[Symbol: v' ] This calls attention to the apostrophe.
+To the Teacher+.—We suggest that the pupils learn to use these marks in correcting compositions. The following exercises are given as illustrations:—
[Illustration: Corrected letter]
NOTES FOR TEACHERS.
AGREEMENT.
Before Lesson 8 is assigned, the pupils may be required to note, in Lessons 6 and 7, the subjects that add s to denote more than one, and then to mark the changes that occur in the predicates when the s is dropped from these subjects. In Lesson 8, the predicates may be changed by adding or dropping s, and other subjects may be found to correspond. In Lesson 9, s may be dropped from the plural subjects, and other predicates may be found to agree.
At this stage of the work we should give no formal rules, and should avoid such technical terms as number, person, tense, etc. The pupils may be led to discover rules for themselves, and to state them informally. Exercises and questions may be so directed that the pupils may draw some such conclusion as the following:—
When a simple form of the verb is used to tell what one thing does, s or es is added (unless the subject is I or you).
Let the pupils see that the s-form of the verb is used only in telling what one thing does, not what it did; as, "The boy runs," "The boy ran"; and that its subject always stands for the one spoken of; as, "He runs," "I run."
Before Lesson 12 is assigned, attention may be called to the use of is, was, and has, in Lesson 11 and elsewhere. For the predicates introduced by these words let the pupils find subjects which name more than one, that they may note the change of is to are, was to were, and has to have. The forms does and do may also be introduced, and these exercises continued till the pupils are led to discover some such rule as the following:—