Review–the art of POETRY

 

• Classical Academic Press presents:
• the art of POETRY 
• written by Christine Perrin, MFA
• recommended for grades 6th through High School
• $99.95 for the bundle set including; Teacher manual, student book and DVD’s. Each product also available separately.

About the Product

the art of POETRY  is a new curriculum written by Christine Perrin, MFA. Within this program, you will be led step by step to an understanding of many different types of poetry. Using many types of poetry, all elements of poetry such as metaphors and imagery, are explored.

There are sixteen chapters within the student text of the book. The first eight chapters explore The  Elements of Poetry. These elements include: images, metaphor, symbols, words, sound, rhythm, shape, and tone. Chapters nine through fifteen are based around The Formal History of Poetry. These lessons include History of Form, Verse Forms, Shaping Forms, Emily Dickinson, Open Verse Walt Whitman, and Narrative Poems. The last chapter is: Growing Your Interest.

This is a flexible curriculum enabling it to fit your timetable. One recommendation is to use it as a month long unit, with your student completing one lesson each day. It can be spread out over a year by completing two sections per month. The last way is to take a much slower pace and complete this over several years only using a couple chapters a year.

The teacher manual is a treasure trove of information pertaining to teaching poetry. This manual helps a teacher who may be intimidated by teaching poetry. It gives detailed descriptions to introduce the topic and poem as well as questions to ask after each poem is read. Activities, vocabulary, and explications take away all the fear of teaching this subject. All parts of the student book is included in the teacher manual along with the answers to the questions asked at the end of each poem.

The student manual includes 39 poems for discussion. Questions after each poem get the students to think and understand what is written. A short biography is included about each Poet studied.

A DVD is available that includes the author teaching a class of four eighth grade students through the book.  This is simply like sitting in on a class. You watch the teacher work through each poem with the students, hearing their answers and thoughts about the poems. If the teacher book is not enough, this DVD can take away any hesitation in teaching poetry.

ClarkClan Thoughts

We have reviewed other Classical Academic Press materials and have found them to be solid, interesting, in-depth, yet easy to teach. the art of POETRY is no exception. We have enjoyed using this book and are learning a lot about poetry.

I have been using this book exclusively with Ben, who is 11. He was excited about learning poetry and was eager to get started. We began by watching the DVD together. I quickly found that I enjoyed the video much more than he did. I think it was his age, but sitting and listening to the class session was a little too much for him. He became a little bored about halfway through. So, I changed tactics in how we would work through this book. I started teaching it exclusively from the teachers manual. This went much better. I could work through at his pace.

Ben is at the young end of using this curriculum, just going into 6th grade. He is learning, but we are taking it slow, going over approximately one lesson a week. I want to introduce him to poetry without overwhelming him. I can definitely see using this book again when he is in high school where he can glean even more information.

The teacher manual really is a treasure of this curriculum. It takes an intimidating subject and breaks it down into manageable pieces. All questions are answered for you helping you to pull the meaning out of the many poems included. 

Recommendation

I would highly recommend this curriculum. Poetry is a subject that is often glossed over or omitted because of fear in how to teach it. This helps to break through that fear. I found that I learned just as much, if not more than Ben.

Many of my Crew Mates reviewed  the art of POETRY as well as The Discovery of Deduction: An Introduction to Formal Logic. Visit the Crew Blog to read the reviews of these two products.