Stepping Stones to Literature: A Second Reader

Excerpt from Stepping Stones to Literature: A Second Reader

HE lessons contained in this book are a product of experience in the schoolroom. They go forth in the hope of rendering some service to teachers and to children alike.

Throughout the work, the child's point of view has been kept in mind as well as the teacher's; and the aim has been to prepare, first of all, a book which children will like to read. Every lesson centers about something in which children are interested. All teachers know that the labor of teaching is lessened when the interest of the pupils is assured.

The name of the Series testifies to another aim of the book, - to lead to a love of literature. Many of the stories and poems herein contained will be found again and again by the children in the world's best books. A taste for good things, developed now, will lead the pupils to demand good things when free to choose.

The value of these lessons will be greatly enhanced if the teacher reads to the children, in connection with the lessons, such selections as are suggested by the text. Many of Long fellow's poems, for example, should be read, and some should be committed to memory, after the lesson on Longfellow.

It is hoped that many of the poems will be memorized as well as read by the children. Thus the words, as well as the thought, become their possession. Nearly every lesson suggests language lessons, which the skillful teacher will readily plan in connection with the reading. For example, a study of the turtle would naturally follow the lesson on Jack and Joe.

The pictures, as well as the lessons, have been carefully prepared or selected with reference to accepted standards and to the children's tastes. They should be studied until some appreciation of their meaning is gained. Artists' names should become as familiar to the children as are the names of poets.

Many forms of study have been indicated. The word study should demand thought, and result in added power to do in dependent work. The language lessons, rhyming exercises, and questions will help to form the habit of study. Attention is called to the script lessons, which present beautiful forms, as well as beautiful thoughts, for copying. They thus possess a double advantage for seat work.

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