t Queenston
Heights?" or "What province lies west of Manitoba?" the natural answers
are "General Brock," or "Saskatchewan." To require pupils to say, "The
British officer killed at Queenston Heights was General Brock," or "The
province west of Manitoba is Saskatchewan," would be to make the
recitation unnatural and formal. When answers are a mere echo of the
question, with some slight inversion or addition, they become
exceedingly mechanical, and useless from the point of view of language
training. While it is desirable to avoid, as far as possible, questions
that admit of answers of a single word or short phrase, such questions
are sometimes necessary and are not objectionable. Questions should not
be thrown into the form of an elliptical statement in which the pupil
merely fills a blank, for example, "The capital of Ontario is...?" "The
first English parliament was called by...?" Nor should they be given in
inverted form, as, "Montreal is situated where?" "The Great Charter was
signed by what king?" Alternative questions such as, "Is this a noun or
an adjective?" "Was Charles I willing or unwilling to sign the Petition
of Right?" as well as those questions that are answerable by "Yes" or
"No," require little thought to answer and should be avoided if
possible. When they are used, the pupil should at once be required to
give reasons for his answer. Neither the form of the question nor the
teacher's tone of voice or manner should afford any inkling as to the
answer expected.

=Calling for Answers.=--In order that the attention of the whole class
may be maintained, the question should be proposed before the pupil who
is to answer is indicated. No fixed order in calling upon the pupils
should be adopted. If the pupils are never certain beforehand who is to
be named to answer the question, they are more likely to be kept
constantly on the alert. The questions should be carefully distributed
among the class, the duller pupils being given rather more and easier
questions than the brighter ones. One of the temptations that the
teacher has to overcome is that of giving the clever and willing pupils
the majority of the questions. The question should seldom be repeated
unless the first wording is so unfortunate that the meaning is not clear
and it is found necessary to recast it. To repeat questions habitually
is to put a premium on inattention on the part of the pupils. A bad
habit often noted among teachers is that of wording