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DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

CONDUCTED BY THE

INDIANA ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH WILLIAM N. OTTO

Annual Meeting of Indiana Association of Teachers of English,

Thursday, October 29th.

The fourth annual meeting of The Indiana Association of Teachers of English will be held in Indianapolis on Thursday, October 29th. The association meets on that date upon the invitation of the State Teachers' Association to take the place of the high school section on its program. This should greatly increase the attendance at the meetings, as English teachers from all parts of the state will be in Indianapolis at this time, and the hours. of the meeting will be planned so as not to conflict with those of the state association.

The executive committee has been working for some time upon the program and has been successful in securing speakers who will be unusually interesting and profitable. While there may be some changes and additions before the time of meeting, the program, as arranged so far, is as follows: Date of meeting-Thursday, October 29th.

Place of meeting-Caleb Mills Hall. 9:00 a. m.—Mr. W. D. Lewis, principal of William Penn High School, Philadelphia: "The Domination of the High School by the College."

10:00 a. m.-Prof. James Fleming Hosic, head of the Department of English, Chicago Teachers' College and secretary of the National Council of Teachers of English: "Minimum Es

sentials in English in the Grades and in the High Schools."

11:00 a. m.-Round Table Discussion.

1:30 p. m.-Professor Hosic: "The Separation of the Teaching of Literature and Composition in the High School and in the Upper Grades."

2:30 p. m.-Round Table Discussion.

4:00 p. m.-Business meeting. Election of officers and reports of commit

tees.

6:30 p. m.-Annual Dinner. Speakers: Dr. Kelly, president Earlham College, "Bible Study in the High School." Mr. James Stuart, news editor of The Indianapolis Star, "Newspaper English.”

All teachers of English in Indianaelementary, high school, college, and university-are eligible to membership. The purpose of the organization is to promote the more effective teaching of English throughout the state, to arouse greater public interest in the work and to encourage good fellowship among all English teachers by bringing them together in the study of common problems. The Indiana association is affiliated with the National Council of English Teachers and has contributed material to the important investigations conducted by that body and the United States Department of Education. English teachers in all parts of the State should plan now to attend these meetings.

A PROFITABLE ENGLISH

CONFERENCE.

By Margaret Burnside, Teacher of English, M. T. H. S., Indianapolis.

In connection with the opening of schools, all of the teachers of English in the Indianapolis public school system met in a conference to discuss topics of common interest, with an idea of bringing the high school and grade school teachers together. The results were so profitable that the plan seems worth trying in other places. So much valuable material was brought out in the discussion that I have been asked to make a brief summary of the thought of the various speakers.

In discussing, "One Good Way of Securing Self-direction in Reading," Mr. E. H. K. McComb, head of the English Department of Manual Training High School, emphasized the importance of the definite assignment in intensive reading. In order to give this definiteness, the teacher must first prepare each assignment carefully; then, in presenting it to the class, the main points in the lesson should be clearly indicated, so that the child will not waste time in trying to make discriminations, or being unable to do that, attempt to emphasize all points equally in his mind. Also, in each assignment, stimulating suggestions should be given. How lacking in inspiration is the assignment, "Look up the meaning of all the words you do not know in tomorrow's lesson." How much better results would be obtained from the suggestion, "Find the words in the description of 'The Country Church,' by Irving, that make you see the picture." The assignment might take the form of a problem, which would inspire the pu

pils to read in order to solve it. If the child knows definitely what to do, and has had some live suggestions concerning how to do it, he will go at his lesson with zest, and bring to the classroom something worth hearing.

Mrs. Rosa Mikels, of Shortridge High School, in discussing the same subject, said that the majority of the reading public select books for one of the following reasons: First, because of the proximity of the reading matter; second, on account of the general attractiveness in appearance; third, because the book or the magazine is suggested by a friend. In order, therefore, to develop in our children the desire to read good books; in order to teach. them to love healthy and moral stories, instead of unhealthy and immoral ones; in order to make them know what reading is intelligent or artistic, the reading matter must be presented to them so that it will make the above appeal. The ideal way would be, of course, to turn them loose in a well-assorted library, to let them talk to people who have read these books, and to allow them to handle and use the books as they please. please. They would, in most cases, discover the good writers and learn to love the best literature. But as this is impossible in a great majority of cases, a substitute must be found in the school-room. First, in every class-room there should be many good books which the children will feel free to read when they please. This would reach a large number who are held back by the difficulties of getting library books. Second, these books in the class rooms should be as attractive as possible in binding, pictures, print, etc. Third, suggestions concerning these books or other good ones should be made by the

teacher so skillfully that the children would hardly realize the suggestion was being made. For example, a teacher might suggest that she thoroughly enjoyed reading a certain book, or she might read an attractive passage or chapter from some book, thus creating curiosity in the children's minds. Such an appeal would certainly bear results.

