Part 6 (2/2)
Explanations, therefore, on the teacher's part, should be clear and brief, purely tributary to the main effort. In younger cla.s.ses, when the children have, as yet, little ability to use references, the teacher may add much, especially if it be concrete, graphic, picturesque, and bearing directly upon the subject. But as children grow more self-reliant they can look up facts and references, and bring more material themselves to the elucidation of the lesson. But even in adult cla.s.ses the rich experience of a trained and wise teacher, whose ill.u.s.trations are apt and graphic and criticisms incisive, is an intense pleasure and stimulus to students.
6. The major part of time and effort in reading cla.s.ses should be given to the reading proper, and not to oral discussions, explanations, and collateral information and references. It is possible to have interesting discussions and much use of reference books, and still make small progress in expressive reading. The main thing should not be lost sight of. We should learn to march steadily forward through lively and energetic thought toward expressive reading. There is no other right approach to good reading except through a lively grasp of the thought, sentiment, and style of the author. But the side-lights that come from collateral reading and reference are of great significance. They are something like the scenery on the stage. They make the effect more intense and real. They supply a background of environment and a.s.sociation which give the ideas more local significance and a stronger basis in the whole complex of ideas.
The reading or oral rendering is the final test of understanding and appreciation of the lesson. The recitation should focus in this applied art. All questioning and discussion that do not eventuate in expressive reading fall short of their proper result. Reading is a school exercise in which the principles discussed can be immediately applied, and this is scarcely true in studies like history, science, and mathematics.
There are many hindrances in the way of this fruitful result; the teacher is tempted to talk and explain too much, interesting questions and controversies spring up, trivial matters receive too much consideration, much time is spent in the oral reproduction of the thought; often the time slips by with a minimum of effective reading.
The questions, discussions, collateral references, and explanations should be brought into immediate connection with the children's reading, so that the special thought may produce its effect upon expression. This test of effectiveness is a good one to apply to explanations, definitions, and questions. Unless they produce a p.r.o.nounced effect upon the reading, they are largely superfluous. In view of this the teacher will learn to be sparing of words, laconic and definite in statement, pointed and clear in questioning, and energetic in pus.h.i.+ng forward.
While interest in the thought-content is the impelling motive in good reading exercises, lively and natural expression is likewise the proper fruit and outcome of such a motive carried to its proper end.
7. In order to keep up the right interest and movement, it is necessary to give considerable variety to the work. A teacher's good sense and tact should be like a thermometer which registers the mental temperature of the cla.s.s. If kept too long at a single line of effort, its monotony induces carelessness and inattention; while a total change to some other order of exercise would awake their interest and zeal. Variety is needed also within the compa.s.s of a single recitation, because there are several preliminaries and varieties of preparatory drill which conduce to good rendering of any selection. Such are vocal exercises in consonants and vowels; p.r.o.nunciation and syllabication of new or difficult words; physical exercises to put the body and nervous system into proper tone; the a.s.signment of the next lesson, requiring a peculiar effort and manner of treatment; the report and discussion of references; concert drills; the study of meanings--synonyms and derivations; ill.u.s.trations and information by the teacher; introduction of other ill.u.s.trative matter, as pictures, drawings, maps, and diagrams.
Variety can be given to each lesson in many ways according to the ingenuity of the teacher. If we are reading a number of short selections, they themselves furnish different varieties and types of prose and verse. The dramatist or novelist provides for such variety by introducing a series of diverse scenes, all leading forward to a common end.
8. Parallel to the requirement of variety is the equally important demand that children should learn to do one thing at a time and learn to do it well. This may appear contradictory to the former requirement, but the skill and tact of the teacher is what should solve this seeming contradiction. It is a fact that we try to do too many things in each reading lesson. We fail to pound on one nail long enough to drive it in.
Reading lessons often resemble a child pounding nails into a board. He strikes one nail a blow or two, then another, and so on until a dozen or more are in all stages of incompleteness. We too often allow the recitation hour to end with a number of such incomplete efforts. Good reading is not like moving a house, when it is all carried along in one piece. We reach better results if we concentrate attention and effort during a recitation along the line of a narrow aim. At least this seems true of the more formal, mechanical side of reading. It is better to try to break up bad habits, one at a time, rather than to make a general, indefinite onslaught upon all together. Suppose, for example, that the teacher suggests as an aim of the lesson conversational reading, or that which sounds like pupils talking to each other. Many dialogue selections admit of such an aim as this. If this aim is set up at the beginning of the lesson, the children's minds will be rendered acute in this direction; they will be on the alert for this kind of game. Each child who reads is scrutinized by teacher and pupils to see how near he comes to the ideal. A conscious effort begins to dominate the cla.s.s to reach this specific goal. Children may close their eyes and listen to see if the reading has the right sound. A girl or boy goes into an adjoining entry or dressing room and listens to see if those in the cla.s.s are reading or talking. The enthusiasm and cla.s.s spirit awakened are very helpful. Not that a whole recitation should be given up to that sort of thing, but it is the characteristic effort of the lesson. When the children practise the next lesson at home they will have this point in mind.
