TEACHING CHILDREN.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 November 1921, Page 5

TEACHING CHILDREN.

NEW METHODS ADVOCATED. AN INTERESTING ADDRESS. The teaching of infants of reading was the subject of an address given by Mr. J. A. Valentine (senior inspector) at a meeting of the Taranaki branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute on Saturday. About fifty teachere were present. In the course of an interesting discourse Mr. Valintine showed how by using the activity of the child development might be attained along lines different to the ordinary method. He urged special attention being given to the child’s voice production in relation to full sounds, and asked that teachers should particularly encourage the sounding of the initial and finish syllables with a view to the development of a purer form of speech. Dealing with the first portion of his subject, the speaker advised teachers to take account of the words used by children when they first came to school, pointing out that what the pupil knew at this stage was the result of the application of the natural senses with which all children were endowed. A grfeat deal of learning was acquired through the senses of touch and hearing, which Mr. Valintine referred to as the gateways of knowledge. He proceeded to advocate the use of objects with names attached to them to make the children familiar with written words, and pictures and cards could be adopted as a step further in this direction. The next step was in regard to phonic work, beginning by laying stress on initial sounds, and later requiring the children to find out themselves the initial sound of a word. Plasticine models and chalk drawings were valuable aids in fixing these phonic sounds in the children’s minds. Subsequently, the single words used in the early instruction being preserved on the cards, attempts at sentence building should be made with the same words. The use of nursery rhymes was advocated in the ■teaching of reading, in which children should be taught to familiarise themselves with the different objects mentioned, to pick them out readily, and finally make up the rhyme for themselves from the loose card words—an ae- ( complishment which no child would fail to be very proud of. In sentence-making the inspector advocated the use of ideas touching the daily life of children, particularly relating to district peculiarities. The ready recognition of a “cue” or “key” word in a sentence or paragraph added much to intelligent understanding of what was read or written. For reading, the matter of a correct attitude of body was stressed forcibly, and then clearness in articulation and enunciation should be insisted upon. Mr. Valentine said that if the teachers were doing their part in training good readers they were doing much to raise the genera] standard of excellence of education in New Zealand. There was much in good reading which' appealed to the aesthetic in our natures and it was a good thing to cultivate. I At the conclusion of the address a' hearty vote of thanks was accorded Mr.[: Valentina