Ella L Kelly Teaching Notebook

Notice rising and falling and cadence. All this is done during Third Reader work. Try to get the same flexibility of voice as when we talk. Strive for this. Inflection depends on interest. If you feel that you are getting angry lower your voice. Voice reacts on the feelings. We all need to train ourselves to read smoothly and with flexibility. Nine tenths of all our reading in after life is silent reading. There should be some way to train pupils to good habits of silent reading. A good reader can understand better by reading aloud. All should strive to read equally well both ways.

Reading 1. Eye training 2. Voice training 3. Mind training - Thought, Feeling

The first is never lost sight of but is most prominent in the First Reader.

Reading to be felt implies instruction in modulation and expression. There are certain natural ways of expression. Language of our feelings is a natural language. An actor must have a flexible countenance. Teach feeling by contrast. Take a pathetic piece and one of powerful description. Read one with the other. Select fragments of good pieces, read them in concert, and then alone. Be sure that you can read them yourself. Practice. Do not get tired. We tire of thought but not of feeling. Take pains to select something stirring, soft, plaintive or narrative. Have vocal exercises every day. Pupils need the preliminary thought. Let the pupil read the whole thing. Work it up naturally. No person can take the thought out of the middle of a selection. Again many persons can read a sentence but not read a whole selection. By reading all they secure more animation. It is better to read six verses in one day than to read one verse every day for six days. Reading should be a pleasant and profitable exercise. Ask questions. Encourage them,

and read over again if not satisfactory at first. Read it to make one feel a little. Do not give too many pathetic pieces. As much morality in ha ha as in boo boo.

Readering: Narration of events, (in animated tone) Description of a thing (long pauses and steadily) Essays to teach Oration Poetry

Children always choose poetry. They like it for the cadence and easy jingle. Some of the best literature is in poetry. Children get into the habit of singing it. Read poetry like poetry. It should not be sung or scanned. Best way to break him of singsong is to let him scan. Observe the poetic pause. Avoid reading like prose.

A person is a good speller when he can spell the words he needs to write. Therefore a child may be a good speller at six, seven or eight years of age. Let the child learn the words as soon as he uses them. Much time is wasted by not teaching them right at first. When making out a list of words ask this question. "Are the pupils likely to use these words." If not scratch them out. Spelling: Most spelling is done from the point of the pen or pencil and not from the tip of the tongue. The image of the word should be fixed on the mind. Nearly everyone spells by looks of words and not by sound. So we should fix the attention on the looks of the words and then reproduce it. Begin with the simplest words. Bad spelling is fault of teacher and not of pupil. Train to close habits of observation. Main part of work done in the first year. Never let a pupil miss a word if you can help it. If he is in doubt about it, let him look at the word and many words there is no need of knowing how to spell. No use of all geographical names in lessons. Give them the words they

use every day such as each, every and enough. If he knows a list of four hundred words it will be discipline and he will also know many more. Study with pencil in hand write them on the slate. Also have them spell orally, by sound, and spell lively too. Get the pupil to copy accurately. A smart pupil, when six years old, knows about three hundred words. Some of these are the meanest words in the language. Do not trouble about the easy words but go after those which need hard study. Have them studied. Make out a list. Tell pupils to see if they can find the words in the reader. Be ready to spell these words which are like or unlike. many, marry. where, there Take words which look different such as to, too, two. The word one. Can you think of any word which look is pronounced like it. Numb, thumb, lamb. Send pupils off on a crusade. Find words which sound alike but don't look alike. Do not be dry and stupid. Be diligent and get work done before