Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Literature Part 1

Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Literature.

by Ontario Ministry of Education.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

It is the purpose of this Manual to present the general principles on which the teaching of literature is based. It will distinguish between the intensive and the extensive study of literature; it will consider what material is suitable for children at different ages; it will discuss the reasons for various steps in lesson procedure; and it will ill.u.s.trate methods by giving, for use in different Forms, lesson plans in literature that is diverse in its qualities. This Manual is not intended to provide a short and easy way of teaching literature nor to save the teacher from expending thought and labour on his work. The authors do not propose to cover all possible cases and leave nothing for the teacher's ingenuity and originality.

WHAT IS LITERATURE?

Good literature portrays and interprets human life, its activities, its ideas and emotions, and those things about which human interest and emotion cl.u.s.ter. It gives breadth of view, supplies high ideals of conduct, cultivates the imagination, trains the taste, and develops an appreciation of beauty of form, fitness of phrase, and music of language. The term _Literature_ as used in this Manual is applied especially to those selections in the _Ontario Readers_ which possess in some degree these characteristics. Such selections are unlike the lessons in the text-books in grammar, geography, arithmetic, etc. In these the aim is to determine the facts and the conclusions to which they lead. Even in the Readers, there are some lessons of which this is partly true. For instance, the lesson on _Clouds, Rains, and Rivers_, by Tyndall, is such as might be found in a text-book in geography or science. Here the information alone is viewed as valuable, and the pupil will probably supplement what he has learned from the book by the study of material objects and natural phenomena. When this lesson is to be studied, the pupil should be taught not only to understand thoroughly what the author is expressing by his language, but also to appreciate the clearness and force with which he has given his message to the world. The pupil should be called upon to examine the author's ill.u.s.trations, his choice of words, and his paragraph and sentence structure.

Each literature lesson in the Reader has some particular force, or charm of thought and expression. There is found in these lessons, not only beauty of thought and feeling, but artistic form as well. In the highest forms of literature, the emotional element predominates, and it should be one to which all mankind, to a greater or less degree, are subject.

It is the predominance of these emotional and artistic elements which makes literature a difficult subject to teach. The element of feeling is elusive and can best be taught by the influence of contagion. There is usually less difficulty about the intellectual element, that is, about the meaning of words and phrases, the general thought of the lesson, and the relation of the thoughts to one another and to the whole.

THE QUALITIES THAT APPEAL TO CHILDREN AT DIFFERENT AGES

This is a psychological problem which can be solved only by a study of the interests and capacities of the children. These interests vary so greatly and make their appearance at such diverse periods in different individuals and in the two s.e.xes, that it is a difficult matter to say with any definiteness just what qualities of literature appeal to children at any particular age. Moreover, the children's environment and previous experiences have a great deal to do in determining these interests and capacities. There are, however, certain characteristics of different periods of childhood which are fairly universal, and which may, therefore, be taken as guiding, determining factors in the selection of suitable literature.

JUNIOR FORMS

1. One of the most striking characteristics of young children is the activity of their imagination. They endow their toys with life and personality; they construct the most fantastic and impossible tales; they accept without question the existence of supernatural beings. The problem for the teacher is to direct this activity of imagination into proper fields, and to present material which will give the child a large store of beautiful images--images that are not only delightful to dwell upon, but are also elevating and refining in their influence upon character. The fairy tale, the folk tale, and the fable, owe their popularity with young children to the predominance of the imaginative element. The traditionary fairy tales and folk stories are usually more suitable than those that appear in teachers' magazines and modern holiday books for children. The hardest thing for the educated mind to do is to write down to the level of children without coddling or becoming cynical. The old tales are sincere, simple, and full of faith.

They are not written for children, but are the romance of the people with whom they came into existence, and they have stood the test of ages.

The myth is usually not suitable for young children, as it is a religious story having a symbolic meaning which is beyond their interpretation. If it is used at all, only the story in it should be given.

2. Stories of adventure, courage, and the defence of the helpless appeal very strongly to young children. Even the cruelties and crudities of _Bluebeard_, _Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves_, and _Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp_ do not alarm or repel children very much, owing to their lack of experience in these matters. Stories based on the love of the s.e.xes are unsuitable for children of this age, although it const.i.tutes the chief element in stories for older people.

3. The child is also interested in stories of simple games, of animals and birds, and of the material world on which so much of his happiness depends. These stories are corrective of the desire which characterizes some children for too many fairy stories. The fairy story and the nature story should be alternated, so that the child's interests may be imaginative without becoming visionary, and practical without becoming prosaic.

4. Most children have a keen sense of the musical qualities of verse.

The child of two years of age will give his attention to the rhythm of the nursery rhyme when the prose story will not interest him. The consideration and a.n.a.lysis of these musical qualities should be deferred for years; but it is probable that the foundation for a future appreciation of poetry is often laid by an acquaintance with the rhymes of childhood.

