times as he gives them another pupil writes them on the board. When his vocabulary is exhausted another takes his place. Finally the whole class goes to the window to see who can get the longest list. Occasionally I put up a collection of pictures by Murillo, pages from that excellent catalogue of the Zuloaga exhibition. Even the first-year classes can talk about them.

We have had conversation on many Liberty Loan posters, and in connection with the drawing pupils have designed Liberty Bond posters, illustrated with Christ of the Andes, and Columbus's ship. They have illustrated proverbs for decoration of the class-room.

When pupils enter the Spanish class-room they look at a regular place on the board for special work, such as jokes or anecdotes from newspapers and magazines, which those arriving in the room first. usually may work out before the pupils from more distant parts of the building arrive at their seats.

The classes have enjoyed greatly learning Spanish songs. De Gogorza's record of "Noche Serena" was played on my little phonograph at different times until the pupils began to know the melody and most of the words. Then the words were written on the board. discussed and drilled. After listening again to the record while thinking through the words, the song was sung with the record several times, then without-and the song was learned.

I am trying to collect music and records illustrating the folk songs and dances of several provinces in Spain.

Pupils will themselves speed up the slow or dull pupil in order to have time for an extra record or song on Friday.

The memorizing of poems and prose is begun at the end of the first month or so. A poem, the first a very short one, is read several times by the teacher, translated by the class, order of ideas presented in the poem discussed, also the importance of the words in phrasing. Again the poem is read by the teacher several times, phrases or words drilled if necessary, then read in concert with the teacher. By the time all this is done the pupils almost know a short poem, and have begun to love it, for they feel they are really expressing its ideas. They themselves can tell immediately if any pupil is mispronouncing a word, stressing the wrong word, or failing to get the rhythm. It is only after much concert work that I ask individual pupils to give the poem. They all love this work, and I often hear them in their home rooms or in the gymnasium singing their songs or reciting poems or proverbs.

Playlets may be given during the last weeks of the first year. As soon as Ruth Henry's little book of playlets came out last November I had two of the little plays given by second year or third term pupils, and thought they were doing remarkably well. Then I wanted to see if second term (first year) pupils could do it too, so I tried it out in June. Ten days after assigning the parts a rehearsal of El Criado Astuto was given with a success that was far beyond my wildest dreams. First year pupils also enjoy dramatizing the little stories in their readers. This year my second term pupils have dramatized several in the Roessler and Remy.

Even during the year the war broke out I brought home quite a bit of illustrative material from Spain, pottery, jewelry, castanets, fans, street car zone tickets, admission tickets to museums and bull fights, kilometric tickets, and a sprig of myrtle from the Court of the Myrtles in the Alhambra.

We have on our table in the class-room newspapers, magazines. maps, calendars, postcards (mine are in envelopes according to the grammar and reading lessons, so that they are readily available), and all the illustrative material we can find.

We collect pictures from advertisements, magazines, Bulletins of the Pan-American Union, book publishers' advertisements, etc. The pupils, once started on the track of such things, bring in loads of such material.

All of these devices and more have been used in my first year classes this year. Does it look like a lot of work? It really is not. One year when I was teaching thirty hours a week (every period of the day), I was forced to work out a scheme for the rapid correction of quiz papers, which I will not take time to describe here, as it was published in Modern Language Journal for October, 1917.

And, after all, any device is only a means of attacking a problem from a different angle. After one finds there is a different angle, one become interested in still other angles, in how many angles.

But in the use of devices let us appeal to all the senses, let us keep clearly in mind the underlying principles, let us maintain a reasonable relation in the different phases of our work-in other words, a "balanced ration."

ISABELLE M. DAY

ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOL

LYNN, MASS.

CLUB WORK IN THE ELEMENTARY YEAR IN

HIGH SCHOOL

(A paper delivered at the meeting of the Spanish Section of the Modern Language Division of the National Education Association, Pittsburgh, July, 1918.)

Although the activities of the foreign language club find their fullest expression in the third and fourth year of the high school course, there are great possibilities for the elementary year.

The advantages of club work in advanced classes may properly be assumed to an equal degree for those of the first year. With the club organization many ambitions may be realized that would. be impossible if left to individual effort. The foundation may be set at this time for conversational fluency.

Among the many advantages of club activity in the elementary Spanish class may be emphasized that a social use of Spanish not only makes the study more enjoyable but creates sympathy with the nations that speak the language and thus broadens the student's outlook on life in general.

