TO THE TEACHER

The teacher who realizes the value of motor activity will be glad to find early in this book such words and phrases as run, march, jump, sing, whistle, bounce the ball, toss the ball, etc. She will know how to utilize these in “action sentences” developed in the blackboard lessons that usually precede reading from the book.

The vocabulary consists of 274 words, listed on pages 123 to 126, with the number of the page on which each first occurs. They are printed in clear type that they may be used at will for word drills.

Children vary much in their power to learn and apply phonic facts. With some, slowness to perceive these facts is due to lack of ear discrimination. With some, lack of power to apply the facts is due to lack of reasoning power. The child who writes, “I like the fresh ear,” and justifies her spelling by the analogies bear, tear, wear, hence, ear, has too much reasoning power for the language she inherits.

It is expected that most teachers will teach this book by the “story” method, supplemented by the “word and sentence” method, with recourse, where needful, to the “phonic” method. The various combinations of any or all of these methods, and the various devices employed will depend upon the training, the experience, and the pedagogic faith of each teacher. The book can be thus taught throughout without the use of phonics.

It is expected that the wise teacher will watch her class, and present to the whole class, to the class by groups, or to individual children, the phonic facts, when she thinks they can be best assimilated. The teacher who presents them to all her children just as and when they occur in the book, will do much less harm than in handling any of the purely phonic readers, since the phonics are so easily graded, so successfully divorced from any injurious modification of the sense of the text, and so skillfully associated with melody and rhythm that they will never, as presented, produce the baleful effect of correlating the sight and sound and motor centers, with the intellect left out, under the name of reading.

The sounds of the single consonants, of the digraphs, ch, sh, th, wh, wr, and kn, that are treated as single letters, and the short sounds of the vowels are learned first as the initial letters of certain words that are well known as wholes. For instance, run has already become thoroughly known as a word when the child finds it at the bottom of page 3 printed thus:

Run R run r

It will be seen from this that the word run is not to be analyzed at this stage into the two parts r and un. Only the sound of the letter r is to be taught. This is done by having the sound of r associated with the letter. The printed symbol (given here in its two forms, the capital and the small letter) is to be known to the child as representative of the sound of the letter, not of the name of the letter. It requires but little effort to teach the child how to sound an initial letter. The teacher may request him to “start to say” some familiar word, as run, but to utter only the first sound of the word. To facilitate the process, she may do this herself and afterward have the child do it. When he has learned to give the sound of r, she shows him the letter, which from this time is known by its sound. In this way the sound of each letter may be taught. The names of the letters will be learned later in the year.

The next step toward making the child self-helpful is developed in the primer by means of phonic jingles such as will be found on page 51. The rime is to be read aloud by the teacher and repeated or sung by the children. Many teachers will prefer to write the rime on the blackboard. The simple, artistic melody given with each rime helps the child to memorize it. The appropriate story which precedes the rime and upon which it is based, together with the picture that illustrates it, invests the rime with interest for the children.

As will be seen, these phonic jingles contain words that are alike in symbol as well as in sound. It is confusing to the child at this early stage of the work to have before his eyes different symbols for the same sound, as is the case, for instance, when he has high and sky to rime with I, or see and me to rime with sea. His riming words at this time should aid the eye as well as the ear. For this reason the phonic jingles have been given.

The words of the jingle that are arranged in a column at the right of the page, are easily separated into two parts, showing that they all belong to the same “phonic family,” thus, c-at, m-at, etc. Such separation of words into parts is not shown in the primer for the reason that it is not considered best to present to the child’s eye, at this early period, printed words that are disfigured in any way. His first book should show the words as wholes. This fact, however, need not prevent the teacher from using the phonic jingles for word analysis. The words in the column having been shown as wholes to the child, he sees that they not only rime to his ear but resemble each other to the eye. Moreover, the words in the column look exactly like the same words when he finds them in the sentences he reads. Before he reaches the phonic jingle on any given page, the child has learned to know by sight and sound the consonants that are the initial letters of the words he is to sound in the jingle. For instance, he has learned to know and to sound the consonants c, m, b, th, r, p, f, and s before the phonic jingle on page 51 is given to him. It is then an easy matter to lead up to a simple analysis of the words. The rime has been read by the teacher and repeated or sung by the child; the words in the body of the rime, which are repeated in the column at the right of the page, have been seen by the child in both places. He may now be taught to cover the unlike parts (the initial consonants) of the words in the column and show the like parts (the phonogram that indicates the “family” to which each of the words belongs). He may then cover the like parts, showing, in turn, the unlike parts.

