Scavenging for Words
From Kathryn Forney, CMI Program & Services Coordinator and CM Graduate
Natural beauty surrounds me in the southeastern U.S. this time of year—the trees are on fire in my neighborhood, the air is crisp, and the sunlight feels clean. Fall is a wonderful time of year for nature study walks, scavenger hunts, and exploration—there are so many different colors, fruits, flowers, and leaves to explore. But today, I’m excited to talk about one of my favorite ways to go hunting for literary beauty: a commonplace book.
Growing out of the habit of penmanship and copy work which Charlotte Mason advocated from a young age, commonplacing is the habit of writing down quotes and phrases that stand out to you as you read—of going on scavenger hunts for beautiful, striking, fascinating, or otherwise interesting ideas expressed in a memorable way (Formation of Character 260). Charlotte Mason observes:
Such a diary, carefully kept through life, should be exceedingly interesting as containing the intellectual history of the writer” (Ibid 260).
I started keeping a commonplace book in 9th grade, and it has become a habit that has continued at varying rates for over a decade. The time it takes to write down a quote (and/or mark it to copy later) has etched many passages in my heart and mind, so that the quotes I have commonplaced truly do represent my intellectual and spiritual history. Commonplacing has also fostered connections for me across a wide variety of subjects and genres; striking quotes can appear on billboards, and in chemistry, literature, geography, or other texts!
Whether your students are young or old, I’d invite you to join me in scavenging for literary beauty and jotting down your findings in a commonplace book. As your students are old enough, encourage them to do the same. I think you’ll find it fosters thought and conversation, interest, wonder, and delight. Head over to our Fabulous Friday post to read a few practical tips and suggestions–and to share your own tips and favorite quotes!
Notes
1. Office Hours: Our next session will be Wednesday, October 26th at 3:30 p.m. EDT. Please submit your questions at least 24 hours in advance by commenting on the event in The Hive. Here is a link to the spreadsheet with all of the past Office Hours videos.
2. New Hive Course: We are excited to unveil a new Hive course, “Charlotte Mason 101: The Methods.” This course will help you implement Mason's methods in your home or classroom and give you the rationale for why instruction is done a specific way. It is not so important to do it exactly as we prescribe, but rather to understand the principles and apply those to your students' needs. This is primarily a video course of very short lectures (in many cases, excerpts from our webinar library) about the subject area, explanations of a lesson and mini-immersions. You can also find the course under “Courses” in the left sidebar of the Hive.
3. Composition and Grammar, Grade 9: A new edition of Essay Voyage was published in July (after our lesson plans were published). Based on a small sample we received from a member, it appears that the page numbers in the lesson plans are 4 pages ahead of the page numbers in the new edition.
4. This Week in the Hive: This is an older post, but the wisdom of an experienced homeschooler (and veteran Alveary member) shines through so beautifully. Read Debi Zahn’s thoughts on how to make sure you are using the Alveary as a tool, rather than allowing it to become your master.
5. Exams: While not strictly required, we do find it invaluable to receive a copy of completed and scored exams for the purposes of research and book evaluation. If you are willing to share your student’s exam with us, please compile any separate files you have (from scanned pages, etc.) into a single PDF. Name the file “[Student’s Name] [Grade] T1 Exam.” Upload the exam PDF via the Dropbox link appropriate to the student’s form:
Complete instructions are provided at the beginning of each exam document.
Queries
1. Intermediate Spanish Literature: My child is having a hard time narrating the story in Spanish. Do you have any suggestions?
These texts are written for Spanish-speaking children, so the literary quality is higher than one might find in a more contrived “language-teaching” story. Working with true native texts written in different tenses is much more difficult. Perhaps the narration portion could be replaced with making a storyboard, which demonstrates understanding, but does not require language production. The two could also be presented as different options for students at different levels. Storyboards are quick sketches that a student draws after a reading to show their comprehension of the story. These are used in the elementary Spanish and French literature lessons.
