carried them into a study of the organization, care, and use of libraries and of audio-visual materials when available. An eighth grade in Alabama that had helped select and order some supplementary reference books received the shipment early one morning. The class voted to postpone the work allotted to a social studies project that morning and to unpack and classify the books. From the new books, they expected to get information for the project under way. Besides, the children were eager to examine the books to see if they were all that had been hoped for. The pupils separated into small groups all over the room and each group took turns with a few of the books until all had had an opportunity to glance over most of the collection and either to put certain books aside or to sit for a while and read. After the examination, the pupils classified the books by subject, and a committee made catalog cards for them. In the junior high school of which the group just referred to is a part, one teacher teaches all or most of the subjects in each grade, just as in the elementary school. Consequently, teachers and pupils are free to work, as this class was doing, on centers of interest that draw on several subjects and to arrange the time of working to suit themselves each day. A South Dakota sixth grade studied how to use the library in gathering information for reports. The boys and girls needed several types of information for one of their studies. Each pupil accordingly was made responsible for gathering information on a certain topic. They discussed different ways of getting information, such as asking people, taking a trip to get first-hand facts either through interviews with people who know or by observation, and consulting newspapers, magazines, books, and other publications. The library was a fine source of published information, so the teacher helped them make a plan for studying the use of the library, and went to the library with them. She and the librarian helped them learn how books are classified, how to use the card index, how to make call cards, and how to locate the subject in which they were interested. Learning To Use an Encyclopedia Fourth-grade pupils in a Maine school wanted answers to some questions that had been raised. They needed a source of information that was broader and richer than their textbooks. The teacher thought this would be a good time to introduce the encyclopedia. A set of children's encyclopedias of 15 volumes was brought into the room. The boys and girls saw that there were thousands of pages of facts. They could see that it was going to be more difficult to find facts on any topic in the encyclopedia than it had been in their school readers, but that the encyclopedias had far more information. This time they knew that their readers and other textbooks did not have the answers, for they had carefully checked the table of contents and the index. In these big books with their thousands of pages, some new way of looking for facts would be of value. The teacher passed a volume about the class so that each child could turn the pages and see what it was like. One child used the index volume to see whether there was anything on "public housing," which they were studying. The children then checked to see which volume contained the page numbers listed in the index. They tried one or two other items for practice, discussing discoveries as they went along, asking questions, seeing how an encyclopedia is different from an ordinary reference book or textbook. The teacher pointed out that each child would now know where the volumes of the encyclopedia were kept and could use them whenever he thought such books would help. The South Dakota sixth grade referred to was observed looking up information in encyclopedias to compare with facts discovered in other books that the pupils thought were less reliable. When a pupil read a fact in an encyclopedia that had also been discovered in another book, he read to the class what the encyclopedia said, and the class discussed the agreement or disagreement in the two articles. Learning To Use the Dictionary Teachers help children from grades 4 through 6 to use a dictionary. This is done through direct instruction and incidentally. In a fifth grade in North Dakota, the teacher was observed helping the children to alphabetize lists of spelling words. As a rule, the spelling words in this class are the ones the children will need to spell in letters, stories, notices, announcements, and other things they write in connection with their activities. If these words are derivatives of simpler words, the teacher calls the children's attention to this fact. Then she helps them check the spelling of the words in a dictionary and gets the meaning and pronunciation. Through this attention to words she hopes to prepare the children to use a dictionary independently. Teachers in most schools help children learn to look up words quickly and get the information needed, whether it is the pronunciation, meaning, or spelling. In some schools, very young children use picture dictionaries. Characteristics of reading programs observed here and there include the following: (a) Boys and girls are reading with enjoyment at indi- (b) Through a variety of materials, children's interests (c) Through wise selection of materials and sympathetic (d) Teachers see evidence that children are growing in (e) Reading activities are closely associated with the Learning To Write and To Spell In the schools visited, many children were observed learning to write legibly and spontaneously about something important to them and learning to spell in order to write. In addition to seeing that children have opportunities to use their spelling and writing, teachers follow the suggestions of good curriculum guides or textbook manuals. Below are examples of children using writing and spelling in situations that make sense to them. Writing Letters Pupils in a North Dakota city corresponded with boys and girls in a children's hospital in an Eastern State. The teacher of the boys and girls in the hospital sent them a letter in which the Eastern children had written about the birds on the hospital grounds. It was the beginning of a correspondence that led the North Dakota pupils to observe more closely the birds in their environment and that extended the Eastern children's interests in birds beyond their hospital grounds. A sixth-grade class in Kansas had an important experience in writing to two sick classmates. They discussed the kinds of things they could write about appropriately in such letters. They talked about the form for writing friendly letters and referred to the textbook for facts they needed. When everyone had the information he needed, half the class wrote to one classmate and the other half wrote to the other classmate. The children also made a directory of the addresses of all the pupils in order that in the future various types of letters might be sent to classmates. A California kindergarten group wished to write to a child who had been absent for some time. They dictated what they wanted to say to the teacher. She wrote it on the blackboard for them and said, "I will copy it on letter paper for you. Now you can make some pictures to put with it if you wish." School Newspapers A Massachusetts elementary school emphasizes the value of a school newspaper in which pupils are informed about what goes on in their school. Members of the newspaper staff in this school meet to evaluate papers previously "published" by them and to plan ahead for the remaining school months. Meetings of the newspaper staff are characterized by an exchange of ideas and a courteous, informal, and friendly give and take when differences of opinion arise. Every pupil in the school has an opportunity to contribute. Through the paper, the children learn more than how to write legibly and spell correctly. They improve their use of parliamentary procedure. They discover the need for someone to act for the group, to carry out its decisions, and to lead discussions. Such work is assigned to the editor-in-chief. To a secretary is assigned the task of keeping a written record of decisions agreed upon in meetings. To the children of this school their newspaper is not making believe. "They are in dead earnest," writes the chairman of the education planning committee of the school. Through their work on the newspaper the children see a purpose in the use of punctuation marks, capital letters, and correct spelling. They learn to appreciate good form in writing at the same time that they are encouraged to be original and sincere in what they write. Teachers in other schools report similar results. Some say that through participating in the "publication" of a school newspaper, children gain in poise and understanding in working with others and in ability to get along with others and to work in groups. Efforts at Writing Poetry Especially capable children in a Nevada eighth-grade class liked poetry and read and reread poems that appealed to them. One day they decided to try writing poems. Below is a poem from a collection of more than 60 that the teacher gathered from the class. A WINTER SNOWFALL The snow is falling slowly, softly, silently. With each little snowflake the snow grows deeper. The grayness of the sky blends with the whiteness of the snow. And all this makes a beautiful winter pattern. Among considerations that appear to be thought important in learning to spell and to write are the following: (a) Early opportunities to recognize words as such in (b) Something important to write about. (c) Opportunities to write only a little at first, such as (d) Guidance in using phonics, analyzing words, finding (e) Study of individual words without help, using a Using Numbers Teachers in many of the schools that were observed try to have children use numbers in real situations with activities that make sense to them. Teachers try to give children experiences with numbers throughout the school day and not limit them to single short periods set apart for teaching about numbers abstractly. Opportunities occur for children to count the pupils in groups, |