IEW Poetry Memoriation - A Schoolhouse Crew Review

In March I learned that we had been selected to review a new product by Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).

Not long thereafter a package arrived in the mail containing Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization.

If you've been reading my blog through the years, you know by now that I like products from IEW. They make quality products, and they present their CDs and DVDs in quality packaging. Look at that disk storage case! I don't think it is real leather, but it is beautiful!

The disc case contains five audio CDs (recordings of the poems for memorization) and a DVD of Andrew Pudewa giving a presentation called Nurturing Competent Communicators.

The program also comes with a spiral-bound Teacher's Edition,

as well as a digital e-book of the student edition. Having a digital student means you can download and print as many copies as you need for the number of students/children you have in your family! You also have the option of purchasing a spiral-bound student edition from IEW if you want one! IEW was very generous to Crew members and sent a printed copy of the Student Pages in addition to the full set of Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization.

The glossy cover is causing light glare, so I apologize that it is not a crisp photo. The book covers are beautiful!

In addition to all the items included in Poetry Memorization, the package includes downloadable material for the teacher/parent! Following instructions included in the teacher edition, you can download and listen to the following seven MP3 files:

• Nurturing Competent Communicators (mp3 of the message included on DVD);
• Mastery Learning, Ability Development, and Individualized Education;
• Ten Thousand Times and Then Understanding;
• On Listening;
• On Speaking;
• On Reading; and
• On Writing.

Isn't that amazing, how much is included in the Poetry Memorization package? I love the way IEW is working to equip parents in the task of educating their children!

So let me tell you about Poetry Memorization.  This is a program that can be used with students from the very earliest grades! Nevertheless, it can also be used right up into the high school grades. The younger students will probably go through the entire program at a slower pace than the older students, but not necessarily. Every student is different, and some younger students, those in the "sponge" age (memorization stage of learning) might actually find it easier to memorize than some older students who have many difficult high school courses and outside distractions simultaneously. (My son has been distracted by college English, Algebra 2, Chemistry, History, Aeronautics, Boy Scouts and Civil Air Patrol, and more!)

When I received Poetry Memorization, I initially assumed we'd jump into the program at a level commiserate with my son's grade level or something. Like a good homeschool mom, though, I started by opening the Teacher's Manual and reading the Introduction. The material makes it very clear that all students, regardless of age, begin at the very beginning. Well, at least there is no ambiguity.

Before I gave my son his first poem, I also watched the Nurturing Competent Communicators DVD. Very inspiring! I was ready to go!

We both had Ooey Gooey memorized on day 1. The recommended pace to cover the poems is one poem per week. It is expected that older students starting the course at the beginning will go at a faster pace initially. I was feeling good. ("We've 'got' this!") I liked the worm picture and colored it in, since my son's not usually much of one for coloring.

We got to poem 2 the same week. Again, very easy poem. I'm feeling good about our progress. At this time my son was neck-deep in his college class, English 101, so I willingly dropped the pace to make sure this stays fun for him. The method of easy learning in this memorization course calls for reading the poem every day, listening to the audio CDs to recite the poem together. You practice the poem every day until the student *owns* the content. The poems become progressively harder, and it is okay to move on to the next poem before the student totally remembers the poem because you continue to practice the poems you have already memorized.

We did not do perfectly at practicing the poems every day initially, but we got better as we moved along, especially not that my son's college course is ended. One of the poems is by Hughes Mearns, and personally I am struggling with the name. It isn't bad enough that for years I thought the author was someone else; I also just have trouble wrapping my very tongue around pronouncing the name. I never thought remembering the authors might be more challenging than remembering some of the poems, but now I realize it is very true!

We are currently working on Poem 7, while continuing to review the poems that precede it. I'm really liking this program! My son... I don't think he has decided yet. I want to continue with the program either way as I am certain of the benefits to be derived from its use:

• This will build on my son's vocabulary.
• It will develop sophisticated language patterns in his brain.
• My son will learn how to correctly connect artistically crafted phrases together.
• This will help him to use the new language patterns intuitively.
• My son will be able to read new material and detect correct or awkward word usage.
• Poetry is good for the soul.
• My son will store a repertoire of poetry he can recite to entertain.
• Memorization of this poetry will help my son in other subjects because of neuron connections his brain will be making from memorizing poems!

I'm really excited about the potential long term benefits! I'm also longing to hear my son recite from memory some of the later pieces, but I'm going to bide my time and let him get there with no short-cuts. I still can't wait!

Poetry Memorization is divided into five sections with 20 poems per section. It can take years to complete the program. (A school year has 36 weeks. The program has 100 poems. At one poem per week it takes almost three years.)

I found the Teacher's Edition has an Appendix 1 with short biographies of the authors of the poems in the program, which is nice. Appendix 2 is a bibliography, and Appendix 3 gives lesson enhancement ideas.

I haven't listened to all the audio MP3 downloads yet. With summer looming ahead of me, I am looking forward to some quality beneficial listening! I am also hoping I can get my son to continue to work on the memorization through the summer at... whatever pace! I'm loving the poems. They're light and funny right now. Later in the program there are some great pieces I can't wait to memorize. Some are poems my son memorized in the past, but does not remember.

Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization, by Andrew Pudewa and IEW, gets two thumbs up from this Momma. My son likes Andrew Pudewa but has not given me a positive opinion of the program. Then again, he hasn't complained, which probably a compliment considering my son. I recommend you consider this program for your own homeschool, regardless of the age(s) of your student(s).

Other members of the Review Crew also reviewed this product. To see other product reviews, please click the button below.

Introduction to Poetry: A Schoolhouse Crew Review

In September I learned that I would have the opportunity to review Introduction to Poetry: Forms and Elements, a product produced by Progeny Press. I was happy to have the opportunity to review this product. Poetry is one literature genre that my student regularly tells me he just doesn't "get". As a result, we often read our poetry without analysis, and I have neglected instruction on aspects of poetry that I consider it important to cover with my college-bound student.

I actually requested this review after having the opportunity to look at sample pages of Intro to Poetry. Looking at the Table of Contents and the sample pages, I was excited to see a concise tool for teaching (or sometimes reviewing) rhyme, meter, analogy, symbolism, tone, and types of poetry: sonnets, blank verse, haiku, ballads, limericks and more. I wanted my son to review alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia before he takes his PSAT this week. And I am not strong, myself, in teaching meter, which this Intro to Poetry also covers.

Early in September I received a digital download of both Intro to Poetry Study Guide and the accompanying Answer Key. The Study Guide itself is 75 pages long and is in interactive format (the student can type the answers right into the PDF and work right on the computer instead of printing out the PDF to work on hard copy). For our use I decided to print pages out for my son to fill in. This works better for us and gives us documentation to show our reviewer at the end of the year. I only print out a limited number of pages each week, spreading out the cost impact in terms of paper and ink. I don't print out pages my son doesn't need to write on -- these can be read directly off the computer. 

We dove right in at the beginning of the Study Guide. I had been under the impression that I did not need to purchase any books to go along with the guide, but on reading the Introduction I learned that all poems in the guide can be found in 100 Best-Loved Poems, edited by Philip Smith, 101 Great American Poems edited by The American Poetry and Literacy Project, and Great Short Poems edited by Paul Negri. The three books are not expensive, and are available from Progeny Press. Since I already had the Intro to Poetry and wanted to get started, I decided to jump in and use poetry books I already own, supplemented by Internet searches.

I wish I had just purchased the recommended books. It is not a good thing any time I add something to my life that will eat up my time, and while I have found all the poetry I have needed so far using my own books and Google searches, I have not been happy about the time these searches (Google and book searches) have taken out of my already stressed time in each day.

The pleasant aspect of our use of Intro to Poetry is that my son accepted the assignments I gave him and did them without difficulty, grumble or complaint. In this home, that is a huge complement to the product! My son tries to have a good attitude toward his schoolwork and the assignments I give him, but when a product is not a good fit for us he is not very tolerant!

We did not get as much done as I had hoped -- we did not manage to cover alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia yet -- but I have been totally pleased with the material we covered and how well my son did. Now that the review period is over I am planning to spread the rest of the material out so that we do a section each week throughout the year. This will make it manageable for us in combination with the other literature material I am trying to cover this year. I wasn't clear on whether Progeny Press considers Intro to Poetry to be sufficient to count as one credit for high school literature, but it is my opinion that it would count as a unit study or as one portion of your high school year. I like the way it includes literature and composition (student writing), which is an area I still usually feel deficient in in our home school. We're improving, but still need improvement.

Other members of the Review Crew reviewed a variety of products by Progeny Press at various grade levels. To see other product reviews, please click the button below.
 
 

Wednesday's Words

Today we began work on a new poetry unit. The materials we are working on cam from Classical Academic Press. We are working on Chapter 1 right now, and I wanted to share with you a poem, covered in Chapter 1, by Robert Lewis Stevenson.

Now my son was barely tracking with me through all of Chapter 1 leading up to this one, but I prefaced the poem with, "Now I am going to read a poem by the author of Treasure Island..." (which we just recently finished reading).

"WHAT!!???!!!" my son exclaimed.

"Robert Lewis Stevenson," I replied. (It is clear that he doesn't remember that poetry we covered in 1st Grade by Stevenson.) I said, "He was also a very prolific poet."

So my son was finally engaged, and we both enjoyed this poem.

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the aire so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

River and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown--

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

 

I then found the teacher's pages in the book for that chapter. ::sigh:: I'm a little slow on the uptake. Struggling though questions of, "What imagery do you see," as if I were the student, feeling like, "I think that's what it's asking for... Is it?"

I'll do better on Chapter 2 I think...

Poetry Study

<sup>Our current poetry study with Ambleside Online is Robert Frost. Selections are found at the Ambleside Online Poetry Page, Year 6.

Readings for the rest of February:</sup>

01 - The Pasture (from North of Boston, 1915)
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha'n't be gone long.--You come too.
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha'n't be gone long.--You come too.

02 - Going for Water (from A Boy's Will, 1915)
The well was dry beside the door,
    And so we went with pail and can
Across the fields behind the house
    To seek the brook if still it ran;