Let us now explain the details of the exercises shown on our table.
=Reading.=--The proceeding we adopt consists essentially in distinguishing five grades of reading:
1. _Sub-Syllabic._--The child reads in syllables, but very slowly and with many mistakes.
2. _Syllabic._--This consists in stopping at every syllable, but reading these pretty correctly. Thus the child reads "The--sol--di--er--car--ries--a--big--gun."
3. _Hesitating._--There are stops as in (2), but they are less frequent. The child reads by words or groups of words--e.g., "The soldier carries--a big gun."
4. _Fluent._--There are no stops except at the marks of punctuation, but the reading is monotonous, as if the child does not understand what he reads. The voice may fall at the end of the sentences.
_5. Expressive._--The child shows by his intonation that he understands what he reads.
We found it necessary, as may well be believed, to use not only the expressions _syllabic_ reading, _fluent_ reading, etc., but compound expressions, such as _hesitating-fluent_, _fluent-expressive_, and even compound expressions with accentuation of one of the epithets, as hesitating-_fluent_. This is very useful in practice.
We have stated that the scale of reading was founded on experiments made by M. Vaney at the end of the school year. We have modified it slightly in consequence of experiments made by ourselves in February. It may be of interest to give here the table arranged by M. Vaney. It has been arranged not by age, but by class.
---------------+----------------------------------------------+------- | | | Number of Children who have the | | Following Grades of Reading. | +-----+--------+----------+---------+----------+ | | | | | | |None.|Syllabic|Hesitating| Fluent. |Expressive|Totals. ---------------+-----+--------+----------+---------+----------+------- | | | | | | Infant | 12 | 26 | 2 | -- | -- | 40 Elementary | | | | | | (first year) | -- | 5 | 32 | 4 | -- | 41 Elementary | | | | | | (second year)| -- | -- | 24 | 11 | 2 | 37 Intermediate | | | | | | (first year) | -- | -- | 15 | 18 | 8 | 41 Intermediate | | | | | | (second year)| -- | -- | 10 | 19 | 9 | 38 Intermediate | | | | | | (second year)| -- | -- | 8 | 11 | 15 | 34 Senior | -- | -- | -- | 5 | 35 | 40 +-----+--------+----------+---------+----------+-------- | | | | | | Totals | 12 | 31 | 91 | 68 | 69 | 271 ---------------+-----+--------+----------+---------+----------+--------