Mrs Butler poem

[yvette37]

Hi,

My DD has to learn poetry by heart in Year 3. How many days should the school give to learn the whole of Mrs Butler by heart in addition to all the other homework? What do you think is a reasonable time?

Thank you

When I was in year 6 I had to learn Wordsworth's Daffodils as part of a project on Edwardian Schools. We spent the whole day pretending we were in an Edwardian School (I think it was the only day that year that the teachers weren't on strike ).

I can still remember every word. It has never helped me in any way, shape or form.

I dread to think how many otherwise important neurons I have wasted...

I learnt scores of poems in primary school. We learnt a new one each week and I still love them. The Highwayman, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, The Lady of Shallot, Cargoes, Night Train ...

Ahh - The Highwayman. I used to love the illustrations in the book. It's a pity it got completely ruined as a Fleetwood Mac video...

DD recited the poem around the same age. Knew it all easily within a week of practising, probably shorter. We added some small hand actions to aid this too.

I totally agree with greylady. Reading children poetry is no different tha introducing them to other great literature. Children don't need to spend hours "rote learning" poetry by heart because if they are exposed to it they will naturally pick up and remember it. As I said above it's no different to learning a Carol for the Nativity play at school or a favourite nursery rhyme. Nursery rhymes are poetry and songs are poems with music yet nobody makes a fuss when children "learn" them. Children naturally love poems it's only adults who react this way....I'm not sure why!

DS memorised the whole of 'Dinosaurs love Underpants' at 3.5. I think there's somethings about the rhythm of poetry (as well as rhyme) that makes is 'easy' to learn.

There is research that shows children who enter school knowing lots of nursery rhymes find reading and writing easier.

Radicalsubstitution- I'd say you "wasted" only as many neurone as it also took you to "learn" your favourite song that you sing along to the radio.
And does everything in education really have to be useful? You could equally question why children waste their time reading books. After all I can't say that reading Lord of The Rings or The Faraway Tree in childhood have been "useful" directly in my adult life. Some things are just for pleasure and enjoyment but may also be useful tools for getting children interested in language and how it works.

Abbyr the wasted neurons bit was not meant seriously. Trust me, I have wasted (or destroyed) neurons in many less productive ways over the years!

It's just that, despite my dislike for the poem, it has doggedly remained in my memory for the last 30 years.

I think my main dislike for that particular event was the fact that I was forced to write the bloody poem with my right hand, with chalk, as part of Edwardian day as children were not allowed to write with their left hands then.

I have nothing against learning poetry.

It ok radicalsubstitution I didn't really think you were being serious :-)

It's just there so sooo much fuss made about this subject and I don't really understand it.

"at the top of the crumpety tree the quangle wangle sat..." My Mum used to recite that to me when I was tiny and I loved it. I think all children should have the opportunity to have a favourite poem.

My favourites as a child were 'Matilda who told lies' and 'The Jabberwocky'.

I also loved Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes.

I suppose I am fairly lucky that I found them pretty easy to memorise.

I can also still remember that the formula for solving a quadratic equation is -b + or - the square root of b squared - 4ac over 2a.

But I can't remember the name of the first boy I snogged. Obviously not memorable.