From time to time simple words of a similar construction and sound to those in the book should be written on the blackboard. The teacher should be in front of the class in desks, where she can be best seen and heard; but not so as to be overlapped by the ends or sides of the class, or so near the front row as not to be able to govern them with her eye. The teacher should carry the passage to be read in her visual memory, so that her eyes may be devoted to watching the children's mouths; and for this purpose the children should be forbidden to cover their faces behind the reading-books. SUMMARY OF TEACHING TO READ. (STANDARD I.) MAXIMS. (1) Be careful of your own Pronunciation, and that of the class. (2) Let the Enunciation of yourself and of the class be pure. (3) Encourage a fluent (flowing, smooth) style of reading; but do not let the children gabble, or read too quickly. (4) Encourage the children to ask questions on the subject matter of the lesson; and illustrate the latter to foster Intelligence. (5) Try to make the children catch the spirit of the lesson, and render this in suitable Expression; rather exaggerating than not giving sufficient dramatic effect. Let the stress of the voice (Emphasis) fall on the notional words, and make Pauses according to sense and feeling, rather than according to stops (Punctuation). Sad narratives should be read slowly; merry ones trippingly; and didactic (moralizing) portions with weight and solemnity. Use the Poetry of the book chiefly to inculcate expression; and let the class learn other Recitations for the same purpose. DIFFICULTIES TO BE ANTICIPATED AND MET. (1) Slovenly, thick, blurred Enunciation, as if coming from too thick lips, or too large tongue, on the part of the children. This is to be cured by insisting on clear enunciation of the elements of the words; either as simple vowel sounds, and consonants (as in lisping), or of syllables, especially final syllables, as in bird's-nests, winds, robbing (the final nasal ng is generally very troublesome to the teacher). (2) Faulty Pronunciation (a) Omission of syllables; as anmals for animals. (c) Confusion in groups of allied words; as though, (d) False vowel renderings; as of oi for i; foine for fine, etc. (e) Wrong quantity; as many for many; can'al for canal, etc. (f) Dropping out the h, or aspirating it before open vowel sounds; as air for hair, or hair for air. (g) Local Provincialisms, too numerous and varied to mention. (3) Failure of attention of the individual children, and their eyes being withdrawn from their "places." The former must be overcome by the teacher keeping lively, nimble, alert, and interesting; the latter by a quick eye on the part of the teacher. (4) It is exceedingly difficult in Standard I. to teach the class to consider the lesson as a whole, in its subject matter and teaching, apart from its use as a mere reading lesson proper dealing mainly with words. The teacher must be content, at first, to use the lesson in the latter direction, and wait for the former use of it until the class has overcome the difficulty of the freshness of the new vocabulary. (5) The correction of the Spelling Exercises in a large class presents some difficulty; but the teacher should make up her mind as to which of the words are most likely to be spelt wrong, and cultivate the power of rapidly detecting mistakes. The reasons why our language is so difficult to read and spell are given in Part I., and are mainly founded on (a) its varied origin; (b) the tricks of the printers in past times; (c) the Imperfections of our Alphabet. The main reason why it is so difficult to persuade children out of provincial pronunciation of letters, syllables, and words is that their ears are deficient in recognizing slight differences of tone. That is, the standard of appeal is vitiated. Of course they cannot recognize this until their ears have been trained; there is no inner consciousness of difference, as court of appeal, to refer to. Lastly, some voices are naturally harsh and disagreeable. This depends on the vocal chords and cartilages, and on the suppleness of the organs of speech generally (lips cheeks, tongue, etc.). PRACTICAL HINTS FROM REPORTS OF H.M.'s. INSPECTORS ON READING. (STANDARD I.) "I would urge upon teachers to give object lessons upon chapters in the reading-books. An object lesson on some subject in the reading-books, say silkworms, with the actual things shown to the children, and compared with the descriptions in the book would be found more useful than ordinary object lessons. The teacher would have the lesson ready in his hand, and would only have to explain more fully, and the children would not only give better attention, but could another day be set to read the chapter over again. Some 66 thing would be retained instead of all being dissipated like the particles of chalk wiped off the blackboard."-MR. BAILEY. Intelligence in reading is too rare, so, too, are accuracy and expression of the children. In town schools, where every class has its own teacher, these faults might to a great extent be overcome if the teacher would make it a constant habit to read aloud to the class, paragraph by paragraph, the passage chosen for the lesson. Too often reading is not taught; it is only heard."-MR. BALMER. "Large classes are best taught to read with expression in schools where it is the custom for the scholars to read simultaneously after the teacher, clause by clause, strictly imitating his slightest shades of accent, as they will do when properly trained. In no other way can time be found for giving each child the sufficient amount of vocal practice. 66 'Of course it must be supplemented by occasional individual reading. In the hands of a dull teacher the exercise degenerates into a high-pitched monotone or drawl, because he does not compel his class to follow closely his own accent and tone. 66 It is when the questioning on the matter of the readingbooks begins that the examiner feels first astonishment, and then despair; for fairly expressive reading taught by frequent mimicry of the teacher's voice may be accompanied by the dimmest notion of the meaning. The difficulty lies not so much in the lack of a vocabulary, as in a want of intelligence. It may be that the long words had been explained to the children either in the notes or by the teacher, but the latter had most probably never explained the drift of the passage, and its connection with what precedes or follows.”—Mr. EDWARDS. 66 "I believe the expression would improve if the teachers began with the young children, for these are very good mimics."-MR. JARMAN. "The failure in intelligence arises from the want of a more intelligent system of training the children to observe and think for themselves; and to study the meaning of the entire sentence, as well as of its component words. Exact definitions are, of course, not to be looked for at this early stage; but teachers should prepare a child to show, in its own simple language, that it really apprehends what the words represent. It is hardly possible to open any page of a book without meeting with one or more of the syllables ful,— ous,-y, and the opposite-less, as for example, careful, joyous, happy, thoughtless. It need not take long to explain the meaning of each of these syllables, and to illustrate their use by copious examples. There is no reason why every child in Standard I. should not know them. The exercise will prove highly interesting, and it will be found that the thorough understanding of these syllables will furnish a key to the meanings of many hundreds of words. "Every word learned in this way becomes a help to the understanding of other words of the same class; the children are thus trained to think for themselves, they become conscious of daily increasing ability to deal with fresh words which occur in their lessons, and under the guidance of their teacher more difficult words are one by one intelligently mastered till in the upper classes, they are able, not only to understand but also to give a very good account of what they read."MR. FUSSELL. "I take reading with intelligence to include two things: explanation of the more unusual words and phrases, and the reproduction of the general scope of the lesson."-MR. STEELE. "For the cultivation of the feelings, and the expression of reading, nothing is so effectual as reading, learning, and reciting poetry. But this should not be didactic verse, nor verse merely written by scholarly writers without the elements of poetry in it, such as too many educated men have written, and thought they were poets. Good narrative poetry, |