The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 408–410 · Part 2: Part Second
112. On the Prairie
Goal: Your child writes both a description of a picture and a short story it suggests.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
What's in the book
Section 408 is Julien Dupré's painting "On the Prairie", a French country scene, to study. Section 409 asks for a written description; Section 410 for a simple story or description suggested by the picture.
The lesson, step by step
Study the picture
Look at "On the Prairie" on page 272 for a full minute. The book says Dupré painted many scenes of country life.
Your child tells all they can find in it: people, animals, sky, land, what is happening.
Description or story?
Talk about the difference: a description tells what is there; a story tells what happens, before and after.
Describe (Section 409)
Your child writes a description, 5 or 6 sentences, moving in an order (near to far, or left to right).
A story (Section 410)
Your child tells a story aloud that the picture suggests: Who are these people? What will happen next? Then writes it, 6 to 10 sentences.
Check it gently
For the description: is every detail really in the picture? For the story: does it have a beginning, middle and end? Fix one thing in each.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
The details here are made up; your child uses what is really in the picture. A description that moves from near to far:
Near the front, a woman walks beside a cow. Behind them the flat land stretches a long way. Far off, the sky is pale with soft clouds.
The start of a story:
Every evening Marie brought the cow home from the far pasture. One night a storm was coming ...
Tip
If time is short, do the description today and the story tomorrow.