The willing coöperation of club members in a common unity of purpose is not only a school but a civic virtue.

The elements of individuality and personality, so essential for initial effort of any kind, are called forth by club programs.

Parallel with the advantages presented are the aims to be realized by the teacher of elementary Spanish:

1. The creation of interest and enthusiasm for the regular work of the class.

2. The promotion of good will between class members through intellectual coöperation.

3. In the elementary year the chief academic purpose is the enlargement of vocabulary that comes through the avenues of club programs.

At the initial stage of study the best results may be secured through the club within the class-that is, all the activities of the club are confined to class presentation and are not for student body assemblies.

The students themselves bring great enthusiasm to these deviations from regular class work, for at the very outset of the course

they have heard at every hand, "The opportunity of the future will speak to the youth of America in Spanish."

The student should be made to feel that the lack of opportunity to practise the language outside of class, which has hampered many an ambitious student, may be offset to a certain degree by the Spanish Language Club.

In my two years' experience in the New York City High Schools I have had charge of clubs in the third year of the course. Our meetings have been held outside of school hours once a week. We have presented before the student body of the high school and visiting Spanish clubs such one-act comedias as "La Sorpresa de Isidoro," "Las Solteronas," and "La Muela del Juicio."

This is in passing-I will speak of some of the elementary club work of my classes in Southern Arizona and California.

Of the nature of programs and the material available, there is a wide range for originality. Programs should be made of such a character as to instruct on the customs, history, spirit, commercial life, educational systems, geography, and literature of Spanish countries.

It is difficult to keep programs uniformly interesting-the memorizing of poems and the reading of extracts from great authors. while most excellent practice for the performer, soon prove dull to the student listener; variety is necessary. Some sprightly dialogue, even though commonplace in its argument, will enliven the program. I have sometimes assigned the descriptive passages to some students and the dialogue to two other members of the class as a test in alertness and catching the cue.

Whenever talent is available, Spanish dances may be introduced. Last year in an evening high school program one of the young girls of my class danced "La Batalla de las Rosas" at an assembly of the French, Italian and Spanish departments of the school.

Spanish songs and music never fail to make their appeal to these enthusiastic young students. Especially popular with them are "La Paloma," "La Golondrina" and "El Himno Nacional."

The teacher who has made collections through travel or exchange has a rich store from which to draw for programs. I have brought to the class a bit of the roof tiling of the Block House of San Juan Hill, Santiago de Cuba. Such a world of comments as followed! All the boys were rivals for the honor of writing its

autobiography. A similar welcome from the girls awaited my collection of Venezuelan, Cuban and Spanish fans. Belt buckles of the Spanish artillery, a Mexican sombrero, drawn work from Aguas Calientes, Mexico, and Mexican pottery from Guadalajara, Jalisco, have served well as subjects for simple descriptions introducing always a varied vocabulary.

Of course in the elementary year great care must be taken to keep the programs simple.

In my experience with first-year classes in the secondary schools of the Southwest I have found much enthusiasm with the students memorizing a brief "Noticia del dia" or "Noticia de España” for the class club program, always with the understanding that the item be chosen from some Spanish newspaper, as "Las Novedades,” and that it not exceed a paragraph in length.

To bring our national neighbors to our doors is impossible, nor can our classes go to them, but a community of thought and ideals may be fostered through magazines and newspapers published in Spanish. Commonplace as they are, like everything essential, yet they are strong instruments for bridging space, time and tempera

ment.

Our club, organized within the class, devoted the last twenty minutes of the recitation period on Thursday of each week to its activity. The Spanish parliamentary terms requisite for conducting impromptu club work were mastered at the outset. Only students receiving grades above 80% were eligible as officers.

Roll call was answered by Spanish proverbs or brief quotations. In the elementary year perforce original speeches are exceptional. However, great interest is shown in the memorizing of anecdotes.

A committee of five in consultation with the instructor plans the programs of each week. The club work in class may assume attractive social features. One of my elementary classes at the Tempe Normal School of Arizona arranged a "hike" for the club.

Late in the afternoon one Friday, the khaki-clad boys and girls (the Southern Normal has always had military drill) marched to the banks of the Salt River, some three miles beyond the Butte, to present their final program of the year.

After sand races came the roll call with responses, not the regulation proverbs and dichos of the class room, but delightful surprises in little tributes to "La lengua Castellana.