With a beautiful booklet or two that I have borrowed from some
other teacher, or with a copy of the “School Arts Book,” describing
and illustrating a booklet,[A] I present the project and call for
suggestions as to subject. All subjects offered are considered and
discussed, but being in the saddle, so to speak, I guide my class,
without their knowing it, toward the subject I have decided upon
as best for them, and we all vote with high anticipation to make
Longfellow booklets.[B]
We next discuss how large a booklet we should attempt. Better do a
little thing well than a big thing ill. We jot down on the blackboard
a few possibilities. We could make or find the following, at least:
A portrait of Longfellow.
A picture of his home.
A map of the region where he lived.
An account of his life.
A list of his most popular poems.
Quotations about him and his work.
A copy of a favorite poem or verse.
A brief statement as to why the quotation is a favorite.
An illustration for this favorite quotation.
A cover of appropriate color.
An appropriate cover design.
We may not include all these items in every booklet, but we are now
ready to take the next step.
=Fourth, Gather the Material=
A large flat open box is now placed on my desk or in some other
convenient place in the schoolroom, in which the children may deposit
any appropriate material they find. They begin with the pictures.
They search everywhere for portraits of Longfellow, pictures of
his house, illustrations for his poems, etc., that they can bring
to school for use in the booklets. Each contribution to the box
is marked with the initials of the pupil who brings it. We gather
all the suggestive material we can--examples of well-arranged
pages, ornamental initials, head bands, tail pieces, covers, cover
ornaments, and the like, and secure through the superintendent, if
possible (if not, by some other means),[C] such penny pictures as we
foresee to be necessary.
Ultimately all this material will be distributed to the children and
used in one way or another. I lead the children in the quest for
information. I teach them how to “read up” and to make notes and
quotations. I show them almost every day what I am gathering, for of
course I am going to make a booklet myself. A teacher is a shepherd,
not a cowboy! He doesn’t round up to drive; he calls together to
lead. Here is what I have gathered for my booklet on Longfellow:
Several different portraits of Longfellow.
The Longfellow statue at Portland, Maine.
The house where he was born, Portland.
The Longfellow mansion at Portland.
Longfellow’s home at Cambridge.
Longfellow’s armchair.
Longfellow’s daughters.
Evangeline.
The Wayside Inn, Sudbury.
A half-dozen pictures illustrating “Hiawatha.”
Two illustrating “The Building of the Ship.”
Five illustrating “Evangeline.”
“The Bridge at Midnight.”
“The Bell of Atri.”
Three pictures that might be used in illustrating “The
Birds of Killingworth.”
A picture of the tower which contains the belfry of Bruges.
A picture of a Viking ship and the head of an old Viking.
A drawing of a prow of a Viking ship.
A photograph of the portal of the old church of Trondhjem.
A dozen examples of Scandinavian ornament.
Several symbols appropriate to the subject of poetry, such
as Pegasus the winged horse, the flying torch, the scroll of
inspiration, a wreath of victory for the successful poet, a
bouquet of flowers symbolical of a volume of fine poems, etc.
=Fifth, Plan the Booklet=
The orderly format of modern books and pamphlets is displayed in the
following table: