SUGGESTIONS FOR FOURTH YEAR
When the pupil enters the fourth grade he begins to learn to depend more and more upon himself. He does more of his work by himself. This is as it should be, but there is still need of a guiding hand. If the pupil is to acquire a realspelling consciousness, and form a good habit which is real and lasting, these helps must be plentiful, but at the same time arise in such a way that they will be helpful in forming and strengthening the good habits, and tend to break any bad habits which may have been started.
The suggestions accompanying the lessons in the first three grades are continued in the fourth, in such a way that, with the preparation which the pupil has had in the early grades, he can apply the helps himself with the minimum amount of care and watchfulness on the part of the teacher.
As pointed out in Part I of the manual, page18, the derived form in most cases presents a new spelling problem even though the root word has been taught. By focusing the attention on the part common to both the root word and the derivative, and fixing the change by numerous examples, the change from root to derivative is made with less trouble. Lessons 4, 5, 15, 16, and 74 illustrate this point.
Dictionary Work
During the previous three years the pupils have been prepared to use the dictionary. They have been made thoroughly familiar with the alphabet, and are familiar with the arrangement of words in alphabetical lists. They have learned to arrange words in alphabetical lists, as well as to find words easily in a short list which is alphabetically arranged. The work of the fourth year is the teaching of the formal use of the dictionary. The following story is presented as an interesting way of approach. Let us attempt to vitalize our work in the dictionary. The place to begin this vitalizing is in the fourth grade. A “story with a hint in it” for fourth grade teachers is a suggestion along this line.
The Third Graders had been promoted into the Fourth Grade! They sat very tall and behaved just like Fourth Graders as Miss Merlin, their new teacher, said pleasantly: “This morning as I rode to school in the street car, I read over the market advertisements. I found in one a word that is new to me. I don’t know how to pronounce it, and I don’t know what it means. I will write it on the board. Perhaps some one may know the word and tell me how to pronounce it and what it means.”
Miss Merlin wrote the word on the board—broccoli—then turned to the pupils and said, “Can any one pronounce this word?”
Alice stood by her desk ready to speak. “Have you seen this word before, Alice?” asked Miss Merlin.
“No,” answered Alice, “but I think I can guess how it is pronounced.”
“Oh!” said Miss Merlin, “I don’t want any guessing. You might guess wrong. If I hear the word incorrectly pronounced for the first time, I am afraid I shall find it harder to learn the correct pronunciation. Two reasons why so many words are pronounced incorrectly are: people guess a wrong pronunciation instead of finding the correct one; and people hear the incorrect pronunciation instead of the right one. I want the correct pronunciation for the word on the board. If you cannot give it to me, perhaps you can tell me where I can get it.”
John jumped to his feet. “Go ask the market man,” he said.
“I might,” answered Miss Merlin, “but there are reasons why I would rather not.”
“It’s too far to the market,” “It would take too long,” “You can’t go until after school and by then the market may be closed,” were some of the objections made by the pupils.
“Those are all good reasons,” answered Miss Merlin, “but if there were no other way to learn the correct pronunciation of the word I might manage somehow to make a trip to the market. And I really need not take the trouble. I can find out all I want to know about that word right here in our own schoolroom.”
The pupils looked at one another with troubled faces. In the third grade they had always gone to their teacherwith bothersome words, and here was Miss Merlin bringing hard words to them and expecting them to help her to learn the pronunciation and the meaning. Never had they felt so helpless. Suddenly John cried out, “Oh, I know! The dictionary!” and running to the front of the room, he placed his hand on a great, heavy book that lay on the small table near Miss Merlin’s desk. “My father has a dictionary like this,” he continued, “and he often looks up words in it.”
“Good, John!” said Miss Merlin, “you have shown me the best place to go for the help I need. This book contains 400,000 words. My word is one of those 400,000. How can I find my one word among so many?”
“I know,” answered John. “My father showed me. The words are arranged like the alphabet, first thea’s, then, theb’s, and then thec’s, and so on.”
“John is right,” said Miss Merlin. “If you will all come forward and stand near the table I will show you just as John’s father showed him.”
The pupils came forward and Miss Merlin showed them that the dictionary words were arranged in alphabetical order. “Now where shall I look for my word?” she asked.
The pupils glanced at the word on the board and answered, “Look among the words beginning withb.”
Miss Merlin opened the dictionary and held all the pages containing words beginning withbbetween her two hands. “If I begin with the first word beginning withband read each one, it will take me hours,” she said, “but the maker of the dictionary has so arranged the words that I can find the word I want in a few seconds. Let us see if we can discoverjust how the words have been arranged to help us find any one quickly. We have seen that the words are arranged alphabetically according to the first letter in each. Now let us look at the second letter in the word beginning withb.”
The pupils watched as the pages were turned over and discovered that the words were grouped in alphabetical order according to the second letter in each.
“Then,” said Miss Merlin, “if I want to find a word beginningbawhere in the list of words beginning withbshall I look?”
“Look near the beginning,” was the answer.
“If I want one beginningblwhere shall I look?” asked Miss Merlin.
“Look towards the middle of the list,” answered the pupils.
“But I want to find one beginning withbr,” said Miss Merlin, pointing to the word on the board.
“Look near the end of the list,” said Alice.
Miss Merlin found the first word beginning withbr. “Shall I find my word near the beginning of thebrlist?” she asked, holding the page toward the pupils.
