THOS. C. BLAISDELL, A. M. PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE FIFTH AVENUE NORMAL HIGH SCHOOL PITTSBURG, PA. NEW YORK .:. CINCINNATI ... CHICAGO Educ T 759.03.560 221 July, 1907. Cift of the Publishers TRANSFERRED TO COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. Entered at Stationers' Hall, London. STEPS IN ENGLISH, ONE. W. P. 22. PLAN AND PURPOSE. -THIS Volume consists of work for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th years of the child's school life, one exercise for each school day. These exercises may, of course, be taken in larger or smaller groups, at the discretion of the teacher. Each year has : Ten weeks' Observation Lessons. Ten weeks' Study of Pictures. Ten weeks' Study of Stories and Poems. Five weeks' Study of Notes and Letters. Each week's work contains four daily exercises in composition and one in elementary grammar. The authors are indebted to the late Dr. E. E. White for the suggestion of this grouping, his idea being to keep the child on one line of work until a good degree of proficiency is attained. Composition deals with the creative and the constructive faculties; grammar with the analytic. The most effective school work in composition is done by inciting pupils to speak and to write with the utmost freedom, without hampering them in the beginning with rules. When a satisfactory degree of ease and proficiency is attained, grammatical exercises may be introduced with profit. The composition exercises given are not intended to teach reading, natural history, or spelling, but if possible to induce the pupil to say or to write something. The Observation Lessons are intended to suggest, for |