USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Norwood > Norwood annual report 1895-1899 > Part 38
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Observation of the forms, such as clouds, fog, mist, rain, dew, frost, snow, and ice, as they occur, and where they occur, to recognize each, and to find the more obvious qualities and uses of each.
WINDS.
Temperature. - To recognize, by feeling, the degrees hot, warm, and cold.
Velocity. - To recognize and distinguish by their effects the calm, breeze, and gale.
The changes perceived to be expressed by oral and written sentences, some copied, some original, and by illustrative sketches original with the children. Recitations of appropriate memory gems. Stories told by the teacher and the children.
DRAWING AND MUSIC.
As directed by special teachers.
NATURE STUDIES.
More extended observation of the animals: homes, cover- ing, movements, eating, and voices. Watch the birds as they come in the spring, recognize them, and write a list of their names with single characteristics.
Observation of common plants: add to the first year's work parts of leaves, parts of fruits, growth of buds and seeds.
Continue collecting and recognizing common minerals.
THIRD YEAR.
LANGUAGE.
Oral Work. - Continue the work upon the choice and use of words.
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Teach the powers of the letters and the spelling of the words used. Add abbreviations, such as those for the months, Rev., P. O., etc.
Lead the pupil to memorize poetry and prose in accord with other subjects.
Teach a simple form of amplification. Write, for exam- ple, on the blackboard some familiar words, as hill, sled, road, horse, sleigh, boy; or dog, meat, stream, plank; and require the pupils to invent stories, using all the words of the list given.
Teach the possessives of plurals both orally and in writ- ing; the use of the comparative and the superlative forms of adjectives ; the common forms of pronouns and the parts of the verbs begin, choose, drink, draw, hang, hide, hear, know, ride, sing, ring, stund, say, think, take, tear, build, burst, dig, set, shine, show, tell, and swim.
Written Work. - Teach the pupil to write words from dictation and to divide them into syllables with the mark of accent; also to write sentences and paragraphs from the teacher's dictation. Explain the principle of paragraphing.
Continue to have the pupil write simple letters, teaching him their various parts, with good forms for each,
Practise writing narrations and descriptions.
Teach the meaning of the surname and the given name, and how to write them.
Teach the use of the hyphen and of quotation marks.
READING.
Use several second readers and one or more easy third readers.
Observe with care the previous directions for introducing new lessons.
Use tlie blackboard for presenting new words and for teaching their meaning before the lesson is read.
All studies will serve for written language lessons; these should be in constant requisition for oral reading.
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Sight reading in silence should form a large part of the pupils' reading. What they can easily understand they should be stimulated to read rapidly.
Attention should be given to what the pupils read outside of their regular class work.
A taste for the reading of good books must be acquired under the direction of the teacher. Hence the school needs a supply of interesting books; with these the teacher must be familiar, that he may advise wisely.
The public library should supplement the school by pro- viding suitable reading for the young, and making it known to the school by a classified graded list giving titles, authors, and library numbers.
Suggestions. - Secure the attention of every member of the class by requiring them to reproduce the substance of the passage read. Require the pupils to read to the class. Arrange the class in the form of a semicircle, that they may all be in the presence of the reader, and may hear the reading to advantage.
Brief familiar talks about the lesson and suggested by it should accompany the reading.
Let pupils read impromptu their own compositions and those of their classmates.
SPELLING.
Follow same course as in First Year; also have much practice on words frequently misspelled, as receive, believe, there, their, which, whose, through, father, ought, aught, color, eight, peace, piece, hail, hale, pain, pane, flower, flour, Tues- day, Wednesday, February. Dictate these words in sen- tences in which the words are correctly used.
Words dictated by the teacher for spelling should be pro- nounced distinctly and but once.
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WRITING. Use Vertical Penmanship, Regular Course, No. 1.
ARITHMETIC.
Steps. - Teach tens to 100. Express by figures.
Teach tens and units to 100. Express by figures.
Teach hundreds, tens, and units to 1,000. Express by figures.
Teach to add and subtract by tens ; by tens and units.
Teach to make multiplication tables to 12 × 12.
Practice adding by twos, threes, fours, etc., to 50 and onward.
Practice subtracting by twos, threes, fours, etc., from 50, etc.
Teach to make and solve easy problems involving meas- ures of length, surface, capacity, time, and values.
