UmMusa Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 How many of your 4th graders (or whatever grade you are using FLL4 in) were able to memorize "Ozymandias"? My 5th grader didn't even want to attempt it (well, we've moved on to the Declaration of Independence for now), and my 4th grader got to it today. She's already memorized the first sentence in the poem (about 2 1/2 lines). Just curious how this poem went over with others. I had to define many words so they could undersand the context of the poem. It isn't very straightforward with the quotes and then the subquote on the pedestal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UmMusa Posted September 29, 2011 Author Share Posted September 29, 2011 Oooh, singing sounds like a neat idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 My dd9 has memorized over 50 poems since first grade. We don't shy away from poems that are difficult ... she has memorized the beginning of Song of the Open Road, which we found challenging. But we skipped Ozymandias. I didn't want to spend the time working on it when we have other, ongoing memory work that I find perfectly adequate. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyto4 Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 We are skipping it. My son promised to write and memorize a speech for his CC class instead. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to memorizing it... Afternoon on a Hill was hard enough for me:tongue_smilie:! My son, of course, memorized that one in a day. We do lots of memorizing for Classical Conversations and for AWANA. I just didn't see it being worth the fight to get my son to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paula in MS Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 My dd memorized it over the summer. She really loved it for some reason, but she likes memorizing things in general. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 My dd really loved it. She memorized it last year in 4th grade. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2GAboys Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 I loved it because I found a reciting of it on youtube with sound effects and it was so cool. My son is good at memorization so we had no problems but I have to admit that the video helped with pronounciation, flow, understanding, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckymama Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 We, also, watched a video on youtube before our 4th grade ds memorized it. (Mainly for the pronunciation of the name.) It was not one of his favorites, but he enjoyed learning. He especially liked changing his tone of voice when it came to the quote. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommylawyer Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 My fourth grader is working on it now. I read it to her in rhyming fashion and it didn't make sense to her. When I read it as prose then explained the irony, she loved it! She almost has it memorized and really enjoys my (prose) reading of it! ETA: My four year old has picked up a big chunk of it, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annabanana1992 Posted September 29, 2011 Share Posted September 29, 2011 We loved the poem and the message! DS memorized it in 4th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubrey Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 How can you not love the poem? The irony? We're not using FLL, though, so we haven't tried memorizing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 This is the one poem my husband knows by heart and as a consequence my kids (2 and 4) have heard it so often they know it too. There's something somewhat disconcerting about a 2.5 year old intoning "wook on my works ye mwighty, and de-spwair." I'm not claiming they understand it, but remembering 14 lines is not a problem. Yakko's nations of the world was trickier ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GailV Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Dd did it. Heck, we did all of the pieces FLL had. Didn't occur to us that they were optional. I'm glad I pushed her to memorize so many pieces. She's done some fairly intense theater boot camps in the past couple of years, and her ability to memorize quickly has been an asset. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyJudyJudy Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Ds is now a 7th grader, but he memorized the poem when he was in 4th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestavern Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 DD memorized it without problems. Language arts are her strong suit, and she has a great memory. DS hasn't gotten to that point yet, but I don't expect a problem as he's been able to do all the rest. Some take longer than others but he gets it eventually. I will definitely have some explaining to do so he understands it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 My memorized it in whatever year it was in FLL. Was it FLL3? If so, then it would be that year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SewLittleTime Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 I introduced this poem to ds last week in FLL. He groaned about memorizing. It is the first poem he has ever balked at memorizing. We are currently memorizing The Preamble, so I may just skip the memorization of it. It is encouraging though to see so many have memorized it and enjoyed the challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helena Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 We don't use FLL, I chose the poem on my own because we did ancient history last year. I'm glad to see that my choice was well timed for my kids ages (then 9 and 11). We actually memorized Ozymandias and On a Stupendous Leg of Granite.. by Horace Smith. We had a lot of great discussions as a result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legomom Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) We have been working on Ozymandias and my kids have it mostly memorized and we have been having fun with it -- especially the lines in quotes and changing our voices with it. There is a youtube video of Ben Kingsley reciting it and that is fun. If they don't totally memorize it, it won't bother me. They seem to understand it and have some of it down. There is also a video on youtube that shows the original Egyptian statue that was found and brought to London which inspired Shelley to write the poem Edited October 5, 2011 by Karen in Eastern WA typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 My ds did it, though it was a challenge. We did skip the really long one about the freed slave learning to read. TOOOO long for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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