Second reading

“ In the Primer, the First Reader, and the Second Reader, the words of the vocabulary are arranged in the order in which they first occur, and are grouped by pages in a word list placed in the back of the book. Since teachers usually write unfamiliar words upon the blackboard and develop them in a word drill preceding the reading lesson, it has not been thought necessary to place the new words at the beginning of each lesson. ”

“ Point out four lines that should be read more quietly than the rest of the lesson.
Vary the reading by having parts of lesson read as a concert exercise.
What effect has the repetition of the word now, in the second and third lines?
Language Lesson.—Let pupils write six sentences, each containing one of the following words, used in such a manner as to show its proper meaning: right, write; reed, read; tied, tide.
Let pupils make out an analysis of the lesson, and use it in giving the story in their own words.
LESSON XLI.
veg e ta'tion, every thing that grows out of the ground. ”

“ In teaching the art of Reading as well as that of Composition, the principle of order should in a great measure determine the value of the methods to be employed. In the acquisition of knowledge, the child instinctively follows the order of nature. This order is first, observation; second, thought; third, expression. It becomes the duty of the teacher, consequently, to lead the child to observe accurately, to think clearly, and to express his thoughts correctly. ”

“ Occasionally, however, in each book exercises somewhat more difficult or of a more or less unusual nature have been included, [Pg v] because everyone, old or young, is called upon to read a variety of material, and pupils should have some experience with selections that require special effort.
Why we read. Most of the reading which we do has one of three purposes: we read for information; we read for instruction; we read for appreciation or entertainment. ”

“ The aim of the reading must be to enable the pupil to understand each idea as it is presented, to combine these ideas to get the thought of the sentence, and to follow the chain of thought from sentence to sentence until he grasps the meaning of the paragraph, essay, story, or poem, as a whole. As rapidly as the maturity of the pupil permits, other elements that aid in the better understanding of a piece of literature may be considered in connection with the reading. ”

“ In a parallel sense, if we once inspire in the children the desire to convey the message of the text, the accessories of inflection and tone will become theirs. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that these lesser phases of good reading will be secured if properly subordinated to one great aim—the desire to communicate thought. ”

“ The reading which we should desire to cultivate is intelligent reading, that is, it should express the meaning of each passage clearly; sympathetic reading, that is, it should convey the feeling delicately ”

“ The keen inquiring reader, however, the reader who wants to know values and to get, in the eloquent phrase of the day, all that's coming to him, will have the whole story by beginning the book with the note on the Appreciation of Scenery, and reading it consecutively, interpolated notes and all. ”

“ The helps to study are more than mere notes; they take into account the larger purposes of the literature. Especially illuminating are the selection “The Three Joys of Reading,” pages 9-14, and the Introductions to Parts II, III, and IV; these should be read by pupils before beginning the study of the selections in the several groups, for they interpret and give greater significance to the units. ”

“ There are not, however, many references to book study; and such as we find are chiefly directed to the one aim of painful and laborious examination, first, of an author's meaning, and next of the goodness of his arguments. Two or three sentences will give the clue. "Those who have read of everything, are thought to understand everything too; but it is not always so. Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking makes what we read ours. ”

“ The first lecture says, or tries to say, that, life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books; ”

“ All the selections, both in prose and in verse, have been made with constant reference to their suitableness for the teaching of reading. They are fitted to exemplify every mode of expression, except, perhaps, that appropriate to a few of the stronger passions. ”

“ For even a moderate proficiency in the art of reading two requirements are essential: (1) A cultivated mind quick to perceive the sequence of thoughts which the words to be read logically express, and equally quick in its power sympathetically to appreciate the sentiment with which the words are informed—the feeling, emotion, passion, which pervades them—but which they suggest rather than actually portray ”

“ How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! ”

“ In reading aloud, the eyes keep well ahead of the voice, and seeing, understanding and pronouncing are all applied simultaneously to different words of the passage read. In talking, the ideas keep developing and the spoken words tag along behind. ”

“ The volume before us is the result of much deep feeling, which manifested and employed itself in careful research, close reading, sustained reflection, and an able exposition of the results of all those processes. ”

“ Eventually several stories may be collected and sewed together, so as to form a little reading-book which is the result of the constructive work of teacher and pupils.
The reading lessons just described are entirely separate from the oral treatment and reproduction of the stories; yet the thought and interest awakened in the oral work are helpful in keeping up a lively effort in the reading class. The thought material in a good story is itself a mental stimulus, and produces a wakefulness which is favorable to imprinting the forms as well as the content of thought. ”

“ This close dependence of reading proper, in earlier years, upon the oral treatment of stories as a preliminary, is based fundamentally upon the idea that suitable and interesting thought matter is the true basis of progress in reading, and that the strengthening of the taste for good books is a much greater thing than the mere acquisition of the art of reading. The motive with which children read or try to learn to read is, after all, of the greatest consequence. ”

“ Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! People who really care for books read all of them. There is no other course. ”

“ When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teacher has outlined in pencil: so in reading; the greater part of the work of thought is already done for us. This is why it relieves us to take up a book after being occupied with our own thoughts. And in reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another's thoughts. ”

