poetry

Online Homeschool High School Poetry (No Teaching Involved)

November 19, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I was given this product for free. All opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. When I do accept a product it’s because I’m giddy to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here. Now on to the fun!

When my boys entered the high school years I admit feeling intimidated to teach poetry. An online homeschool high school poetry class with no teaching involved sounded pretty good.

High School Poetry

Besides fighting my sons’ perception that poetry is too emotional and for girls only, I struggled with the humdrum way I was taught poetry in high school.

When I saw that Literary Adventures for Kids had an online homeschool high school Poetry & a Movie literature course, I couldn’t wait to get started on it with my third teen.

Movies, an online self-paced course, and a hands-off approach to teaching the Poetry & a Movie literature course piqued my interest. My son not so much. However, by using this course I’m so tickled that I’ve been able to ignite my son’s interest in poetry. This course has easily become one of my favorites and must-haves for teaching high school teens poetry.

Online Homeschool High School Poetry (No Teaching Involved). When I saw that Literary Adventures for Kids had an online homeschool high school Poetry & a Movie literature course, I couldn't wait to get started on it with my third teen. Click here for this fun high school course!

Overview of Poetry & a Movie

Let me back up first and give you a bird’s-eye view of this super course:

it’s self-paced and online
there is no physical product and my high school teen loved to pick up and go at his leisure
the literature course has 10 units
it is a study of the master poets and their poetry
it is a study of the poetic devices or literary elements
videos are scattered throughout
it has a grammar component
it’s designed to give your teen the broad strokes of literary elements so there is no overwhelm
you can purchase the books used in the course or borrow them from your local library
a movie suggestion is included for a unit end celebration
there is flexibility to use this course as a full high school credit, one-half of a language arts course, or enrichment

Although studying literary elements is the foundation of poetry over prose, I couldn’t take that usual approach with my son. Another roadblock of high school programs is that most use a textbook method. My son is an auditory learner.

Online Literature Course for Homeschooled Teens

You know my struggle through the years with him because taking notes doesn’t work well with him. I need to blend different styles of teaching to fit his need to learn in a way that appeals to him and make this course a challenge.

Taking information in through audio works extremely well. The Poetry and a Movie course uses an eclectic method of teaching by combining video, text, and real books. Win!

Besides searching for courses that match his learning style, I had to overcome his perception that poetry is not manly. If you have boys you know what I mean. Challenge on.

Instead of picking up another boring textbook about literary devices and beginning there, the course begins with a series of videos about what is poetry. I won’t ruin the videos for your kids, but I heard a chuckle or two from my son.

Poetry and Living Books for Teens

Using the living book in the course that is suggested as a spine or frame for this course is what my son loved. Remember, a spine is normally a living book that is the foundation on which a course is built.

That is another win for the course because real books should still be used in high school.

Now that I had my son hooked on the course, the next step was to choose a master poet that would help my son let go of his negative perception of poetry.

Before I tell you what I did, it’s important for your teen to cover the master poets in order. If this is your middle or high school teen’s first introduction to the beauty of poetry, don’t skip ahead like I had to do.

I was tickled to see Edgar Allan Poe listed as one of the master poets. We moved right to his poems first because my son needed to understand that poetry is not just about love; poetry is about real things in the world like cruelty, war, nature, despair, and friendship.

Because the powerful words of Poe were the first ones that inspired me, I was almost sure his words would not make my teen yawn. It worked.

Next the unit moves on to helping your teen define literary devices by using video to teach them and giving examples. At this point, your teen will set up his poetry notebook. Poetry, Literary Elements, and Trivia are the tabbed sections in the notebook.

Teaching Teens about Literary Elements

Guide your teen to help him set up the tabbed sections because they give your learner a way to break down learning into meaningful and fun parts. After all, learning poetry should have an organized approach so as to not miss one tiny detail.

The teacher in me needs to be sure my son comes away from high school with a foundation in literature and appreciation for figurative language and not just analytical writing.

