CHAPTER VIII.

LESSONS TO SUGGEST PLANS OF WORK—CONTINUED.

I.—_Lessons on Bird Life._

The study of birds has become so common as a part of school work, that suggestions upon the subject may be trite and superfluous. For the teachers who have not yet attempted such study, the following practical suggestions may be helpful.

All children are interested in animal life, but few city children have more than a vague notion of the habits and characteristics of the animals of which they read. Not long ago, the writer chanced to hear a class of primary children reading about the hen. The exercise was hesitating, the reading dubious. Upon questioning it transpired that but three children in the class had ever seen a live hen, and in two of these cases the hen was “nailed up in a box in the market.” One child only had seen a hen walking about, and that was in “Tim Jones’s Alley.” Obviously the sentences which had seemed so luminous to the teacher were dark to the children.

Such experiences are not confined to city children. Wide experience has discovered many a country child whose eyes have never been truly opened to the life about him. It is safe to assume that any class of little children will profit by the lesson which increases their interest in the bird world, and opens their eyes to see new beauties, their minds to receive new pictures, and which incidentally explains the pages that otherwise are meaningless.

For such preliminary study, the best beginning is the observation of some caged bird which can be kept within reach for awhile. A canary, a parrot, a dove, a hen, a duck will behave well in the school-room, may be cared for by the pupils, and observed for several days, and will serve as a centre from which new investigation may radiate, or a type to which all new bird knowledge may be referred. The canary or parrot will be brought in its own house. For the others a dwelling-place may be extemporized. A box frame may be built, open on all sides, and covered with coarse wire netting or netted fencing; or one side may be removed from a wooden box of suitable size, and netting be substituted for it. The children should be able to watch the bird as it eats, drinks, walks, or flies about, and should at first be allowed to observe without the restriction of question or recitation.

The conversation of the pupils, their exclamations and questions, will reveal the best line of approach to the subject. It will be found that their chief interest centres in the actions of the bird. “See him eat! How fast he turns the seed. See the shells fly! How he spatters the water! Oh, he’s washing himself!” Such are the free comments of the children. Let these determine the first lesson.

“You have been watching the canary. What have you seen him do? What can he do that you can do? What can he do that you can_not_ do?”

These questions cannot be answered without actual knowledge. If the replies are written upon the board, it will be discovered that the children have added definitely to their store of knowledge, and likewise to their vocabulary.

Another conversation may compare the cat and the canary, the cow and the canary, or (a very different exercise) may note the resemblances and differences between the canary and other birds with which the children are somewhat familiar. This comparison leads to observation of the structure, to naming and describing the parts of the canary.

“The canary can fly because he has wings. We have no wings, but we have arms. The cat has no wings, but she has two forelegs.” So the comparison proceeds to head, eyes, bill, feet, until the children are able to describe the bird in clear and appropriate language.

Another talk compares the habits of the bird with those of the cat or dog, and leads to descriptions of the nests, the eggs, the home habits of the bird, with the rearing of the young. The lessons prepare for the reading, to be sure, but this value is incidental only, as compared with the widened interest and growing power of the children in thinking, seeing, and saying.

It would be interesting to keep a record of the words used, or needed, by the children in such lessons, to collate them afterward, and to discover what proportion of the list of words is included in the ordinary stock vocabulary of elementary readers. Such a study would reveal to any intelligent teacher the close relation between experience and reading, and would fully justify the plan of work outlined in these pages.

It may be well to add in passing that such a series of lessons serves as a basis to which all the related lessons may be referred. When the children read about the oriole or the robin, he is compared with the canary, and the old lesson explains and reënforces the new. The value of such lessons depends upon the teacher’s recognition of this relation. The children need not know the skeleton of her plan, but she must know the end from the beginning.

II.—_Study of “The Builders”—Longfellow._

PREPARATION FOR THE POEM.

