Development of a literature program in the Loveland Elementary School of Dixon, Illinois

55 Pages·02.322 MB·English

by  Scholl, Edith Irene

DEVELOPMENT OF A LITERATURE PROGRAM
IN THE LOVELAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
OF DIXON, ILLINOIS
A Project
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of Education
the University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science
by
Edith Irene Scholl
August 1950
UMI Number: EP46567
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This project report, written under the direction
of the candidate’s adviser and approved by him,
has been presented to and accepted by the Faculty
of the School of Education in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science in Education.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
j
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION ................................... 1
The problem.......... ..................... 2
Importance of the problem................... 2
The situation.............................. 3
■II. PHILOSOPHY GUIDING THE FORMATION OF A LITERA­
TURE PROGRAM 5
III. BASIC NEEDS SATISFIED THROUGH LITERATURE . . . 12
Need for security......................... 12
Need to belong.............................. 12
Need to love................................ 12
Need to achieve............................ 13
Need for intellectual security............. 14
Need for change ............................ 14
Need for aesthetic satisfaction ............ 15
IV. THE DEVICES USED WITH STUDENTS IN LOVELAND
SCHOOL...................................... 17
Building a library......................... 17
Borrowing books ............................ 18
Conferences................................ 19
Discussions................................ 19
A story h our ................................ 20
A book f a i r ............................... 21
ill
CHAPTER PAGE
Meeting an author........................... 22
Writing to authors......................... 23
Radio participation......................... 24
Civic participation......................... 24
Dramatization ................................ 25
A special t r i p .............................. 25
Summer plans . . . ....................... 28
V. THE DEVICES USED WITH TEACHERS IN LOVELAND
S C H O O L ...................................... 30
Enrolling in a library science course . . . . 30
Surveying available literature............. 33-
Making a card index f i l e ................... 38
Making a slide index file.............. 39
Making a materials file..................... 40
VI. EVALUATION OP THE PROGRAM..................... 43
Evaluations of student growth ................ 43
Evaluation of teacher growth ............. . 44
Evaluation of parent growth 45 -
VII. SUMMARY........................................... 46
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................ .48
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The place of literature in the modern elementary school
has become increasingly significant in recent years. Juvenile
books of today are so varied in content and so well illus­
trated that children can actually love to read. Many books
of scrupulous accuracy and permanent significance are avail­
able from publishers every year.
To secure these books for elementary school children,
standards for judging are necessary. What these standards
are should be made available to every classroom teacher. For
a book to be good for children it must provide them with an
enjoyable experience. Also it must be one they can read with
a fair amount of ease. It is not enough to know books. One
must also know the child for whom the book is selected.
Basic needs are quite well known. For Instance a
child’s needs are at first intensely and narrowly personal.
However they need to be broadened and to be more generously
socialized in proportion to the socialization of the child.
He needs to seek the balance between personal happiness and
social approval. Books will help directly and indirectly.
2
I. THE PROBLEM
It was the purpose of this study (l) to foster a de­
sire to read on the part of a student body; (2) to convince
teachers of the place of literature in the developmental pro­
gram planned for children and to provide the teachers with
inservlce training in directing children’s reading; (3) to
set up a library that would be the central theme of the
school both physically and in spirit, and (4) to establish
a plan whereby children could further their development
through reading.
II. IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM
Developing the right attitudes toward books is almost
as important as teaching children to read. Too many chil­
dren use books only to fulfill an assignment. Many see
books only as a source for courses being studied. For these
children reading begins and ends with preparation of an
assignment. For too long schools have clung to the idea of
the students knowing one book well. Today the goal is to
show the child how to collect a variety of data on a subject
in order to have a basis for formulating a judgment.
During the past year in a school where the reading
program was found to be In need of further development many
3
techniques and devices were used to create an interest in
developing a wide reading program.
III. THE SITUATION
Loveland School Is one of five elementary schools in
Dixon, Illinois. There are five eighth-grade schools with
one central four-year high school. Each year Stanford
Achievement tests are administered. For several years the
showing of Loveland pupils on the literature section of the
Stanford test was consistently poor by comparison with test
scores of pupils from the other elementary schools.
Loveland School serves a rural area outside of the
city limits of Dixon but within the school district admini­
stered by the Dixon Board of Education. The building Is
woefully inadequate to the needs of the community and is to
be replaced with a modern structure during the summer of
1951* Kindergarten children must attend one of two of the
other districts with parents furnishing the transportation.
Sixth and seventh grade pupils are sent to the North Central
School for home economics and shop. There is no gymnasium.
Basketball is offered for Loveland boys at the North Central
gymnasium. The distance between the North Central School
and the Loveland School is one mile. In the school under
discussion there is a first grade with an enrollment of
4
eighteen, a second grade of twenty pupils, a third grade with
seventeen pupils, a fourth grade with twenty-nine pupils, a
fifth and sixth grade combination with enrollments of thir­
teen and sixteen pupils, and a sixth and seventh grade com­
bination with twenty-nine pupils. Eighteen attend kinder­
garten in other districts. Twenty attend eighth grade at
North Central.
Administrative and supervisory responsibilities in
the school are taken care of by a principal who devotes half
a day to office work and half a day to history, English, and
reading in the combination room of sixth and seventh grades.
At the close of the year 1948-1949 the superintendent
was faced with the problem of securing an administrator for
the Loveland School. Taking into account the poor showing
made on the Stanford Achievement literature tests by these
pupils, he selected a person with training in this field and
asked that she develop a literature program. Development of
this program is the subject of the project here presented.
CHAPTER II
PHILOSOPHY GUIDING THE FORMATION OF A LITERATURE PROGRAM
To try to draw a sharp differentiation between litera­
ture for children and for adults is as futile as to set a
milestone at the point where childhood ends and adulthood
begins. Life is-a whole, and literature as a reflection of
life is likewise a whole. In education today we are concerned
In developing the child's sense of security and in contribu­
ting to a well-rounded steady development of the whole per­
sonality.
Much of children's reading In school is necessary;
that is, to acquire facts and to learn processes. Thomas
DeQuincy makes a distinction between this "literature for
knowledge” and "literature of p o w e r . T h e former informs
the reader, while the latter moves him.
The following quotation from Literature for Human
Understanding also emphasizes the place of literature:
No one would claim that literature alone can establish
for any Individual or group the emotional maturity, the
wider orientation, the social skills, or the ability to
analyze complex problems that are the necessary equip­
ment for solving the different situations we meet today.
Books can however, prepare us to meet people, to dis­
count inconsequential differences and to appreciate
^ M. R. Ridley, DeQuincy Selections (Oxford: The
Clarendon Press, 1927)