E

VERY elementary school teacher is famil

iar with the fact that the methods and

aims; namely, to master the mechanics of reading, to develop habits of effective oral reading, and to cultivate the appreciation of good literature. All of these aims are important. When instruction is limited to them, however, other important phases may be neglected.

In the type of teaching described attention during reading periods was directed largely to accuracy of word recognition, to reading aloud, and to the study of literary selections usually chosen in conformity with adult standards.

TE

content of teaching reading are changing rapidly. These reforms may be attributed to changing social needs, to the enrichment of school curriculums, and to the results of hundreds of scientific studies of reading made during recent years. It should not be thought, however, that uniform changes have been made in the methods and content of reading in all schools. As a matter of fact, many different methods of improving the teaching of reading have been tried in the United States. It is the purpose of this article to describe six types of teaching that are illustrated in current practice. The characteristics of these types are in some cases much alike and the examples presented do not illustrate all of the methods in use. They serve here, however, to focus attention on significant tendencies in the teaching of reading and to suggest important problems which teachers should study carefully.

Traditional methods of teaching reading.It will be helpful at the beginning of this discussion to recall some of the methods of teaching which were widely used in the past. As a rule, instruction in reading was given only during the reading period. Reading was thus sharply set off from the other subjects in which opportunities are always present for valuable instruction in methods of interpreting and using the content of the printed page. The material provided in the special reading class was largely limited to that found in a basal set of readers, in a small number of supplementary readers, and in a few library books. As a result, pupils secured a very limited range of experience through reading during the reading period. Both the content and the methods of teaching reading were controlled by three

Classwork proceeded from day to day with little or no variation. Supplementary readers were used for practically the same purposes as the basal readers. Each class met

as a unit, there being little or no differentiation of instruction to meet individual needs and interests. Teachers who taught in the way described usually assumed that the training given during the reading period developed all the reading attitudes, habits, and skills needed by the pupils in the various reading activities in which they engage. As will be shown later, such a program fails to provide adequately for the reading needs of pupils today. Furthermore, this type of teaching reading is at variance in most particulars with the procedures suggested by the results of scientific studies of reading.

A rich and varied program of activities during the reading period.-A second type of teaching reading teaching reading is illustrated in classrooms which provide an enriched program of activities during the reading period. The chief aims in teaching reading in these cases are to give children rich and varied experiences through reading, to stimulate good thinking, to arouse strong motives for and permanent interest in reading, and to provide for the economical and orderly development of essential reading attitudes, habits, and skills. The

use of a basal set of readers is supplemented by the use of a variety of books, such as "story books," "silent readers," "study readers,' "dramatic readers," and library books for group and independent reading.

Instead of a uniform program throughout a week or a month, the reading activities vary from day to day to serve different purposes, such as to find specific information, to enjoy an interesting story, to inform or entertain others, or to develop accuracy and independence in word recognition. The content and methods are adapted daily to meet individual needs that are caused by differences in previous training and experience and in capacity to learn. Furthermore, much greater attention is given to silent reading than was formerly true. Oral reading is limited largely to audience situations, in which real motives for reading to others stimulate the reader to do his best, and to special occasions when children strive to improve their performance under guidance and in the light of definite standards. Interest and appreciation are thus aroused through wide reading of various interesting types of material rather than through intensive study and oral reading.

It is apparent that this type of teaching is in many respects superior to what was called the traditional type. It marks the beginning of a series of reforms of large significance, but as will be shown later, it is an incomplete type. Many other changes are necessary in order to raise reading instruction to a high level of efficiency.

Wide reading in all school activities-A third type of teaching reading is found in many schools which supplement a rich program of activities during the reading period, with opportunities for wide reading in the content subjects and in a special literature period. School libraries or classroom libraries, provided independently or through the active cooperation of public libraries, are essential in this type of teaching. What is done in the reading period is closely correlated with the training undertaken in class dealing with other subjects. For example, construction lessons and excursions often provide the material on which simple, valuable reading lessons are based. Interest is aroused during the story hour or language period in selections or poems which are later read and enjoyed during the reading period. Furthermore, topics discussed in recitations devoted to content subjects, such as "Life in

Holland," are made the basis of many interesting lessons during the reading period.

