children's thought and feeling about all this material, teach them, by example and direction, how to think clearly and interestingly; they help the children, show them plainly and in detail how to express their thoughts and feelings, both orally and in writing, how to express them clearly and effectively, and in various ways—in letters, stories, fables, and myths, descriptions, directions, and arguments. To all this material and instruction children respond eagerly, even gratefully, because they are given things to do that they like to do, and because they appreciate the help that is given them in doing these things well. The results of this eager and grateful response are the sure appreciation and mastery of the conventional forms of language-capitals, punctuation marks, paragraphs, the acquisition of the habit of using these forms intelligently, and, more important still, the growing desire and power to think clearly, and to speak and write effectively and interestingly. Such are, indeed, the universally sought ends of language teaching. That these ends can really be achieved - and through exercises that make the language period the most natural and interesting instead of the most formal and the driest period in the day - is neither a theory nor a dream; it is a fact that has been accomplished with ever growing success, year after year, with hundreds of children-children of all the PREFACE. varieties usually found in a city school system. The Aldine Language Books have not been made in the study by theorists; they are the outgrowth of more than fifteen years of thoughtfully supervised efforts in scores of classrooms, efforts to teach children to do correctly and well what they can scarcely avoid doing in some way- to think and to feel, and to express their thoughts and feelings through language. The pupils' book, the Aldine Second Language Book, is entirely addressed to the pupil; the language and style of the book is intelligible and interesting to children. In using this book, children learn to study, acquire habits of independent thought and action, which are of more fundamental importance even than a knowledge of language. This book, the Teacher's Manual, is addressed entirely to the teacher. It makes clear not merely the general principles and plans involved in the Aldine method; it gives a wealth of detailed, practical suggestions for making every exercise in the pupils' book fully effective. This Manual provides, moreover, an abundance of interesting material and of suggestions for exercises, that may be used to supplement, as desired, the work provided in the pupils' book. While detailed and explicit, this Manual is anything but a routine, mechanical guide; it is suggestive, informing, stimulating, thought-inspiring, broadening. Both books, the Aldine Second Language Book for pupils, and this book, the Teacher's Manual accompanying the Aldine Second Language Book, are mutually indispensable. No teacher should attempt to use the Aldine Second Language Book with her pupils who is not provided with the Teacher's Manual, and who does not keep the Manual in constant use; and no teacher should attempt to teach from the Manual alone, or with language books other than the Aldine in pupils' hands. SECTION CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE. OBSERVING, THINKING, AND III. Sentences: Declarative, Interrogative, and Exclamatory IV. The Use of Capitals in Titles; Indenting the Paragraph; VII. Writing Declarative, Interrogative, and Exclamatory Sen- tences SECTION CHAPTER FOUR. MEMORY GEMS |