TEACHING IN INTERMEDIATE GRADES


 history textbooks as the thread for planning units would expect to
 use-more of those materials and proportionately less of the correlated
 material.

 Organization of Material in the Fourth Grade
 Teachers of the fourth grade face a peculiar problem of organ-
 ization of material in that a study of the pupils' own community and
 of typical contrasting communities in the state is involved. At the
 same time there is of necessity very little printed material available
 on the child's level. The teacher and class will have to seek much
 of their information from other sources. For materials on the state,
 the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health, and the
 Florida Forest Service have several helpful bulletins, although the
 content has to be translated into simple terms for fourth grade
 pupils. For local and county information, the County Farm Agent
 and the Home Demonstration Agent usually have extensive material.
 They have current information on the resources of the county and
 the ways people make a living. Vocational agriculture and home
 economics teachers frequently have similar information. A class
 studying its own community has an excellent opportunity to see
 cause and effect relationship; i.e., a trip to the hardware store will
 show what kind of tools are sold and the pupils can judge what
 activities are being carried on; or, a trip to warehouses will show
 what goods are being produced.
 In the fourth grade there are four textbooks on which to draw
 in addition to Home Life in Faraway Lands. No teacher would
 want one copy of each of the five for every member of the class.
 The class needs access to a variety of material, but it is not all needed
 in quantity nor needed all the time. Since these materials are not
 in daily use, large schools can effect a considerable saving in text-
 book funds by allowing several sections of a class to have access to
 the same books. Whatever plan of instruction is evolved for her par-
 ticular class, the teacher will want to keep in mind the total for the
 class of two textbooks per pupil. Without Machinery contrasts sim-
 ple ways of living with our more complex ones. It is attractive,
 readable, and good to use near the first of the year. Questions
are directed to the pupils to help them make comparisons. If it is
requisitioned one copy to every two pupils, pupils can look on