ters for discussion, and should note certain
questions to be answered, indicating precisely where the information may
be obtained. In the recitation period following, the topic should be
fully discussed, the pupils giving the information they have secured
from the text-book, and the teacher supplementing this from his
knowledge gained through wider reading. During the discussion an outline
should be made on the board, largely by the suggestions of the pupils,
and kept in their note-books for reference and review. (See p. 100,
Lesson on the Feudal System.)
DRILL AND REVIEW
As has been already stated (p. 15), the Story stage is useful chiefly
for the purpose of arousing interest and developing the historical
sense; no drill or review is necessary other than the oral, and, in Form
II, sometimes the written, reproduction of the stories. The oral
reproduction can be obtained in Form I by using the stories as topics in
language lessons.
In the Information stage, where we are concerned more with the acquiring
of facts, and in the Reflective stage, where we wish to relate facts to
each other according to cause and effect, drills and reviews are
necessary. During the lesson, a summary is placed on the black-board by
the teacher or pupil, as indicated above. It is used as a guide in oral
reproduction and may also be copied in special note-books and used for
reference when preparing for review lessons. The teacher may look over
these note-books occasionally.
There is great difference of opinion on the value of note-taking by
pupils, but it may be said of such notes as those mentioned above that
they have the advantage of being largely the pupil's own work,
especially when the pupils are asked to suggest the headings; they are a
record of what has been decided in the class to be important points;
they are arranged in the order in which the subject has been treated in
the lesson, and are in every way superior to the small note-books in
history that are sometimes used as aids or helps. For the proper
teaching of history, the latter are hindrances rather than helps,
because they rob the pupil of the profit gained by doing the work for
himself. Notes obtained from books or dictated by the teacher are
harmful to the right spirit of study, and create a distaste for the
subject.
Special review lessons should be taken when a series of lessons on one
topic, or on a series of connected topics, has been finished. At the
close of
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