ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT and thanks are hereby extended to the following authors and publishers for permission to publish copyrighted matter used in this volume: William Hamilton Hayne, for the poem Edgar Allan Poe, written by his father, Paul Hamilton Hayne; Hon. William J. Bryan; Dr. Lyman Abbott, and the Outlook; Joaquin Miller, and Whitaker and Ray-Wiggin Company; Russell Doubleday, and Doubleday, Page and Company; Robert J. Burdette, and Henry Holt and Company; Hamlin Garland, and Harper and Brothers; Robert M. Cumnock, and A. C. McClurg and Company; Wilson Flagg, and Educational Publishing Company; Kate O'Neill, and Parker P. Simmons; D. Appleton and Company, publishers of the poems of William Cullen Bryant; G. P. Putnam's Sons, publishers of the works of Washington Irving; Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers of the works of J. G. Holland; and J. P. Lippincott Company, publishers of the works of T. B. Read. Sentences from Reed and Kellogg's Higher Lessons in English are used by permission of Charles E. Merrill and Company. Sentences from Composition and Rhetoric (Lockwood and Emerson), The Mother Tongue, and Lessons in English (Lockwood) are used by permission of Ginn and Company. The extract from "Les Miserables," adapted by Cora Marsland in "Interpretive Readings," is used by permission of Longmans, Green and Company. The selections from Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Holmes, Emerson, Hawthorne, Aldrich, Agassiz, Lucy Larcom, John G. Saxe, Bayard Taylor, J. T. Trowbridge, John Burroughs, and John Fiske are used by permission of, and special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers of the works of these authors. viii TEACHING TO READ CHAPTER I STUDIES IN THE RELATIVE THOUGHT VALUE OF WORDS The simplest problem of expression in reading is that of showing appreciation of the value of single words. The reading material in this chapter consists of selections in which the essential ideas are expressed by single words or short phrases. The plan can readily be grasped by a study of selection No. 1, which, short as it is, will be found to contain five important ideas; or of No. 2, in which five of the six words contribute definitely to the thought. Selections are included to illustrate the value oftentimes of the parts of compound words (No. 14), the importance that even a syllable of a word may take on (No. 16), the effect that thought arrangement may have upon words (No. 3), and such other subjects as come logically under the title of the chapter. The object of such study is to develop power to appreciate the force of words, to promote the habit of close study, and to improve the oral reading of all sentences of this kind. PEDAGOGICAL INTRODUCTION How shall we lead pupils to sense the relative thought value of printed words conveying the ideas of other minds? In unconstrained conversation, when expressing their own thoughts, they find no difficulty in emphasizing the right words, and they will instinctively employ the means most effective for the occasion, whether it be increased energy and force, increased range of inflection, a pause before or after an emphatic word, or the lowering of the voice even to a whisper. It is as natural to emphasize as to speak. Why, then, do we have so much trouble with incorrect emphasis in the reading class? The explanation is simple. When a pupil expresses his own thoughts he knows exactly the idea that he wishes to convey, and the emphasis on the various words is instinctively proportioned. When he attempts to express the thought of another, while simultaneously gleaning it from the printed page, he lacks the familiarity with the subject matter that vivifies the expression of his own mind product. - It is not to be expected that, in the reading class, the pupil will attain quite the same degree of familiarity with the printed text that he has with his own thoughts, unless the selection be memorized, — but it is expected that he shall have such a clear understanding of the thought that he can express "the truth," and "the whole truth"; and that, through much careful, out-loud practice at home, and the instruction and criticism of a capable teacher at school, he shall be able |