c. Do you see any similarity between the big house outside and the little house in the workshop? Did the boy have anything to do with bringing this about? d. If he did, which was built first-the real house or the model? e. How did it all happen? Can you see a story here? f. What is the boy preparing to be when he becomes a man? g. There must be a story in this picture. What title do you think it ought to have? WRITING AND READING A STORY 53. Take a lesson period to write the story of the picture. The following day some one who has succeeded in finishing the work, will read to the class what he has written. After he has read, ask yourselves the following questions: a. Has the writer described the picture in an interesting way? b. Has he made you interested in the boy and his work? c. Has he given some interesting events that come to an end that is pleasing and is all you want to know? Ask two or three other boys and girls to read their stories and determine who has done best, and why. Try to find out what makes a good story. A GRAMMAR LESSON 54. After this work has been accomplished, the pupil who wrote the best story will copy it, or much of it, on the blackboard after school so that it may be used the next day for a grammar lesson. Then in class time study it, sentence by sentence, and determine a. What is the predicate and the subject of each sentence, whether they are simple or compound, and whether there are connective words. b. Whether the predicate and the subject have modifiers. c. Whether the writer has made any of the mistakes mentioned in sections 44 and 49. COMPOSITIONS BY PUPILS 55. Two compositions written by school girls are given below. Read them with care. About eight years ago my little cousin, who was a fairhaired, blue-eyed, chubby little boy, came to visit me from St. Louis. Myself a little girl about four. My cousin's mother being quite ill and in care of a doctor, and with my mother as a nurse, we were left to amuse ourselves in the front yard. We were playing only a few minutes when the laundry man appeared and stopped at the side gate. While he delivered the laundry we proceeded to take a drive in the wagon. My little cousin helped me in and then jumped in himself. Before he was comfortably seated I whipped up the horse and we were off at a gallop, going several blocks before we were captured by an officer. We were taken home and left again in the yard. About half an hour later we disappeared and went scampering down the street. We wandered into the police station. The officers of the station amused us, laughed and played with us, and fed us candy. Then put us in the matron's charge, while mother and aunty, ill as she was, searched the whole neighborhood for us and had a dozen or more children hunting us. At last they went in aid of the police, and mother with tears streaming down her face entered the station, She was greeted by the sergeant, He said, "I know you have lost your babies, come on in." and could hardly speak. Mother was breathless When she entered the station there we two were with our hands full of sticky candy, and trying to slide down the railing of the winding stairway, laughing and having the best time. Mother hugged us both, and taking our hands led us home We were down town in one of the large stores when suddenly I missed my mother. Then the terrifying idea occurred that I was lost! Suddenly an idea occurred to me. There was the moving stairs I could stand on it and look around and so I carried this idea into execution. I looked around over their heads and it was like a vast number of hats. Soon I detected my mother searching around here and there. And so the search was ended. EXERCISE IN CRITICISM 56. These two stories must be thought over very carefully and discussed in class. Use the following list of particulars: a. Which composition is the better? Why? b. One writer has told more than the other. Is this because one story was in itself better than the other, or because one writer was better than the other, or do you have to give both reasons? |