mination is given
talks all the time. | next day he asks | by another teacher, I
Lessons assigned are | questions on the | may not have enough
not heard. Students | lesson. The answers are| specific facts to
seldom recite. Written | written out on the | pass. We began Chaucer
quizzes on themes of | blackboards. After | last week. He spent a
assigned reading are | fifteen minutes all | good part of each
rated by an assistant. | students take their | session reading to us.
The work comes back | seats and the work on | All of us were
with an A, a C, or a D,| the blackboard is taken| surprised to find how
but we do not know why | up for explanation. He | much more the text
the rating was given. | explains every | meant than after our
Frequently two students| difficulty very | own reading. In the
who worked together are| clearly. We rarely | last session we went
marked B and D | cover the lesson. Some | to our book on
respectively for the | topics go unexplained | literature and tried
same work. Sometimes a | because during the next| to justify the
a student who "cribbed"| hour the blackboard | characterization which
his outline from | problems are based on | the author gives of
another who actually | the lesson. If I | Chaucer. The class
"worked it up" receives| understood the second | agreed with all in the
a higher mark than was | half of each lesson as | book except in one
given for the original.| clearly as the first, | characterization. In
| I would feel hopeful | the composition work we
| of a good grade in the | took up the structure
| final examination. | of short narratives.
| | The assignment was to
| | find narratives in
| | current periodicals,
| | in the writings of
| | standard authors, in
| | newspapers, and then
| | attempt to find whether
| | the structure we
| | studied was followed.