Reading when thus developed into a very general activity plays an increasingly important role in the life of boys and girls and in the enrichment of their experiences and interests both in and out of school. Even in the kin

dergarten and in the first grade it becomes something more than a formal exercise. It is introduced in the primary grades in the form of blackboard lessons, mimeographed material, and simple, interesting books. Many opportunities for reading are provided in the middle and upper grades, including a rich variety of books of a recreational character or designed to promote purely individual interests. Reading material of varying levels of difficulty are provided for each class in order to meet the needs of pupils who differ widely in reading achievement. Many interesting, attractive library books which pupils may read independently are provided in all classrooms. Magazines and newspapers are kept on the library tables in the middle and upper grades, from contact with which pupils may acquire interest in current events and in discussions of important social issues. The distinguishing aim of this third type of instruction is to supplement the activities of the reading period with opportunity to read much simple, interesting reading material relating to all the child's interests both in and out of school. It is obvious that instruction of the type described is far more valuable than that provided at either of the levels previously described in this article.

Systematic guidance in the development of appropriate reading attitudes, habits, and skills that involve reading.-A fourth type of instruction in reading is illustrated by the activities of teachers who recognize that specific guidance and training in habits of reading are necessary in order to develop complete mastery of the different kinds of activities essential in the various situations in which reading is employed. Some of the chief differences between this and the preceding type of instruction may be illustrated by means of a

contrast.

operation of more than twenty schools, it was

In a recent study which included the co

found that about one-third of the schools were provided with an ample variety of reading materials for use in the various school subjects and were profiting from many of the advantages which attach to the use of such materials. However, the teachers in these schools,

which were alike in their provision of abundant material, had adopted two radically different plans of guidance and training. Some of the teachers cultivated, during the reading period, only the attitudes, habits, and skills required in the study of literary selections. They assumed that little or no direction of reading activities was necessary when pupils tried to read for information in non-literary fields. Consequently the pupils made use of inappropriate habits or cultivated careless and inaccurate ways of reading which had to be corrected later.

A second group of teachers recognized that systematic training and guidance were needed in the different reading situations. Accordingly they made detailed studies to determine the reading and study habits needed in each subject involving reading. Some of the attitudes and habits common to several subjects were made the basis of specific training during the reading period. Other attitudes and habits peculiar to a given subject were emphasized in connection with the reading situations in which they naturally appeared. Frequent tests were given to determine both general reading achievement and efficiency in reading for specific purposes in content subjects. The results showed marked improvement in all the different types of reading and an absence of that confusion and inefficiency which appears when pupils do not know how to adapt their reading to different types of material. The provision of opportunity to read widely in all school activities is a distinct step forward, but the systematic development of appropriate habits and skills suited to the different kinds of

material read is an essential step of the greatest significance.

Organizing teaching in large, interesting units. A fifth type of teaching is illustrated in the better schools of our country, in which the materials read are organized around large, interesting problems or topics. The nature of such units is suggested by the following titles: "Mother Goose and Her Family," in the first grade reading class; "The History of Chicago," in a third-grade community-life class; "Why Japan is the Britain of the Orient," in a fifthgrade geography class; and "The Characteristics of a Real Patriot," in a seventh-grade literature class. These units are in striking contrast, both in breadth and variety of content and in organization, to the unrelated selec

tions in readers and to the page by page assignment in textbooks used in content subjects. Furthermore, such units encourage the cultivation of habits of coherent thinking and they stimulate good habits of reading. The fact should now be apparent that teachers often face the obligation of reorganizing the materials of instruction in order to raise instruction in reading to a high level of efficiency.

Provision of wide opportunity for independent reading and study. A sixth level of teaching is illustrated in those schools which provide pupils opportunity to read widely for recreation and to engage in independent reading and study. The one type of reading is provided by schools which permit pupils to go regularly to the reading table or the library primarily to satisfy interest and to derive pleasure and satisfaction. The second type is provided by teachers who encourage pupils as early as the third and fourth grades to select problems for individual study and investigation and to prepare coherent with such reports, guidance from the teachers as may be necessary. These opportunities insure the establishment of permanent habits of reading and the cultivation of efficient habits in independent reading projects.

The types of teaching described form a series of standards by which a teacher may measure the efficiency of her instruction in reading. It is impossible to change at once from the first to the sixth type, incorporating into the teaching all of the advantages of the intermediate types. Familiarity with these six types of teaching should, however, serve to stimulate teachers to improve the efficiency of their instruction in reading as rapidly as possible.

B

RETON'S picture "The Song of the Lark" asks you to hear the song of a bird; Millet's picture invites you to hear the sound of a bell.