5. The element of repet.i.tion appeals strongly to children. In this lies the attractiveness of the "c.u.mulative story", in which the same incident, or feature, or form of expression is repeated again and again with some slight modification; for example, the story of _Henny Penny_, _The Gingerbread Boy_, and _The Little Red Hen_. The choruses and the refrains of songs are pleasant for this reason.

_Silverlocks and the Three Bears_ is an example of a story that has many attractive features. Silverlocks is an interesting girl, because she is mischievous and adventurous. The pupils know a good deal about bears and wild animals from picture books, stories, and perhaps the travelling menageries. The bears have all proper names--Rough Bruin, Mammy m.u.f.f, and Tiny; this gives an air of reality to the story. The bears speak in short, characteristic sentences.

Silverlocks runs away from home, goes into the woods, and finds a lonely house which is the home of the bears. They are not at home, so she enters. These actions suggest mystery and adventure.

The construction of the story shows two chief divisions, with three subdivisions. The second division begins with the return of the bears.

They find the soup has been tasted, the chairs disturbed, and the beds rumpled; their conversation is interesting, and their tones characteristic. Tiny, the little bear, suffers most; he enlists the sympathy of the children, as he has lost his dinner and his chair is broken. He discovers Silverlocks, but she escapes and "never runs away from home any more".

SENIOR FORMS (BOOKS III AND IV)

1. In these Forms, the pupil's imagination is still strong, though less fantastic and under better control, and hence stories involving a large element of imagination retain their charm at this stage. The myth, and longer and more involved fairy tales, such as Ruskin's _King of the Golden River_, Hawthorne's _Wonder Book_, and Kingsley's _Greek Heroes_, are read with avidity.

2. Stories involving _a number of incidents_ are wonderfully attractive.

This is due to the pupil's instinctive interest in action and personality. Children are more deeply interested in persons who _do_ things than in those who _become_ something else than they were. A description of some evolution of character very soon palls, but a stirring tale of heroic deeds exerts a powerful fascination. This explains the attractiveness of the hero tale, the story of adventure, and the stirring historical narrative. The action should have the merit of artistic moderation. Stories in which there is a carnival of action, for example, the "dime thriller", under whose spell so many boys fall, must be avoided. Literature that leaves the mind so feverish that the pupil loses interest in other subjects is worse than no literature. The easiest way to prevent a taste for this injurious kind, is to give the pupil an acquaintance with works descriptive of n.o.ble deeds and virile character. An interest in epic poetry or the historical novel may be developed from the child's instinctive interest in action. Tennyson's _Pa.s.sing of Arthur_, Arnold's _Sohrab and Rustum_, Longfellow's _Evangeline_ and _King Robert of Sicily_, and Scott's _Ivanhoe_ will be read with keen enjoyment. The force and beauty of the language, the faithfulness of the descriptions to life, the historical setting, the lofty imagery, and the logical development will arouse a healthy mental appet.i.te that will find no pleasure in the worthless story of sensation and vulgar incident, or even in some badly constructed compositions of historical adventure.

3. The pupils of the Senior Forms show even more striking interest in animals, pets, and wild creatures than do the pupils of the Junior Forms. To this natural interest is due the engrossing character of nature study. To it is also due the satisfaction arising from the reading of some of the many nature stories that have appeared in recent years.

Thompson-Seton's _Wild Animals I have Known_ and _Lives of the Hunted_, and Roberts' _The Watchers of the Trails_ are excellent examples of this cla.s.s.

COMPLETE WHOLES VERSUS EXTRACTS

Scattered throughout the _Ontario Readers_ are to be found extracts from larger works. These extracts are placed there primarily because they have some special literary value. They have fairly complete unity in themselves and can be treated in detail in a way that would be impossible with a whole story. The extract has an advantage over the whole, in that it repays intensive study, while, in many cases, such study of the whole work would not be worth while. It is considered better to give the pupil many of these pa.s.sages where the author has shown his greatest art, rather than to allow one long work to absorb the very limited time which the pupil can devote to this subject. The study of the extract will have accomplished its mission if it induces the pupil to read the larger work for himself in later years. If the treatment by the teacher is made as interesting as it should be, it is hoped that the pupil will obtain such delight from, and be inspired to such enthusiasm by, these glimpses of literary treasures, that he will not be satisfied until he has enjoyed in their entirety such works as _The Lady of the Lake_, _Pickwick Papers_, _Lorna Doone_, _The Mill on the Floss_, _Julius Caesar_, and _It is Never Too Late to Mend_. An extract may serve as an introduction to the choicest work of an author, may arouse an interest in his writings, and give the pupils a taste of his quality, but, unless it whets their appet.i.tes for the work as a whole, its chief purpose will not have been accomplished. These extracts cannot give a panoramic view of a great historical epoch. They do not require that sustained attention that relates to-day's readings with that of yesterday, and that takes a wider survey of many parts in their relation to a central theme. The larger work gives a culture and a liberal education, when it is treated in the proper manner, that is very different from the fragmentary knowledge of an author that would be gained by even the intensive study of many short extracts. The treatment of the extract, as we have said, must be minute; while the whole work should be subsequently read in a method that will be outlined later on under the head of Supplementary Reading.

