Poetry For the Grammar Stage from Memoria Press {Curriculum Review}

Poetry. I really do enjoy reading good poetry and want to expose my children to quality poetry. But sometimes it can be difficult to work it into our homeschooling unless we are using a Language Arts program that has it built in. For the last few weeks, we have been using the Poetry for the Grammar Stage Set from Memoria Press with my eight-year-old son. How did it work for us having it as an additional program? Were the lessons easy to teach? Did he enjoy it? Today I’m going to answer those questions and more as I share our review of this award-winning program!

About the Product

Memoria Press is an award-winning program for good reason. Their products are of high quality and provide a rich foundation in knowledge for grades K-12. Whether you are seeking a complete
curriculum, or simply desire to add in various topics, the classical educational material from Memoria Press is guaranteed to enrich your child’s educational experience.

Two of the most popular curriculum from Memoria Press are the Language Arts materials and the Latin courses. Both subjects are available from the most basic grammar level through advanced concept instruction.

Some of the curriculum available includes:

Classical Phonics with the First Start Reading Program
Poetry for the Grammar Stage
Poetry & Short Stories: American Literature
Poetry, Prose & Drama: The Old English & Medieval Periods
Poetry, Prose Book Two: The Elizabethan to Neoclassical Age
Poetry Book Three: The Romantic to the Victorian Age
Prima Latina
Latina Christiana
First Form Latin
Second Form Latin
Third Form Latin
Fourth Form Latin + Henle I

We were given the Poetry for the Grammar Stage Set to review. This set is geared towards grades 3-7 and is intended to be used a supplemental study of the poetry that is part of the Language Arts, science, and history courses Memoria Press offers for memorization, but can also be used as a standalone program. The poetry study is designed to help analyze the meaning of poetry through comprehension questions and provides vocabulary words for further exploration. The poems in the book increase in difficulty as the student moves through the book.

The Poetry for Grammar Stage Set includes:
* Student Guide
*Teacher Guide
*Anthology

Our Thoughts on the Product

We have worked with Memoria Press products before, so I was familiar with the basic style of the material. I know that the classical lines are more “busy” work assignments and less hands-on, but my youngest son (age 8) is good with that style. He and I had never really done a poetry focus, so I was curious to see how he would do with this product.

One of the first things I noticed was that the contents page of the teacher guide has a listing of all the poems included in the curriculum, and it notes which of the classical core curriculum they are connected to. I can see how it would work well if you were studying any of those other materials.

I really appreciated the “How to Teach a Poem” essay at the beginning of the book. It gives a great step by step routine that can be used to successfully teach the material and I found it very useful, as I haven’t taught poetry in quite awhile. I also liked that it reminded me that all the concepts and terms are in the Appendix for my reference. I definitely went there to brush up on a few things before we got started.

Because I wanted to start this off easy, I found one of the shortest poems, titled "The Happy Farmer", in the anthology to start with. Because there isn’t a lesson plan to go with the product, I just decided to “wing it” and use it as I wanted.

We ended up following the same routine throughout our review:

Day 1 Read the poem and have him follow along. Discuss the vocabulary in his student guide. Talk about what we think the poem is about. Then we complete the analytical exercises for the poem—looking at the rhyming structure, any special characteristic about the poem, and identifying any extra items the book asks (alliteration, personification, etc.).

Day 2: Read the poem and ask if he remembers what the rhyme structure was and what the poem is about. Then complete the comprehension questions.

Day 3: Review the poem again, having him read to me. Illustrate the poem, or a stanza from the poem in the box included.

Day 4: Read the poem and do the copywork.

This was a great routine for us! The copywork was definitely his LEAST favorite part, but he did it well. He actually really enjoyed figuring out the rhyming structures the most—although he disagreed with a few word choices for rhyming. LOL.

At first glance, I decided to avoid the longer poems, as I knew he wouldn’t want to do the copywork on them. Later I re-read the assignment and discovered the copywork on those poems specifically stated “Copy select parts of the poem…” which makes them a lot more doable now.

The program states the poems increase in difficulty and at first glance I didn’t agree. But later as I looked over them, I realized that it involved more than the length—but also trying to figure out the meanings that made them more difficult. I think that I would definitely increase the amount of time we spent on a poem as we journeyed further through the book.

As of this week, we have done five poems in completion, including one long one which took us extra time. I did not do them in order, and I like that about the book. Some may wish they had a lesson plan to use this material, but I really think it’s self-explanatory, particularly if you make sure you read the initial essay on how to teach poetry.

I think this material was a very good fit for my younger son. We easily just added it to the list of things to get done. He likes poetry and he didn’t find the assignments too difficult. I actually even heard him saying “try, try again!” as he was working on something—a line from the poem we studied of the same words. At first, I didn’t think we really needed the anthology as well—but I did like having something with JUST the poem in it with larger reading for my son to read aloud with. BUT, if you were in a pinch and couldn’t afford the whole package, you could get away with just the student and teacher guide. The teacher guide has EXACTLY the same layout as the student guide, but with all the answers.

If your child doesn’t like busy work, this may not be the program for you. If your child really needs illustrations or pictures in their elementary level work, this may not be the product for you.

If you want to start gently introducing basic poetry into your current routine, this would be a good fit. If you like open and go material, this would be a good fit. If you want to introduce some beautiful classic poetry to your children, this would be a good fit for you. If you have multiple children in grades 3-7 and desire one program to do with all of them, this would be a good fit (you just need more student guides).

Want to Know More?

For the last few weeks, we have been reviewing Poetry for the Grammar Stage Set from Memoria Press. It has worked very well with us! Our crew reviewed several more of the poetry curriculum available, as well as the line of Latin curriculum--so I encourage you to go visit several members from my crew!

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Here are my other reviews on Memoria Press products that you can check out for additional information!

*My review of New American Cursive Penmanship

*My review of Music Appreciation 1

*My review of Nature's Beautiful Order

*My review of The Book of Astronomy

*My review of Latina Christiana I

*My review of the Fourth Grade Literature Set

*My review of First Start Reading

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