Special Method in Primary Reading and Oral Work with Stories

This book attempts the discussion of two very important problems in primary education. First, the oral work in the handling of stories, and second, the introduction to the art of reading in the earliest school work. The very close relation between the oral work in stories and the exercises in reading in the first three years in school is quite fully explained. The oral work in story-telling has gained a great importance in recent years, but has not received much discussion from writers of books on method.
Following this Special Method in Primary Reading, a second volume, called the Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics in the Grades of the Common School, completes the discussion of reading and literature in the intermediate and grammar grades.
Both of the books of Special Method are an application of the ideas discussed in The Principles of General Method and The Method of the Recitation.
Still other volumes of Special Method in Geography, History, and Natural Science furnish the outlines of the courses of study in these subjects, and also a full discussion of the value of the material selected and of the method of treatment.
At the close of each chapter and at the end of the book a somewhat complete graded list of books, for the use of both pupils and teachers, is given. The same plan is followed in all the books of this series, so that teachers may be able to supply themselves with the best helps with as little trouble as possible.
CHARLES A. McMURRY.
The telling and reading of stories to children in early years, before they have mastered the art of reading, is of such importance as to awaken the serious thought of parents and teachers. To older people it is a source of constant surprise—the attentive interest which children bestow upon stories. Almost any kind of a story will command their wide-awake thought. But the tale which they can fully understand and enjoy has a unique power to concentrate their mental energy. There is an undivided, unalloyed absorption of mind in good stories which augurs well for all phases of later effort. To get children into this habit of undivided mental energy, of singleness of purpose in study, is most promising. In primary grades, the fluttering, scatter-brained truancy of thought is the chronic obstacle to success in study.