METHODS OF TEACHING
Reading

In reading, the school was divided into eight classes: 1st class learn¬
ing the alphabet; 2nd class, words and syllables of two letters; 3rd
class, words and  syllables of three letters; 4th class,               Eicrht

words and   syllables of   four letters; 5th class, reading       Classes for
lesson of one syllable; 6th class, reading lesson of two           Reading

syllables; 7th class, the Testament; 8th class, the Bible.'

The only business of the first class was to learn the letters of the
alphabet.    Two methods were  employed: (1) Writing from dicta¬
tion.   The children were seated on the forms belonging
to the first class; opposite them was a large board or            ^ri ^

alphabet wheel which displayed the letters to be written.
Roman characters were used.   At the dictation of the monitor the
letter was traced, with a short stick, in the sand.    The monitor exam¬
ined the work and smoothed out that which was badly
done.  To facilitate learning a beginner was placed next   Reading and
to a child who had made some progress.   (2) Reading         Combined

from boards.   The children stood in semicircles and
named the letters pointed out by the monitors.   If a mistake was
made a change of place occurred.

The steps employed in learning the alphabet are thus described in
an early account of the New York Free Schools:

"Ten children can be accommodated at this table; each scholar
has a stick given to him about the thickness of a quill, and four inches
long, with which he is to write the letters on the sand.
The alphabet is divided into three parts, viz., the per-             Table

pendicular letters, I H T L E F i and 1, form the first
lesson; the triangular letters, AVWMNZKYXvwkyz and x
form the second; and the circular letters, OUCJGDPBRQS,
abodpqgcmnhtursf and j, form the third class.   These are
in succession placed before the class, which is under the direction of a
 

' Manual of the Lancasterian System, New York, 1820, p. 20.
41