CORRELATION OF LITERATURE WITH NATURE STUDY, GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND ART

Many of the lessons in the _Ontario Readers_ should be preceded by preparatory work in geography, history, or nature study. Poems such as _Jacques Cartier_, _The Charge of the Light Brigade_, _The Burial of Sir John Moore_, and _The Armada_ cannot be fully appreciated unless the historical setting is known. There are famous pictures that will increase the pupil's interest in these poems. In the lessons on art, there are studies of pictures that suggest feelings and thoughts characterized by universality, permanency, and n.o.bility--pictures that stir men to n.o.bler thought and higher aspiration. Often, such pictures are the painter's method of expressing in colours, thoughts that the poet has expressed in words. Lessons such as _Dandelions_, _Bob White_, and _The Sandpiper_ require a preliminary acquaintance with certain facts of nature, and therefore should be taken, if possible, when these can be obtained through personal observation by the pupils. _Wolfe and Montcalm_ and Drake's _Voyage Around the World_ demand, in addition to historical facts, certain geographical data. These facts and data should be communicated at some time before the lessons in literature are taken, in order that the latter may not descend into lessons in history, geography, or natural science. The extracts mentioned above are not placed in the Readers to teach certain historical, geographical, or scientific facts. They are placed there, as has been said, primarily because they have some value as literature. Hence the literature lesson should require few digressions, the necessary preparatory work having been done in previous periods.

But while history, geography, nature study, and art frequently a.s.sist in the interpretation of a poem or prose selection, these subjects, on the other hand, may be reinforced and strengthened by selections drawn from the fields of literature. The facts of the history lesson will be given an additional attractiveness if the pupil is directed to some well-written biography or drama embodying the same facts, or if the teacher reads or recites to the cla.s.s some spirited ballad, such as _Bonnie Dundee_, bearing upon the lesson. The interest in the observations made in nature study will be intensified by reading some nature story written in good literary form.

While these studies may go hand in hand with literature, it is not necessary that they should be always taken on the same day or even in the same week. The literature lesson may be an effective agent in the recall of ideas that have had time to be a.s.similated from previous nature study, history, or geography lessons. In our enthusiasm for literature we must not make these subjects the mere soil and fertilizers out of which the flowers of poetry will spring. Each of these subjects has its proper sphere, but that teacher misses many golden opportunities who does not frequently take a comprehensive survey of his material in all these studies in order to find the element that will give a unity to all our knowledge and experience. The lessons in the Reader may be taken according to the conditions existing in the cla.s.s or the inclination of the teacher. By no means is it necessary to follow the order in the book.

AIMS IN TEACHING LITERATURE

The teacher should always have a clear and definite aim in view in teaching a selection in literature, but different teachers may have different aims in teaching the same selection. There should, of course, always be the general aim to create a taste for good literature by leading the pupils to appreciate the beauty and power of clear and artistic expression of thought and feeling; but this aim must be specific according to the nature of the selection to be taught. Some specific aims may be given as suggestive:

1. To appeal suitably to such instinctive tastes and interests of childhood as are already awake and active; for example, Second Reader, p. 3, _My Shadow_; p. 185, _A Visit from St. Nicholas_; p. 125, _Little Gustava_; p. 215, _The Children's Hour_.

2. To awaken and develop interests and tastes that are as yet dormant; for example, Second Reader, p. 42, _A Song for Little May_; p. 88, _The Brown Thrush_.

3. To develop and direct the imagination; for example, Second Reader, p.

72, _The New Moon_; p. 117, _Little Sorrow_; p. 45, _The Little Land_; p. 172, _The Wind_.

4. To arouse and quicken the sense of beauty; for example, Second Reader, p. 92, _Mother's World_; p. 155, _Lullaby_.

5. To exercise and cultivate the emotions; for example, Second Reader, p. 94, _Androclus and the Lion_; p. 135, _Ulysses_; p. 107, _A Night with a Wolf_.

6. To develop manners and morals through examples of character and conduct in action; for example, Second Reader, p. 114, _Joseph II and the Grenadier_.

7. To develop appreciation for the well-told story; for example, Second Reader, p. 5, _The Pail of Gold_; p. 12, _How I Turned the Grindstone_; p. 56, _The Blind Men and the Elephant_; p. 211, _How the Greeks Took Troy_.

8. To develop a true sense of humour; for example, Second Reader, p. 50, _Change About_.

9. To develop a sense of reverence; for example, Second Reader, p. 203, _The Lord is my Shepherd_; p. 218, _Abide With Me_.