where each child may stop with most advantage: 'this,' as the editor says, 'affords to each pupil a complete reading exercise, and is a more satisfactory resting-point than the mere full stop.' Of course, if time permitted, each child may read two or three of such divisions.

Means to keep the class attentive. In conclusion, I may remark that all these suggestions proceed on the understanding that the class is attentive. If not attentive, much of their value is lost. To secure attention, the following means may be adopted :

Means to secure attention. (1) Do not permit the boys to read until told to do so. (2) Do not select them consecutively. They will thus, from not knowing when they will be called upon, be kept continually on the watch. (3) The most careless ought to be most frequently called upon; and, now and then, a child who has already read may be required to read again, to prevent the possibility of his growing careless, as some are inclined to do, when they have finished their own portion. (4) A vigilant eye and an active manner are, however, the best means. If the teacher is active and attentive, the children will most likely be so too; and if they feel that they cannot idle without being seen, it is almost certain that they will not attempt it.

(5) Avoid what is called 'taking places' during the reading portion of the lesson. It may be adopted, occasionally, in the general questioning upon the text, but it is never adopted with advantage when the pupils are merely reading. At best, indeed, it is but a mechanical means for securing that attention which should be the result of an interest in the lesson, created and sustained by the master's own skill and manner.

1 See page 30, for a lesson so printed.

CHAPTER II.

LESSON BOOKS.

Object. Under this head I propose to speak of the explanation of the subject-matter of the reading books.

Why necessary to be separated from remarks on intelligent reading. This explanation is so intimately connected with what, in the previous pages, I have referred to as the intelligent comprehension of the text, which is a part of intellectual reading, that it might have formed, with propriety, a portion of the last chapter; but as it is a subject of great importance, and upon which my remarks must be extensive, I have deemed it” more judicious to devote to it a separate place.

My remarks apply to any series of lesson book. My remarks will assist in the teaching of any series of Lessonbooks, though it is from those published by the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, and from Messrs. Longman and Co.'s 'Graduated Series,' that I have chiefly extracted, when I found that quotations were necessary to illustrate what I advanced. I have selected those, from their being so extensively used in every country where the English language is spoken.

Chief points to be attended to. In dealing with the text of the reading lesson, the chief points to be attended to are evidently the following: (1) The meanings of the words and phrases of the book; (2) the actual reading; (3) the examination upon the statements of the author, and their natural expansion; and (4) such a résumé of the whole as will test the attention and intelligence of the children, and fix the lesson more firmly in their minds.

First two treated of in previous chapter. As I have already given, in the previous chapter, the rules by which the teacher ought to be guided in dealing with the first two, it only now remains for me to add those which refer to the remaining points.

Rule 1. Avoid the phraseology of book in asking questions and in answers. This rule is very generally violated, but chiefly by old, untrained, or ill-informed teachers. With such, the questions are invariably too mechanical and routine, and inhere

too closely to the exact words of the text. They read to the end of a clause, and add to it one of the interrogatives, how, what, where, &c., to give the form of a question, and the child conveys his answer in the remaining words of the sentence.

Example, from an actual case. The questions and answers below, taken down during my inspection of a school, illustrate what I mean. They are recorded in the exact words and order in which they occurred, and refer to the following lesson upon

'THE ANT.'

'When you are at play on the common, or in the fields, I dare say you have often seen small heaps of earth, thrown up on all sides, and swarming with busy little insects, running to and fro. These little insects are called ants, and it is quite worth while to stop and watch how they build their houses.

'You will see them come laden with leaves, bits of wood. sand, earth, and the gum of trees; with these they form their little hills. When their houses are built, these busy ants go out and seek their food, which they lodge in their little store houses till the time of need.

'Though the ant is so small an insect here, yet in some warm climates it is much larger, and builds a hill, from ten to twelve feet high. These ants are very fierce and warlike : they often destroy rats, poultry, and even sheep. Yet they have their use. In one distant and very hot country, where there are numbers of these ants, the houses swarm with all kinds of nasty vermin, such as rats, mice, and clocks. From time to time, immense bodies of ants may be seen, marching up to a house, and soon the walls, ceilings, and floors are alive with them, and they get into all the drawers and chests. Now begins a fierce battle, between the ants and the rats, and other vermin; it goes on for some hours; after which, you may see the ants dragging off their prey, quite dead, and feasting on their bodies outside the house. Then the people, who have been waiting out of doors, gladly return to their houses, which they find quite clear from all vermin.'

