INSTITUTE LESSONS. U. S. History.
Most pupils are slow in learning how to study History. The plan here set forth will lead them to understand how closely and intently the eyes of the mind must scan each line, if nothing is to escape their vision.
The teacher selects from the lesson words and expressions indicative of the prominent ideas, and classifies them into those oftimes,places,personsandmiscellaneous items; the mostdifficult words, for “dictionary work”; andgeneral topics, of which the preceding divisions are analytic elements. These elements thoroughly learned, recited, and properly combined bring into use, language and understanding to help form a foundation for mastering and reciting the general topics. The teacher’s analysis is placed upon the board. From this (or a copy of their own) the pupils may prepare the lesson. First, the pupil is to read (study) his lesson through once or twice, and then test his work by noting how many of theelementsof the lesson he can “recite.” To recite an element, a pupil states how (or why) the author has used it, or in what connection it occurs in the lesson. If it denotes apersonto tell who he was; if aplaceto tell where it is; &c.
This recitation is necessarily short, but it brings into use language and understanding to form a foundation for mastering and reciting the general topics.
Model for Teacher.From the First Five Paragraphs of the Eclectic U. S. History.
TIMES.—400 yrs.
PLACES.—American continent, Mississippi River, Great Lakes, four cities, Mexico, Yucatan, Adams Co., O., Marietta, Mississippi Valley, Central America, Atlantic, Iceland.
PERSONS.—Tribes, mound-builders, Frenchmen, Indians, ancestors, sailors.
MISCELLANEOUS.—Dark-skinned hunters, an empty continent, burial-mounds, 164 ft., 5000 people, island of frost and flame.
DICTIONARY WORK.—Wigwams, area, maize, bananas, tropical, solitary, basins. (Give meaning, and tell how each happens to be used.)
GENERAL TOPICS.—A Lonely Land, The Mound-builders, Wares from Ancient Workshops, Origin of the Early Inhabitants of America.