Children's Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes — John Shaqi
Children's Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training ClassesCurry, Charles Madison
General
Children's Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes
Curry, Charles Madison
Children -- Books and reading; Children's literature -- Study and teaching
As an aid to inexperienced teachers, it seems well to suggest in a
summary how a selection of material suitable for each grade might be
made from the material of this book. The summary, however, should be
regarded as suggestive in a general way only. No detailed outline of a
course of study in literature for the grades can be ideal for all
schools because the pupils of a given grade in one school may be much
more advanced in the knowledge of literature and the ability to
understand and appreciate it than are the pupils of the same grade in
another school. Many literary selections, too, might appropriately be
taught in almost any grade if the method of presentation in each case
were suited to the understanding of the pupils. _Robinson Crusoe_, for
example, may appropriately be told to second-grade pupils, or it may be
read by fourth- or fifth-grade pupils, or it may be studied as fiction
by eighth-grade pupils or university students. All poems of remarkable
excellence that are suitable for primary pupils are also suitable for
pupils in the higher grades and for adults, and the same is true of many
prose selections.
The summary that follows, then, is to be regarded as "first aid" to the
untrained, inexperienced teacher. The teacher's own personal likes and
dislikes and her success in presenting various literary selections
should eventually lead her to modify any prescribed course of study. If
a teacher of the sixth grade discovers that her pupils should rank only
second grade in knowledge and appreciation of literature, she may very
properly begin with traditional fairy tales. Another outlined course of
study is given in Section XII of this book.
_First, second, and third grades._ Since pupils in the primary grades
read with difficulty if at all, the teacher should tell or read all
selections presented as literature in these grades.
No kind of prose is better suited for use in the primary grades than
traditional fairy tales. About half a dozen might well be presented in
each of the three grades. For the first grade, the simplest should be
chosen, such as "The Old Woman and Her Pig," "Teeny-Tiny," "The Cat and
the Mouse," "The Three Pigs," "The Three Bears," and "The Elves and the
Shoemaker." As suitable stories for the second grade, we might choose
"The Three Sillies," "Little Red Riding-Hood," "Cinderella," "The Three
Billy-Goats Gruff," "The Straw Ox," and "The Horned Women." For the
third grade, somewhat longer and more complex stories might be chosen.
About half a dozen fables might also be used appropriately in each of
the primary grades. Simple Aesopic fables in prose seem best for the
first two grades. More complex forms might be chosen for the third
grade, for example, "The Story of Alnaschar," "The Good Samaritan," "The
Discontented Pendulum," "The Musical Ass," "The Swan, the Pike, and the
Crab," and "The Hen with the Golden Eggs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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