short dark light rough short _er_ dark _er_ light _er_ rough _er_ short _est_ dark _est_ light _est_ rough _est_
beautiful amusing interesting _more_ beautiful _more_ amusing _more_ interesting _most_ beautiful _most_ amusing _most_ interesting
A second exercise contains cards for each of the forms for these same words. There are three colors: brown, light brown and dark brown (superlative). There are in addition similar cards for the adjectives of irregular comparisons, and three title cards: _Positive_, _Comparative_, _Superlative_. The exercise results as follows:
_Positive_ _Comparative_ _Superlative_ long longer longest tall taller tallest thick thicker thickest smooth smoother smoothest short shorter shortest dark darker darkest light lighter lightest rough rougher roughest beautiful more beautiful most beautiful amusing more amusing most amusing interesting more interesting most interesting old elder eldest many more most good better best bad worse worst little less least
Since this is the last part of speech to be studied the children are now able to recognize _all_ the different parts of speech and it is no longer necessary to make sentences containing only parts of speech which the children know. Therefore in our Italian lessons we choose henceforth sentences from the classic authors (mostly from Manzoni). Since the interjection is really a thought expressed in an abbreviated form it lends itself readily to dramatic interpretation. With the same sentence the children accordingly can now perform the two-fold exercise of general analysis and "interpretative reading." They now recite sentences which they have picked out and studied instead of the commands. At this time also they are given a chart containing the complete classification of interjections. The children read them, interpreting each as they go along by voice and gesture. This is the first table of classification to be presented. Later on all the parts of speech will be given on charts with their definitions and classification.
Material: The grammar box is complete. It now has nine separate compartments for the colored cards, article (tan), noun (black), adjective (brown), verb (red), preposition (violet), adverb (pink), pronoun (green), conjunction (yellow), and _interjection_ (_blue_). In the compartment for the sentence slips are groups of cards which correspond exactly to the number of the words contained in the sentences.