attempts to express a complete thought, we may get something like this, which we may write on the blackboard:

A game of baseball is interesting.

A game of baseball was played yesterday.

A game of baseball was won by our boys.
of baseball in the park.

A game

A game of baseball full of errors.

Which of these attempts to express a complete thought are successful? Which unsuccessful? Let the thought be completed in the latter. This might result in sentences as follows:

A game of baseball in the park is forbidden.
A game of baseball full of errors was lost.

Several lesson periods may be profitably devoted to this section on the sentence. It is out of such study, analysis, and practice that the sentence sense is developed. Such study is also the best possible preparation for grammatical analysis.

Supplementary Work

The preceding work may be supplemented to any desirable extent by exercises that may be entirely oral or partly written.

1. Give, orally, groups of words, some making sentences, others not. After each group, let pupils tell whether it is a sentence or not, giving the rea

son.

Children may be required to make sentences of the non-sentence groups.

the

2. The same exercise may be varied by writing groups of words on the blackboard.

3. Let children give groups of words in turn. Other children are to tell whether the given group is a sentence or not, giving reasons.

They may also be required to complete the nonsentence groups.

4. The last exercise may be varied by sending several children to the boards, letting each one write a group of words. Children then study these groups, telling whether they are sentences or not, with reasons.

II (12). Making Original Sentences

The following exercise is designed to test the children's understanding of the sentence unit. You speak a suggestive word, as stories; each child must at once think a complete thought involving the idea of the word given, and, when called upon, express this thought in a sentence.

Accept perfect sentences, giving the reason for your acceptance; reject groups of words that are not sentences, giving the reason for the rejection. The exercise may proceed something like this:

Teacher: Stories.

First Pupil: I like to read stories.

Teacher: I like to read stories is a sentence because it expresses a complete thought.

Second Pupil: Fairy stories.

Teacher: Fairy stories is not a sentence, because it does not express a complete thought. Say something about fairy stories, making a complete sentence.

Second Pupil: Fairy stories are interesting.

After starting the exercise in this way, let the pupils accept or reject the groups of words given, always stating reasons for their acceptance or rejection.

Finally, let the pupils conduct the whole exercise, which may be carried out something like a game, as follows:

A pupil (Mary) gives a word and calls upon another pupil (Helen) for a sentence. If Helen gives a sentence, Mary accepts it, telling why. Then Helen gives a word, calling upon some one (John) to give a sentence.

Should John give only a group of words, Helen rejects it, stating why, and calls upon another pupil (Charles) to make a sentence, using John's group of words.

In these exercises, call for quick responses. Let pupils express the first thought that the given word suggests.

III (12). Sentences: Declarative, Interrogative, and Exclamatory

In the pupils' book the more familiar terms, statement and question, are used in place of declarative sentence and interrogative sentence, respectively.

There is no satisfactory substitute for the term exclamatory sentence.

purposes

The of this section are, first, to enlarge the pupil's conception of the sentence, by introducing sentences other than simple statements; and second, to teach the correct forms of written sentences. To make the matter as clear and simple as possible, the study of the imperative sentence, which is identical in written form either with the simple statement or the exclamatory sentence, is deferred. There are presented, thus, three distinct forms of sentences, readily distinguishable by the endings, the period, the question mark, and the exclamation mark.

Study the exercise with the pupils just as outlined in their book. Insist on correct and complete statements regarding the use of capitals and marks of punctuation.

In addition to the study as outlined, question as follows:

How many of the sixteen sentences are questions?

How do you know?

How many are simple statements?

How do you know?

How many are exclamatory sentences?

Give them by number.

What tells you that these are exclamatory sentences?

Is (3) (or any other number) a statement, a question, or an exclamatory sentence?

What tells you?

IV (15). The Use of Capitals in Titles; Indenting the Paragraph; Studying the Use of Capitals and Marks of Punctuation already Learned

The pupils' book outlines the most effective way to study this lesson. Study with the children, insisting that they note every detail of capitalization and punctuation, accounting for each. The repeated statement of the way each sentence begins and ends, with the reasons, not only makes pupils observant of the correct printed forms, but helps them to form the habit of observing these correct forms in their own writing.

The attention of the pupils is directly called to only one, and that a superficial, characteristic of the paragraph - its indentation. Yet the question, What does the paragraph tell you? marks the beginning of a study of paragraphs that will eventually lead to the understanding of their deeper significance. Of course no mention of this is to be made to the children. You should, however, help them here and in future similar exercises to answer the questions concerning the content of the paragraph in a good paragraph sentence, without using the term. For examples, a good answer to the question, What does the first paragraph of the story of the lion and the rabbit tell? would be:

Once all the horned animals were sent from the woods because one hooked the lion.