ALDINE LANGUAGE METHOD PART TWO CHAPTER ONE OBSERVING, THINKING, AND EXPRESSING *I (1). Observing and Thinking THE two stories, The Simple Traveler and The Sailor's Story, which open this first chapter of the pupils' book, are designed to serve two purposes. First, they provide interesting material for free class discussion. Let this discussion be free; encourage every child to take part and to speak as he thinks and feels. This will not only cultivate the pupils' powers of expression; it will give you an opportunity to begin that intimate acquaintance which you must make as soon as possible with each child if you would * Each section of each chapter of this Manual marked with a Roman numeral refers to the section identically marked in the corresponding chapter of the pupils' book, the Aldine Second Language Book. The number in the parenthesis following the Roman numeral in this Manual indicates the page in the pupils' book on which the corresponding section may be found. The titles given to corresponding sections in the Manual and in the pupils' book are not always the same. A section should be considered a unit rather than a lesson. No section will require less than a lesson period; some may require several lesson periods, depending upon circumstances. teach him most successfully. In this very first exercise you may begin to get a sympathetic insight into the mind, the heart, the soul, the individual self, of many of your pupils, as well as learn something of each one's powers of oral expression. What are the mental furnishings; what is the content, the scope, the character, of the ideas of each child? What has been the character and range of each one's experience? What is each one's attitude and characteristic reaction toward the principal conditions and facts with which he is surrounded - the school and its varied work, his home, his companions, his classmates, nature? Such questions as these search the sources of all the content that language can express. You must learn the answers to these questions as directed to each child, if you would teach each child anything more than mere language forms, if you would teach each child to get, to organize, and to express effectively, as well as in correct language form, his own thought and life. Secondly, the point of these introductory stories, which should be brought out clearly and emphasized in the free discussion, should be made to contribute to one of the most important lessons that any pupil of any age has to learn the importance of thorough investigation, careful observation, and expression suited to the facts. Read and study the stories with the children. Direct them in the preparation of the oral description TEACHING TO DESCRIBE 3 of a mountain lake which each one is to prepare for the next exercise. Let your directions be suggestive rather than prescriptive so as to encourage individuality in the descriptions. II (4). Teaching to Describe I. This exercise should begin with the children's effort to describe a mountain lake. To aid in making this exercise a success, you should be prepared, if possible, with several good pictures of mountain lakes. You may not need to use them, should the children respond successfully to the suggestion in their book that they bring such pictures to school; but it will not be safe to rely on the children for this. Pictures are absolutely necessary to the child who has had no direct experience of a mountain lake; they will prove important aids to every child in refreshing and enriching the ideas of his experience. In this exercise try to have each pupil describe a mountain lake as he pictures it in his own mind, whether his picture be the result of his direct experience, of pictures that he has seen, of what he has read or heard, or of a combination of all these, matters little. To give concreteness and vividness to the descriptions, let each child impersonate a boy who sets out like the Simple Traveler. Continue the children's descriptions of lakes only so long as you can get variety and individuality in the descriptions. When the variety of content of this subject has been exhausted, or when children begin to repeat from memory descriptions that have preceded, it is time to change the exercise. 2. On a table or desk in front of the class place, without orderly arrangement, several books. If possible, let there be more than one of a given color, shape, and size; more than one treating of the same subject. The exercise consists in the effort, on the one hand, to describe a book so definitely and accurately that one following the description cannot fail to recognize the book, and, on the other hand, in following a description exactly,as far as it leads and no farther. The exercise may be made effective and interesting if carried out something like this. Let Tom be called upon to describe a book on the table. Perhaps a conversation like this will follow: Tom: John, bring me the big red book. John: There are two books that are big and red. Tom: Bring me the red book with gold letters on the back. John (Brings a book.) If Tom accepts the book that John brings, showing that he is satisfied, some one may object. If the objector is right, the exercise may continue somewhat as follows: Harry: That is not right. There are two more red books with gold letters on the back. |