Charlotte Mason Recitation

What’s inside: Using Charlotte Mason’s advice on Recitation as a subject will help your children master this valuable life skill.

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What is Charlotte Mason Recitation?

Recitation is the speaking aloud of memorized poems or passages of great literature.

Charlotte Mason used recitation in her schools as a part of a classical education in which students were expected to memorize large portions of worthy subjects and to be comfortable speaking in front of other people. These life skills were taken for granted in her time. Recitation also familiarizes children with great ideas and in fact, tucks these great ideas away in their hearts.

It helps students to make connections and join the great conversation.

To be clear here: we are not talking about a “recitation” class, commonly used in college level courses where you need an additional class taught by a TA to explain the lecture – that kind of recitation is a smaller class that explains a course material where you can ask questions to understand what the professor taught.

No, here we are talking about reciting material in front of other people – material that you have memorized.

It’s like public speaking in a way, but typically recitation will use inspirational source materials from great writers, poets, and authors, whereas in public speaking, you usually use your own words.

Not that your words can’t be inspirational!

In Charlotte Mason circles, recitation will be sourced from living books, or from great poetry, or consist of worthy ideas.

So you stand up in front of others and speak aloud something you have memorized.

That’s Charlotte Mason recitation.

When do you recite?

In homeschooling, we have to make sure the kids have opportunities for recitation. Here are some ideas…

• Some people simply have the child recite at the dinner table. Even an audience of one is still an audience.
• Other families choose to do a recitation night, for instance when the grandparents are in town. Tip if you choose this method: Make recitation selections brief. One short recitation per child is good. Everyone loves your kiddos, but it can be like going a recital of beginning violin students.
• For our family, we often included recitation on an “Anyone have a recitation this week?” kind-of-basis at our homeschool cooperative. We put a time limit on it and usually only allowed a few recitations per session.

Getting Started

To include recitation in your homeschool, select a memory passage for the family or for each child.

Some families like to work on the same memory passages, and others like to let the children pick their selections. In general, the older children can do their own selections after a few years of selecting for them when they are small.

Once each child knows what they are going to recite, then let them practice it until they are ready or until the end of a semester. If they can’t master the selection in one semester, then it was too long!

But this won’t happen since you will set your child up for success.

To memorize a selection, let me show you one way that works…

Select a poem, preferably that fits on one page. For example, if you had a first grader and wanted to try it, select something from Now We are Six by A.A. Milne, like “A Thought”.

Print it on a page and hang it in a visible location. Read it aloud when you hang it up. Then keep reading it every few days. Young people memorize quite quickly – you’ll be surprised if you aren’t used to it.

See if your child can say it along with you after a few read throughs – they don’t have to be reading yet, but if they are, definitely print a copy for a visible location.

That’s it.

There are many other ways to practice something by reading aloud until it is memorized. This is just a really easy way to do it.

The first time they hear the passage

The very first time children hear a passage, have them narrate back what they heard. If you have more than one child, ask for just a bit of it or let them all narrate the whole thing depending on the passage.

This first hearing should be done purposefully. The children should “tune in” to the passage and “digest it”. Their narration helps them do this.

Most ordinary readings for narrations are read just once – this is to help the child grow the habit of attention. But if you are trying to memorize something, you will need to read it more than once!

So get in a narration on the first reading. In this case, it sets your child up with a “feel” for the material.

Some kids will narrate one line that they heard, some kids will repeat the whole thing verbatim, and others will have heard a only word or two. Remember, accept the narration for what it is – no need to critique it. If they’ve missed the whole point, you can model a narration to help them learn how to do it.

Other options

Your child can use the passage as a part of copywork or dictation (depending on age). It’s just another way to cement the memorization.

Reciting the passage

Let your child know that once they can remember the whole thing without looking at it, then they are ready to recite it. Let them stand in front of you (sitting) or the family (sitting). And ask them to recite it out loud.

You can demonstrate once when you have it memorized. Say the title and author at the beginning and then be expressive as you recite. You are modeling the behavior.

When they recite, clap when they are done, say “Thank you,” and have them sit down. It makes it a bit more fun.

Long term

Don’t be intimidated by recitation – it can be fun and is a family opportunity for an ongoing adventure. If you did print a copy for the wall, print an extra copy for a binder to keep the recitations that you have mastered. It’s good to look back on them every year. You can even recite a few to keep the favorites in memory.

And what’s interesting about memorizing something when you are young is that often, it can be recalled years later. My 93-year-old mother can still recite sections of Shakespeare that she learned when she was young.

Keep on Learning

FAQ

Related Posts

Other Sources

• Simply Charlotte Mason | Language Arts Recitation | Recitation & Memorization
• Charlotte Mason Beehive | Recitation Form 1
• Charlotte Mason Poetry | Ruminating on Recitation
• My Little Robins | Recitation and Narration
• Sage Parnassis | Free Recitation Helps
• A Delectable Education | Recitation
• Simple Wonders | Recitation