Page:State manual and course of study.djvu/25

 Seat work; —

To aid the pupil in naming words at sight, use sentence builders — cards containing the words written or printed on them. As soon as a word or two can be recognized at sight, the pupil should be required to build the sentences, using separate words on bits of cardboard. Continue building sentences in this way until fifty or a hun- dred words have been taught. This will take from two to three months. The words should be taken from the chart or reader to be used, and it will also be found helpful to lead the child to build words by sound and to give him power to pronounce words he has never seen.

Supplementary Reading : —

Several different readers should, be used so that the same selection may not be read until tiresome. Let every lesson be fresh. Reading “ by turn ” in the class is not advisable. Now is the proper time for teaching such details as position of hands, standing erect, keeping the chin in proper position, etc.

SPELLING.

Method. — The preceding word-building should be the foundation of spelling, and from this point letters, as well as sounds, must be thoroughly taught. If pupils spell before using a reader, let them spell by ear and not by sight. After a reader is taken up, they should spell all the words in each lesson. Below is a suggestive outline. Form lists of words as follows: — [ bat cat fat hat 1 . From at mat pat rat sat vat f fit I lit 3. it-! mit I pit I sit wit 5. et f bet get jet let J me net ])et set we yet f but I cut nu’ rut f ban can Dan fan 2. From an j man pan ran tan i van 4. in ( bin din fin gin pin sin tin ( win ( Ben den fen hen 6. en I ken men pen ten wen 8. un ( bun fun gun nun pun run ^ sun 3