Other good plays of one or two acts follow. These cost from 25 to 40 cents each. D. C. Heath & Company. Elz, Er ist nicht eifersüchtig. Wells, Drei kleine Lustspiele: Benedix, Günstige Vorzeichen and Der Prozess. Wilhelmi, Einer muss heiraten. D. C. Heath & Company. Hervey: Benedix, Der Prozess. Fulda, Unter vier Augen. Henry Holt & Company. Hervey: Wilhelmi, Einer muss heiraten. Benedix, Eigensinn. Henry Holt & Company. Rosen, Ein Knopf. Henry Holt & Company. Moser, Der Schimmel. Henry Holt & Company. Manley and Allen, Four German Comedies. Rosen, Ein Knopf. Moser, Ein amerikanisches Duell. Müller, Im Wartesaal erster Klasse. Pohl, Die Schulreiterin. Ginn & Company. Moser, Der Bibliothekar. D. C. Heath & Company. Wichert, Als verlobte empfehlen sich. D. C. Heath & Company. Short German Plays. Clarendon Press. Series 1 costs 50 cents, series 2, 60 cents. F. Diederik, Theaterstücke für Dilettantenbühnen. Flugschrift No. 3 des Dürerbunds. Munich: Georg. D. W. Callwey. Contains a number of good suggestions. There are a number of Märchendramen of more or less doubtful value. See catalogs and make inquiries of G. E. Stechert or W. R. Jenkins Company, New York. WHAT TO READ First year or beginning books on the Direct-Method plan usually have reading material for the first year at least, but for the sake of variety and the encouragement of the students it is well to use also some suitable text consisting of short stories or a longer short narrative. A so-called reader can be used acceptably in place of this, especially if the beginning book is based on the Grammar-Translation Method. In either case the choice of reading material should be dictated by some or all of the following considerations: 1. The text selected should not be more difficult, or only a little more difficult, than the reading lessons in the beginners' book. It is folly to try to read anything the student is not prepared to undertake. 2. The vocabulary should be carefully considered. It should not contain too large a number of words, or words that are not in common every-day use. As the student advances into the upper years this consideration becomes less and less important, but it should carry great weight in the first two years. 3. Only books really worth-while should be considered. The time is too short to waste a student's efforts on trash. We should aim to give the student something beyond the mere language, something that has educative and cultural value. 4. The probable interest of the student is of prime importance, for a dull book makes a dull class in spite of all the best efforts of a good teacher. The age, maturity of mind, home environment, and the average cultural standard of the entire class must be taken into account. Not all stories are equally interesting to boys and to girls. 5. The length of the story is important. For the beginner a number of short stories is best, and in advanced classes the text of not over one-hundred pages is to be preferred. The students simply tire of a long story which must be read piece-meal. 6. The story should be in real German and written preferably by a German. Only a very few of the constructed storytexts have proven worth while. 7. In general, fiction or drama is most likely to furnish the best reading material; but history and biography may well find a place in a course of more than two years. 8. Poetry should not be neglected; that is, collections of short poems and of ballads. The latter lend themselves to oral work. A fair amount of poetry and of songs should be memorized. Often such pieces are among the most cherished possessions of a student in later years when he has all but forgotten what he was taught in school. 9. The reading of the so-called classics should be deferred as long as possible. Before the student is ready to read them he should have had a great deal of prose reading, possess a good command of a fairly comprehensive vocabulary and a firm knowledge of German forms and syntax. If students have to read Wilhelm Tell, the very best classic for early reading, by painfully translating it little by little, with a constant appeal to the dictionary, they are not ready for it. 10. Under no condition should the text selected be one that the teacher himself has not read with care and with an eye to its suitability for the particular class for which a text is sought. Most of the mistakes in selecting texts arise from the fact that the teacher has chosen by title, or because of the author, or on somebody's advice. Indeed, it is always a good idea to re-read a text before selection, if one's impression as to its difficulty and availability is not clearly remembered. 