Teach the meaning of words in the connection in which they are used. See that they comprehend the meaning of all words in the lesson, and also know how to spell them. This is especially important in the lower grades. Have them use the dictionary in connection with the reading, but be careful that they select the correct definition.

Give frequent exercises in the pronunciation of difficult words. Spare no pains to secure correct articulation. It is well to give frequent exercises in breathing and articulation. Have the pupil stand erect when reading. No one can read well in an unnatural posi

tion.

The greater part of the reading in the world is done silently and mentally. The object of the teaching in the higher grades is to teach the pupils to think as they read and gather in the thoughts from the printed page. To do this, it is well to give the pupil a selection to read silently, and then have him tell what he has read. Encourage a spirit of reading among your pupils. There is no way to learn how except to read. It is no use in having children read the same thing over and over after they have once learned it. Give them something new to read. In the lower grades they should read at least two series of readers instead of one. In the higher grades let them read some story in the class or selections from the newspapers occasionally. The teacher should make the selections. Irving's "Sketchbook" would be good for the higher grades. They would not only learn to read, but would become familiar with some of the finest prose writings in the language.

Do not permit a pupil to be interrupted by criticisms while he is reading. Encourage pupils to criticise each other, but do not allow criticisms to run into needless fault-finding. Be careful how you criticise. All errors should be corrected, but be more anxious to commend than to find fault.

Concert reading should be used occasionally as a drill. It will encourage the backward and restrain the forward. Concert reading will never take the place of individual instruction, however. In poetry it is well, sometimes, to have each pupil read only one line. It arouses attention. Do not call upon pupils to read in regular order. Let them read occasionally to a pause and then call on some one else to read.

The class should be able to understand every word spoken by the pupil reading without looking on their books. There is no excuse for pupils not speaking so they can be heard.

Take a short story of some kind and cut it into sections, and distribute the parts to the members of the class. Call on the one who has the first part to read. As the story is new to them, it will require close attention to tell which one will read next.

It

In advanced reading, the same as primary reading, more depends upon the teacher than the method. is your duty to interest the pupils in the reading lesUntil the pupils are interested in their lessons, they will never become good readers.

son.

EXAMPLES FOR PRACTICE.

SUBDUED, VERY SLOW, VERY LOW.

1. Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame, fresh and gory;
We carved not a line, we raised not a stone,
But we left him alone in his glory.

GIVE ALMS.

2. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door;
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span;

Oh! give relief, and heaven will bless your store.

SPRING.

3. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day;
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

-Gray.

4. I come! I come! you have called me long,

I come o'er the mountains with light and song,
You may trace my steps o'er the wakening earth,
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth,
By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass,
By the green leaves opening as I pass.

DREAM OF DARKNESS.

5. I had a dream which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,-
Rayless and pathless; and the icy earth swung
Blinding and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went and brought no day.
The world was void.

6. Io! they come, they come.

-Hemans.

7. His extortion is not like the rapacity of the princely eagle that snatches away its living, struggling prey; he is a vulture that feeds upon the prostrate, the dying, and the dead. -Burke.

8. Forward the light brigade,

Charge for the guns.

9. I tell you, though you, though the whole world, though an angel from heaven, were to declare the truth of it, I would not believe it.

10. Whence, and what art thou, execrable shape?

11. Ah! mercy on my soul! What is that? My old friend's ghost? No nearer, I pray!

12. Leave me! Thy footstep with its lightest sound,
The very shadow of thy waving hair,

Wakes in my soul a feeling too profound.

13. Soldiers, you are now within a few steps of the enemy's outposts!

Our scouts report them slumbering around their watch-fires, utterly unprepared.

Swift and noiseless we are upon them, we capture them without resistance.

14. OI have passed a miserable night!

So full of fearful dreams and ugly sights.

15. The father came on deck, he gasped,
Oh, God! thy will be done!"
Then suddenly a rifle grasped,
And aimed it at his son;
"Jump far out boy, into the wave;
Jump or I fire," he said;

"This chance alone your life can save,
Jump, jump!" the boy obeyed.

16. Princes, potentates, warriors!
Awake, arise, or be forever fallen!

17. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a single foreign troop remained in my country I would never lay down my arms, never, NEVER, NEVER.

18. Thou too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity, with all its fears,

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Are all with thee, are all with thee.

19. We watched her breathing through the night,

Her breathing soft and low,

As in her breast the wave of life
Kept heaving to and fro.

20. Haste me to know it, so that'

With wings as swift as meditation,

I may sweep to my revenge.

21. "Good morning, Lizzie, I am glad to see you. When did you arrive?"

"I came on last train."

"Are you well?"

"Quite well; I thank you."

22. Hamlet. Hold you the watch to-night?

All. We do, my lord.

Ham. Armed, say you?

All. From head to foot.

Ham. Then saw you not his face?

Hor. O! yes, my lord, he wore his beaver up.

Shakespeare.

23. I know the more one sickens, the worse at ease he is that the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn, and that the great cause of the night is the lack of the sun. Shakespeare.

24. Children prattle, ladies smile, men talk, goats stamp, dogs yelp, and geese hiss. Accept your classification.

25. They are gone, they are gone, the glimmering sparks hath fled!

The wife and child are numbered with the dead.

26. And now farewell! 'Tis hard to give thee up,

With death so like a gentle slumber on thee!
And thy dark sin! Oh! I could drink the cup,
If from this woe its bitterness had won thee.
May God have called thee, like a wanderer, home,
My lost boy, Absalom!

Willis.

27. Then this ebony bird, beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, “art

sure no craven,

Ghastly grim, and ancient raven, wandering from the nightly shore.

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the night's Plutonian shore!"

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

28. Have ye brave sons? Look in the next fierce brawl

To see them die. Have ye fair daughters? Look
To see them live, torn from your arms, distained,
Dishonored; and if ye dare call for justice,

Be answered by the lash.

Yet this-is Rome,

That sat on her seven hills, and from her throne
Of beauty, ruled the world! and we are Romans.

Why, in elder day, to be a Roman,

Was greater than a king!

And once again

Hear me, ye walls, that echoed to the tread
Of either Brutus! Once again, I swear,

The eternal city shall be free.

Poe.

29. O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers? whence are thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty;