FIRST BOOK IN ENGLISH BY WILLIAM H. MAXWELL, M.A. CITY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, CITY OF NEW YORK. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION NEW YORK: CINCINNATI:. CHICAGO 597011 MAXWELL'S ENGLISH COURSE FIRST BOOK IN ENGLISH. For Use in Elementary Grades. INTRODUCTORY LESSONS IN English Grammar. For Use in Grammar Grades. ADVANCED LESSONS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR. For Use in Higher Grammar Classes and High COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. Max. 1st Book. W. P. 16 THE more conspicuous features of "First Book in English" are the following: 1. The method employed is inductive throughout. 2. The book is divided into three parts. Each part provides work sufficient for one year. Part I. may be safely used as early as the beginning of the third school year. 3. Part I., in addition to the devices usually employed for language training, contains a series of exercises on the construction of the type forms of the simple sentence. 4. In Part II., the pupil is required, in addition to the construction of type sentences, to distinguish the complete subject, the subject word, and the noun; the complete predicate and the predicate verb. 5. In Part III., generalization is begun. The parts of speech, and word and phrase modifiers of the noun and verb, are taught inductively. The synthesis and the analysis of typical sentences are continued, and particular attention is paid to the correct employment of the more common irregular verbs. 6. The sentences used for word and sentence drills are not the "dried specimens " too often presented for children's study, but in themselves possess an interesting content; and, whenever possible, they are formed into a series connected in thought. 7. Parallel with the work on sentence and word forms runs a series of exercises in composition. As children like stories, the compositions are chiefly narrative, though description is not neglected. 8. In every instance, a model is presented which the child |