Memoria Press specializes in resources for classical education. They adhere strongly to the stages of the classical trivium with the grammar stage identified as the time for children to learn through memorization of the “grammar” of subjects in contrast to the logic stage where children begin to analyze and synthesize what they have learned.
Consequently, their English Grammar Recitation series supports the teaching of the grammar or rules of English with Workbook I for grades three and up, Workbook II for grades five and up, Workbooks III or IV for grades six and up, and Workbook V for eighth grade.
In English Grammar Recitation students learn the rules in a catechism format of questions and answers. About 30 rules are taught in each course. A rule is taught with examples and practice exercises. Students recite the rules out loud, reviewing them weekly. Interestingly, students learn to recite both the rules and the examples provided. The examples for capitalization and punctuation rules actually serve as the memory prompts for the pertinent rules. Courses also use dictation activities for the capitalization and punctuation examples
Recitation is used as oral testing for grammar rules while dictation and oral recitation assess student mastery of punctuation and capitalization. There are no other tests.
The first day of each lesson takes the longest—up to an hour—since it includes review and recitation of previously learned rules as well as presentation of a new rule. The second day should take only about 30 minutes then the lesson activities for each of the next three days’ should take no more than five to ten minutes per day.
Each course has both a student book and a teacher manual. The teacher manual includes two pages of teaching guidelines at the front but is otherwise the same as the student book but with answers overprinted or highlighted. At the back of both teacher and student books are the rules as they are to be recited. All of the rules for the courses are presented together in Memoria Press’s English Grammar Recitation.
Since Memoria Press stresses the importance of teaching Latin beginning in the elementary grades, English Grammar Recitation dovetails with Memoria Press Latin programs. Workbook I correlates with the grammar taught in Latina Christiana I, but it is not dependent upon it. Workbook II correlates with First Form Latin. Workbook III correlates with Second Form Latin, etc.. Families teaching Latin in the early grades often discover that their children are learning much more English grammar than they expected. English Grammar Recitation takes advantage of this synergy by reinforcing the grammar of both English and Latin in a coordinated fashion.