Unlike Parts Like Parts

c- at

m- at

b- at

th- at

More ambitious teachers, and those who emphasize phonics earlier in the reading process, may wish to continue this analysis of words even further, by separating each word into three or more parts, having the child give the sound of each letter, thus,

c a t, m a t, b a t

m a t

b a t

The jingles lend themselves to both treatments. But it will be more in keeping with modern pedagogy if the separation of words is limited at this stage to analyzing words into phonetic families, as, for instance, the family of “at,” the family of “ap,” etc. This treatment is advised for primer work.

Mother Goose rimes may be read later in the book where several of them are given. Before they are read by the children the rimes should be memorized and then dramatized in the simple childlike way in which the young actors in the book are represented as playing Jack and Jill. A short phonic drill is then deduced from the Mother Goose rime in much the same way as from the phonic jingles.

When the children have learned to sound cat, mat, hit, sit, etc. (pages 51 and 68), and to find, from these words, the stems at and it, the teacher should reverse the process, leading the children to build words from such stems as an, am, and, end, in, on, up, all, is, as, etc.

an

can

man

pan

tan

Dan

am

dam

ram

and

hand

sand

end

bend

mend

in

pin

thin

shin

up

cup

pup

sup

on

con

Don

pond

all

ball

call

fall

wall

tall

stall

small

Next the children should be required to build lists of words that are similar in sound and spelling to other words that are known at sight.

lad

glad

had

sad

bad

did

hid

rid

lid

slid

him

dim

rim

swim

vim

hen

men

pen

when

wren

bed

red

fed

led

sled

went

bent

lent

sent

but

cut

nut

shut

hum

drum

gum

chum

pitch

ditch

hitch

witch

catch

match

hatch

scratch

During the first school year the effect of the final e on the preceding vowel should be taught by means of words already well known to the children, thus:

cat

fat

fate

mat

mate

hat

hate

lad

glad

glade

fad

fade

mad

made

can

fan

fane

pan

pane

van

vane

sap

cap

cape

nap

nape

tap

tape

it

bit

bite

quit

quite

whit

white

did

hid

hide

rid

ride

him

dim

dime

rim

rime

in

pin

pine

shin

shine

got

not

note

cot

cote

stop

hop

hope

pop

pope

but

cut

cute

rub

cub

cube

dub

tub

tube

jet

pet

Pete

bet

met

mete

All this work may be given from the blackboard.

Some teachers will probably prefer to have the child read through the primer before attempting to apply the knowledge of letter sounds and phonic analysis that he has gained. Such teachers will rightly consider it as more important than anything else that the child be led to regard the book as a storehouse of attractive stories, and each sentence as expressing a thought which he can get and express again. But when this object is attained the teacher will be wise to let the child find out how he may help himself to the thought getting by the power the initial letter gives him of “feeling for” the new word, and later by the power the jingles give him of “making sure” of the words.

The author has found that a vocabulary limited in quantity is a sufficient impediment to writing interesting stories for young children. She has, therefore, eschewed in the text any such sacrifice of sense to sound as would limit her vocabulary in quality also. She has, however, realized the value, in giving independence, of introducing simple phonics early. She has, therefore, taken advantage of the natural tendency of children to make and to repeat alliterations and rimes. In the interest of veracity, all attempts to beguile the child into believing that “Wag the rag in the bag” is either an interesting or an instructive “story” are avoided; it is frankly acknowledged to the child that the alliterations and rimes in this book are “nonsense-jingles” from the side of reason, though capable of affording enjoyment on the side of musical appreciation.