Teacher. When you are at play on the common, or in the fields, I dare say you have often seen-what?

Child. Small heaps of earth thrown up on all sides.

Teacher. And swarming with—what?

Child. Busy little insects running to and fro.

Teacher. These little insects are called-what?

Child. Ants.

Teacher. And it is quite worth while to stop and watch- ?

STYLE OF QUESTIONING.

Child. How they build their houses.

Teacher. You will see them come laden with-what?

29

Child. Leaves, bits of wood, sand, earth, and the gum of trees. Teacher. With these they build—what?

Faults of. Such questions do not test the substance of the text, but merely the remembrance of its words; and so little judgment is required in framing them that any intelligent boy in the class, when put up to the trick (for it is but a trick), might examine upon the lesson quite as well as the master himself. He might not indeed, put his questions with so much quickness and animation, or with such an air of confidence, but he certainly could frame them quite as well, and convey quite as much information. A lesson so taught does not exercise the child's understanding, nor does it appeal to his intelligence. When a master reads a part of a sentence as a question, nothing is more natural than that the child should give the remaining portion as the answer; and this, if he have a good memory, he can do without understanding the meaning of what he says, and, probably, with his thoughts fixed anywhere but on the subject before him.

Rule 2. Every question must relate to the subject, and every answer to the predicate. The master should consider (1) what is the exact thing of which each sentence treats, and (2) what the author says of it, and he should frame his question and test the reply accordingly. This rule appears too simple. To require from the master to know what he is going to ask about and what sort of answer he intends to receive, appears at first sight to be not only unnecessary, but absurd. A little experience of schools, however, will convince one that many questions are asked upon the facts of a lesson which would not have been asked had these facts been fully known by the examiner. For instance, in the opening part of the lesson just given, the author's object was simply to tell the children where ants dwell or are found (this he certainly does in the very worst way), and the information could be elicited by any of the following questions: Where are ants met with? What places do they inhabit? In what kind of place do they build their hills? &c. The questions previously given, and which are the ones often met with, so evidently fail in testing what the author intended to convey, that it justifies us in saying of those teachers who make use of them that they do not themselves perceive clearly the exact information they ought to elicit.

Rule 2 would render Rule 1 unnecessary if carefully carried out. Were this rule carefully carried out, there would be no need for Rule 1; for if a teacher recognises the subject and predicate of a sentence, and, by his questions, simply tries whether

his children also understand the statements made in the book, the wording of his questions will naturally differ from the phraseology of the author, because they have different objects to attain.

To carry out Rule 2, mark subject on margin in accordance with the example below. In order to carry out this rule successfully, I would recommend every teacher to mark upon the margin of his class books (I have already said that he should have a special set for himself) the subject of each important division of the lesson. The predicate need not be marked, as the text will be a sufficient guide to it. Take, for instance, the following lesson upon 'The Martin.' (Longman and Co.'s 'Graduated Series,' book iii. p. 220.) His notes might be written as printed in the margin.

Time they visit us.

Their first оссираtion.

begin to

build.

Material for crust of nest.

How

THE MARTIN.'

...

'A few house-martins begin to appear about the sixteenth of April; usually some few days later than the swallow. For some time after they appear, swallows in general pay no attention to nest-building, but play and sport about, to recruit from the fatigue of their (journey from warmer countries. . . . About the middle Time they of May, if the weather be fine, the martin begins to think in earnest of providing a mansion for his family. The crust or shell of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or loam as comes most readily to hand, and is tempered and wrought together with little bits of broken straw to render it tough and firm. . . . As this bird often builds against a perpendicular wall without any projecting ledge under, it requires its utmost efforts to get the first foundation firmly fixed. In doing this, the bird not only clings with its claws, but partly supports itself by strongly bending its tail against the wall; and, thus steadied, it works and plasters the materials into the face of the brick or stone. ... Then that this work may not, while it is soft and green, pull itself down by its own weight, the provident architect has prudence (and sense enough not to advance her work too fast. She builds only in the morning, and gives the rest of the day to food and amusement, so that the clay has sufficient time to dry and harden. . . . About half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer for a day. Thus careful workmen when they build mud walls, informed at first A parallel perhaps by this little bird, raise but a moderate layer at a time, and then stop, lest the work should become topheavy, and so be ruined by its own weight. By this

fixed to wall.

Does not

build fast.

Quantity built daily, and

time at it.

case.