For several days this sort of specific, definite aim at a narrow result may be followed up in the cla.s.s till the children begin to acquire power in this direction. What was, at first, painfully conscious effort begins to a.s.sume the form of habit, and when this result is achieved, we may drop this aim as a leading one in the recitation, and turn our attention to some different line of effort. Distinct p.r.o.nunciation of sounds is one of the things that we are always aiming at, in a general way, and never getting. Why not set this up in a series of recitations as a definite aim, and resort to a series of devices to lay bare the kind of faults the children are habitually guilty of? Give them a chance to correct these faults, and awake the cla.s.s spirit in this direction. It will not be difficult to convince them that they are not p.r.o.nouncing their final consonants, like _d_, _t_, _l_, _m_, _r_, and _k_. Keep the attention for a lesson to this kind of error till there is recognizable improvement. Then notice the short vowel sounds in the unaccented syllables, and give them search-light attention. Notice later the syllables that children commonly slur over. Mark these fugitives, and see if they continue so invisible and inaudible. They are like Jack the Giant Killer, when he put on his cloak of invisibility, or like Perseus under similar circ.u.mstances. See if we can find these fellows who seem to masquerade and dodge about behind their companions. Then some of the long vowels and diphthongs will require investigation. They are not all so open-faced and above board as they might be. When children have such a simple and distinct aim in view, they are ready to work with a vim and to exert themselves in a conscious effort at improvement. Keep this aim foremost in the recitation, although other requirements of good reading are not wholly neglected.
After a definite line of effort has been strongly developed as one of the above described, it is possible thereafter to keep it in mind with slight attention. But if no special drill has ever been devoted to it for a given length of time, it has not been brought so distinctly to mind as to produce a lasting impression and to lay the basis for habit.
Besides the two aims, clear articulation and conversational tones, there are others that may be labored at similarly. Appreciation of the thought as expressed by the reading is a rich field for critical study of a piece, and as a basis for observing and judging the children's reading.
This idea is well implied by such questions as follow: Is that what the pa.s.sage means? Have you given expression to the author's meaning by emphasis on this word? Does your rendering of this pa.s.sage make good sense? Compare it with what precedes. How did the man feel when he said this? What do we know of his character that would lead us to expect such words from him? This line of questions has a wide and varied range. The chief thing is to scrutinize the thought in all the light attainable, and appeal to the child's own judgment as to the suitableness of the tone and emphasis to the thought. Does it sound right? Is that what the pa.s.sage means?
Each characteristic form of prose or verse has a peculiar style and force of expression that calls for a corresponding oral rendering. There is the serious and ma.s.sive, though simple, diction of Webster's speeches, with its smooth and rounded periods, calling for slow and steady and energetic reading. We should notice this characteristic of an author, and grow into sympathy with his feeling, language, and mental movement. In Macaulay's ”Lays of Ancient Rome,” the ring of martial music is in the words, and it swells out into rapid and rousing speech which should correspond to the thought. In ”Evangeline” the flow of language is placid and gentle and rhythmical, and in consonance with the gentle faith and hope of Evangeline. Every true literary product has its own character, which the genius of the author has impressed upon its language and moulded into its structure, and which calls for a rendering fit and appropriate. Before completing a selection, we should detect this essence and quality and bring our reading to reveal it. The places should be pointed out where it comes into prominence.
When completing such a work of art there should be given opportunity to bring all the varied elements and special aims discovered and worked out during its reading to a focus.
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 cla.s.s 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 la.s.situde. 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 pa.s.sages which strike their fancy. Other pa.s.sages 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 cla.s.s. If the teacher has succeeded in calling out the live interest of the cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s.
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 ant.i.theses, 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 cla.s.s is their degree of cla.s.s attention. The steadiness and responsiveness with which the whole cla.s.s 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 n.o.ble 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s. 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.
All will admit that literature, dealing as it does with human life, is surcharged with practical morality, with social conduct. It is also the motive of great writers, while dealing honestly with human nature, to idealize and beautify their representations of men. Nor is it their purpose to make unworthy characters pleasing and attractive models.
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