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is read

(a) By properly studying the specimens or objects about which he is to read.

(b) By performing experiments relating to the subject.

(c) By hearing stories which the teacher or classmate may relat pertaining to the subject of the lesson.

The reading work should result in true language-training. Few children talk easily and well, because they are not properly trained to associate ideas with words, or to fit words to ideas.

After the child has gained an idea, the next thing for him to do is to find for it an appropriate expression. The teacher must help him to do this; must give him the right word; the correct idiom. The child's vocabulary is increased by the many new terms which are given him in connection with the facts studied. Not only are the new words found in the text learned, but many synonyms of these words that are within the child's comprehension are also learned. This new vocabulary becomes familiar and flexible by the use he makes of it in telling what he sees.

In the observation work the child must not only be trained to discover facts, but he must be trained to see the facts in their true relations.

In examining things he must be trained to see the relation which one part bears to another part. In expressing his thoughts he must put the parts in proper relation. By this means he becomes acquainted with the idiom necessary for such expression. This is the very best type of language-training.

Before the child can understand the thought expressed in the complex sentences used so freely in Third Reader text he must see the relation of parts of subjects about which he is to read.

Nature studies furnish the best possible subjects for seeing such relations.

In talking, the child must be trained to use the idiom and the

complex sentences so necessary to correct. English expression

By this training the child understands that he must get the thought before he can give it.

Each poem should be made the basis of several talking lessons and original reading exercises, after which they may be memorized.

In this grade the pupils should be trained to transform these poems; i.e., express in good prose the exact thought of the poem with nothing added, nothing omitted.

The purpose of this book may be summarized as follows: 1. To train the child

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(a) To observe with care and to think about what he sees. (b) To express in good English the facts and relations discovered.

(c) To read matter written and printed expressing these facts and relations.

(d) To read the world about him as well as books. To see the beauties which are hidden there, thereby increasing his power for enjoyment, his love for the true, the beautiful, and the good.

(e) To form the habit of looking for the thought expressed in every sentence he reads before he attempts to give it orally, thus leading him to feel that he reads for the purpose of getting thought or of giving thought.

2. To develop in the child a love for reading.

3. To train the hand to represent what the eye sees.

In addition to the work for word-building suggested in preceding books, the diacritical marks should be taught preparatory to using the dictionary.

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6. Watching the Buds open.. 69 12. As Brave as Mice......
7. The Parts of a Flower.... 72 13. The Field Mouse..

8. The Corolla and the Calyx. 75 14. The Rat....

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N

ATURE, the old nurse, took

The child upon her knee,

Saying, "Here is a story book

Thy Father hath written for thee.

"Come wander with me," she said, "Into regions yet untrod,

And read what is still unread

In the manuscripts of God."

LONGFELLOW, Birthday Poem to Agassiz.

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