Teach fractional parts, especially of divisible numbers.
Give much practice upon special numbers, as 12, 20, 24, 25, 30, 36, 40, 48, 50, 60, 64, 72, 75, 96, 100, 120, 144.
Review fractions of the previous year ; also teacli elevenths, twelfths, fiftieths, and hundredths, with their combinations and expression by figures.
Teach Roman numerals to M.
Practice single column additions, verifying with subtrac- tion. Have much drill on long columns, for accuracy and rapidity.
Teach written addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, numbers not to exceed 1,000.
Use multipliers and divisors not greater than 12.
Teach the tables of liquid and dry measures ; also of long and surface measures.
Pupils should continue to use the measures of length and capacity. They should have much practice in measuring the lengths of objects in and about the schoolhouse, and they
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should be taught to estimate lengths and distances, horizontal and vertical. As fast as the units of measure are learned they should be used in problems. The derived units should be compared with the standard by the pupils. They should find by trial how many of each kind of units make one of the next higher, and then make their own tables.
GEOGRAPHY.
FORMS OF WATER (continued).
Review the work of previous years on clouds, fog, mist, rain, dew, frost, snow, ice, and hail, and lead the pupils as follows : -
To find the times of greatest abundance.
To observe variations in form, size, number.
To find uses of the common forms.
To observe the effects of the sun and wind on the differ- ent forms.
WINDS (continued).
Temperature. - Observation, by feeling, of changes in temperature continued.
Reading the thermometer, placed outdoors, and noticing the gradual changes during each day and each month.
Direction. - Observation of the directions of winds bring- ing heat, cold, rain, snow, etc.
Effects, uses. - Favorable, disastrous ; on land and sea ; to plants, animals, people, buildings, vessels. If possible, give lessons on the life-saving service.
Suggestions. - Keep a weather record on the blackboard. Record children's observations of temperature, direction and velocity of the wind, the form of water prevailing, unusual conditions, etc.
1 Stories or descriptions should be read and told of the temperature and peculiar winds of distant regions and of the
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upper air, of their uses and effects; of the bravery of the life- saving crew ; of the seamen in times of wrecks; of the kind- ness of others to the shipwrecked; of the beauties of the forms of water; of the wonderful work that water does.
Draw and study map of Norwood.
HISTORY AND HYGIENE. (See pages 218 and 223.)
DRAWING AND MUSIC. As directed by special teachers.
NATURE STUDIES.
Continue observations on animals, plants, and minerals.
Language and Suggestions. - Continue drill in oral ex- pression ; originate simple descriptive sentences in answer to questions placed on the board; teach to combine these sen- tences ; encourage mounting and sketching of all parts possi- ble; modeling of fruits and special stems. Let the written work take the form of the language work of the grade; select reading lessons to follow the observation exercise; continue selected stories and their reproduction. The choice of speci- mens will be influenced by the locality, and the order of les- sons will depend somewhat on the season.
FOURTH YEAR.
LANGUAGE.
Oral Work. - Train pupils to utter all spoken words accurately and easily.
Teach some rules for the formation of regular plurals and regular possessives.
Teach the formation of complex and compound sentences.
Train the pupil to give abstracts of stories read and of lessons studied.
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Explain the prefix and the suffix, and give some of the more common prefixes and suffixes.
Teach critically the different forms for the beginning and the end of letters; also the writing of informal notes and replies.
Let there be considerable work in writing from dictation.
The use of the dictionary should be taught and encour- aged.
Use Metcalf's Elementary English :
First Term. - Forty-one lessons.
Second Term. - To Chapter IV., and review.
Third Term. - To Chapter V., and review.
READING.
Third grade readers, with much supplementary reading.
Give much attention to new words, to spelling and phon- ics, to rapid silent reading, to the correlation of reading with other studies, to the reading by pupils of their own composi- tions, and especially to the trend the teacher should give to the pupils' silent reading.
Begin to train pupils to the right use of the dictionary.
Englishı classics, fables, and fairy tales should be freely read by pupils.
Suggestions. -- If the pupils are limited in class reading to single sentences or paragraphs, they will not acquire the power of continuous reading of entire selections in an interest- ing and effective manner, nor will they gain a love for reading.
Each pupil of the class should have an opportunity occa- sionally to read an entire selection to his teacher and to his class.