Of course you have heard bells ringing a school bell, a fire bell, a church bell. Did you ever hear the bell of a country meetinghouse, at nine o'clock on a quiet Sabbath morning, calling people to prepare for the service? The tones, softened by the distance, echo over the wide landscape and come to the ear as enchanting music of unearthly sweetness.

make us stop and think too. The day's work is finished, they were just ready to go homethe barrow loaded for the man to wheel, the basket ready for the woman to carry-when they heard the bell. Instantly the man moved his cap, the woman folded her hands, and they bowed their heads in prayer.

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In the original painting a great flock of birds darkens the sky above the woman's head. "Our heavenly Father feedeth them," you remember; will he not care for his children who are "of more value than many sparrows?"

In Brittany, where Millet lived, the church bells call people to evening prayer just after sunset. Wherever they are, whatever they are doing, the devout folk stop work, bow their heads, and thank God for another day's work done and another night's rest to come.

Millet saw all that as something beautiful and right, and wanted everybody else to see it that way; so he painted this picture. The distant church spire, the broad fields, the two peasants standing reverently in the foreground, as they hear the music of the distant bell,

Has he not blessed the field with its harvest? Is it not right to return thanks? Should we not all take time to do that every day?

And the glory of the sunset floods everything with its soft radiance, giving a touch of beauty to the most commonplace things, gilding the sack of potatoes, the basket, even the wooden shoes of the tired feet. How beautiful it all is as lovely as the sound of the Angelus itself. It is as beautiful as the sheltering wings and the silvery tones of an angel from heaven, blessing the pure in heart.

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THAT is the idea of rhythm? What is its value in the education and development of a child? How may it be made a part of all grade subjects, and not only of music and physical education?" This question was asked by a grade school principal, a woman who believes that rhythm training and appreciation is of vital importance to a grade school child, and that because it does affect his whole life great emphasis should be given to it in the early years. "A rhythmic life is necessarily a happy life." Toward this end all of the early education of the child should be directed.

Rhythm cannot be isolated as an individual unit and be so recognized. There is rhythm everywhere, in everything, and even though we speak of it in a rather definite way, it must be felt or sensed, or it cannot be understood at all. You are familiar with the simple illustrations of rhythm in nature—the coming and going of the seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, the steady flow of great rivers. On a beautiful spring morning you experience a feeling of harmony, of gladness, of the beauty of all things. One studies the human body and finds the most concrete illustrations of rhythm. All bodily processes depend on steady control and release a measured motion of functions.

If there is rhythm in the beautiful things in Nature, there must also be rhythm in the growing child, the greatest of life creations. The little child responds to his environment in an impulsive and instinctive way. To him there. is some form of rhythm in everything—in the sound of a motor or engine as well as in the song of a bird. Rhythm appeals to every child. His responses to it are largely through physical activity; movements of his body that embody the emotions which he experiences in connection with all he sees, hears, or feels. That is why the work of the kindergarten is largely what is usually termed "rhythm training" or the directing of the child's activities in a definite way. The elemental activities, running, walking, skipping, galloping, are crude, indefinite, and must be controlled so that the child learns to be rhythmic in his movements, to have control of his physical body. The appreciation of form, and the

power of expression which is such an importtant part of later life, depend on the development and refining of the crude, impulsive movements of earliest childhood.

The kindergarten aims to bring rhythm into everything the child does. It seeks to develop the child's initiative and a sensitiveness to things about him. The work in the first grade goes on with the fundamental beginnings of the kindergarten, but becomes more complicated. The child must learn additional things and his environment changes from the informal kindergarten to the formality of the schoolroom. Thus the range for rhythm training widens, and the necessity for bringing to the child the knowledge and appreciation of rhythm in its fuller sense-in its relation to himself, his environment, and his life in general-becomes the biggest problem of the schoolroom

teacher.

Since music seems the best of all rhythm trainers, it may well be the subject with which to start a discussion of rhythm in connection with all of the school subjects. The fundamentals of music have a surprisingly close relationship to the structure and rhythm of other subjects. In the kindergarten the music must be very simple, with strongly marked accents. and contrasts of loudness or softness, lightness or heaviness. The child learns to detect these factors and to respond to them with bodily movements. This early rhythm training should be continued through the elementary grades, and additional factors should be introduced. Music and physical education should work hand in hand toward the same end.

Listening to music to study its structurethe intensity, the beat and accent, the phrasing and speed-should be followed by physical interpretations by the child. Dramatization is the best means of teaching response to the music. For showing intensity (loudness, softness) the elemental steps may be used, working in at the same time note values (whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth notes). The child learns that some notes are held longer than others, that some music makes him skip, some makes him walk; sometimes he feels like a giant, sometimes like a fairy or an elf. He