Graded Lessons in English | Page 4

the illustration and the practical application of the principles of the science as these principles are developed step by step. To break up the continuity of the text by thrusting unrelated composition work between lessons closely related and mutually dependent is exceedingly unwise.
The Composition Exercises suggested in this revision of "Graded Lessons" are designed to review the regular Lessons and to prepare in a broad, informal way for text work that follows. But since these Exercises go much farther, and teach the pupil how to construct paragraphs and how to observe and imitate what is good in different authors, they are placed in a supplement, and not between consecutive Lessons of the text.
To let such general composition work take the place of the regular grammar lesson, say once a week, will be profitable. We suggest that the sentence work on the selections in the Supplement be made to follow Lessons 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 77; but each teacher must determine for himself when these and the other outlined lessons can best be used. We advise that other selections from literature be made and these exercises continued with the treatment of the parts of speech.
For composition work to precede Lesson 30 we suggest that the teacher break up a short story of one or two paragraphs into simple sentences, making some of these transposed, some interrogative, and some exclamatory. The pupils may be required to copy these, to underline the subject and the predicate, and to tell, in answer to suggestive questions, what some of the other words and groups of words do (the questions on the selections in the Supplement may aid the teacher). The pupils may then write out the story in full form. To vary the exercise, the teacher might read the story and let the pupils write out the short sentences.

A TALK ON LANGUAGE.
The teacher is recommended, before assigning any lesson, to occupy the time of at least two or three recitations, in talking with his pupils about language, always remembering that, in order to secure the interest of his class, he must allow his pupils to take an active part in the exercise. The teacher should guide the thought of his class; but, if he attempt to do all the talking, he will find, when he concludes, that he has been left to do all the thinking.
We give below a few hints in conducting this talk on language, but the teacher is not expected to confine himself to them. He will, of course, be compelled, in some instances, to resort to various devices in order to obtain from the pupils answers equivalent to those here suggested.

LESSON 1.
+Teacher+.--I will pronounce these three sounds very slowly and distinctly, thus: b-u-d. Notice, it is the power, or sound, of the letter, and not its name, that I give. What did you hear?
+Pupil+.--I heard three sounds.
+T.--+Give them. I will write on the board, so that you can see them, three letters--b-u-d. Are these letters, taken separately, signs to you of anything?
+P.--+Yes, they are signs to me of the three sounds that I have just heard.
+T.--+What then do these letters, taken separately, picture to your eye?
+P.--+They picture the sounds that came to my ear.
+T+.--Letters then are the signs of what?
+P.--Letters are the signs of sounds+.
+T+.--I will pronounce the same three sounds more rapidly, uniting them more closely--bud. These sounds, so united, form a spoken word. Of what do you think when you hear the word bud?
+P+.--I think of a little round thing that grows to be a leafy branch or a flower.
+T+.--Did you see the thing when you were thinking of it?
+P+.--No.
+T+.--Then you must have had a picture of it in your mind. We call this +mental picture+ an +idea+. What called up this idea?
+P+.--It was called up by the word bud, which I heard.
+T+.--A spoken word then is the sign of what?
+P.--A spoken word is the sign of an idea+.
+T+.--I will call up the same idea in another way. I will write three letters and unite them thus: bud. What do you see?
+P+.--I see the word bud.
+T+.--If we call the other word bud a spoken word, what shall we call this?
+P+.--This is a written word.
+T+.--If they stand for the same idea, how do they differ?
+P+.--I see this, and I heard that.
+T+.--You will observe that we have called attention to four different things; viz., the +real bud+; your mental picture of the bud, which we have called an +idea+; and the +two words+, which we have called signs of this idea, the one addressed to the ear, and the other to the eye.
If the pupil be brought to see these distinctions, it may aid him to observe more closely and express himself more clearly.

LESSON 2.
+Teacher+.--What did you learn in the previous Lesson?
+Pupil+.--I learned that a spoken word is composed of