CHAPTER THIRTEEN PARAGRAPHS; TOPICAL OUTLINES; ORIGINAL STORIES; LETTERS; PUNCTUATION I (131). Study of the Paragraph THIS is an exercise in the study of which the children will need your guidance and help through out. II (134). Making Paragraph Topics Read with the children the paragraphs in their book, and help them to determine a suitable topic for each paragraph. Be careful to have their topics not only suitable in thought, but well expressed. When they write these paragraph topics, they will undoubtedly produce something approximately as follows: 1. The beauty of bodies of water. 3. The beauties of a river. 4. The beauties of lakes and ocean. Write or have written on the board one or more outlines, perhaps one of the best and one of the poorest, that the essential qualities of an outline may be made to stand out clearly. You can render your pupils no greater service in TEACHING TO RECOGNIZE PARAGRAPHS 97 their study of their geography and history texts than by studying their lessons with them, paragraph by paragraph, and helping them to grasp and to express concisely and clearly the principal thought of each paragraph. If you will thus study each new geography and history lesson with your pupils, you will find at the end of a few weeks that two very important things have been accomplished: your pupils will have learned really to study, to get thought from the printed page, and to grasp each thought in its proper relation to other thoughts; they will also have gained a working idea of the paragraph, have acquired the paragraph sense, something indispensable to the correct use of paragraphs, and something that cannot be acquired through definitions and explanations alone. III (135). Teaching to Recognize Paragraphs by their Contents The recognition of a paragraph on the printed page is easy; the indention of the first line is the clew. But before the paragraph was printed, or written, how was it determined? In the orderly thought of the writer-not an easy matter, but something that every good writer, every clear thinker, even, whether he writes or not, must learn to do. Learning to paragraph is learning to think; it is an accomplishment worthy of the effort and long practice that it requires. Here is an exercise that will give pupils practice in recognizing paragraphs from the thought. Read to them the following well-defined paragraphs. In your reading do not hesitate to make the paragraph topic emphatic. The importance of this topic which makes it the heart of the paragraph calls for emphasis. A river entering the sea may receive water brought by hundreds of tributaries. Thus the rain that falls in places even hundreds of miles apart may at last be brought together in a single main stream. Such a main stream with all its tributaries is called a river system. For instance, we speak of the Mississippi River system, meaning the Mississippi and its many tributaries. All the country which is drained by a single main stream is called a river basin. Thus all the land drained by the Mississippi River is included in the Mississippi basin. A real basin, as One should not think of this as a true basin. a wash basin, has a rim extending all around it. river basin is the divide; but there is no divide, or rim, near the mouth of a river, since all the water runs out into the sea. If it were a true basin, with a rim all around it, the water would collect and form a lake. -TARR AND MCMURRY'S Geographies When the reading is finished, question somewhat as follows: 1. About what things did I read? (River system, river basin, divide.) 2. About how many topics did I read ? 3. How many paragraphs did I read ? 4. What is the topic of the first paragraph? Of the second ? Of the third ? ORAL REPRODUCTIONS 99 Read the selection again, and have pupils try to indicate just where each paragraph begins and ends. Supplementary 1. From time to time give exercises like the above. For this purpose choose short selections from history, geography, or reader, in which the paragraphs are well defined. 2. As pupils reproduce short stories orally, or tell original stories, ask, How many paragraphs would you make in writing that story? What would you make the topic of each paragraph? IV (136). Oral Reproductions from Original Outlines Read the narrative with the pupils and help them to determine and to express the paragraph topics. These topics will be somewhat as follows: 1. Columbus's difficulty in getting ships. 2. Preparing for the voyage. 3. The start. 4. The voyage. 5. The landing. That many pupils may take prominent part in the lesson, have different ones reproduce from the outline a paragraph each. At the conclusion of the exercise let the pupils preserve their outlines for use in the next exercise, V (138). Writing Reproductions from Original Outlines If the language period is short, this exercise may be given in either of the following ways, instead of the way indicated in the pupils' book. The class may be divided into three nearly equal groups, of which the first may reproduce the first three paragraphs, the second the fourth, and the third group the fifth paragraph; or two periods may be devoted to the exercise, the first three paragraphs being reproduced at the first period, and the last two at the second period. The chief points of criticism should concern clearness and interest. VI (138). Making an Original Story from a Given Outline Two periods may well be devoted to this exercise, the first to oral, and the second to written work. The oral study should prepare for the written. Study each paragraph with the children, stimulating and guiding them, not doing the work for them. Help them to make clean-cut sentences that produce clear word pictures. Let them use conversation, when appropriate, and let it be direct and effective. The last paragraph should contain the climax of the story. It should give the impression of completeness, should satisfy the reader or hearer. |