SPELLING.
The written composition, which should be practiced con- tinuously in connection with each branch of study, will present the occasion for constant exercise in written spelling.
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The course of the previous years will suggest material and methods for this and subsequent years. Oral spelling will continue.
Use readers and other books for vocabulary. Include especially geographical names and names of persons likely to be used by the pupil.
In written spelling direct attention to the use of capitals ; to the apostrophe in possessives; to abbreviations; to words of the same oral form but of different written form, as to, too two; buy, by.
Suggestions. - Words should be written on spelling blanks or in books prepared for the purpose. The blanks and books must be kept clean and neat. The lists may be marked for correction by the teacher, by one or more desig- nated pupils, or by exchanging papers among the class; or each pupil may mark his own spelling, the correct form having been given him by the teacher. Each pupil should correct his own misspelled words; this he may do by spelling them orally or writing them several times.
In oral spelling the word as a whole should be pronounced by the pupil ; the syllabication should be indicated as the word is spelled by pausing or by actually pronouncing each syllable. One advantage of oral spelling is the occasion it presents for training to distinct articulation and enunciation.
Another advantage is the opportunity it affords for the spelling of a large number of words in a short time. The pupil should, therefore, be allowed to try but once ; he should also be required to spell rapidly and without hesitation. For reviews the oral form has great advantage.
The best preparation for a spelling lesson is carefully to write the words.
WRITING.
FOURTH AND FOLLOWING GRADES.
During the remainder of the course carry on the follow- ing work : Copy-book practice, waste paper and composition
+
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exercises, movement exercises in concert, with the aid of the blackboard as well as of paper, to secure the free use of the arm, the hand, and the fingers. Have movements (1) with the hand and the arm as a whole, (2) on four nails, (3) on two nails, (4) with the pencil or the pen inverted, and (5) with the pen in position. Illustrate each movement with exercises at the blackboard and have the class work by count. In such exercises attend first to the movement, secondly to the forms of the letters, and finally to the rapidity. This may be secured by counting more and more rapidly, to quicken the movement. The copy-book work may be without count.
The older pupils should have regular exercises in penman- ship at least twice a week ; the younger pupils oftener.
All should have practice in writing, principally with the pen, at each session. Indeed, every written exercise should be an exercise in penmanship, and no careless writing should pass unnoticed.
Let there be occasional practice in writing sentences and paragraphs from dictation, to test progress.
The pencils and pens used for the writing exercises should be kept by the teacher and distributed at each exercise.
ARITHMETIC.
Write numbers to 1,000,000 and decimals to thousandths.
Steps. - Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and divi- sion of numbers not to exceed 10,000. Multipliers and divisors to two and three places. Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals.
Add in columns United States money, dollars and cents, using the dollar sign and the decimal point. Teach the other fundamental operations as applied to United States money.
Problems may be dictated, or taken by the pupils from books, cards, or blackboard. Continue exercises in mensura- tion, length, area, weight, etc.
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Teach to change fractional numbers to integers and mixed numbers, and the reverse. Change to larger terms and to the smallest.
Teach to combine like and unlike fractions to twelfths, using discs and diagrams to illustrate.
There should be much practice in changing and combin- ing fractions.
Teach reduction of compound denominate numbers and other operations with these numbers.
Teach units of volume; illustrate with diagrams and blocks.
Roman numerals to M.
Suggestions. - To secure independent work and to pre- vent copying assign different examples and problems to differ- ent pupils ; especially require them to make problems.
Blackboard work in arithmetic should not usually be concert work, nor work that has been previously done by the pupils, but instructive and interesting new problems.
Train the pupils to analyze their problems and express the work in detail.
Illustration : If a man has $200, and buys a horse for $75, and a harness for $32, how much money will he have left?
Pupil's work : -
$75 + $32 = $107, the cost of horse and harness.
$200 - $107 = $93, the money he will have left.
GEOGRAPHY.
FORMS OF WATER
(continued).
Regions of cloud and fog ; rain and dew ; frost, snow, ice ; glaciers, icebergs, ice floes.
Imagine the regions by aid of pictures and text. Find uses of the forms in abundance.
Writing, reading, memory gems, imaginative writing, as for previous topics.
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CLIMATE
(continued).
