SPECIAL METHOD
IN PRIMARY READING

SPECIAL METHOD

IN

PRIMARY READING AND ORAL
WORK WITH STORIES

BY

CHARLES A. McMURRY, Ph.D.

DIRECTOR OF PRACTICE DEPARTMENT, NORTHERN ILLINOIS
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, DE KALB, ILLINOIS



New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd.
1905

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1903.
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped July, 1903; reprinted
April, 1905.

PREFACE

This book attempts the discussion of two very important problems in primary education. First, the oral work in the handling of stories, and second, the introduction to the art of reading in the earliest school work. The very close relation between the oral work in stories and the exercises in reading in the first three years in school is quite fully explained. The oral work in story-telling has gained a great importance in recent years, but has not received much discussion from writers of books on method.

Following this "Special Method in Primary Reading," a second volume, called the "Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics in the Grades of the Common School," completes the discussion of reading and literature in the intermediate and grammar grades.

Both of the books of Special Method are an application of the ideas discussed in "The Principles of General Method" and "The Method of the Recitation."

Still other volumes of Special Method in Geography, History, and Natural Science furnish the outlines of the courses of study in these subjects, and also a full discussion of the value of the material selected and of the method of treatment.

At the close of each chapter and at the end of the book a somewhat complete graded list of books, for the use of both pupils and teachers, is given. The same plan is followed in all the books of this series, so that teachers may be able to supply themselves with the best helps with as little trouble as possible.

CHARLES A. McMURRY.

CONTENTS

SPECIAL METHOD IN PRIMARY
READING

CHAPTER I

The Reason for Oral Work in Stories

The telling and reading of stories to children in early years, before they have mastered the art of reading, is of such importance as to awaken the serious thought of parents and teachers. To older people it is a source of constant surprise—the attentive interest which children bestow upon stories. Almost any kind of a story will command their wide-awake thought. But the tale which they can fully understand and enjoy has a unique power to concentrate their mental energy. There is an undivided, unalloyed absorption of mind in good stories which augurs well for all phases of later effort. To get children into this habit of undivided mental energy, of singleness of purpose in study, is most promising. In primary grades, the fluttering, scatter-brained truancy of thought is the chronic obstacle to success in study.

The telling or reading of stories to children naturally begins at home, before the little ones are old enough for school. The mother and father, the aunts and uncles, and any older person who delights in children, find true comfort and entertainment in rehearsing the famous stories to children. The Mother Goose, the fables, the fairy tales, the "Arabian Nights," Eugene Field's and Stevenson's poems of child life, the Bible stories, the myths, and some of the old ballads have untold treasures for children. If one has a voice for singing the old melodies, the charm of music intensifies the effect. Little ones quickly memorize what delights them, and not seldom, after two or three readings, children of three and four years will be heard repeating whole poems or large parts of them. The repetition of the songs and stories till they become thoroughly familiar gives them their full educative effect. They become a part of the permanent furniture of the mind. If the things which the children learn in early years have been well selected from the real treasures of the past (of which there is a goodly store), the seeds of true culture have been deeply sown in their affections.

The opportunities of the home for good story-telling are almost boundless. Parents who perceive its worth and are willing to take time for it, find in this early period greater opportunity to mould the lives of children and put them into sympathetic touch with things of beauty and value than at any other time. At this age children are well-nigh wholly at the mercy of their elders. They will take what we give them and take it at its full worth or