The trivia section in the notebook helped my teen to see that poetry is lively, upbeat, and challenging.I mentioned before that this course uses many different teaching styles, but it equally incorporates different homeschool approaches.

The study of poetry is both a classical and Charlotte Mason feature. Charlotte Mason touts studying one artist or composer for a while. Studying one master poet thoroughly is the same approach in this course. Instead of quickly shifting focus, poetry requires lingering on words and digging deep for the intentions of wordplay by master poets.

After my initial fast forwarding to a point in the course to hook my kid on poetry, we benefited from staying focused on one poet for a considerable length of time. Mastery is also a unit study feature and that was one huge benefit for us in this course.

Living Books and Online Poetry Study

Having a culminating activity like watching a movie together or having teatime with your teen keeps it fun. Of course I didn’t dare mention teatime to my boy, but popping some popcorn and lighting the fireplace before a movie made it memorable.

Although the course is designed so that your teen can learn independently, don’t miss out by not reading the poems together. Poetry is supposed to be read out loud. Mentoring your teen doesn’t stop in high school. If you want him to appreciate figurative language and rhyme, then he needs to hear your voice.

I enjoyed reading the poems out loud with my teen, but you don’t have to. Another benefit of the program is that he can read it along side the narrator on each video. I have to admit, my voice was no substitute for the narrator reading “The Tyger” by William Blake. Your teen will love listening closely as the poem is read to him.

Although you can use the course for writing lessons, my goal was to use the time to kindle my son’s appreciation for poetry.

5 More Things You Should Know About Poetry & a Movie

One/ The specifics of the course are the introduction, the master poets which are Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Langston Hughes, William Wordsworth, William Butler Yeats, Dylan Thomas, and Robert Frost. The last section is a Final Project writing essays.

Two/ You will need to determine beforehand how much credit you will assign to your teen. Of course this depends on how extensive you want to use this online language arts course.

Third/ Each poet has been planned for a month-long study. Because I wanted to get the flavor of the course, we initially skipped around as I explained earlier. Now, my son prefers to cover one master poet in-depth.

Four/ There is unlimited access to the course and I see this as a huge savings.

If you don’t know by now, curriculum for older kids is more expensive. We’re preparing teens for adulthood and curriculum shouldn’t just impart knowledge or rote facts; it should stir a teen’s mind to be included in the bigger picture of life after high school.

Teaching a teen how to think using poetry as an analysis cements beautiful thoughts in our kid’s mind and reciting poetry is a memory aid to use into adulthood. You don’t want to miss covering poetry and it’s especially fun when there is no stress planning.

In addition, this course can be used in a few different ways to get your money’s worth. The master poets and literary elements can be introduced in middle school.

In high school, use the course again, but fold in the grammar and essay components for high school credit. It’s a two-fer.

The best part is that you can use this with all of your younger kids. What a deal for a course that is prepped and ready to go.

Five/ Literary Adventures for Kids is owned by a homeschooling family. You know how much I prefer curriculum prepared by a homeschooling family because they get it when we need curriculum easy to teach and that appeals to a variety of learners. Another win for me.

Poetry Study for Homeschool High School

Poetry & a Movie may be a good fit for your family:

if your child needs multiple approaches to learning
if your child prefers using real books instead of a textbook
if you want to foster independence with your middle or high school teen, but want your child to have a framework to follow
if you fear teaching poetry and want to learn alongside your teen
if you prefer an online self-paced course over a physical product
if you need a course prepped and ready to go with minimal teacher planning

Bottom Line: I’m extremely delighted with Poetry & a Movie and any apprehensions I had that my teen son may find poetry only a girl’s subjects has been put to rest. Hearing him repeat part of the poems he learned as he goes through his day is a proud mama moment.

I am so pleased with this course and I just can’t think of anything that needs to be changed. I would highly recommend it if you have a teen that needs to learn outside the box, but don’t have time to prepare a unit study.

Poetry & a Movie is a keeper in my home and I plan on going over it again both as a standalone course and to use as a review tool. I look forward to seeing my son build on the foundational skills he learned in this poetry course. This has been a rewarding experience and has helped my son enjoy learning to write and read poetry!

Thanks to Literary Adventures for Kids for this excellent product to serve the homeschool community!

Don’t forget to purchase this at this huge discount from Nov. 23 to December 2.

Go on over and give it a look see. I’ll know you love it as much as I do!

How to Purchase It.

►Product Name: Literary Adventures for Kids – Poetry and a Movie
►Website: Literary Adventure for Kids/Hide the Chocolate
►Grade Level: 7th grade and up Note: There are products for your younger kids too.
►Type of product: These is an online course. No physical product will be shipped to you.

Also, you’ll love these other helps for high school:

Hugs and love ya,

The Ultimate Guide to Poetry for Multiple Ages (For the Intimidated)

April 22, 2017 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

In creating this ultimate guide to poetry for multiple ages, I’ve recalled my own lack of experience in teaching poetry. Unlike other areas of language arts, poetry can be intimidating to teach. Taking the abstract to concrete, associating images with thoughts, limited experiences of child and teacher to appreciate figurative language, and comprehending the difference between imagery and metaphor are just a few of the elements that caused me to delay teaching poetry.

Crippled with my lack of education in understanding the language of poetry, I used prepared lesson plans to teach it in the early years of homeschooling. Gaining momentum in the middle and high school years to move away from laid out resources and learn alongside my sons, I learned that poetry is similar to my love of reading; it’s more about the experience of reader to language than identifying all the poetry elements.

Like living books, poetry has to be appreciated first for the ability to move a reader.

Rhythm and meter are art forms of poetry. And choosing the right words, a pause or space in between stanzas, and giving life to soulless objects are ways that a skillful poet evokes thoughts, feelings and imagination.

Releasing the Inner Bard

Poetry is now one of my essentials in a reading program.

Although it may seem strange to an avid writer or reader, one point I appreciate more now is that a person is not obligated to share the joy of reading, writing or an emotional connection with a poem. It can be intrinsic and the reader can possess an inner satisfaction without feeling compelled to tout all of his life’s experiences, positive or negative to the whole world.

Personal views and intimate thoughts about poetry can stay as an inner secret. Or if you want to join the great conversation of the world, a poem can pull you and others into discussing feelings, thoughts and experiences.

Like discussing a great book, agreeing with another person or not when discussing poetry isn’t the point. It’s about the power of moving you to think beyond your own life’s experiences or predetermined cultural values and expressing yourself with profound meaning.

Conversations with others, like reading words painted by a poet, are educational, entertaining, and expand our understanding of them. And reading poetry is like conversations with ones you love, like your children. It’s about speaking the right words in the correct order.

It’s taken me almost my whole journey of homeschooling to grasp those two very different views I can take to poetry. I hope it won’t take you that long to look beyond teaching the elements of poetry and peer into the hidden power of poetry.

Poetry Needs to Be Read Outloud

In this ultimate guide to poetry for multiple ages (for the intimidated), I hope to give you a starting point in reading and writing poetry.

Encourage your children to write poetry. Even the simplest word from their heart is rich with meaning and it is the stepping stone to creative writing. Encourage your children to read poetry outloud. They’ll love the option of keeping an inner secret or delighting others by publicly expressing their emotions through picture words.

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You’ll also want to read How to Easily Add Poetry to Your Homeschool Subjects, 24 Borderline Genius Ways To Relieve Language Arts Boredom and How To Teach Your Homeschooled Children Shakespeare.

Are you interested in more of my Ultimate Guides? Of course you are.
Read Lewis and Clark Expedition – The Ultimate Guide, Ultimate Guide to Learning Activities in a Jar or Bottle, The Ultimate Guide for New Homeschoolers and The Unrivaled Guide to Civil War Activities for Kids.

