Language work in elementary schools

Preface

This book is offered to the educational public in the hope that it may assist teachers in our elementary schools to do more effective language work. For several years the author has taught classes in language methods in a normal school, and this book contains much of the matter that is presented to these classes. Many excellent textbooks in language are on the market, but no work that treats for the teacher's benefit all the approved forms of oral and written language work for all the eight grades has as yet appeared. Such a work the author intends this to be.

In the preparation of the matter on the following pages the author has not depended entirely on his own experience and investigations. He has had the active assistance of the supervisor and critic teachers of the training school of the Western Kentucky State Normal School. The discussions of the work in each grade have been criticized by some member of this staff of teachers, and the supervisor has read the entire manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions. For this service thanks are due to Miss Laura A. Frazee, former supervisor, and Misses Belle Caffee, Sue Proctor, Ella Jeffries, Lucie Holman, Nellie Birdsong, Nell Moorman, and Laura McKenzie, critic teachers. Thanks are also due to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, Houghton Mifflin Company, E. P. Dutton & Company, D. Appleton and Company, Little, Brown, and Company, and David McKay for permission to use certain poems, which appear in Appendix B, as material for memorizing work.

M. A. LEIPER Bowling Green, Kentucky

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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress

Contents

PAGE

Language Work by Grades

Language Work in Rural Schools 215