Better Speech Game [with] Practical Grammar Game

Two unrecorded games for grade school grammar classes. The directions are nearly identical and emphasize the “reasonableness” of the games (the word is printed in bold three times), which offer “thought-provoking questions,” using sentence completion and figurative language to characterize grammatical concepts.

Better Speech (44+ cards) deals with usage issues like lie, lay, laid, lain and hanged/hung. Narrative examples for students that often reference family, sickness, work and money. The Practical Grammar Game (38+ cards)is more peculiar, essentially a series of riddles for parts of speech that contain an unexpected amount of psychological projection (see examples). They could send a teacher into an existential mire—particularly one who might, too, feel like “a group of words always trying to find out something.”

Inclusion in “Publications Received” in the Journal of Educational Research are the only references to the games, or Eleanor Jones Young, that could be located in online databases, catalogs, publisher ads, etc. We can understand why the games may not have taken off, but appreciate their value as teaching artifacts. Indicated for potential use with classes of 30-40 students, they seem to be the creation of a teacher with great ideas and ambitions for her students, who is spread a little thin and can’t always make lessons go to plan (the eternal plight of teachers).

Better Speech Game for Grades Three to Five. Chicago: A. Flanagan Co., (1925). Plain printed paper-covered box, 4.25 x 3.25 inches. Very Good with moderate rubbing and bumping to box. Complete with 44 game cards, 1 title and 3 instruction cards. Faint stamp on the lid for the Ypsilanti State Normal College on the lid, cards unmarked. Ad for Practical Grammar Game on the bottom of the base. Noted in the Journal of Educational Research with 1925 copyright under E. J. Young (Vol. 12, No.4, Nov. 1925). Not in OCLC.

Practical Grammar Game for Grades Five to Eight. Chicago: A. Flanagan Co., (1925). Decorative paper-covered box, 4.25 x 3.25 inches. Dent and abrasion to the bottom edge of the lid, puncture to the bottom of the base which has a printed ad for H. B. Rogers Geography Game. Contents clean and crisp, VG+ overall. Complete with 38 numbered game cards, 1 title and 3 instruction cards. Noted in the Journal of Educational Research with 1925 copyright under E. J. Young (Vol. 13, No.1, Jan 1926). Not in OCLC. Slightly oversize and more decorative box than our copy of Better Speech. Not sourced together.