FOR SPEAKING AND WRITING By SARAH E. SIMONS, A.M. HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CLEM IRWIN ORR, B.S. INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, WASHINGTON, D. C. MARY ELLA GIVEN, A.B. PRINCIPAL, ELIZABETH V. BROWN SCHOOL EDITED BY WILLIAM D. LEWIS, A.M., Pd.D., Litt.D. DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION PREFACE The child, thinking, speaking, writing, holds the center of the stage from the beginning to the end of this language series. As one of a group of his own kind, he is the motive force which sets in action the lesson from day to day. The teacher is the power behind the group which controls this motive force. She directs the free interchange of experience toward the three-fold end: clear thinking, clear expression, and clean-cut enunciation. Stated in, brief, the aims of the series are to establish certain vital points, few in number and chosen with reference to the child's immediate need, and to hold the child responsible for these points as he progresses from year to year. In the choice of material, effort has been made to find suggestive and stimulating illustrations; in the use of this material, the endeavor has been to relate it, as far as possible, to the child's own experience. Thus his reaction will be dynamic, instead of static, actually creative instead of merely imitative. Frequent illustrations are given of actual work done by children in the classroom. Emulation of such work is within the power of every child. Hence much good, it is believed, can be drawn from exercises of this kind. The chief end of the composition work in the series is to develop a sentence-sense in the consciousness of the child. To this end, the sentence is taught in the beginning and then treated throughout, not as an |