made on account of lack of time, but these should be of the most suggestive order. For second, third and fourth quarters of the FIFTH GRADE, Warren's Physical Geography will furnish classification, description and facts (pp. 70 to 78, new edition). FOURTH GRADE: First and second quarters; Warren's Physical Geography, pp. 78 to 85. Third and fourth quarters ; Refer to Draper's Physiology for information; use the "Syllabus of Physiology" for further suggestions. THIRD GRADE: First and second quarters: Use Hotze's First Lessons in Physics for method, and Wells' Natural Philosophy for information. Third and fourth quarters: Use Warren's Physical Geography, pp. 5 to 8, and Steele's Fourteen Weeks in Astronomy. c) In the third course, extending through the second and first grades, Warren's Physical Geography should be used for the first year, and Wells' Natural Philosophy for the second year. Constant reference should be made to Tate's Natural Philosophy, Brande's Dictionary, and other books. The Public School Library is free to teachers as a Reference Library. A set of colored illustration-charts is given to each school; many things can be taught best by means of charts. 8. Although instruction in Natural Science in this course is confined to one hour per week, yet it is expected that what is taught in these lessons will be referred to frequently in the regular course of study. Whenever, for instance, any of the subjects treated in this course of instruction come up in teaching the other branches, an exposition of their scientific phases should be required of the pupils. This will apply to the subject of Geography more than to the others. Arithmetic, History, and the Reading lesson will occasionally furnish references to one or more of the provinces here mapped out. 9. In connection with the Geography, History and Grammar lessons a study of MAN should be carried on parallel to the study of material nature in the weekly oral lessons. The outlines of this study embrace: 1st, Physiology, or science of man as a body; this comes under Natural Science; 2d, Ethnology, or study of man as conditioned in development by his surroundings, climate, race, &c.; 3d, Wants and necessities of food, clothing, shelter, and the relation of these to the world, animal, vegetable and mineral; 4th, Language and its divisions and structure; 5th, States of Society; 6th, Employments and occupations; 7th, Government; 8th, Religions. 10. Compositions should be written subsequent to the oral lessons, on the topics discussed. They should be short and to the point and always in the pupil's own words. They should be illustrated by diagrams and pictures drawn by the pupil. 1. Resume. To name once more in a brief manner the cardinal points to be kept in mind constantly by the teacher: a) Take up only so many of the topics laid down for any given quarter as can be discussed thoroughly without overburdening the pupil's memory or distracting his power of attention. b) Never take up a topic that you are unable to explain and illustrate so clearly as to make the pupil understand it; avoid all phases of the subject that will tend to confuse rather than enlighten. c) Spend only ten weeks on the work of a given quarter, whether you do little or much in it; proceed then to the topics of the next quarter. d) Relieve the hour's work by as much variety as possible: first, reading and explaining something adapted to the capacity of your pupils; secondly, drawing out in a conversational manner the experience and information which your scholars already possess on the subject; thirdly, exhibiting the visible objects which you or the pupils have brought to illustrate the lesson, and requiring the pupils to notice and name the properties, qualities, parts and attributes; fourthly, never omitting to show by a synopsis on the blackboard what has been discussed in the lesson, its classification and relation. e) Require short weekly compositions of the pupils above the fifth grade, in which they express in their own language their ideas on the subjects treated in the oral lessons. EXAMINATION IN READING. For the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Grades. TO BE USED THE LAST WEEK OF THE SECOND QUARTER. Take the first twelve questions before recess in the morning, and the other eight questions after recess. Use them first in the Fifth Grade, and then in the fourth, third, second and first grades in order as soon as may be. The Fifth Grade use only the first ten questions. Allow five per cent. for each correct answer. Return to the Superintendent the average per cent. of each class examined; state the grade and quarter of the same. 1. Make each of the four commonest marks of punctuation, writing its name after it, and tell the pause it indicates. 2. Make the interrogation point, and tell when the voice should be kept up before it. 3. Make or write the exclamation point, and tell its use; the parenthesis, and tell its use. 4. Make a dash and tell its three uses; an apostrophe, and tell its two uses. 5. What two uses of the hyphen; illustrate. tation marks used for? What are quo 6. State the use of brackets; of the caret; of the acute accent; illustrate each. 7. What is the macron? the breve? the diæresis? the cedilla? Illustrate each. 8. Make or write an asterisk. For what is it used? Write the other marks used for the same purpose. 9. Give the seven cases in which a capital letter should be used. 10. Define section; Italic type; what used for; What is Romanic? 11. How many letters in the alphabet? What are the vowels? 12. What is a diphthong? give an example; triphthong; digraph? 13. How many elementary sounds in our language? Write twelve short words containing the twelve vowel sounds, marking in each case the vowels by a line underneath. 14. Write words containing the cognate sound of p; of ƒ; of th (in thin); oft; of k; of s (in sin); of sh. What three letters are redundant? 15. What are some equivalents of a? Name the four compound vowel sounds; two compound consonant sounds. 16. Write three words containing silent letters, and mark the silent ones. 17. What is accent? Write the following words, with the mark of accent over the proper syllable; Museum, incomparably, discourse, interesting, depot. word. 18. What is emphasis? Write a sentence and emphasize the proper word. What is inflection, and how many kinds? "Will you ride or walk," what inflections? Describe the circumflex and monotone. 19. Write a synonym for each of the following words: Monarch, idea, converted, subtle, scanty. 20. Copy, correct, and punctuate the following, placing capital letters where they ought to be (twenty errors): "truth crushed to earth shall rise Again وو GRUBE'S METHOD. [Extract from L. F. Soldan's Report, as Assistant Superintendent, in 1871, containing an outline of “A. W. Grube's Guide for Primary Instruction in Arithmetic." To be used in the second and third quarters of the Eighth Grade. See Course of Study.] The long established method in arithmetic was to teach the first four processes of addition, subtraction multiplication, division, in their regular order. An improvement on this method consisted in dividing the numbers on which the first four processes were taught, into classes, or so-called circles, and to teach the child first addition, &c., with the numbers of the first circle, i. e. from 1 to 10, then of the second circle, from 1 to 100, then of the third, from 1 to 1,000-and so forth. Grube went beyond this principle of dividing into classes. Within the limits of the small numbers he took up each of them, commencing with 1, and taught the child all there is to know about it, before he passed over to another number. Treating, for instance, the number 2, he made the children perform all the operations that are possible within the limits of this number, no matter whether in the usual classification, they are called addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. The child had to see and to keep in mind that 1+1=2, 2×1=2, 2—1=1, 2÷1=2, &c. The whole circle of operations up to 2 was exhausted before the child progressed to the consideration of the number 3, which was to be treated in the same way. Why adhere to the more scientific categories of addition, &c., in the primary grade, where they do not help to make the subject any clearer to the child? The first four processes are naturally connected, and will appear so in the child's mind. If you take away. 1 from 2, and 1 remains, the child, in knowing this, also understands implicitly the opposite |