Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics / In the Grades of the Common School

by Charles A. McMurry

In the final review and rereading of a complete poem or prose selection the points of excellence in reading which have been the special aims of effort in the studies of the piece should be kept sharply in mind and pushed to a full expression. The realization of these various aims may be set before the class as the distinct object of their closing work on a masterpiece. The failure to hold vigorously to this final achievement is a clear sign of intellectual and moral lassitude. Reading, as noticed before, is one of the few studies in which the final application of theory to practice can be effected, and children may realize that things are learned for the sake of using them, and not simply against some future contingency. This implies, however, much resource and skill on the teacher's part in awakening the children. The impulses and aims which arouse the children to strenuous effort should spring from within, and should be expressions of their own self-activity and volition. There is much need of the enthusiasm and will-energy that overcome drudgery. Children should be taught to be dissatisfied with anything less than real accomplishment.

The children will naturally memorize certain passages which strike their fancy. Other passages have been suggested by the teacher for different pupils to memorize. In one of the closing lessons let the children recite these parts before the class. If the teacher has succeeded in calling out the live interest of the class during the previous study, such a lesson will be a joy to both pupils and teacher. One or two of the children may also volunteer or be appointed to make an oral statement of the argument, which will give freedom to natural and effective speech. Such a round-up of the reading lessons at the end of a series of interesting studies is a rich experience to the whole class.

Besides the important special aims thus far suggested, which should each stand out clear for a series of lessons until its value is realized and worked over into habit, there are other subordinate aims that deserve particular and individual consideration, and may now and then become the dominant purpose of a lesson. Such are the correction of singsong reading, the use of the dictionary, the study of synonyms and antitheses, the comparisons and figures of speech, exercises in sight reading of unfamiliar selections, quotations from selections and masterpieces already read, study of the lives and works of authors.

Reading is a many-sided study, and to approach its difficulties with success we must take them up one at a time, conquering them in detail. Good housekeepers and cooks are accustomed to lay out a series of dinners in which the chief article of diet is varied from day to day as follows: chicken pie with oysters, veal potpie, stewed fish, broiled beefsteak, venison roast, bean soup with ham, roast mutton, baked fish, broiled quail, roast beef, baked chicken with parsnips, etc. Such a series of dinners gives a healthy variety and relish. It is better for most people than the bill of fare at a large hotel, where there is so much variety and sameness each day. When we try each day to do everything in a reading lesson, we grasp more than our hands can hold, and most of it falls to the ground. Children are pleased and encouraged by actual progress in surmounting difficulties when they are presented one at a time, and opportunity is given for complete mastery. The children should labor consciously and vigorously at one line of effort, be it distinctness or rhythm or emphasis or conversational tone, till decided improvement and progress are attained, and the ease of right habit begins to show itself. Then we can turn to some new field, securing and holding the vantage-ground of our foregoing effort by occasional reminders.

9. One of the best tests applied to a reading class is their degree of class attention. The steadiness and responsiveness with which the whole class follow the work is a fair measure of successful teaching. To have but one child read at a time while the others wait their turn or scatter their thoughts, is very bad. It is a good sign of a teacher's skill and efficiency to see every child in energetic pursuit of the reading. It conduces to the best progress in that study and is the genesis of right mental habit.

Attention is a sine qua non to good teaching, and yet it is a result rather than a cause. It is a ripe fruit rather than the spring promise of it. The provisions which lead up to steady attention are deserving of a teacher's study and patient scrutiny. She may command attention for a moment by sheer force of will and personality, but it must have something to feed upon the next moment and the next, or it will be wandering in distant fields. So great and indispensable is the value of attention, that some teachers try to secure it at too heavy a cost. They command, threaten, punish. They resort to severity and cruelty. But the more formidable the teacher becomes, the more difficult for a child to do his duty. Here, again, we can best afford to go back to the sources from which attention naturally springs, interesting subject of thought, vivid and concrete perceptions, lively and suggestive appeal to the imagination, the sphere of noble thought and emotion, variety and movement in mental effort, a mutual sympathy and harmony between teacher and pupil.

It is indeed well for the teacher to gauge his work by the kind and intensity of attention he can secure. If the class has dropped into slothful and habitual carelessness and inattention, he will have to give them a few severe jolts; he must drop questions where they are least expected. He must be very alert to detect a listless child and wake him into action. The vigor, personal will, and keen watchfulness of the teacher must be a constant resource. On the other hand, let him look well to the thought, the feeling, and capacity of the children, and give them matter which is equal to their merits.

It is not unusual to find the teacher's eye following the text closely instead of watching the class. But the teacher's eye should be moving alertly among the children. In case he has studied the lesson carefully, the teacher can detect almost every mistake without the book. In fact, even if one has not recently read a selection, he can usually detect a verbal error by the break or incoherency of the thought. Moreover, the teacher can better judge the expressiveness of the reading by listening to it than by following the text with his eye. Depending wholly upon the ear, any defect of utterance or ineptness of expression is quickly detected. Even the children at times should be asked to close their books and to listen closely to the reading. This emphasizes the notion that good reading is the oral expression of thought, so that those who listen can understand and enjoy it.

The treadmill style of reading, which repeats and repeats, doing the same things day by day, going through the like round of mechanical motions, should give way to a rational, spirited, variegated method which arouses interest and variety of thought, and moves ever toward a conscious goal.

10. In studying the masterpieces of great writers, a question arises how to treat the moral situations involved in the stories. In their revolt against excessive moralizing with children, some critics object to any direct teaching of moral ideas in connection with literature, being opposed to explicit discussions of moral notions.