If the readers are young children, it would be well to prepare for the reading of the poem by a lesson upon the material building. It is possible that the carpenters and masons are already at work in the immediate neighborhood of the schoolhouse. The children have been interested in watching the digging of the cellar, the laying of the foundation stone, the fixing of the frame in position, the building of the walls. A little questioning and observation will lead them to see how necessary it is to the strength of the building that every part be well shaped and firmly placed. There may be unfortunate examples in their neighborhood which show the folly of dishonest building. They may easily be led to realize what harm may result from slighting any piece of work, or falsely covering any weakness. Anecdotes are abundant to illustrate this: the bridge which gives way beneath the weight of the passing train, carrying hundreds to death; the dam which has weak timber, yielding to the pressure of the freshet; the elevator which falls with its precious load. These point to building which was insecure and treacherous. For the other side of the picture, we turn to the old cathedrals, showing the children the beautiful spires, the exquisite carving, and telling them how they have endured through the ages because their builders did honest work.

Such a lesson prepares for the interpretation of the poem, which turns our thought to the building which we are shaping with our to-days and yesterdays. The lesson of the unstable wall, the falling bridge, as well as the grace and strength of the cathedral, serve now as a parallel for the poet’s teaching, and the inevitable result to others is seen as well as felt when we read of the “broken stairways, where the feet stumble as they seek to climb.” After such lessons, every line is filled with meaning as the children read and re-read the inspiring poem. Then it is time to memorize every line, but especially the two stanzas,

“In the elder days of art, Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part; For the gods see everywhere.

“Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen: Make the house, where gods may dwell, Beautiful, entire, and clean.”

It is not necessary to preach while teaching this poem. The lesson impresses itself upon the children if they are rightly prepared for it. They will make their own application, but we should not forget that a valuable lesson like this is not measured by ease in recitation or accuracy in reading. If in the days to come the memory of the poet’s words gives strength in the hour of temptation, or incites to honest work when the hand inclines to careless shirking, the lesson will have counted for good. In selecting our poems for our children, and in directing their reading, such hope should guide our choice. The words of the poem or story will recur again and again when the memory of the school-room has faded. We should be assured that the minds of our pupils are furnished with thoughts worth remembering. “Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

III.—_Study of the Reading Lesson._

ILLUSTRATIVE LESSON.

LITTLE BELL.

Piped the blackbird on the beechwood spray, “Pretty maid, slow wandering this way, What’s your name?” quoth he,— “What’s your name? Oh, stop, and straight unfold, Pretty maid, with showery curls of gold!” “Little Bell,” said she.

Little Bell sat down beneath the rocks, Tossed aside her gleaming golden locks. “Bonny bird,” quoth she, “Sing me your best song, before I go.” “Here’s the very finest song I know, Little Bell,” said he.

And the blackbird piped; you never heard Half so gay a song from any bird,— Full of quips and wiles, Now so round and rich, now soft and slow, All for love of that sweet face below, Dimpled o’er with smiles.

And the while the bonny bird did pour His full heart out freely, o’er and o’er, ’Neath the morning skies, In the little childish heart below All the sweetness seemed to grow and grow, And shine forth in happy overflow From the blue, bright eyes.

Down the dell she tripped, and through the glade Peeped the squirrel from the hazel shade, And from out the tree Swung, and leaped, and frolicked, void of fear, While bold blackbird piped, that all might hear, “Little Bell!” piped he.

Little Bell sat down amid the fern; “Squirrel, squirrel, to your task return; Bring me nuts,” quoth she. Up, away, the frisky squirrel hies,— Golden woodlights glancing in his eyes,— And adown the tree Great ripe nuts, kissed brown by July sun, In the little lap dropped one by one. Hark! how blackbird pipes to see the fun! “Happy Bell!” pipes he.

Little Bell looked up and down the glade; “Squirrel, squirrel, if you’re not afraid, Come and share with me!” Down came squirrel, eager for his fare,— Down came bonny blackbird, I declare! Little Bell gave each his honest share; Ah, the merry three!

And the while these frolic playmates twain Piped and frisked from bough to bough again, ’Neath the morning skies, In the little childish heart below All the sweetness seemed to grow and grow, And shine out in happy overflow From her blue, bright eyes.

By her snow-white cot, at close of day, Knelt sweet Bell, with folded palms, to pray. Very calm and clear Rose the praying voice, to where, unseen, In blue heaven, an angel shape serene Paused awhile to hear.

“What good child is this?” the angel said, “That, with happy heart, beside her bed Prays so lovingly?” Low and soft,—O! very low and soft, Crooned the blackbird in the orchard croft, “Bell, dear Bell!” crooned he.

