"THE READER THE FOCUS OF LANGUAGE-TRAINING." SWINTON'S READERS. I. Swinton's First Reader (including Primer). — This book consists of a great variety of carefully graded exercises, developing the proper use of the various methods of primary teaching, and presenting abundant work in script for the slatepractice of the youngest pupils. 114 pages. II. Swinton's Second Reader. Graded and arranged to follow closely the work and methods of the First Reader. Introducing in easy steps the elements of language lessons. 176 pages. III. Swinton's Third Reader. This book consists of a choice selection of instructive reading lessons, which are made the basis of systematic exercises in word analysis, language lessons, and composition. 240 pages. IV. Swinton's Fourth Reader. Carries forward and develops the special language-work and methods of the Third Reader; introduces occasional exercises in the analysis of sentences; and gives simple instruction and practice in the art of elocutionary expression. 384 pages. - V. Swinton's Fifth Reader (including Speaker). This book presents language and composition work of the highest character. Each selection is accompanied by copious notes and suggestions. The elocutionary section of the book is of a novel and practical character. 480 pages. All the above books are handsomely bound in cloth, and in all respects of mechanical execution and illustration are of the highest order of excellence. EDUC A DEPT. 5 TO SCHOOL OFFICERS. The attention of School Officers is invited to the following points in this Second Reader. Gradation. In order to secure close gradation, each word on its first appearance is here, as in the First Reader, registered in the vocabulary at the head of the lesson. While this rigid recording of every word assures the closest connection between the Second Reader and the First Reader, it also affords a perfect test of the verbal gradation of the successive lessons. Slate-Work and Dictations. The purpose of both these classes of work is to secure practice in spelling, in the form in which it is best learned, by writing words grouped in sentences. In the "Slate Work" the pupil copies from a model, and in the "Dictations" he has a written test of his memory of word-forms. Language Lessons. — Under this head will be found a variety of attractive work suited to the capacity of Second-Reader classes. It comprises exercises in supplying ellipses, transforming sentences, answering questions, describing pictures, etc.; thus training the young scholar in the first elements of easy composition-writing. Practice Sentences. - The purpose of these "Practice Sentences" is to take up at regular stages throughout the Reader each little stock of new words, and drill the pupil on them in fresh uses and varied types of sentence. This is the best possible corrective of the child's tendency to lose the full meaning of a word in reading and re-reading it in a single stereotyped connection. Systematic iteration of the vocabulary is thus substituted for accidental repetition, or no repetition at all. The importance of this entirely novel feature cannot be overstated. Phonic Reviews. - The purpose of these occasional exercises is to afford review-drill in pronunciation. The words in these "Reviews" are arranged in phonic groups as a training in the values of phonic symbols, but the words are left unmarked with the view of furnishing a test of the pupil's mastery of preceding vocabularies. Script. To accustom pupils to recognize words in their written form as readily as in their printed form, an ample supply of script reading is furnished. The simple and beautiful characters employed have been engraved expressly for this Reader. M69872 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. THE written language-work in this Reader consists of: I. Slate Work. These are exercises in transcription, having for their object eye-training in the forms of words and the mechanism of sentences. The copies may be made first on slate, and then on paper (two or more pupils being at the same time sent to put the work on the blackboard); after which, the class should exchange slates or papers for correction. N. B.-Be very particular not only that the words are correctly copied, but that the mechanism of the sentence is right,— that each sentence begins with a capital letter, and ends with the proper terminal mark. II. Dictations.-These exercises, like the preceding, have for their aim training in written spelling; but they are, of course, somewhat more difficult than mere copying, since here the pupil is called on to reproduce not a mere visual impression, but a recalled mental image of word-forms. No word is used in these dictations which the pupil has not already learned from the current lesson, or those preceding. It is recommended that the sentences be given out in the portions spaced off, since the hearing of them thus read will insensibly convey to the child a notion of rhetorical pauses. From time to time write one of the dictations on the blackboard, marking the rhetorical pauses thus (p. 25):— I found them in the clean sand # on the beach." |