Excerpt from Word From Word Readers, Vol. 1

Actual schoolroom experience has convinced the author that the same or a similar process must be followed in teaching the child to recognize printed symbols. As in speaking, the basal or germinal words must be learned by memory, and then from these many others may be derived simply and naturally.

Five hundred thirty-four different words are used in the selections in this book. One-third of these are basal or germinal words and must be named for the pu pils and memorized by them. From these are derived simply and directly not only the remainder of the five hundred thirty-four but about a thousand other wordsthat will be encountered by the child in later reading books.

Readers for beginners which present uninteresting, de tached sentences are no longer used by the most successful teachers of reading. The short jingle or Mother Goose rhyme or the fable seems to be the simplest and most natural unit in reading. The first selection to be read should be one that the child already knows word for word. He should then by his own effort, if possible, find out what the words are, instead of being told by the teacher. The Mother Goose rhymes with which this book begins are chosen with this purpose in view. Let the teacher for the first few days have the children repeat from memory Mother Goose rhymes, making sure that all can repeat Jack and Jill. Then give them their books and, beginning with the first rhyme, have them repeat it and point out the words. The rhyme is fol lowed by a number of parodies in which the word changes are few. The children will find these interesting and easy to read because few new words are introduced. N o harm is done if the jingles are read memoriter, provided the teaching of the word families 1s thorough.

In teaching the new words, each should be derived whenever possible from a word or words already known. An explanation of the method and directions for using the word lists are given on pages 126 to 128.

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