After learning about Poetry for the last couple months in our Homeschool Co-op, I decided that it would be really good to go a bit more in depth with Monkey Man about it. I’m not so sure he was totally on board, but being an avid reader I told him to give it a try. So when I got the opportunity to review Classical Academic Press and their program The Art of Poetry it was a no brainer for me.
I don’t know about you, but Poetry is not a subject that I find easy to teach. Sure, I can show them the basic Haiku, and Rhyming poems. But when it comes right down to helping them understand the meaning of poems, and more, I’m not your girl.
We received the Student Text, Teacher’s Edition, and the first disc of the DVD series (this includes chapters 1 & 2).
What is “The Art of Poetry":
It is a program designed for middle and high school students. In the curriculum it teaches about different elements of poetry. Some of those topic’s include, imagery, metaphor, symbols, how to read poems, and the history of forms.
Inside the student textbook you will find 16 chapters. They are broken down like this. . . Chapter Topic, Learning to Read Closely, Anthology, Activities, and Vocabulary. The book is written by Christine Perrin. She is a poet, and she also has experience in teaching literature and writing.
The Teacher’s Edition is huge. I was very overwhelming upon first looking at it. As I looked through it more and more, I was very impressed with the wealth of information in it. I chose to sit and do this study with Monkey Man. So, it was nice to review the night before and see what we were going to be discussing. I really think the Teacher’s Edition in this case is a definite must have!
The Art of Poetry DVD was just the first 2 chapters. We watched it to help gain knowledge on how to work through the book. Since I was doing the book with Monkey Man, we both found that we don’t think we would use the DVD. If you were going to have older high school students doing this independently then this would be a good asset. We also found the DVD to be a bit long, it started to lose Monkey Man’s attention.
How we used the program:
There are a few different ways you can use this program. The suggested schedules are 1 year (32 weeks), Half year (16 weeks), or as a Four year (poetry appreciation course). We started it out as an everyday thing for the review. . . However, it quickly became a struggle to keep Monkey Man going. I think that this is a very intense course for middle school. Therefore, we backed down to a lesson a week. So we could have more time to discuss things, go over it, and not feel pushed. This seemed to get him back into the swing of it.
Our Thoughts:
Monkey Man really enjoyed reading some of the poetry and learning more about it. While he is not a avid poetry fan, he is learning to appreciate it a bit more. He wrote a few pieces during this review time, but he did not feel comfortable sharing with more than just me yet.
I really think this is a great program, and have enjoyed it right along with him. That is one thing that I love about being a Homeschooling mom, is getting to learn right along beside my children. The Teacher’s Edition is an absolute must, but also helped me with discussing the poems with Monkey Man. Sometimes, it just boosted me enough to start our own discussions.
We will continue with the book and are looking forward to what we can learn. One of the things both of us would have liked to seen differently though, was the books being spiral bound, so we could look at them easier while writing.
Pricing & Contact Info:
The Art of Poetry Bundle – $124.95 (Effective April 1, 2013, it will be $99.95)
The Art of Poetry Student Book- $24.95
Teacher Edition- $29.95
DVD Set – $89.95 (Effective April 1, 2013, it will be $69.95)
You can order from there website www.classicalacademicpress.com
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