Weather. - Observation of weather conditions, tempera- ture, and moisture. Association of temperature, wind, and form of water.
Seasons. - The months included. Association of tem- perature, wind, and moisture prevailing in each season.
The weather record should be continued.
LAND AND WATER.
Bodies of land : hill, plain, valley, hill range.
Bodies of water : spring, brook, river, pond, lake.
Projections of land : cape, peninsula, isthmus, island,
Projections of water: bay, sea, strait.
The geographical objects which can be seen may be taught by outdoor lessons. For distant objects use pictures and text.
The surface-level or elevated; the hills - direction of slopes ; the slopes - steep or gradual.
The streams - source, bank, branches, mouth, direction and rate of flow, work of streams, wearing, carrying.
The soil -fertile or sterile; where fertile and where sterile.
Ponds, lakes, bays or oceans-the shore projections and indentions ; islands.
The weather - what winds bring heat, cold, rain, snow, moisture, dryness.
Plants and animals of the town - those good for food, shelter, or clothing. Occupations and industries of the town.
Roads, railroads - use of.
Review work of previous grade.
Earth as a whole studied topically.
The continents, with location, and a few important facts.
Rapid sketch map (to be made on blackboard) of each continent studied.
Butler's Elementary Geography to page 46.
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HISTORY AND HYGIENE. (See pages 218 and 223.)
DRAWING, MUSIC, AND SEWING. As directed by special teachers.
NATURE STUDIES.
The study of animals, plants, and minerals.
Language and Suggestions. - Continue all the language work of the previous year in improved form. Make a labelled collection of building stones used in the town ; of samples of soil from different parts; of dry fruits and seeds, showing provisions for protection and distribution. In the fall collect larvæ and cocoons, to be studied as before; in the spring plant seeds in boxes of earth ; describe the growth from time to time. Use a good nature reader for stories, to supplement observa- tion ; also books and cuttings on natural history ; have the stories reproduced orally and in written form.
FIFTH YEAR.
LANGUAGE.
Continue all the lines of work of the preceding years.
Give the pupil practice in studying words of similar mean- ing to find the exact meaning of each. Teach the idea of primitive and derivative words.
Teach the ideas of subject and predicate, of simple and extended subject and of simple and extended predicate ; also the idea of a sentence.
Teach the writing of abstracts from outlines that the pupil makes for himself.
Continue practice in letter writing, and begin the writing of bills of parcels, receipts, orders for goods, etc.
·
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Continue the recitation of selections committed to memory from prose and poetry, with reference to improving the taste, and to cultivating reverence, love of country, love of nature, and admiration of moral courage; and require the pupil to write some of the choicer passages from memory.
Suggestions .- The teacher may be spared much of the labor of correcting compositions by having the pupils criticise them one with another, and by having an occasional exercise written, which shall be thoroughly inspected by the teacher. No exercise of any kind should be accepted which shows a want of painstaking on the pupil's part.
Use Metcalf's Elementary English :
First Term .-- From Chapter V., through Lesson CXIX. Second Term .- Through Lesson CXLII.
Third Term .- Through Lesson CLXIX.
READING.
Read the last half of third readers, with a fourth reader. Introduce much supplementary reading of the same grade, observing the directions of the third and fourth years.
Suggestions .- Allow pupils to criticise the reading. The criticisms should be justly and fairly made, not of unimportant mistakes, such as "left out it," and "put in of," but of some essential excellencies and defects pertaining to distinctness, fluency, quality of voice, force, pitch, expression, etc.
The pupils should be taught how to discover the words requiring special emphasis ; also some rules for emphasis.
SPELLING.
FIFTH YEAR TO END OF COURSE.
Use spelling books, readers, histories, etc. Follow the suggestions for previous years.
Composition exercises in connection with the several branches of school study should be largely relied upon to give the mastery of spelling.
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The method recommended is to spell and review day by day frequently by the oral method, and once a week to have a written review of the more difficult words previously spelled.
Words may be dictated in phrases and in sentences. This may be done to show the meaning of words by their use in the sentences, and also to break up the monotony arising from dictating single words without regard to their construction or use. Sometimes group words belonging to special subjects, as the names of plants, of animals, of minerals, etc.
A pleasing device is to select a word, as scholar, and have the pupils form words from the letters in it - first, words be- ginning with s, then with c, and so on, with time limitations, to insure alertness. Other games of logomachy are susceptible of judicious and profitable use.
Suggestions .- Spelling should be thoroughly taught.
WRITING.
(See Fourth Year.)
ARITHMETIC.
Steps .- Reading and writing numbers to billions, and decimal fractions beyond thousandths.
Fundamental operations thoroughly reviewed, with daily practice to secure rapidity and perfect accuracy.
Continue to use decimal fractions in addition and sub- traction, and in multiplication and division by integers. Divide one sum of money by another.
Addition, subtraction and division of like and unlike frac- tions. Teach the properties and the factoring of numbers with least common multiple.
Teach together multiplication of fractions and compound fractions.
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Continue practical problems in measuring surfaces and in finding contents of rooms, bins, boxes, lumber and piles of wood. Problems from pupils' observations.
Teach percentage - the elementary principles.
Suggestions .- In all work with fractions use small numbers.
Pupils should be required to explain by diagram how to find the area of different forms of surface. Such expressions as " feet by feet gives square feet " should be avoided.
Continue the systematic arithmetical analysis of problems. Drill on aliquot parts of one hundred per cent.
GEOGRAPHY.
North America : United States, British America, and Mexico. Rapid sketch maps of North America, and United States ; also progressive maps of same places.
Butler's Elementary Geography, to page 87, and review.
HISTORY AND HYGIENE.
(See pages 218 and 223.)
DRAWING, MUSIC, AND SEWING.
As directed by special teachers.
NATURE STUDIES.
The study of animals, plants, and minerals (continued).
Language and Suggestions .- Drill on good oral descrip- tion of the facts observed and thoughts derived; written descriptions according to a series of headings ; reading about birds ; sketching bills and toes of birds; trees and their parts, in connection with the written work. Drawing serrate margin and lobed leaves. Collect specimens of minerals and rocks,
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woods and other parts of trees, mounted on cardboard, encour- aging the bringing of any foreign woods and minerals for the school collection.
SIXTH YEAR.
LANGUAGE.
Teach the pupil to distinguish and name the parts of speech and to give the simple analysis of sentences.
Show how facts may be arranged to form a biography.
Give attention to additional business forms, such as letters of application, advertisements, telegrams, and the answers appropriate to each of them.
Choose subjects for written work from all the subjects taught.
Suggestions. - Teach the parts of speech by the use of sentences in which the different parts are constructed : the noun as a word that may be used as subject ; the verb as predi- cate ; the adjective as limiting the meaning of the noun ; the adverb as limiting the meaning of the verb; the preposition as connecting words ; the conjunction as connecting sentences ; the pronoun as used to represent a noun ; the interjection as expressing a strong feeling. Teach other uses of the noun in the sentence.
Aid pupils in arranging written work : if of objects in nature, in the natural order; if of subjects, in a logical order. This suggestion is also applicable to letter writing.
Use Metcalf's Elementary English :
First Term. - From Lesson CLXIX. through Lesson CXCIX., and review.
Second Term. - From Lesson CXCIX. through Lesson CCXXII., and review.
Third Term. - Complete the book, and review.
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READING.
(See suggestions in previous Grades ; also books named in Appendix.)
SPELLING.
(See Fourth Grade.)
WRITING.
(See Fourth Grade.)
ARITHMETIC.
Steps. - Keep up practice in fundamental operations and in such oral work as is found in books on mental arithmetic. Make and have pupils make problems from things studied and observed, and from studies pursued.
Practice making bills and receipts, keeping cash and per- sonal accounts.
Systematize work in common fractions, classifying the operations as follows : -
1. Changes, or reductions.
2. Addition, subtraction, and division of like fractions ; then of unlike fractions.
3. Multiplication of fractions and reduction of com- pound fractions, as identical operations.
4. Division of fractions and reduction of complex frac- tions, as identical operations.
5. Relations of numbers with aliquot parts.
Take up decimal fractions, following the same order as in common fractions, and including the changing of decimals to common fractions and the reverse.
Continue exercises in percentage with the various applica- tions, but without time, changing per cents to fractions and fractions to per cents ; also finding per cents of numbers as fractional parts of them.
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In work in fractions let oral work precede written work throughout. In written work keep the denominators small. Drill on each operation, using a multitude of examples having small numbers.
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