International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1932)

Record Details:

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— 841 — We come now to the use of these visual aids, which is often unskilful and haphazard. The very name given to this material tells how it is to be used — as a help, an aid, not as an end in itself. To herd children into an auditorium and merely ' show pictures " is not a skilful or economic use of the educational film. That the children do get a certain amount of information from just " seeing " a film is certain, but how much more it would be if the film were used more scientifically. Care must be taken too that the use of lantern slides does not become just a showing of one picture after another. Carefully chosen slides illustrate information that might otherwise be vague. The points brought out by the slides should be thoroughly discussed, thus supplementing the text book material. Such procedure will not permit the use of a great number of slides during one lesson. In the selection of photographs and prints the teacher must be sure that they give correct ideas of size and color. The next question is, just how should these visual aids be used to the best advantage in teaching reading, arithmetic, physiology, nature study, and geography in the first six grades. In the first year of school, reading is the important subject. The skilful first grade teacher knows that actual experience is the greatest stimulus. So before the children read about the playhouse, they make one. It is complete in all details. There it stands, the product of busy little hands. And as the children read about the playhouse and family in their primers they visualize their own playhouse family. In another unit there is a story of a dog show. How much more real is the reading after a dog show has been made. These children have a little dog walking on a big, red ball and a big dog standing on his head in their show too. As they read they visualize these things that acthey have made, and new words are learned more quickly and meanings are more accurate. One of the first steps used in developing a reading lesson in primary grades is the study of the illustrations accompanying the story. This study of pictures stimulates interest. After enjoying the pictures that illustrate a certain lively second grade story, we say, "Let's read the story and find out just how the rope, the waterfall, and the spider helped Pouchy Pelican '. A third grade reader contains a fine unit on birds. We try to use this always in the spring when the birds have arrived. During the study, excursions are taken to the woods to see the birds in their natural homes. Stuffed models and a collection of nests are on display m the school room. Pictures of birds are displayed on the bulletin boards. To introduce the unit a splendid bird film is shown. As each bird is studied, a home made lantern slide picture of the bird is projected on the board. To summarize the unit the film is again shown and the children paint pictures of the birds for their bird books. It can easily be seen that without such visual aids this study of birds would never be as real to the child, and impressions could be very wrong. The lantern slide picture introduces a variety to word drill that is very welcome. The slide which contains the picture of words to be studied is projected on the blackboard. The teacher writes the names on the objects as the children point them out. The game is to see how many words are remembered when the picture is flashed off. The use of all these visual aids should be carried on into the upper grades where reading becomes literature. Stories of knights and castles, foreign lands, famous inven