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

This blog hop is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutual beneficial projects.

Click the image below to visit all the other blog articles from the homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network.

How to Easily Add Poetry to Your Homeschool Subjects

February 20, 2017 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Poetry has always been important to me during my homeschooling journey. Expressing emotion through artfully contrived words though, I feel, can be a lost art in homeschooling because of the sheer number of subjects that creep up into our day. We have savored every lesson as we used The Art of Poetry Bundle.

Beautiful words have a way of painting a conversation with so few of them. I have always admired such clear thought that can be dwindled down to a few lines of poetry. The Art of Poetry captures not just the common elements like rhythm and meter, but can lead you step by step to understanding and skillfully teaching poetry.

I have added a snippet above of the table contents for you to peek at. By breaking each element of poetry down into a chapter, you and your children have more than enough time to relish each word, line and punctuation.

Poetry unlike reading prose calls for an unhurried pace so that all the parts are analyzed for beauty and hidden meaning.

Using figurative language and metaphors is not something we always use in everyday writing. At first, studying poetry can feel strained until you realize that writers have to write with their hearts and not just their minds. So The Art of Poetry begins by helping you to understand the importance of paying close attention to reading, then covers the elements of poetry and gives you a history and timeline of poetry.

A very useful feature and one we enjoyed is the short biographies of poets that is in the back of the book. Helping your children to appreciate that poets are real people and their lives, their environment and opinions influences their emotions and enriches our understanding of each word.

Whether a poem is silly, happy or sad, our children see that other poets may have experienced some of the things that we do.

When we received The Art of Poetry, both the Student Text and Teacher Editions were bound beautifully. You know my obsession by now though. I need books that lay flat on my table. So I coil bound both the Teacher’s Edition and Student Text and began our lessons.

I heeded the suggestion given right away and that is to begin by reading Chapter 8:Putting it All Together. Using this with both Mr. Awesome who was high school level at the time and Tiny who was elementary level, helped me to get an overall pulse of their understanding of poetry up to this point.

After each poem there is a set of questions in the Student Text for you to consider. The Teacher’s Edition is a must have because of the sheer volume of teaching tips and answers to the questions. It is more than an answer sheet. More on that in a minute because I certainly want to give you more details on it.

At the end of the chapter there are activities that vary anywhere from reading a poem of your child’s choosing, to hands-on activities to writing a poem.

There were more than enough activities to choose from at the end of each chapter so that I could mix and match for both levels. Also vocabulary words and their definitions are provided throughout the Student Text.

It did not take long for Mr. Awesome and Tiny to understand that poems are about laughter, enjoyment and they can also bring tears. They are about unveiling emotion that we only thought oral conversation could do.

We did several of the activities suggested in each lesson plan. As suggested in one of the activities, I found free emotion facial cards online so that Tiny could pick the emotion he was feeling as Mr. Awesome read the poem.

I also received Disk 1 from the DVD. The quality, sound and clarity of the lessons was superb.

I think one of the parts Mr. Awesome enjoyed the best about this program was watching the DVD as Christine Perrin teaches four students. Mr. Awesome gave up his normal DVD laptop player and confiscated my computer with the bigger screen. Because he is high school level, he does get to use the Teacher’s Edition too if he needs it but just followed along in the Student Text as he watched her conduct the class. He felt a connection with the other kids there realizing they didn’t have all the exact words to express their feelings about each poem.

I have not forgotten to tell you about the comprehensive Teacher’s Edition. Just in case the homeschool world decides to start nominating candidates for the top of the line teacher’s editions and gives them a 5 star award, I will already have The Art of Poetry Teacher’s Edition nominated.

Previously I mentioned the timeline in the Teacher’s Edition, but I have to admit that some swooning was involved when I saw it. In our unit studies and everyday learning, I am always looking for ways to connect language arts to a history timeline.

