Ella L Kelly Teaching Notebook

call out the Second Reader classes. Now one or more will look over their shoulders and say. This one or that one belongs in our class. Different answers will be given. Look at the record. Parents will be down on you if you put them back. So ask them to read in the book which they have. They will get stopped on some word perhaps. What did you call this word when you studied the lesson? Do not help him in the least. He will finally be willing to go back a little. Be rigid in a kindly way. Have pupils call every word right at sight. Demand good lessons and you will get them. Study the lesson yourself and try it. If a word in the lesson is not known let them stop. Let them you will hear the lesson when they have studied it. If they will not study make it so uncomfortable that they will like to. All this takes time. Let him read in any book in which he can prepare his lesson. Nearly all studying is reading. Pupils who only read in school are never good readers. A few books as stock in trade is a very good thing. They do not like to

read stories because it is hard to pronounce. Give them drill. Pronounce up & down, backwards and forwards, up and down the middle. Many children have nothing at home. A good teacher will be provided with books suitable for children.

Three Rules for Reading 1. Read so as to be heard. 2. Read so as to be understood. 3. Read so as to be felt.

The first covers enunciation, articulation and pronunciation. The second comprises emphasis and inflection. The third comprises expression and modulation. Many do not get culture enough to read the different phases of feeling. The best readers do not get much above 80% of what they read. Most of us get about 50% of what we read. If we hear a good reading at an entertainment we generally wish to go right away and read it again. We should try to see Shakespeare well acted. A great portion of culture comes from reading many times. Make pupils read the sense. If a child really has the thought

he must express it well. In Second Reader have pupils learn diacritical marks, articulation and voice culture. A large portion of the reading books are good only for word training. Take the story of "Willie and his dog Bounce". Read the sentences in different ways and decide which way says it the best. Get them to commence to appreciate shades of meaning early. Pauses: Pauses have nothing to do with reading. They are put in by grammarians to determine sense. If a pupil is too lazy to get the sense in any other way let him use the pauses. Do not let them be fettered with pauses. While they should observe them they should not use them. If there is any lesson which has to be studied it is the reading lesson. He who gets the pupil to read most is the best teacher. Most teachers can not read well and therefore can not train pupils. We should study every reading lesson in all reading classes. Many pieces it will not pay to read. A type of the reading we should try to get is seen when a boy takes his book home and

brothers, sisters and all listen. It does not mean "to make up faces and holler." Train them to read well at home. Reading is worse taught than any other subject. The principal thing is the reading of the thought. Speak or read so that he can be understood. We are not critical enough. Try to become good readers for the children. Listen to children at play. Notice their natural ways of speaking and expression. Penmanship and drawing are the most wearing and after them is reading. It ought to be the most delightful study. If going off to teach invest fifty or sixty cents in different kinds of Readers. Have them new and fresh. Tell them to bring in stories. If they call words wrong make them sit. Read it if you can do so understandingly. Rest of pupils and teacher with closed books. Now, who can read it better? Can you change it any way? If they can read well select something a little harder. If it is already hard take the easiest piece in the book and let them

read it. After the introduction of new readers there were many rules for inflection and emphasis. It is best to deduce these rules from the use of language. By the sense is the best way to tell "Ladies and Gentlemen!" "Mr. President!" It is not polite or refined to address a person with the falling inflection. Best actors and orators carefully study for weeks the character they wish to act out. We should always have examples so read that they can be understood. Read it until it states clearly the sense. When a pupil reads well he learns easily. Get them to read. When they are sixteen years old they should have read fifty or sixty good books. Most book sellers report the sale of trashy kinds of reading. Schools should lift pupils above this low plane. Be prepared to guide children. Give them a stimulus.

Give sentences to show emphasis. Keep doing it. Also see if they can change their voices. Take five minutes every day for an exercise of this kind.