Memorization

For any parents reading (kids, go get you parent and have them read this!), you will be interested to know the selections your child has memorized as a group during our classes this year.

Memorization is an important tool in a student's life. Memorization causes students of begin to appreciate language and the sound it makes when it is carefully constructed. Also, students have young minds which can make memorization especially easy andthe ability to recall memorized material decades later. The article, "In Defense of Memorization," is particularly helpful and interesting to read.

All three grades (6th, 7th, and 8th) learned "Ideas have Consequences" which is found in the sidebar. Since we are reading The Hobbit in the sixth grade, they worked on ten stanzas from "Over the Misty Mountains Cold" as the seventh grade memorized "A Mighty Fortress is our God" and a small part of Martin Luther's famous speech before the Diet of Worms. Both sixth and seventh grades learned "The Night has a Thousand Eyes" and "The Vulture." The next memorization selection for both grades is "The Quality of Mercy" from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

The eighth graders memorized "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and has begun to work on "The Gettyburg Address."

More selections are ready and waiting for the rest of the year!