the story.
Let us take the story of the
Street Musicians" as it is given in
the Art Literature Books. Book IL.
assign parts between" the old
donkey, the old dog. the old cat, the
rooster and the robbers. In this
way | use about ten people. First.
we read our parts. After reading
them through we decide to act the
whole story, without our books,
and we get great deal of natural
expression in this way because the
children are thrown on their own
resources and must make up what
they forget. A great deal depends
on the parts between pupil" now,
for he gives the cues. We now take
our places in different parts Of the
room and 'play" the story.
One of the greatest helps to ex-
pressive reading. is the word study
before the lesson. On the board
place not only the hard words in
the lesson but also phrases which
want brought out For example, in
the story of The Rabbit and The
Turtle we are told in the first line
about rabbit who had very long
ears. write the phrase Every
long ears" on the board. If the
children read it without thinking Of
the long ears, | sometimes say, Il
wonder If they were very long ears;
can anyone tell me about rabbit
who really had long ears? Instantly
many hands are up and | get the
expression | want. Often when
the word study is short we drill on
expression words such as slow,
fast, beautiful, sorrowful, funniest,
never.
Sometimes we take an expression
such as DO your" and see how
many things it can express. Here
is another way to get expression.
If the child reads along in matter
of-fact voice: For long time he
wandered all alone | ask. Gould
mt you make it a longer time, and
are you sure he was all alone.
If we have a story that has not
much dialogue in it, | say, Lets
make believe we are reading this to
the primary children, and let's
make them understand every word.
This brings out clear, good express
sion.
DO not be satisfied with one child's