1. A list of the unusual words met with is written on the blackboard.

2. Teacher and pupils discuss the meaning of these words; but
unfortunately words out of the context often carry no meaning.

3. The words are marked diacritically, and pronounced.

4. Pupils "use the words in sentences." The pupil frequently has
nothing to say that involves the word. It is only given an imitation
of a real use by being put into an artificial sentence.

5. The oral reading is begun. One pupil reads a paragraph.

6. With the book removed, the meaning of the paragraph is then
reproduced either by the reader or some other pupil. This work is
necessarily perfunctory because the pupil knows he is not giving
information to anybody. Everybody within hearing already has the
meaning fresh in mind from the previous reading. The normal child
cannot work up enthusiasm for oral reproduction under such conditions.

7. The paragraph is analyzed into its various elements, and these in
turn are discussed in detail.

Such work is not reading. It is analysis. A selection is not read, it
is analyzed. The purpose of real reading is to enter into the thought
and emotional experience of the writer; not to study the methods by
which the author expressed himself. The net result when the work is
done as described is to develop a critical consciousness of methods,
without helping the children to enter normally and rightly into the