In the Teacher’s Edition, there is a timeline that has time periods with the following four sections, except for the postmodern period: forms and genres, writers, literary value and historical context. It is a nice visual aid to enriching your language arts.

A Teacher’s Edition should equip any teacher, not just the ones who have a background or degree in that area, to explain clearly what is being taught. A teacher can’t do this if she is only given an answer sheet. Background information to edify the educator is a must too.

The Art of Poetry Teacher’s Edition contains gray bordered pages immediately following the lesson that gives detailed explications and background information where needed. That means this section clarifies and breaks down the process of teaching into the most minute pieces. We need that when we don’t know what we are doing or like me, if you want to pick up the curriculum and teach with minimum preparation time.

Here is what this Teacher’s Edition includes. I took this from the website so it is finely tuned.

Detailed and fascinating explications of thirty-nine poems from the student text

A complete answer key to accompany Anthology exercises

A poetry time line showing the different periods of poetry, including the period’s forms and genres, writers, literary value, and some historical context

A quiz for each chapter, a cumulative book quiz, and answers keys for all quizzes

An introduction for the teacher with tips and suggestions for teaching poetry

The entire The Art of Poetry student text

I have to add one more point though that is particularly valuable to me in using many, many teacher’s editions and that is how the student text page and teacher’s edition page numbers align. Though the table of contents lists the Teacher’s Edition last entry on page 271, there are well over that amount of pages in the Teacher’s Editions. However, because they retained the same page number alignment, you can easily tell your student which page you are on because you start on the same one. A small thing not so small in keeping me organized and saving time flipping through student texts and teacher’s editions that have different page numbers.

Effort counts in poetry. Turning thoughts into creative words is not an easy task, but any reader of poetry appreciates thoughts that are composed in an artistic way. Both Mr. Awesome and Tiny enjoyed the activities of not only writing their own poetry but sharing it with each other as well as their drawings illustrating figurative language. Closing our eyes and mentally reflecting on the sight, sound, feel, taste and aroma of each poem we read as we were guided along by The Art of Poetry has been some of our most pleasurable lessons so far this year.

I know you’ll love teaching poetry easily with The Art of Poetry .

Also, you can grab some free Ancient Greece Poetry, 24 Borderline Genius Ways To Relieve Language Arts Boredom and How To Teach Your Homeschooled Children Shakespeare.

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

How To Teach Your Homeschooled Children Shakespeare

April 15, 2016 | 5 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I was compensated for my time reviewing this product, writing this review, and hosting the giveaway. However, paid for my time does not mean paid off. ALL opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. When I do accept a product it’s because I’m giddy to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here. Now on to the fun stuff!

When we had our Renaissance co-op, I was excited to teach about anything from that time period, except Shakespeare. Thankfully, I didn’t plan the co-op alone and our group brought in a local bard fill-in to teach us about Shakespeare. It was a huge hit with our high school kids and until recently, I didn’t think I could repeat the same experience for my younger son. So I was over the top excited when I received from Ken Ludwig the book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.

Psssst! Before I go on too, I wanted to give you a heads up about the giveaway at the bottom so you don’t miss it.

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare is like that bard fill-in we had at our co-op, who translated English from ancient to modern in an animated way to move us and to make sense of the beautiful words painted by Shakespeare.

How Well Do You Know William Shakespeare?

Isn’t that why so many kids and adults can’t stand Shakespeare to this day? I’ll admit it, I was one of them.

No, it’s not Shakespeare’s stirring poetry, which lights a fire in my emotions or feelings that I don’t like. It’s losing the meaning of the words along the way that makes me want to go the other way.

Too, I tend to get harder about my expectations in teaching tools the longer I homeschool and though I had heard about How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare before, I admit I was skeptical.

However, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare didn’t disappoint and it especially didn’t give me another huge set of useless Shakespearean passages to memorize, but gave me a mighty homeschool tool in my pocket.

Look at some of the things that struck a chord with me.

No time is wasted in the outset at explaining why people have a hard time memorizing poems or understanding them. Text needs to be read in an easy format.