“Whom God’s creatures love,” the angel fair Murmured, “God doth bless with angels’ care; Child, thy bed shall be Folded safe from harm. Love, deep and kind, Shall watch around, and leave good gifts behind, Little Bell, for thee.”

—THOMAS WESTWOOD.

The poem selected for this lesson is suitable for use in third, fourth, or fifth grades, although even younger children enjoy hearing it read. Such children would, however, find difficulty in a detailed study, such as is suggested in this exercise. The poem may be used simply as a reading lesson, or it may be read, studied, and memorized by the pupils as a language exercise. The various advantages of the study are indicated in the following suggestions, which are intended to indicate merely some of the different modes of treatment which may be attempted in language teaching.

THE THOUGHT IN THE POEM.

As in all lessons, the children should read the entire poem, or hear it read, before any detailed study is attempted. This is done in order that the poem may be presented to them as a whole, giving its thought or telling its message. After such reading, every verse and word will assume its rightful place in the description of the story. Otherwise, given separately, the words lose the meaning which they are intended to convey. A poem, like a picture, should be presented as a whole, and never dissected, in the first lesson.

It is wise, sometimes, to read and to re-read without note or comment; then to lay aside the book and leave the children to recall the story, and to accustom themselves to its pictures. At the next lesson, the teacher may question, following out any of the suggested lines of work.

The important motive is to get the message which the author intended to give us in the poem. Everything else must be subordinate to this purpose. Any supplementary teaching which draws the attention away from the poem, creating a separate centre of interest, is excessive. All illustration and explanation should be intended simply to throw light upon the poem, making the pictures more vivid and the message more plain.

The thought in this poem is very evident, even to the children. In the first stanza the blackbird on the beechwood spray introduces us to the pretty maid, “slow wandering” his way. She is little Bell. Sitting down beneath the rocks, she asks the blackbird for his best song. The bonny bird pours his full heart out freely, while, in the little childish heart below, all the sweetness seems to grow and grow, and shine forth in happy overflow from the blue, bright eyes. The squirrel swings and leaps and frolics in the glade, and at the child’s bidding drops down great ripe nuts into her lap. The blackbird pipes to see the fun. The child shares her treasures with the squirrel and the bird, and again the poet tells us

“In the little childish heart below All the sweetness seemed to grow and grow, And shine out in happy overflow From her blue, bright eyes.”

When, at close of day, the child kneels to pray beside her snow-white cot, an angel pauses to hear, and asks what good child prays so lovingly beside her bed. The blackbird answers from the orchard croft, “Bell, dear Bell!” “Whom God’s creatures love, God doth bless with angels’ care,” the angel murmured. “Child, thy bed shall be folded safe from harm. Love, deep and kind, shall watch around, and leave good gifts behind, little Bell, for thee.”

Even the little children sense the meaning of the poem. They have already learned that love wins love and makes friends, and they feel it to be both natural and just that the loving little Bell shall be shielded from all harm, and sheltered by loving thought. The elder children may be reminded of Sidney Lanier’s poem, “How Love Sought for Hell,” failing to find it because wherever his presence came there were kindness and light. The little ones are reminded that the mirror gives back smile for smile, and frown for frown. It is hardly necessary to “point the moral and adorn the tale.” The poet has repeated in the self-same words the lines which show how the child grew in sweetness as she played so lovingly with her woodland friends. For many classes it would be enough to talk of the poem until the children were possessed of this thought, or rather this feeling, and then leave it to do its own work. In this case, however, the poem serves as a text for the lesson, and we shall consider other phases.

