The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

water of the pond and discovers to his joy that he has developed into a beautiful white swan. Children wave to him and feed him. Others swans swim lazily about him while he proudly spreads his large white wings. He, who was once a sad ugly duckling, is happy at last. Coniiiiittee Appraisal: As a fairy tale, The Ugly Duckling has brightened the school day of many a child. This film with Its beautiful color photography should assist in making the story a much more vital and memorable experience. Apart from the moral lesson that is provided in the tale, the committee felt that the film could be used to help stimulate an aesthetic appreciation for natural life and beauty and to encourage a more imaginative reading of other stories. The narration, done in careful and deliberate enunciation and with effective inflections, greatly assists the film in capturing the interest and imagination of youngsters. The neat continuity in the portrayal of the varying experiences and gradual maturation of the duckling and the freshly attractive titling with its background contribute to making this film a production of superior quality. GOOD SPEECH FOR GARY (McGraw-Hill Book Company, Text-Film Department, 330 West 42nd Street, New York 36, New York) 22 minutes, 16mm, sound, color or black and white. $175 or |90. Produced by University of Southern California. Description of Contents: This film presents Gary as a boy of elementary school age with a number of speech impediments and describes a variety of techniques and experiences that contribute to his ultimate improvement. Soon after he joins his new classmates, Gary's teacher notices his hesitancy to participate in classroom activities. Accordingly, she brings Gary's problem to the attention of the speech teacher during a routine test of the class, the results of which suggest a more thorough examination of his hearing, his physical health, and his abilities. As a part of the therapeutic process, the speech teacher appeals to the parents at a P-TA meeting and advises that instead of telling children what to do, they associate speech sounds with those in the children's environment and suggest that they Imitate them. The problem appears to be one of encouraging the children to want to talk by listening to them. A classroom scene in which pupils practice good speech by playing a game called "open window" is followed by a presentation of a teachers' workshop at which a variety of toys, animal cutouts and models of sound-producing machines such as the steam engine are demonstrated. The speech teacher is then shown using these artifacts with the pupils in an endeavor to elicit the desired speech sounds through enjoyable classroom activities. Gary, along with a number of other pupils, is found to require special attention by the speech teacher. To visualize the suggestion of the commentator that children need to see, hear, and feel sounds of speech, a number of scenes show groups of pupils re-enacting the movement and regulation of traffic which they had observed in the community, seeking scalps in Indian games, and conducting a hypothetical radio broadcast within the classroom. The commentator further raises the question of the influence of the home in contributing to speech defects. Thus, Gary, through the help of an enlightened school program, will learn to speak more easily. Committee Appraisal: The committee felt that this film can be used to further the growing recognition, understanding, and treatment of speech defects in school children in a number of ways: by sensitizing the classroom teacher to the nature of speech difficulties; by demonstrating a variety of materials and techniques in the training of speech teachers; by Impressing school administrators and the community with the need for special speech training in the school program; and by showing parents the necessity for greater under UNITED STATES HISTORY AT ITS AUTHENTIC BEST THE PAGEANT OF AMERICA FILMSTRIPS This vital and important new series of thirty documentary filmstrips, prepared by distinguished educators, encompasses our Country's glorious history from its earliest beginnings in Unit 1, "The Story of the American Indian," to the era of world leadership in Unit 30, "The Rise of America as a World Power." THE PAGEANT OF AMERICA FILMSTRIPS feature an exceptional Teacher's Guide for each unit, written by William H. Hartley, Chairman, Audio-Visual Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies. Each Guide contains general and specific teaching suggestions, back-ground information, faithful reproductions of every picture and caption in the filmstrip itself, supplementary historical data and test questions. Write immediately for descriptive circular to YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS FILM SERVICE 386 Fourth Avenue NewYorkl6, N. Y. October, 1953 Writing for more information? Mention EDUCATIONAL SCREEN. 357