They looked at the page and answered, “No, all the words on this page beginbraand you want a word beginningbro.”
“How shall I find my word?” asked Miss Merlin.
John turned over the pages slowly while the other pupils looked on. “Oh,” cried Alice, “the words are arranged in alphabetical order for the third letter, so you must look beyond the middle of the list!”
Miss Merlin asked Alice to find the first word beginning withbro. When it was found the children discovered that the alphabetical arrangement of letters extended to the fourth and fifth letters and even unto the end.
“Some job!” said John, moved by the efficiency of the arrangement as well as by the bigness of the task. “Now I know how I can find any word in the dictionary—just trail the alphabet from the first to the last letter of the word you are looking for.”
Miss Merlin laughed. “I don’t believe that I’ll try to improve upon your rule, John,” she said. “The Alphabet Trail is a pretty good one to follow in tracking any word to its dictionary den.”
Following John’s rule, the word sought—broccoli—was soon found. “So that you may all see exactly how the dictionary helps us pronounce this word, I will copy on the blackboard exactly what I find written here.”
Stepping to the board, Miss Merlin copied the word, divided into syllables and marked exactly as it appeared in the dictionary—(brǒk´ō-lǐ).
Some of the pupils understood the diacritical marks for the short sounds ofoandi; others did not. None knew the meaning of the mark above theoof the second syllable.
“Well,” said Miss Merlin, “let us see how the dictionary is ready to help us. Look at the words written at the bottom of the page. They are all little words that you know. What letter is marked in the first eight words?”
The pupils near enough the dictionary to read replied, “The lettera.” “And,” added Mary, “eachais marked in a different way.”
“Read the words with the markeda’s and see if you can discover the reason why eachahas a different mark,” said Miss Merlin.
Mary read the words, pronouncing each clearly and distinctly. When she had finished every child was ready to answer; but Miss Merlin smiled at Mary, who said, “Theain each word has a sound different from all the othera’s.”
In the same way the pupils discovered the different sounds ofe,i,o, andu. “Those are all the vowel sounds,” said Alice.
“Yes,” added John, “and the dictionary man has arranged them in alphabetical order. Didn’t he stick close to the alphabet though!”
“These little words at the bottom of the page are called key words,” said Miss Merlin. “Can any one tell why?”
The pupils thought for a moment. Then Tom said, “I know. Because they unlock the pronunciation of the new word.”
“Good,” said Miss Merlin, “pronounce the first syllable in our new word on the board, Tom, using the key word.”
Tom looked at the mark over theoin the first syllable, found the same mark over theoinodd, the key word at the bottom of the page, and said, “Odd—ǒ—brǒk.”
“Good!” said Miss Merlin. “That’s the way. Now, Jack, pronounce the second syllable.”
Jack looked at the mark overo, the only letter in the second syllable, found the same mark over theoin the key wordobeyat the bottom of the page, and said, “Obey—ō.”
In the same way Alice studied the last syllable, finding a mark like the one used over theiin the key wordillat the bottom of the page and said very clearly, “Ill—ĭ—lĭ.”
“Fine!” said Miss Merlin. “John, you may pronounce the whole word.” John did so, sounding the letters correctly but placing the accent on the second syllable, thus, “Brok-o´-li.”
“Not quite right,” said Miss Merlin. “I am going to pronounce the word correctly. As I speak it notice which syllable I accent or emphasize.” She then repeated the word, placing the accent correctly.
“You accented the first syllable,” said Alice.
“Yes,” answered Miss Merlin, “I did. Now look at the word as I have copied it on the board from the dictionary and see if you can discover anything that tells me which syllable should be accented.”
“Oh, I know,” cried John. “There is a little mark something like a slanting exclamation mark after the first syllable! Is that why you read it like an exclamation, Miss Merlin?”
Miss Merlin laughed and answered, “Well, we call the mark an accent. But it is something like an exclamation mark in looks, and an accented syllable sounds not unlike an exclamation, John. Now pronounce the word correctly.”
John did so, and then other pupils repeated it after him.
“Now I know how to pronounce the new word but I don’t know what it means,” said Miss Merlin. “The meaning of the word is written right after the correct pronunciation. Mary, will you read what is written?”
Mary looked at the printed page for a moment, then read aloud, “Broccoli. A hardy cauliflower.”
“How many know what a cauliflower is?” asked Miss Merlin. She looked at the upraised hands and added, “I see that you all know, but if any one didn’t know how could he find out from the dictionary?”
Eagerly the pupils told Miss Merlin how to find the word—“track it down,” John said—in the dictionary; how to learn to pronounce it; and how to find the meaning.
“Good,” said Miss Merlin. “What have you learned in this lesson?”
“I have learned that I can find the pronunciation and meaning of any new word in the dictionary,” said Alice.
“I have learned how to find any word I want,” said Tom.
“I have learned how to unlock the pronunciation of any word with the keys at the bottom of the page,” said Jack.
“I have learned how to accent the right syllable,” said Mary.
“I have learned where to look for the meaning of a word,” said Henry.
“Then you have learned almost all that is necessary for a helpful use of the dictionary,” said Miss Merlin. “Tomorrow we will have some dictionary practice.”
The teacher may read the above story to her pupils or make a similar introductory study of the dictionary with any word she may select.