Homeschool Review: Memoria Press Classical Composition #hsreviews #memoriapress #classicalchristianeducation

Memoria Press offers resources for a classical CHRISTIAN education.  We've been working through the Classical Composition I: Fable Set and Classical Composition II: Narrative Set in an accelerated format in an effort to polish up writing skills before the final senior year.  Statistics state that writing is the greatest weakness of incoming freshmen, and it is our desire to change that in our home.  The accelerated format aids in the development of communication skills as students discover the skills of writing (and subsequently begin to enjoy it).  Great communication and excellent writing skills are exactly what I'm after as we seek for a strong finish to our homeschooling career.

Modeled after the classical methodology known as the Progymnasmata, the Classical Composition series aims to produce students who not only write and speak well, but who write and speak well about GOD and HIS creation.  Students are taught the mechanics behind excellent composition through the Classical Composition curriculum and it is laid out in an easy-to-understand and easy-to-follow format.  My daughter is using it independently with no issues at all by following the Fable & Narrative Stage Lesson Plans.  

These lesson plans lay out a 34-week calendar to be used Monday through Friday and specify exactly what has to be done each day.  A student is able to complete each lesson in a two-week time period and we have found the accelerated format to be comparable in workload to the intensive online college courses my son is taking this semester.  I like that each day’s work is laid out for her and that she can easily meet the expectations given.  I especially like that there are Instructional DVDs provided for each of these Composition levels.  My daughter enjoys watching each lesson’s video and completing the work required.  I enjoy that she can do this on her own with little intervention from me.

I’m sure you’ve heard the oft-quoted statement that “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.”   Classical Composition I:  Fable Set encourages students to imitate good writers so that they can become good writers themselves through variation and paraphrase while Classical Composition II: Narrative Set encourages students to imitate the ideas in passages making sure that they understand and comprehend the meaning behind a particular passage.  This is done through writing and re-writing and writing again.

For our review, we received the following:

• Fable & Narrative Stage Lesson Plans (9-pages, softcover, combbound)which gives a day-by-day checklist of work to be completed
• Classical Composition I:  Fable Set which includes the Teacher Guide and the Student Book (both are 101-pages, softcover, coilbound) and the Instructional DVDs that coincide with the Fable lessons.  There are 4 discs that cover all 20 lessons.  
• Classical Composition II: Narrative Set which includes the Teacher Guide and the Student Book (both are 156-pages, softcover, coilbound) and the Instructional DVDs that coincide with the Narrative lessons.  There are 6 discs that cover all 20 lessons.

The Teacher Guides contain a reproduction of the Student Books and all answers are provided.  This makes it super easy for me to check my daughter's work and gives me Teacher Tips that I find invaluable to the learning process.  The Teacher Tips remind me of intricate details I may have forgotten through the years.  For example, the Narrative Teacher Tips encourage me to be fluent in the figures of description because the more confident I am in my ability to use them, the better my daughter will be as she works to master writing skills.  It also gives me permission to avoid overly complex assignments.  I need the reminder as sometimes I push further than I should.  I tend to force my perfectionism standards without aiming to build confidence.  

What does all of this look like in use at Long Leaf Academy?  For review purposes, my daughter (finishing Junior year, heading into Senior year) has been "discovering the skills of writing" through the Classical Composition Accelerated I format.  At this time, she is almosst halfway through the Fable Stage and will be continuing with the Narrative Stage until completion.  We are utilizing the full 34-week program in its entirety.  The Lesson Plans show her exactly what to do each day and the DVDs provide full instruction from Dr. Brett Vaden.

Each lesson focuses on a different one of Aesop's fables and follows the same pattern.  Dr.Vaden reads the fable aloud and points out words that may be difficult for the student.  He explains these vocabulary words in detail and re-reads the fable.  Students then ponder the three plot components of recognition, reversal, and suffering and make note of them in the Student Book.  What we like about the teaching aspect of the DVDs is that Dr. Vaden explains concepts in a way that is easy-to-undertand and then directs students to pause the DVD and answer his questions in their book.  He is very personable and encouraging.  Students learn to use synonyms and write variations of each fable and they learn to create outlines.  The variations and outline are then used to rewrite the fable multiple times.  Walking through each of these steps teaches proofreading skills and self-correction and empowers my daughter as she realizes that writing is not so difficult.

The Narrative Stage follows a very similar format to the Fable Stage.  Students read (or are read) short narratives and discuss vocabulary words found in the reading.  They learn to orally share the story (narrate it) in their own words and focus on the nine components of a narrative:  recognition, reversal, suffering, agents, action, time, place, manner, and cause.  Further practice is given to outlines, variations, and paraphrasing with the culmination of each lesson found in a final draft that inverts the sequence of events in the narrative.  This deductive reasoning exercise helps them to understand perspectives and focus on what is essential to the plot, thus strengthening their writing and preparing them for college essays.

As always, Memoria Press has given us well thought out resources that encourage students to focus on GOD's ideas.  I love that the writings come from men with a heart to further the Kingdom and our appreciation of all that is in it.

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I was given the opportunity to review the  Classical Composition I: Fable Set and Classical Composition II: Narrative Set from Memoria Press as a member of the Homeschool Review Crew.   Make sure that you visit the  Crew Review to see what other members of the Crew thought of these resources (and others), too.  You can click on the picture below to jump right over there.  

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