_The Pictures in the Poem._

The poem takes us at once to the woods where the blackbird pipes on the beechwood spray. We see the rocks, the dell, the glade, the trees, the hazel shade, and are made acquainted with the blackbird and the squirrel. Plainly, the setting of the poem is clearest to those children who themselves have played in the woods; who have heard the blackbird sing, and have seen the squirrel leap from bough to bough. The beechwood spray, the hazel shade, the dell, the glade, the fern, are already familiar to such children, and need no lesson to introduce them. But if the tenement house, the narrow alley, the brick walls, and the noisy street have been the familiar surroundings of the children, and if the country seems as far away to them as Paradise, the poem is written in a foreign tongue. With such children, other lessons are necessary before any such selection is read or memorized. These lessons may not be given at the time of the reading—far better not; but they should precede the reading in the teacher’s plan, and the young reader should enter upon this lesson equipped with some knowledge of the bird, the squirrel, and the woods. In another chapter, something has been said of the necessity of such teaching, and of the way in which such lessons may be conducted. The suggestion is made here simply to emphasize this truth: that observation of nature is essential to the interpretation of literature.

_Study of the Vocabulary of the Poem._

Although the pupils may be prepared by their out-of-door experience to understand the poem, they will, nevertheless, be met by a new difficulty in the reading. The language of literature differs from that to which they have been accustomed in conversation. The tendency of our school readers and children’s books is often to remove such difficulties from the path of the children. The lessons are expressed in words already familiar to the children, and in colloquial forms. While this practice renders the first lessons in reading easy, it makes the entrance to literature difficult. Many expressions are entirely foreign to the child’s ear, and therefore unintelligible, even when the story is attractive. The poem which we are using for illustration contains many words and phrases which the children have not met in their ordinary reading. These must be explained and their meaning made familiar to the children. “‘What’s your name?’ _quoth_ he”; “stop, and _straight unfold_”; “_showery_ curls of gold”; “_gleaming_ golden locks”; “_bonny_ bird”; “blackbird _piped_”; “_dell_”; “_glade_”; “_hazel shade_”; “_void_ of fear”; “_hies_”; “_golden woodlights_”; “_adown_ the tree”; “_playmates twain_”; “_an angel shape_”; “_crooned_ the blackbird in the _orchard croft_,” are some of these.

It may not be necessary nor wise in most classes to study all these expressions minutely, but they should become plain to the children so that they may plainly speak the message of the poem, and present no difficulty if met elsewhere. So with the figurative expressions: “The bird did pour his full heart out freely”; “the sweetness did shine forth in happy overflow”; “thy bed shall be folded safe from harm”; “stop, and straight unfold.”

There is no reason why the young readers should not come to realize the picture in these figurative expressions, to compare their several words with the figure which the poet has used, and to begin to sense the difference between the plain, straightforward speech and the pictured verses of the poet. Such study, however simple, will help the children to some appreciation of the beauty of expression, which is one charm of literature.

From what has been said, it will be rightly judged that the poem affords a basis of several lessons, all of value in different directions. It may not be wise to make a detailed and careful study of every poem which is read or memorized by the children, but some teaching in the lines suggested is indispensable to intelligent reading on the part of the children. The phrases which are so familiar to us often suggest a very curious idea to the children. This interpretation is shown when they draw pictures to represent the scenes of the poem. In a certain school, the teacher read a story to the children containing the expression, “his mother gave him leave to go.” The child drew the mother in the act of presenting a leaf to the boy. “Fret-work,” said the boy who read “Sir Launfal” for the first time, “fret-work is work that makes you fret”; while the child who drew the picture of the hare and the tortoise represented a turtle and a boy with bushy hair. Reference has been made elsewhere to the kid on the roof of the house which was pictured as a little boy; and the writer remembers the pictures which were drawn by children in illustration of the above poem, representing the angels with webbed feet. These items are intended simply to suggest that the child’s crude notion is often very different from the meaning which the word or phrase conveys to us. We should be grateful for the frank question or the crude remark which betrays the child’s mistake, and should be careful to secure such confidence and freedom in our classes as will enable us to discover what the children are really thinking.

After reading and discussing the poem, the children may memorize it. At this juncture it is wise for the teacher to read it to the children again and again in order that they may get some notion of the proper reading. The children’s recitation will incline to adopt the virtues of the teacher’s reading; the faults will be imitated, also.

If, after such study and such memorizing, the words of the poem appear now and then in the children’s conversation or writing, let us rejoice; for this means not simply that new words have been added to the vocabulary, but that the child has a new conception of beauty of thought and speech.

_We’re made so that we love_ _First when we see them painted, things we have passed_ _Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see;_ _God uses us to help each other so,_ _Lending our minds out._

—_ROBERT BROWNING._