March 25, 2008 - Poetry in our Charlotte Mason Homeschool
April is National Poetry Month. April 17th is Poem in Your Pocket Day.
So I thought this final week in March would be a good time to write about how we incorporate poetry into our CM homeschool. Maybe you'll be inspired to do some poetry study in April!
For more about poetry, see this Homeschool Poetry page.
When I was curriculum shopping, I also bought this anthology -- Classic Poems to Read Aloud.
Now, on to Miss Mason....
I know that CM suggested the indepth study of one poet's works for a term (just like artist and composer study). We did something like that when we used Sonlight curriculum. There was a volume of Robert Louis Stevenson poems we used year long in the Core 2. But to be honest, we got really tired of the same style over and over.
So I've adapted Miss Mason's ideas. Instead of studying one poet all term long (something we may do in future years), we are studying one poem each day. I've found that for me, a daily routine is much easier to schedule and stick with. Weekly activities get pushed back and back and back until the week is over and it didn't get done!
Our daily poetry lesson is very painless and quick. We use narration as our main form of learning.
- I read the poem.
- Sprite narrates.
- We repeat this process again -- she always understands more the second time.
- Then we may analyze particular turns of phrase or new vocabulary. We may consider the structure of the poem.
- At least once a week, I have Sprite read the poem outloud to me at the end.
- And we use a poem for copywork occasionally, of course, letting Sprite choose a poem that she particularly likes.
It's really simple, actually. I'm discovering that CM's way of teaching and learning is ususally very simple and requires little preparation or materials.
What are the benefits of studying poetry? These are some goals I've established for our poetry study.
- appreciation of sounds and rhythms of language
- new vocabulary
- use of more descriptive, poetic language in the student's own writing as what is read in poems carries over into his/her own compositions
- a new way of looking at life -- through the insightful eyes of a poet
I'd love to hear your own ideas about poetry study -- CM or otherwise. Comment here and/or blog it yourself for National Poetry Month.
Comments
March 26, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by solidrock
Hello! Em got her letter and is so thrilled! Thank you so much. The stickers are awesome. I love your ideas on poetry. Very easy to do. I like your use of the word painless! It really is painless to do this style of schooling. The most painful part is getting out of the traditional box. Thank you for sharing.
March 26, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Dana @ School For Us
How neat that you chose to blog about poetry! I was just fretting today about how we don't really do poetry in our school. Well, we did for a few months. I just have trouble finding poems I like! (And I feel so bad about that.) Maybe I can start simply like you're doing and we can just try reading a poem a day. I'll try! Thanks for the encouragment, and I'll check out your link.
March 27, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 4sweetums
My little ones really like poetry and I have done a better job sticking with age appropriate material than I did when the big teen was little. Sticking with the right age makes such a difference. We read a poem once a week and I have them illustrate the poem.
Blessings,
Dawn
March 27, 2008 - Poetry Blog Entry
Posted by jennybell68
You inspired me to blog about this. You can read it here:
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/path/505448/
Thank you.
March 27, 2008 - Great stuff...
Posted by FaithfulGrace
Thanks for sharing. I'm all geared up for National Poetry month, mainly using HSS's unit.
But we are going to write a lot of our own poetry and also read a lot of different poems. My oldest struggles with being to black/white. So I'm trying to gently push her into seeing the beauty of poetry. She'd rather do Algebra. :)
I'll share on my blog, of course with lots pictures.
Wishing you a great week,
Linda
March 28, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Alexandra
We are doing much the same. We read poems at least twice a week. I'm having my fourth grader write a short paragraph about what the poem was about, and he has to look up all the works with which he is unfamilar. We print out different poems from my Google Books library. Most are seasonal or have something to do with what we are studying in history.
We read an old Irish poem about an ancient legend of the sea. It was really neat to talk about it's meaning. I love poetry for language arts!
http://happyheartsathome.blogspot.com/index.html
March 30, 2008 - April's National Poetry Month
Posted by http://thoughts-of-the-heart.blogspot.com
Hi, I just wanted to tell you I enjoyed your post. I have visited your blog a few times and thought it was very creative. We use First Language lessons (1st gr.) and Primary Language Lessons(3rd).Both have memorization poems in our lessons. Poetry has been a real treat for us this year. Both my boys really like it. I also like poetry and in due of April I blogged a simple poem. Thanks for passing the word around.
Sincerely,
Linda
April 3, 2008 - Poetry plus drawing
Posted by Anonymous
I just put up a post that details a little of what we do with poetry in our homeschool. Combining poetry with art seems a happy combination which the children enjoy. Through in the beginning of spring and a nature study orientation and you get what I posted as a lovely result. You can see it as pocketsofthefuture.com/blog/?p=152 "A Spring Poem with Drawn Narration."
Thank you for posting,
Leslie
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