Theme of the Month: Composition
From Dr. Shannon Whiteside:
Some children love to write stories and have a wonderful imagination and easily fill pages with their original stories. I was not one of those children. I dreaded the creative writing assignments in school and would just stare at the blank page trying to conjure up something creative. I do remember one of my stories was about a pink piano that had magic powers. I was quite desperate for inspiration, and as I looked around in my living room, I saw my piano and based my story around that. Then there were the not-so-exciting prompts of, “What did you do over the summer?” or “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It all just seemed pointless and didn’t seem to help me develop my writing skills. When I became a teacher, I was relieved that we used a curriculum that was quite scripted and had students follow the outline of a story based on keywords and then spice it up through the use of strong verbs or descriptive adjectives. This was a little better, but it seemed to stifle the students, and everyone’s story basically sounded the same.
When I started following Charlotte Mason’s model, I was relieved to read this in her first volume:
'Composition' comes by Nature.––In fact, lessons on 'composition' should follow the model of that famous essay on "Snakes in Ireland"––"There are none." For children under nine, the question of composition resolves itself into that of narration, varied by some such simple exercise as to write a part and narrate a part, or write the whole account of a walk they have taken, a lesson they have studied, or of some simple matter that they know. Before they are ten, children who have been in the habit of using books will write good, vigorous English with ease and freedom; that is, if they have not been hampered by instructions… Our business is to provide children with material in their lessons, and leave the handling of such material to themselves. (Home Education, p.247)
This month, we will be exploring this topic of composition through our Office Hours and in the Alveary Weekly. Is it true that there are no composition lessons in a Mason model? What did she do to prepare students for composition as they got older? How is composition different from written narration? We will be addressing these questions and more. The short answer is that there is guidance in composition, but it starts much later than the traditional model; and everything students are doing before that time—oral narration, copywork, dictation–is preparing them for composition. Mason understood that students need to be filled with ideas, strong vocabulary, and an understanding of narrative before they can be asked to come up with their own compositions. Otherwise, they will write about the first thing they see, i.e., a piano! Focusing on technique and structure can come later.
What was your experience with composition as a student? How has that affected your practices now? Head on over to the Hive and let us know.
Notes
1. YouTube: Danielle Merritt-Sunseri discusses Mason’s ideas on science and the importance of nature study in this video.
2. Yesterday’s Classics: All Yesterday's Classics printed books are 30% off through October 31.
3. Out-of-Print Books: AKJ Education has a small number of copies of Onward (Geography: Grades 4-6),
4. Office Hours: Here is the link from last week’s Office Hours.
5. Office Hours: Kerri Forney will be joining us at 3:30 p.m. EDT on October 11 to talk about written narration and composition. Submit your questions here by noon on Tuesday.