11. It is a mistake to read only one kind of material, such as short stories. As in other things, variety is the spice of life. 12. The sequence of texts in a course of two, three or four years should also weigh in the selection of a text for any particular stage or year. It is not necessary that this plan be so specific that every text must be determined beforehand, but a general plan having as its aim a graded sequence, variety, and progress in educative and cultural value, should be clearly in the teacher's mind. American text-book publishers have in their catalogs made graded lists of texts for the respective years for which their books are best suited. The leading publishers are the following: American Book Company, New York. Ginn & Company, Boston. D. C. Heath & Company, Boston. Henry Holt & Company, New York. Oxford University Press, Scribner, New York. Scott, Foresman & Company, Chicago. Helpful also are the lists in "Zur Jugendschriftfrage," Leipzig, 1903, a report of the Vereingte deutsche Prüfungsschüsse für Jugendschriften. DICTIONARIES A. FOR STUDENT USE GERMAN-ENGLISH ENGLISH-GERMAN Bellow's New German-English and English-German Dictionary. New York: Henry Holt & Company. Heath's German Dictionary. $1.75. (The Cassel's German Dictionary.) Boston: D. C. Heath & Company. $1.50. James's Dictionary of the English and German Language. New York: The Macmillan Company. $2.00. lent. Langenscheidts Taschen Wörterbücher. English-German, 1 vol.; German-English, 1 vol. Berlin: Schöneberg. Small print but clear. ExcelThe two volumes together, $1.00. Single volume $0.60. Muret-Sanders' Enzyklopädisches Wörterbuch der englischen und deutschen Sprache. Hand und Schulausgabe. Langenscheidt. Berlin: Schöneberg. 1909. Highly recommended. This is a smaller edition of the dictionary of the same name given below. $2.50. Whitney's Compendious German and English Dictionary. New York: Henry Holt & Company. GERMAN-GERMAN. $1.50. All the definitions given in German. Sanders Handwörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Leipzig. 1910. $2.50. Venns Deutsches Wörterbuch. Leipzig: Bergner. 1905. Good tho small. $0.75. B. FOR TEACHERS AND THE LIBRARY Flügels Allgemeines Englisch-Deutsches und Deutsch-Englisches Wörterbuch. 3 vols. Braunschweig: Westermann. 4th ed. 1908. A standard work. $12.00. Grieb-Schröer Englisch-Deutsches und Deutsch-Englisches Wörterbuch. 2 vols. Menter-Verlag. Berlin: Schöneberg. A standard work. Old spelling. $4.50. Muret-Sanders Enzyklopädisches Wörterbuch der englischen und deutschen Sprache. Grosse Ausgabe. 2 vols. Langenscheidt. BerlinSchöneberg. The best of all German-English dictionaries. $10.00. Wiegands Deutsches Wörterbuch. mann. 1909. A standard, and highly recommended. Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon. 16 vols. Leipzig. C. FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES The following serve special purposes, as is indicated by their titles. All are highly recommended. Dudens Orthographisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. LeipzigWien: Should be owned by every teacher. $0.40. Eberhard-Lyons' Synonymisches Handwörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Leipzig: Grieben. $3.50. Kluges Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Strassburg: Trübner. 8th ed. 1914. $1.50. D. TECHNICAL DICTIONARIES Egers Technologisches Wörterbuch. 2 parts. Braunschweig: Brandes. Lang's German-English Dictionary. Philadelphia: Blakiston. A dictionary for students of science and medicine. $4.00. REFERENCE BOOKS ON GERMAN LITERATURE A. GENERAL HISTORIES OF GERMAN LITERATURE WORKS OF ONE VOLUME All of these are of almost equal value and all are standard works. Francke, History of German Literature. New York: Henry Holt & Company. 1908. This is not a chronological or biographical account, or a survey of individual authors and writings, but an appreciative and excellent presentation of the social significance of literary epochs at different periods. The book should be in every school library. 1911. Hosmer, History of German Literature. New York: Scribner. 1909. Robertson, History of German Literature. New York: Putnam. 1908. Rather detailed for high-school students, but an excellent reference book. Should be in the school library. Outlines of the History of German Literature. Putnam. This is an excellent student edition of Robertson's History of German Literature. Thomas, German Literature. New York: Appleton & Company. 1909. Vögtlin, Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung. Zürich: Schulthess & Company. 2nd ed. 1913. One of the best of the shorter histories. WORKS OF MORE THAN ONE VOLUME. All standard works. Bartels, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur. 2 vols. Leipzig. |