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Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization


Emmalm
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Does anyone use this by Andrew Pudewa? A friend of mine uses it, but I do not know if she does any instruction besides memorization. How do you use it? I like the idea a lot, but am not sure how exactly the lessons are supposed to look. And do you just use this, or do you supplement? Thanks!

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I am using it and I really like it, I use it as a supplement. It is really expensive for what it is, so if you can catch a deal scoop it up. You can definitely memorize other poetry on your own but having the collection curated for kids is handy.

 

Basically the poetry book starts with instruction on how to use the program and why memorization is useful. Then there are poems, broken into 3 (maybe 4) stages. You work on memorizing all the poems in the first stage before moving to the second. The poems are fun and kid friendly.

 

The CD is Pudewa reciting the poems. It is not necessary but I think it makes the program better. I don't have to figure out if I am pronouncing certain words correctly and my kids who aren't yet reading can listen on their own.

 

My 4 year old recited the first 6 poems yesterday on his own, I had no clue he knew them!

Edited by Rach
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We use it during morning time a couple of times a week. My kids love it and the cd is definitely worth it. We take one poem, listen and recite until it's memorized, then move to another. We also review from time to time. They love the sense of accomplishment and also simply love memorizIng. And I know it's good for their little minds :)

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We use it. Or, we used to. We've fallen out of the habit. If you want to save money, you can definitely use it without the CD. I like the CD, because we can just recite along with it and the kids pick up some of the inflections that add meaning to the poem. There is no analysis, just poems to memorize.

 

We started out reciting one poem until it was memorized, then continued to recite all our memorized poems along with the new poem. Andrew Pudewa's mantra was "recite every poem, every day" so you don't forget. I think he studied with Suzuki and borrowed some of Suzuki's methods. The first poems are short and fun, so that was easy. Once we got 15-20 poems memorized, it got tedious, and I moved to reciting a new poem, plus four memorized ones every day. We completed two levels of 20 poems each (there are 4 levels in my edition, but I think the new edition has a 5th level, which IIRC has a lot of Shakespeare and famous speeches).

 

Just memorizing poems has enriched our family culture immensely. There are so many times when something happens, and someone connects it to a poem and starts quoting. Like when my youngest was 3 or 4, we were driving home (against her will) and she bust out, "Home's not the best place for people like me!!" The older kids had just memorized Jonathan Bing and even my little preschooler had absorbed the language of our poems.

 

ETA: I've started some poetry analysis in high school, but before that, this is all we've used. 

Edited by TKDmom
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We just started using it. Levels 1 & 2 were offered as a freebie (I think through HSBC over the summer?).  I, personally, would not spend the money on the TE/cd's (although perhaps they are more helpful in the higher levels?).  The SE is all you need.  It's a copy of each poem and a completion certificate.  There is no magic to how it's taught.  You just start with the first poem - it recommends all students start with level 1- and memorize the piece until it's mastered and then move on to the next poem.  Each day the child is supposed to repeat each poem they have mastered and then work on the new selection. Longer selections can be spilt into parts, adding a new stanza after each section is mastered. We are using it as a supplement.  The kids also memorize other facts I want them to know - geography, science, etc.

 

 

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We got a free sample of the audio and teacher/student books as e-materials, and honestly, I don't like a lot of the selections. We are wrapping up A Year of Living Poetically by Mensa for Kids, which took us more than a year, as we took a break some months to do selections from the SotW activity book and a few other things. These are more challenging selections, but I think it's worth the trouble.

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We gave ours away. I thought it was completely overpriced even though I got it second hand and the selections were dull. We memorise whatever takes our fancy from whatever poetry book comes our way.

 

I got it free, and I would agree with this. Back when I was in school, my English teacher had us each memorize a poem of our own choosing each week. This seems to me to be a lot more enjoyable and meaningful for everyone than memorizing poems that appealed to someone else. Our taste is different from Pudewa's.

 

My children also enjoy hearing the poems read in my voice anyway, so I just use the Recorder app on my phone to record each poem they choose. We memorize either a poem a week or a stanza for long poems, and after memorizing a new poem we spend a day reciting each poem we've memorized (poem 1 on Monday, poem 2 on Tuesday, and so forth).

 

(This also allows me to occasionally choose seasonal poems or ones related to other things we're learning about. We're just starting, for instance, to memorize "December Leaves" by Kaye Starbird..."The fallen leaves are cornflakes/that fill the lawn's wide dish...")

Edited by fralala
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I got the freebie this summer and thought, well why not give it a whirl?

 

The poem selections are not what I would have selected, at all. But my 9yo boy REALLY likes them. Go figure. He tells me if he hates something. We largely skip "My Shadow" because he doesn't like that one, though it's one that I would have chosen. IEW also has the mp3 about teaching boys who'd rather be building forts, or whatever it's called, and I have to say that I think that whoever picked the poems does have a good idea of what those sorts of boys like.

 

Though I roll my eyes at some of the selections, once we get into them I see that there is a lot of good stuff in them. Good vocab, varieties of rhymes, different structures, etc. Sometimes I punch the name of the next poem into google and print out some background info and more info about the rhythm or style or whatever. The teacher's guide gives some ideas for extension work, but I rarely pull in those ideas. But I have very limited time with afterschooling. We spend only a few minutes a day on it, but my kid will have a poem memorized in about a week, depending on length. Twice a week we review, once the odd poems, the other time the even poems.

 

I think the idea behind it is to give students a stock of imagery and creative vocab they can use in their own writing. Since my kid gets not-English LA all day, I use it to introduce different forms of English syntax and vocab. And poetry study, of course. I have an odd kid who does not like to read fiction books, so this is a quick and painless but effective way to expand his creative literacy.

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I have to agree that these are not necessarily the poems I would have chosen on my own but they definitely appeal to my boys. I was never really introduced to poetry as a kid but all three of my kids love poetry and I think it's partly because they were first introduced to fun poems.

Edited by Rach
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I really like the idea behind this curriculum.  About seven years ago I used bits of Level 1 with my younger sister.  I starting skipping some poems and abandoned it soon thereafter.  I really would like to read the teacher's manual to hear his why and how of the program, but this has never been a strong enough want that I've purchased it.  I have listened to a free talk he gave about it which persuaded me to include lots of poetry memorization in our homeschool.  I think many people riff off his ideas and use the Simply Charlotte Mason scripture memorization system modified for a notebook with dividers instead of tabbed index cards.  Then use their own poems maybe Berquist's The Harp and the Laurel Wreath.  I have other books of collections I like better like the Rod and Staff Poetry Memorization paperback that is divided by grade.  

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