Schoolhouse Crew Review - The Art of Poetry from Classical Academic Press

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Ben began middle school this year, but until we were afforded the opportunity to review The Art of Poetry from one of my favorite homeschool companies, Classical Academic Press, it didn’t feel much different than elementary school. We, of course, have read and memorized poetry for years, but as soon as we opened our box filled with this curriculum, we knew we were being exposed to something so much more.

We received a portion of The Art of Poetry Bundle, which includes student text, teacher’s edition and the DVD set (we only received chapters one and two of the DVD set). Beginning April 1, this set will sell for $99.95. Each part can also be purchased separately — The Art of Poetry student text is $24.95, the Teacher’s Edition is $29.95 and the DVD set can be purchased separately for $69.95 beginning April 1. This curriculum was written with middle and high school students in mind. I believe adults would greatly enjoy it as well.

The Art of Poetry is divided into 2 parts — The Elements of Poetry and The Formal History of Poetry, containing a total of 15 chapters. It ends with a sixteenth chapter, titled Growing Your Interest, which discusses starting a poetry group, workshops, keeping a notebook of favorite poems, public recitations and so forth. We did not really broach this chapter. Since Ben is at the youngest end of the curriculum’s age recommendation, we stayed primarily in the first section, learning about the elements of poetry.

In The Elements of Poetry, you’ll find chapters on the following:

Images
Metaphor
Symbols
Words
Sound and More Sound
Rhythm
Shape: Stanza and Line
Tone: Putting It All Together

In The Formal History of Poetry, you’ll find chapters on the following:

History of Form, Movements, Genres
Verse Forms
Shaping Forms
Emily Dickinson: A Case Study in Form
Open Verse
Walt Whitman: A Case Study in Open Verse
Narrative Poems: An Anthology

Personally, I have always enjoyed poetry, but I have not spent a great deal of time studying it. I guess I will have to admit that I have never been confident in this area. For that reason, I will tell you right now that the DVD set is my favorite part of this bundle. In the DVD, the author of the curriculum, Christine Perrin, teaches through The Art of Poetry with a small group of students. With a total of about 15 hours of instruction, the atmosphere is very informal, as they sit together at a table and read, memorize and discuss the poems highlighted in the curriculum. It made it so simple to be able to watch the DVD with Ben, listen to the students and teacher discuss and then add our own observations to the discussion by pausing the DVD periodically. As an added bonus, Mrs. Perrin is a delight, and so are the featured students.

However, it is not necessary to purchase the DVD set to be successful with this course. In fact, you can just hand the Student Text to your student and allow them to explore. Several times during the past few weeks, I simply asked Ben to find a poem he wanted to read aloud to me. Each poem is followed by several questions to provoke thought and discussion. After reading his chosen poem, we read through those and discussed. For times I wasn’t quite sure of the answers (and there were several), the Teacher’s Edition came to the rescue with explanations for each poem and answers for the discussion questions. The Teacher’s Edition also includes quizzes for each chapter, should you wish to administer those (I did not). This is a great, low-key way to learn more about poetry. It has been the perfect addition to lunchtime, as Ben and I sat at the table together and just read and talked about poems.

Each chapter ends with activity suggestions as well. Some of those we enjoyed included discussing images important to us (when Ben’s sees or thinks about milkshakes, he remembers his Nana taking him to Steak-n-Shake after they saw each new Harry Potter Movie), listening for metaphors in every day speech, memorizing Dust of Snow, and finding objects to symbolize what’s important to us (the cross necklace and wooden box we gave to Ben is important to him because it helps him remember the day he was baptized).

Also found in the student text are vocabulary words, biographies of several poets, and my favorite — the simplified plan for getting started with the study of poetry. This is the short, simple, to-the-point way to begin, and if you are nervous at all about teaching poetry, just turn to page 252 in the Student Text and begin there.

Overall, Ben and I are both enjoying our time with The Art of Poetry, though I do recognize we are just tipping the iceberg because of his young age. I know that as he gets older, this will be an even more delightful addition to our homeschool. I look forward to digging deeper in a couple of years, and I know for sure I’ll be budgeting for the entire DVD set!

You can take a peek at The Art of Poetry student book with this sample, as well as this sample of the teacher book.

In addition to The Art of Poetry, some members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew also reviewed The Discovery of Deduction: An Introduction to Formal Logic.

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Schoolhouse Crew Review — The Art of Poetry from Classical Academic Press