Recitation and Memorization

Hi everyone! Due to some of the recent posts on the topic of recitation and memorization, I wanted to share with you something I had put together for the recitation work we did as part of a Charlotte Mason fine arts co-op last year. I relied on Charlotte Mason’s original writings and Simply Charlotte Mason’s Language Arts handbook, Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing. 

We follow the spirit of the CM-philosophy in our home and not the letter of the law. I’m posting in love and in hopes it may be useful to some. Anyhow, you know I’m crazy about you all!

Oh, and you can see Charlotte’s over-arching philosophy of avoiding parrot-work in mathematics as well. Both tables and Euclidean proofs were memorized only after  logical proof was made.

Recitation and Memorization

 …Poetry is also memorized and recited in a CM education, though not required of a child younger than six.  In Charlotte’s schools, “Repetition” was on the time-table daily for twenty minutes each day, alternating between poetry, Bible, and hymns.  Children under the age of twelve would learn to recite a poem of choice, a hymn, Psalm and two passages of 6 verses each from Scripture or poetic prose per term.  Form IIA (approximately 10-12 years old) would memorize two Bible passages of 20 verses each as well as three poems per term in addition to hymn repetition.  Students in Form III might recite 150 lines of poetry and 60 Bible verses in a term or two passages of 20 verses each from their Bible reading, two hymns, two Psalms and either two poems of 50 lines each or a scene from Shakespeare.  

Poetry recitation is not just parroting back a poem or imitating Mother’s reading but should be the interpretation and expression of a poet’s thoughts rendered in such a way as to convey the poem’s overall meaning to the listener.  Attending to clear enunciation and correct posture, poetry recitation lays the groundwork for public speaking.  Memorization remains an enjoyable process through simply reading the poem through in a beautiful manner one or two times a day and aids the child in the habit of making mental images.  The memorization of poetry and Scripture can be likened to the planting of seeds that will yield good fruit in season, perhaps by providing comfort or inspiration at another time.

• Recitation should not be burdensome or laborious.
• Reading a poem once or twice a day to your child is enough for the memorization of shorter poems or segments of longer poems.
• Older children can read the poems aloud to themselves throughout the day.
• Do not hurry a memorization.
• Though improper pronunciation and posture should be corrected right away, the child should “find the just expression of thought for himself” (Vol. 1, p. 224).

If you’ve read this far and want me to post what I’d written out for poetry as well, just let me know. 

Warmly,

Richele