Page 63 - 1916 February - To Dragma

142 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

B. Verb

1. Tense
2. Synopsis

How shall we know whether the child does this or not? T h i s
scheme w i t h me has worked f a i r l y w e l l . The child brings to class a
statement which reads " I have (or I have not) f a i t h f u l l y prepared
my lesson according to directions," giving the date and signing his
name. T h e teacher then has these statements f o r reference and help,
to keep or to send home to the parents, as she w i l l .

I f the lesson contains a vocabulary, give as part of the assignment
this: Test yourself by w r i t i n g on the vocabulary before you come
to class. Then after correcting your paper, write the words or
principal parts which you did not know, until you are familiar with
them.

I like to have the child grade himself on his power of concentra-
tion. H e enjoys the "game" of seeing how many hundreds he can
get for concentration during translation or correction of board work.
O f t e n I ask him to mark on a piece o f paper 1 0 0 % , i f he has
f o l l o w e d the discussion of a sentence attentively. I t is surprising to
f i n d out how attentive some o r d i n a r i l y unattentive pupils can be,
when they really try, and when there is some end, other than a
knowledge of Latin, in view.

R u n v D A V I S , Chi ' 1 4 ,
Teacher in Gloversville, N. Y.

SOME POEMS FOR T H E HISTORY CLASS

When you are teaching Henry I in English history, be sure to

read aloud Rossetti's The White Ship. Y o u may rest assured that

your boys and girls w i l l never forget Henry I i f they know him

through that poem as the k i n g "who never smiled again."

I t is a little out of one's way, I grant, to study much about James I
of Scotland, the king, who when a boy was captured on his way to
France, and taken to England in those stormy times of Lancaster
and York. But it is worth the deviation in order that you may read
that other poem of Rossetti's The King's Tragedy, and the shud-
ders which Kate Barlass' brave but horrible act w i l l cause, w i l l
make many things of that difficult period more real and lasting to
your class.

I n this way read Longfellow's "Emma and Eigenhard" from
The Tales of the Wayside Inn when you are studying Charle-
magne, and "Torquemada" f r o m the same collection when you are
in the horrors of the Inquisition.