In case a child has serious learning challenges, special help by a person who is well liked and well equipped should be provided at a time when it does not take the child away from other desirable school or after-school activities. This means special help should not be offered during recess, gymnasium, ball practice, or other recreational periods. Furthermore, it should be personal. Helping thirty individuals at one time not only is impersonal, it is wasteful. It is interesting to note that the army plan for assisting low readers was to place them in groups averaging twelve, "because," said one major in charge, "reading help is a personal, man-to-man affair." And it should be so for children.
The general practice of working with children in small groups is desirable. Organizing the room so that a few children may work together and showing them how to be independent and responsible as they work are excellent aids in promoting learning. In the intimacy of a small group, the teacher may discover what each child's stage of growth is, and what help he needs. Demanding unwilling attention of all the children is thus avoided. Of course, when something having interest for the whole group comes up, all can be given an opportunity to share it.
Regular time for individuals to share ideas with others in the group, or enlist their aid, or discover their opinions may need to be set aside each day-even in a junior or senior high school class. A Latin teacher in a city high school devoted ten
Regular time for individuals to share ideas with others in the group, or enlist their aid, or discover their opinions may need to be set aside each day-even in a junior or senior high school class. A Latin teacher in a city high school devoted ten minutes of each period to letting the youngsters "just talk." She reported the period as invaluable in helping her under- stand the interests and abilities of her teenage students. Also, the students were inclined to be prompt and eager in getting to the room rather than waiting to enter at the last minute. Furthermore, their interest in the discussion was likely to create a greater alertness in the Latin lesson of the day. These discussions were based on school affairs, current affairs, and questions for information along a great variety of lines. Some topics were discussed over a period of several days, with a great deal of voluntary reading and follow-up work.
Another point of great importance is to make a youngster feel respected, no matter where he is in his reading development. If a ten-year-old cannot read regular fourth or fifth grade books, he should be shown how to enjoy the more pictorial and simpler books. Let us not be unmindful that this is a picture age for adults. Much adult pictorial material has pictures and valuable content for this preadolescent reader. Furthermore, such reading matter has the respectability of adult pursuits, therefore it is all the more acceptable to him. Even if he is interested solely in looking at the pictures, such activity is worth while, and keeps alive and promotes his interest in read- ing and in reading materials.
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