TABLE 2.—SETS OF SUPPLEMENTARY READING BOOKS PER BUILDING
Grade Average number of sets 1 10.0 2 6.3 3 5.1 4 5.5 5 6.3 6 5.3 7 5.5 8 6.A fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth-grade student ought to be able to read all the
materials supplied his grade, both reading texts and all kinds of supplementary
reading, in 40 or 50 hours. He ought to do it easily in six weeks' work, without
encroaching on recitation time. He can read all of it twice in 10 weeks; and three
times in 14 weeks. After reading everything three times over, there still remain
24 weeks of each year unprovided for.
The reply of teachers is that the work is so difficult that it has to be slowed down
enough to consume these 24 weeks. But is not this to admit that the hill is too
steep, that there is too much dead pull, and that the materials are ill-chosen for
practice in habits of rapid intelligent reading? It is not by going slow that one
learns to go fast. Quite the reverse. Too often the school runs on low speed gear
when it ought to be running on high. The low may be necessary for the starting,
but not for the running. It may be necessary in the primary grades, but not
thereafter for those who have had a normal start. Reading practice should
certainly make for increased speed in effective reading.
The actual work in the grades is very different from the plan suggested. In taking
up any selection for reading, the plan in most schools is about as follows:
- A list of the unusual words met with is written on the blackboard.
- Teacher and pupils discuss the meaning of these words; but unfortunately
words out of the context often carry no meaning. - The words are marked diacritically, and pronounced.
- Pupils "use the words in sentences." The pupil frequently has nothing to say
that involves the word. It is only given an imitation of a real use by being put
into an artificial sentence. - The oral reading is begun. One pupil reads a paragraph.
- With the book removed, the meaning of the paragraph is then reproduced
either by the reader or some other pupil. This work is necessarily perfunctory
because the pupil knows he is not giving information to anybody. Everybody