“ It is certain, that several learned men, who have written concerning the second-sight, have demonstrated by incontestable proofs, and undeniable arguments, that children, nay, even horses and cows, see the second-sight, as well as men and women advanced in years. But of this I shall discourse at large in its proper place, having allotted a whole future chapter for that same subject of second-sightedness. ”

“ No, give me the past. It doesn’t change; it’s all there in black and white, and you can get to know about it comfortably and decorously and, above all, privately—by reading. ”

“ The reader, who is thinking as he [Pg 11] reads, will group together words that express one idea, or symbolize one picture, presenting these ideas and pictures to himself and to the listener one by one, and separating by a pause, of greater or less length, those not closely connected. ”

“ V A GOSSIP ON ROMANCE In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process itself should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean out of ourselves, and rise from the perusal, our mind filled with the busiest, kaleidoscopic dance of images, incapable of sleep or of continuous thought. The words, if the book be eloquent, should run thence-forward in our ears like the noise of breakers, and the story, if it be a story, repeat itself in a thousand coloured pictures to the eye. ”

“ That of all the several ways of beginning a book which are now in practice throughout the known world, I am confident my own way of doing it is the best—I'm sure it is the most religious—for I begin with writing the first sentence—and trusting to Almighty God for the second. ”

“ It will be seen at a glance that any one of the subjects dealt with might be made the study of a lifetime, and that the little information given in each lecture is only enough to make the reader long for more. ”

“ Seven or eight hours afterwards, when the fit returned, she asked for the book, went on at the very paragraph where she had left off, and remembered every circumstance of the narrative. And so it always is; she reads one set of books during one state, and another during the other. ”

“ Whatever book or sentence will bear to be read twice, we may be sure was thought twice. ”

“ There are two methods for the literary study of any book—the first being the study of its thought and emotion; the second only that of its workmanship. A student of literature should study some of the Bible from both points of view. ”

“ whatever truth you have chosen, read only a small portion of it, endeavoring to taste and digest it, to extract the essence and substance of it, and proceed no farther while any savor or relish remains in the passage: then take up your book again, and proceed as before, seldom reading more than half a page at a time. ”

“ The points of view from which a story may be seen and told are many and various; but they may all be grouped into two classes, the internal and the external. A story seen internally is narrated in the first person by one of its participants; a story seen externally is narrated in the third person by a mind aloof from the events depicted. ”

“ If a story, otherwise good, opens poorly—is too wordy, too descriptive, too pedantic—study the story carefully for its main interest and, selecting just the right words to convey this overture of interest, begin there. It will be discovered that certain of the classic, favorite tales of childhood fulfill this story test. They open compellingly and carry the interest that was stimulated in the first paragraph clear through to the end. ”

“ What can we see or acquire, but what we are? You have observed a skilful man reading Virgil. Well, that author is a thousand books to a thousand persons. Take the book into your two hands, and read your eyes out; you will never find what I find. ”

“ To comprehend how I can become in any sense aware of the series of successive words that constitutes the line of verse, such students of our problem are accustomed to say that when any one word as passing, or day, is present to my mind, the other words, even of the same line, can be present to consciousness only as coexistent memories or images of the former words, or as images of the expected coming words. ”

“ Then I thought of reading—the nice and subtle happiness of reading. This was enough, this joy not dulled by Age, this polite and unpunished vice, this selfish, serene, life-long intoxication. ”

“ The greatest pleasures of reading consist in re-reading. ”

“ In its truest sense, reading is far more comprehensive. The teacher will question the pupil on what he has read, point out to him the beauties of thought and language, find out what hold the reading has taken upon his memory, how it has aroused his imagination, assisted his judgment, directed his will, and contributed to his fund of general information. To assist in this most important work is the object aimed at in the matter given for Language Study. Such study will also give fuller powers of interpretation and corresponding appreciation of the selection considered simply as literature. ”

“ “Because reading books and having them bound are two different stages of development, and there’s a vast gulf between them. ”

“ Learning -- particularly that sort which is not derived from a regular course of instruction but comes of the reading of occult books, or by nature. ”

“ How patiently you've waited,
And I'm afraid that you expect
Some tale will be related.
O Reader! had you in your mind
Such stores as silent thought can bring,
O gentle Reader! you would find
A tale in every thing. ”

“ When you read a chapter or hear one read, listen and watch to see what He saith unto you in it. There is another way in which He tells us what to do. Do you not hear a little voice inside that always tells you to do the right thing, and not to do the wrong thing? ”

“ The vice goes so far, indeed, that you may divide literature into two great classes of books. The smaller class of the two consists of the books written by people who had something to say. They had in life learned something, or seen something, or done something, which they really wanted and needed to tell to other people. They told it. And their writings make, perhaps, a twentieth part of the printed literature of the world. It is the part which contains all that is worth reading. The other nineteen-twentieths make up the other class. ”

“ Before he leaves, it may be a good idea to take down in shorthand notes and memorize a convincing lecture with illustrations which may succeed in influencing and possibly converting terrestrial men to our way. ”

“ After all, what is reading but a vice, like drink or venery or any other form of excessive self-indulgence? One reads to tickle and amuse one’s mind; one reads, above all, to prevent oneself thinking. ”