Author(s): 
Andrew Pudewa
Introduce your students to the beauty of literature through the doorway of poetry. Enrich vocabulary while infusing reliably correct and sophisticated English language patterns into students' minds. How? By listening to and memorizing these classic poems and speeches, which are read with flair and finesse!
 
Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization provides a system to reintroduce you and your students to a vital but often neglected source of powerful and sophisticated linguistic patterning available to children: memorized language, especially memorized poetry.
 
This teaching tool includes a book with ninety-six poems and speeches as well as all the poems and speeches read on CD for ease of memorization. Instructions, memory charts, certificates, and poet biographies are included, as well as a complementary Student Book as an e-book download. You will also receive a bonus DVD of Andrew Pudewa's conference talk Nurturing Competent Communicators.
 
Given the linguistic and cultural benefits of memorizing poetry, this resource may be one of the best uses of your available school hours. Recitation of memorized poems can easily be done away from a desk—classroom teachers can encourage students to practice at recess, in the car, and with their parents and siblings at home; teaching parents can play the CD during meals, car trips, or chore time. Memorizing new poems gets easier in direct proportion to the number of poems already learned; in other words, the more you have learned, the faster you can learn more.
The audio CD recordings included with the packet will facilitate learning through repetition so that students can master poems quickly and accurately. Be sure to read the introduction to this book frequently to be reminded of the importance of poetry memorization for the linguistic development of children. "Memorization is not only natural for young children, it is culturally powerful and educationally essential." 
 
Boxed Set comes with Teacher Manual and CD.
You can also purchase a spiral-bound copy of the student e-book.
 
WATCH VIDEOS
Andrew’s introduction to Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization
Andrew’s introduction to Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorizationfor Schools
 
Sample Poems
LEVEL ONE
The Ingenious Little Old Man 
by John Bennett
A little old man of the sea
Went out in a boat for a sail:
The water came in
Almost up to his chin
And he had nothing with which to bail.
But this little old man of the sea
Just drew out his jack-knife so stout,
And a hole with its blade
In the bottom he made,
So that all of the water ran out.
LEVEL TWO
The Duke of Plaza-Toro
by W.S. Gilbert
In enterprise of martial kind,
When there was any fighting,
He led his regiment from behind—
He found it less exciting.
But when away his regiment ran,
His place was at the fore, O—
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
In the first and foremost flight, ha, ha!
You always found that knight, ha, ha!
That celebrated,
Cultivated,
Underrated
Nobleman,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
When, to evade Destruction’s hand,
To hide they all proceeded,
No soldier in that gallant band
Hid half as well as he did.
He lay concealed throughout the war,
And so preserved his gore, O!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
In every doughty deed, ha, ha!
He always took the lead, ha, ha!
That unaffected,
Undetected,
Well-connected
Warrior,
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
LEVEL THREE
The Pessimist
by Ben King
Nothing to do but work,
Nothing to eat but food;
Nothing to wear but clothes
To keep one from going nude.
Nothing to breathe but air,
Quick as a flash ‘tis gone;
Nowhere to fall but off,
Nowhere to stand but on.
Nothing to comb but hair,
Nowhere to sleep but in bed;
Nothing to weep but tears,
Nothing to bury but dead.
Nothing to sing but songs;
Ah, well, alas! alack!
Nowhere to go but out,
Nowhere to come but back.
Nothing to see but sights,
Nothing to quench but thirst;
Nothing to have but what we’ve got;
Thus thro’ life we are cursed.
Nothing to strike but a gait;
Everything moves that goes.
Nothing at all but common sense
Can ever withstand these woes.
 
LEVEL FOUR
The Choir Invisible
by George Eliot
O, may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
Of miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge men’s minds
To vaster issues….
May I reach
That purest heaven—be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be the sweet presence of good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense!
So shall I join the choir invisible,
Whose music is the gladness of the world.
LEVEL FIVE
Give Me Liberty
From a speech by Patrick Henry (1736–1799)
March 23, 1775
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable—and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, “Peace! Peace!”— but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!