These tests should be given at least once a year and if possible semi-annually in order to determine progress in speed and comprehension in silent reading, as well as to measure the pupils by a well established standard.
Topical recitation. Particular emphasis, especially in the later grades, should be placed upon the complete presentation of a topic by a pupil standing in front of the class and making the group understand what he has to say without questions by the teacher. More and more this is coming to be emphasized as a means of good teaching everywhere; and pupils are being trained to stand before a group of their classmates and give an intelligent account of anything of which they have adequate knowledge without the painful tooth-pulling process of extracting ideas.
The philosophy of study. One of the most important results of efficient teaching of silent reading is the contribution which it makes to the whole problem of study in the school. Briggs says that the primary purpose of the school is to teach people to do better the desirable things that they are likely to do anyway. One of the desirable things that school children are not only likely but certain to have to do is to study. A large portion of the studying that the child as well as the adult does consists in the acquirement of information from the printed page. It is essentially silent reading. Much of the difficulty teachers now meet in the inability of their pupils to study will be dispelled by effective teaching of silent reading. Probably no use of the same amount of time would yield more definite and valuable results than will thorough instruction in the process of thought getting from a printed page—in other words—silent reading.
[ACKNOWLEDGMENTS]
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following authors and publishers for their courtesy in allowing the use of the copyrighted material in this volume: to J. Russell Smith for "The Eskimo" and "Otelne, the Indian of the Great North Woods"; to A. and C. Black for five selections from the series "Peeps at Many Lands"; to Augustus R. Keller and Company for Oscar Wilde's "The Happy Prince"; to J. Berg Esenwein for two selections from "Stories for Children and How to Tell Them"; to W. F. Quarrie and Company for four selections from "The World Book"; to The Youth's Companion for John Clair Minot's "Pietro's Adventure", and "Noblesse Oblige"; to the J. B. Lippincott Company for "The Mole Awakes" from Dr. S. C. Schmucker's "Under the Open Sky", and "A Trip to the Moon" from Charles R. Gibson's "The Stars and Their Mysteries"; to D. Appleton and Company for two selections from the "Boy Scouts' Year Book"; to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia for C. A. Sienkiewicz's "The Safest Place"; to the Association Press for "The First Potter" and "The Fire Spirit" from Hanford M. Burr's "Around the Fire"; to Boys' Life, the Boy Scouts' Magazine, for "The Ghost of Terrible Terry"; to Longmans, Green and Company for "The Boyhood of a Painter", from Andrew Lang's "The Strange Story Book"; and to the Public Ledger of Philadelphia for "General Pershing's Welcome Home". Henry W. Longfellow's "The Skeleton in Armor" is used by permission of, and under arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers.
The authors of The Silent Readers wish to acknowledge the careful and efficient assistance of Miss Mabel Dodge Holmes of the William Penn High School of Philadelphia, and of Superintendent Sidney V. Rowland of Radnor Township, Pa.