lesson suggests an interesting story or illustration, or some
additional bit of information, and the teacher starts to tell it to
the class. He becomes himself so interested in it that the lesson is
forgotten and the class period ended long before the story is
completed. This may do occasionally; but, once it becomes a habit, it
is fatal to good teaching. The recitation as prepared by the class
should be the chief interest of the class period. The teacher must
learn to supplement without monopolizing.


7. _The written recitation_

The written recitation can hardly be called a method, since it can be
itself applied to any or all of the methods of reciting. Like all
other methods, the written recitation has its strong points of
excellence and also its dangers.

_a. The use of the written recitation._--The written recitation is
especially useful in cases where all of the class should recite upon
all of the lesson. It is easy to see that by having each of a class of
ten answer ten questions, a far larger amount of answering is done in
the aggregate than if only one could answer at a time, as in oral
recitation.

There are certain kinds of knowledge that are seldom used except in
writing. For example, we are never called upon to spell or to use
letter forms, business forms, punctuation marks, etc., except in
writing. It is safe to say that matter of such kinds should usually be
taught by having it written.