When we were memorizing these passages, it’s like you can picture the words on the page because they are broken into chunks. And no this method doesn’t just work for children, but for adults too.

After memorizing passages like this, Tiny won’t read it any other way now. Not only does Ken Ludwig give you tips on how to teach it, but he created free quotation pages at his website, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.

Words matter to our kids.

I love Ken Ludwig’s gentle reminders about why I should be teaching Shakespeare in my homeschool day. Though I would love to shield my kids as long as I can from the world’s woes, the truth of it is that children can relate to the stress of every day life and poetry gives them a way to connect with those feelings.

Look below at the words by Macbeth that Tiny has been mouthing because they opened the way to a conversation about why people get to this point in their life or why they feel life may be that way now. It was deeper than I wanted to go, but it reminded me of the power of words. Also, it resonated with me because I homeschool to have personal moments with each one of my boys.

Life’s but a walking shadow, . . . It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Hard to understand terms are explained right in the book.

One of my very favorite parts, which is what made me fall in love with How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare is that terms and words that we don’t use everyday are easily explained right with the passage.

No hunting and pecking on the internet for the meaning of the word which interrupts the flow of thought and the moment is gone.

Do You Know the Difference Between Poetry & Prose?

Useful background information.

Also, background information is given about passages that made learning Shakespeare with Tiny not only enjoyable by him, but by myself also. It is hard to not be moved by words from passages that talk about love and rejection.

Too, it’s not a secret that we love history in our family and history is alive and makes sense through the words of Shakespeare.

For example, in one passage we were reading from Twelfth Night, Cesario says,

“Make me a willow cabin at your gate
And call upon my soul within the house.”

The quick explanation about the willow cabin was that in Greek and Roman mythology the willow tree was a symbol of grief for unrequited love.

The passage and message then becomes full of meaning because it helps to understand the feelings when love or affection is not reciprocated. Fascinating tidbits like this just fill the pages of this book.

Extra help = Enrichment as if the study of Shakespeare is not rich enough.

There are 25 passages that are put in order in the book so that the guesswork is taking out of which passages to begin memorizing. In addition, as you can see above the Appendix is full of added enrichment.

One book stand alone curriculum.

Another very favorite part of using this book is that it is a one book stand alone curriculum.

It can easily be used by a precocious middle school kid or high school teen because it is laid out in a specific order so that you don’t have to guess and like I mentioned, explanations are given. If you are teaching younger children, you’ll love the teaching tips and teacher help.

Also, I have read many tips on the differences between prose and poetry and the teacher in me loved the insightful tips and detailed ways of telling the difference between the two.

Multi-age timeless curriculum keeper.

It is what I call a curriculum keeper, which means it spans multiple ages and can be used over and over again each year.

You won’t regret purchasing this handy, one book stand alone compact curriculum.

Tiny and I have plans to read the rest of the passages in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare and that just might lead us to some hands-on activities or lapbook.

Also, check out my other posts:

Hugs and love ya,

poetry

High School Poetry

Overview of Poetry & a Movie

Online Literature Course for Homeschooled Teens

Poetry and Living Books for Teens

Teaching Teens about Literary Elements

Living Books and Online Poetry Study

5 More Things You Should Know About Poetry & a Movie

Poetry Study for Homeschool High School

How to Purchase It.

Releasing the Inner Bard

Poetry Needs to Be Read Outloud

General Lesson Plans, Teacher Guides, and Unit Studies

Printable Poetry Resources

Homeschooling Poetry Tips

Poetry Crafts and Hands-On Activities

Poetry Books for Homeschoolers

How Well Do You Know William Shakespeare?

Words matter to our kids.

Hard to understand terms are explained right in the book.

Do You Know the Difference Between Poetry & Prose?

Useful background information.

Extra help = Enrichment as if the study of Shakespeare is not rich enough.

One book stand alone curriculum.

Multi-age timeless curriculum keeper.