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Kelly
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 12:45am | IP Logged
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I wanted to share with you all a cool poetry book I found(probably recommended by someone on this thread!) that I have been using to teach American history. It's called "A Book of Americans" by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet. It is all poems about American historical figures, with each poem being prefaced with the dates when the person in the poem lived. Each poem contains quite a bit of historical information about the person, and these poems have proven to be a real asset to our learning curve! EG, my dc memorized "Southern Ships and Settlers" which is about the SOUTHERN colonies, presented in order of their colonization. For example, it starts with "Where are you going, 'Godspeed' and 'Discovery', with meek 'Susan Constant' to make up the three?"...and goes on to dedicate a stanza or two to Jamestown. After that, on to Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia:"Where are you going, cock-hatted James Oglethorpe? Who are the people who sail on the 'Anne'? They're poor English debtors..."and so on and so forth. This has been the best mnemonic device for teaching that I've come across in a long while. Some of the other poems we've used and enjoyed have included: "Pocahontas", "Miles Standish" ("Miles Standish was a little man, a soldier from his youth. He said he fought the Spanish and I think he told the truth!"), Pilgrims and Puritans, Cotton Mather, The City of Boston, Peter Stuyvesant.
Many of these fun ditties, and others pertaining to history, can also be found on a website called, appropriately, "Poems related to American history". I usually just type in "Southern ships Benet" and it pulls up the whole website.
I think my younger dc have retained more info on the people we've studied thru poetry than have my older children with their pure "book larnin'"
Kelly in FL
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Diane
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 2:14am | IP Logged
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Kelly, this sounds fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing. You are always such a wealth of interesting ideas. We plan to study American history next year and I think my girls will love this.
Have you found any good poetry books for world history?
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Diane
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marihalojen
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Wow! This sounds wonderful! The first half of this year we did really great with memorizing a poem a week, I wish I'd known of this then. Hmmm...planning for next year, thanks Kelly!
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Kelly
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 7:34am | IP Logged
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I forgot to mention that Stephen Vincent Benet received not one but TWO Pulitzers for his poetry, so this compendium comes with a good pedigree.
For World History, I've found small poetry books on Greek, Roman and Egyptian history. We've used these for some Greek history, and they're fun, though not the caliber of the Benet poetry.
Oftentimes, when we're working on a topic, I'll just google the name of the person and "poetry" or "poem", and sometimes get lucky. I once found a little volume of saints poems, which we used for copy work, though most of the poems weren't great. And we have a huge volume or two of "Best" poetry, which I thumb thru periodically and use ...but no single volume of World History poetry...yet. Maybe someone out there can recommend one?
It's a really easy way to integrate memorization skills, poetry/literature, copywork/handwriting AND history (and science, we do this with nature studies, too...currently rounding up bird poetry)
Kelly in FL
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 9:38am | IP Logged
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We used the books "Modern Rhymes for Ancient Times," on Greece, Rome and Egypt, which are probably the ones you mentioned. I agree the poems are not high calibre, but they are very catchy and did help ds learn some history in a fun way. We especially liked the Egypt one.
Modern Rhymes about Ancient Times
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Theresa
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Mary G
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 10:09am | IP Logged
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Kelly -- this is a great idea I'll "file away" for when we do American history! Excellent!
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Kelly
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 7:28pm | IP Logged
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Those are the ones, Theresa. Yes, "catchy" is a good way to describe the poems. We used the Greek volume a lot-especially the poems on columns, architecture and so on... and though it was at least five years ago, my kids still quote from it frequently! So they are good for a fun, historical tweak.
Harkening back to these poems, we were in LA, walking thru Beverly Hills on our way to Mass a while back, when my then six year old ds stopped dead in his tracks and pointed, open-mouthed, at one of the "MacMansions" there. "Look!" he gasped, "It's THE PARTHENON!" 
Kelly in FL
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: May 24 2006 at 8:13pm | IP Logged
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That's GREAT!
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Theresa
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MaryM
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| Posted: June 08 2006 at 1:43am | IP Logged
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I got the book you recommended, Kelly and it's great. It reminded me of another newer book I had seen at the library which is also a history through poetry book:
Hand in Hand. It's a collection of poems and lyrics covering the periods of US history. It's divided into nine different periods or themes. I love the illustrations - a muted oil which almost looks like watercolor.
So while I was at the library also found these in the same section.
American History Fresh Squeezed - short humorous poems with a timeline that across the top of the pages with a short historical note.
Freedom Like Sunlight - Poems about historic African Americans. The artwork is amazing. It really captures the essence of each individual portrayed in the poems.
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Mary M. in Denver
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: Teaching History with Poetry
