McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXXVII · Part 5: Work, wonder and the world

41. Susie's Composition

Goal: Your child reads a story about writing and then writes a short composition about what they can see.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 7 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook or lined paper and a pencil

What's in the book

A story: Susie Smith comes home crying because she must write a composition of twelve lines on "Time," "Temperance" or "Industry," and can't. Her mother has her sit by the window and write down what she sees. Definitions and Exercises follow.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    The new words are at the end of the lesson, under Definitions. The small number in front of each word is the paragraph or verse where it is used. Read them together before the lesson. A few of them:

    Composition, that which is thought out and arranged, a written or literary work.

    Rumpled, wrinkled, creased.

    Themes, subjects or topics on which a person writes.

    Ask your child to find two of these words in the lesson and read the sentence each one is in.

  2. Read it aloud

    Your child reads the story aloud. When you reach the part Susie writes by the window, read it slowly and enjoy the pictures. Her first try was:

    Time is short. We should all improve our time.

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhat is a composition? Why was Susie so troubled?

    SayWhy could she not write about "Time," "Temperance," or "Industry"?

    SayWhat did her mother have her do? What did Susie write?

    SayWas it a composition? Did she know, at the time, that it was?

    SayCan you give her composition a proper subject?

    Let your child look back at the page to find answers.

  4. What Susie's mother said

    Read this together, and talk about why it is true:

    You will be far happier with a poor composition, if it is all your own, than with a fine one written by somebody else.

  5. Tell it back

    Now your child does what Susie did. Sit by a window for ten minutes and write down thoughts about everything they see. Afterward, read it together and choose a title for it.

  6. Copywork

    Your child copies this from the book, slowly and neatly, minding every capital letter and mark of punctuation:

    The green hills are tipped with light, and look as if they were wearing golden crowns.

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: composition, rumpled, themes, request, occupation, bouquets. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

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