A LESSON FOR APPRECIATION
Teacher’s aim: To help children to enjoy Stevenson’s Bed in Summer.
Did any child in the room ever have to go to bed before it was dark? Did you ever get up in the morning before daylight? Stevenson remembered how he used to feel when he had to go to bed before dark, and wrote a story about it. Would you like to hear the story?
Children’s aim: To enjoy Stevenson’s story about going to bed before dark.
Subject Matter
Method of Procedure
After the treatment indicated above, memorization will be very easily accomplished. The preliminary study for appreciation will make the poem mean more to the children than it could have meant had the teacher simply read it to the children two or three times and then asked them to memorize it.
In a study lesson, the plans will vary from a single exercise in finding the principal thought in a paragraph to a development lesson, not dissimilar as to plan to other lessons of the same type. The recitation lesson may be a development lesson, inductive or deductive, or a drill lesson. The plans would therefore be similar to those given above.
In conclusion, it may be suggested that any teacher who feels that it is impossible to plan all of her work will gain greatly if she will plan carefully for a single subject. As facility is gained in plan making, it will be possible to write plans for two or three or for more subjects. A topic plan should result in definiteness in the work of both teacher and pupils. Good plans give the teacher more freedom in conducting her work, and enable her to tell definitely the progress which the class has made. Plans are necessary in teaching. No one has a right to pretend to teach without previous thought concerning the subject to be taught, and the method to be employed in giving children command of this material.
For Collateral Reading
W. W. Charters, Methods of Teaching, Chapter XIX.
C. A. and F. M. McMurry, The Method of the Recitation, Chapter XIV.
Exercises.
The plans which follow were offered to teachers as suggestions rather than as outlines of subject matter or of procedure to be followed absolutely. Reorganize these plans so as to show subject matter and method separately. Add to the subject matter or method wherever necessary. If you think best, change the organization of material, the statement of aim, the references to books, and the like. Do not change the topic. As a result of your work you should be ready to present a plan for which you are willing to stand.