Miss Eunice Johnson reported securing good results in extensive reading in the seventh and eighth grades by a well-directed use of the library. The main library, branch libraries, and a school library were all accessible. At the beginning of the term, visits were made to the main library by the teacher and small groups of children. The librarians were very kind in explaining the use of the card catalogue, the reference library, the reading rooms, and the processes of securing library cards. and procuring books to take home to read. Thus the children became familiar at the beginning of the term with. the library, and, therefore, read many books that they otherwise would not have been able to obtain. There were many interesting talks in the classroom about these visits, and the subsequent visits of individual children.

Miss Katherine Johnson, a teacher in the intermediate grades, brought out the importance of teaching reading by grouping. In the two main factors of reading, getting the thought and giving it to others, it is very important for the child to get the picture. The grouping of words in the sentence enables the reader to do these two things. Many children read glibly but do not understand what they read. Grouping overcomes this. If the child is reading about, "the little brown house," and has only grasped the idea "house," the

question, "In what kind of a house did John live?" will bring the answer, "a little brown house," and thus teach the child to get the picture. There are various ways of teaching the child to see three or four words at a time. A few words written quickly on the blackboard and erased, will stimulate the child to see and remember. Words in groups may be on the blackboard covered with a chart. The chart may be removed, the child given a moment to see the words, then the chart replaced. Questions, such as the one given above, may be asked about the reading lesson. As the answers to such questions must necessarily be groups of words, the child is being trained to get the thought and give it to others.

The second subject under discussion in this Round Table Meeting was, "One Good Way of Securing Interest in Composition Work." In dealing with this topic, Miss Anna Brochhausen, a supervisor in the Indianapolis schools, began with a consideration of the question, "Why do so many of our pupils dislike to write compositions, when a child naturally likes to express his thoughts?" One child dislikes to take an excursion to the woods, because he will be asked to write about it when he returns. Another decides to leave his flowers at home, because he will have to talk about them if he takes them to his teacher. And many dread to go back to school after vacation, because they will have to tell about what they have been doing when they have been doing nothing interesting. Miss Brochhausen thinks this attitude is the result of the fact that the teacher insists on the pupil's telling these things in the teacher's way, instead of allowing him to tell them in his own way.

If he is given this freedom, he will enjoy telling his classmates and his teachers about all that he does as spontaneously as he tells his mother how he won the game for his ball team. Dramatization is one of the best ways to obtain this spontaneous expression in the school-room, and yet even in this work the teacher is prone to suggest all the stage-settings and the action, instead of letting the child interpret these things in his own way and thus get real joy in expressing his ideas.

Miss Margaret McLaughlin showed how a slow freshman class in high school was helped to do better work by being given a motive for each phase of the work. Even in the weakest pupils there are ideas that are worth while if they can be discovered. In the study of Irving's "Sketch Book" the thought of the class was constantly directed toward their own experience. The dullest boy had something in common with "the angler," and all had felt the joys and had some experience of the Christmas festival.

In Miss Mary E. Pasho's experience with children of about ten years, she had been impressed with the important fact that a child can not be expected to write freely on a subject about which he has no ideas, and that he can not always write about a subject which he does know, unless the teacher suggests to him the various phases of the subject that may be talked about. There are occasions when it is profitable to let the child write from his own limited information, so that the teacher may find out how little he knows, and thus be able to give him the necessary help. But if the teacher expects a real composition, she will have to throw out many sug

gestions, bring out many points of association, in short, start the child's train of thought, so that he will feel from the outset that he knows what to say. Not that he is to imitate, or return, parrot-like, the words of the teacher, but that from the intelligent remarks and suggestions of the teacher he will realize that he is full of his subject, and write about it because he has something to say. If the subject matter of the composition is adapted to the child's age and development and if he has received from the teacher suggestions which will bring to his mind the things he knows about the subject, the results will be satisfactory.

The practical side of English was brought out in Miss Myrtle Gillespie's talk. Because English is practical, because it is used in all phases and conditions of life, she believes it can be taught best by the practical method, by linking it with real life, by correlating it with all the other subjects of the curriculum-geography, history, art, mathematics, sewing, etc. To prove this, she told of some interesting composition lessons which grew out of the sewing work. The children became deeply interested in the process by which the materials they were using had been made. The English teacher recognized at once a chance for some live work in gathering information in a practical way for composition work. The class began the study of cotton. They planted some and watched it grow and recorded the information in individual books procured for the purpose. They studied the geography of the localities where cotton is raised, learned the history of the invention of the cotton-gin and the machinery for making the cloth, and visited factories

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October 29-31.

State Teachers' Association.

The State Association program will be worth all that it costs any teacher.

Have you marked Oct. 29-31 on your calendar? Remember the State Teachers' Association.

Are all arrangements completed for your attendance at the State Teachers' meeting? Do not delay.

We hear of "bumper" wheat crops, "bumper" corn crops, etc. There will be a "bumper" attendance at the State Association if every teacher does his duty.

October is the ideal month for such

a great meeting as that of the teachers of our progressive commonwealth.

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