63. Telling Interesting Things
Reading edition
Oral Exercise. 1. When did you last go to the circus?[73] Of course you remember many interesting things about it. Think of these a minute; then tell your classmates about them. Perhaps the following questions will help you remember:
1. Did you see the circus come to town early in the morning?
2. Did you see the men putting up the tents?
3. Did you see the parade?
4. Where did you buy your ticket?
5. What did you see first when you entered the tent?
6. What did you like best of all you saw and heard?
2. If you were old enough to travel with a circus, and if your parents would allow you to go, what should you most like to be? Should you like to be an animal trainer? Should you like to be a horseback rider? Should you like to be a juggler, a tightrope walker, or a clown? Tell your classmates what you would be if you could join a circus. Besides, tell what that kind of performer needs to know and do. Tell how he does some of his tricks.
You and your classmates may now plan to make a book about the circus. Each pupil should write a page for it. One could tell about the parade, another about the tents and the seats and the rings, another about the horses, another about the jugglers, another about the trapeze performers, and so on. When all the pages are finished, they should be bound and a cover put on them. On the cover might be written or printed in large letters:[74]
Written Exercise. Choose what you will write about for the circus book. Think what you can say that your classmates will enjoy reading. Then write the account. Better write a short and bright account than a long and stupid one. First, write on your paper rather rapidly the best account you can. When this is finished, read it several times and try to make it better. If you were writing about the juggler, your first, rapidly written account might read like this:
THE JUGGLER AT THE CIRCUS
There was a juggler at the circus. I cannot tell all the tricks he did. It must take a long time to learn to do tricks. I wish I could do some.
Of course this first, rapid account can be made much better. It does not tell how the juggler looked. It does not tell clearly what he did. After you have added these and other points, the account might be like this one:
THE JUGGLER AT THE CIRCUS
I saw the wonderful Japanese juggler at the circus. He was dressed in red silk. He stood in the ring before all the people. I saw him do one trick after another. It was like magic. He threw five shiny, sharp knives up in the air. He kept them flying up and down without dropping one.
Group Exercise. Some of the circus stories should be copied neatly on the board. Then the whole class may try to make them better before they are copied on the pages of the circus book.[75]