Beginners' Book in Language Part 29

=Note 77= (page 159). Wood's "Animals: their Relation and Use to Man"

(Ginn) is recommended to teachers who wish interesting and reliable information about lions, tigers, elephants, and other wild animals.

=Note 78= (page 163). For the sake of difference from the preceding oral work it may be desirable to let each animal tell its own story in the written accounts for the cla.s.s book. Each animal may say where it came from, how it used to live, how it was caught, how it likes to travel with a circus, and what it would do if it were free again.

=Note 79= (page 163). While this correction work is apparently entirely in the hands of the pupils, the teacher should make the most of the situation, first, by allowing pupils to feel the weight of responsibility (for a book with mistakes is no book at all, since it cannot be shown to other pupils and teachers), and, second, by imperceptibly and constructively a.s.sisting in the finding and correcting of mistakes. The teacher should pa.s.s from group to group, ready to help where help is needed, but very cautious about interfering or dominating or overturning the delicate balance of enjoyment, responsibility, and cooperative endeavor in any social group of workers.

=Note 80= (page 163). Only one question should be considered at one critical reading.

=Note 81= (page 165). The more realistic this can be made, the more fun there will be for the pupils, and the more profit for them from the English teacher's point of view. Each child should have a telephone number. A "Central" should answer rings and make connections. A little bell might be used. Toy telephones might be employed. The children are to play at telephoning, with emphasis on the _play_. Not until we have a deep stream of pleasure running in the cla.s.s consciousness can we float the technical freight for whose sure delivery to the pupils the language teacher is responsible.

=Note 82= (page 165). Pupils will enjoy pretending to telephone to the animals in the circus. These may tell how they like circus life, what they think of their trainers, whether they would like to return to their homes in the wilds, what they think of other animals in the menagerie tent, and which kinds of people they like to have look at them. For still further variation, the different circus animals, as well as the circus people, may telephone to each other.

=Note 83= (page 168). If written work be desired at this time, it is suggested that this oral exercise be followed with the making of a book of vacation wishes or vacation plans.