George and I reviewed The Art of Poetry Student Text and Teachers Edition along with the first DVD in the set. Both are large softcover durable books and are geared for 6th grade and up.
How It Worked For Us
George and I worked through The Art of Poetry together. Being that I am a bit "mystified" by poetry myself I knew it would be good for me also. The book is setup to use in whatever way works best for your family and gives sample schedules to guide you. This is something we needed to take slowly.
Lesson -- Each lesson contains a number of poems. For example the first lesson had 6 poems. George began by reading the chapter about one of the elements of poetry -- Images. For each poem there are anywhere from 3- 8 questions to get you thinking more about what you just read. What works best for us is studying a few poems each week.
Activities -- There are optional activities to choose from at the end of each chapter. They include things like re-writing your own version of a poem, describing something using four images, and one we enjoyed was a word association game where I said one word and George and Pete would answer back with words that popped into their mind to see how everything would connect.
DVD lesson -- You do not have to have the DVD's as the Teachers Edition has so much information to assist you but I enjoyed watching the lesson. The teacher is the author of the book, Christine Perrin, along with 4 students in a sort of round table discussion. They go through the various poems in the lesson giving insight about each. Some of what they talk about George said was in his lesson and other ideas they present are in the Teacher's Edition. What I liked best was the little extras. For instance, in memorizing the poem Dust of Snow by Robert Frost there were helpful hand motions and also a rhythm in how they spoke that helped us (especially George) to learn quickly. Having the Teacher's Edition I wouldn't have come up with that on my own.
George still isn't thrilled with Poetry but at least one poem a week will be incorporated into his weekly routine. It is very beneficial in helping him to give more thought to what he is reading and be able to interpret it's meaning.
My Thoughts
The Art of Poetry is very well-planned out which makes my job so easy! I love the Teachers Edition and without it we would be floundering. When George would read through a poem and try to answer questions he would occasionally get stuck, especially when a questions says, "What is the significance of?" Well, let me see, I have this handy-dandy guide that answers each question and so I could give hints to get him on the right train of thought. It also gives more insight to each poem.
I really like that this incorporates vocabulary words and writing and gives your mind a workout.
Pricing Details
Note -- prices have dropped but are not yet reflected on the website
The price of The Art of Poetry bundle (student text, teachers edition and DVD series) is now $99.95!
The items can also be purchased individually:
Student Text -- $24.95
Teacher's Edition -- $29.95
The items can also be purchased individually:
Student Text -- $24.95
Teacher's Edition -- $29.95
The Art of Poetry DVD set which is over 15 hours of instruction is now $69.95
You can read more reviews on The Art of Poetry and also Discovery of Deduction from The Schoolhouse Review Crew.
No comments:
Post a Comment