Memoria Press (Classical Composition I: Fable Set) A Review

When Memoria Press offered us a selection of products to review, I chose to introduce my Youngest to their Classical Composition I: Fable Set. This set includes the Student Book, the Teacher Guide, and Instructional DVD. I appreciate that both the instructional DVD and the Teacher Guide are included, as this opens up options for student work location. Not always tied to electronics (Instructional DVD) to do the work, because the Teacher Guide includes the instructions required, which means that lessons can be taken outside, to the park, or in the car. However, it is also very nice to have the option to have someone other than Mom or Dad "teach" the lesson, particularly if one isn't as familiar with walking through an outline with their kids.

OK, so now that I've given you a little hint to the content, let me tell you how the lessons are set up. As is typical with Memoria Press, each lesson looks pretty much the same, and they basically drill the concept over and over until it becomes natural.

• Fable ~ The specific fable for the lesson is printed at the beginning of each lesson
• Three Plot Components (If applicable) of Recognition, Reversal, and Suffering
• Variations Part 1 ~ Student comes up with synonyms for 3 or 4 words in a given sentence and then rewrites the sentence three different ways. 
• Narration (Not in the Student Book, but definitely a component of the lesson, and one of my favorite parts! :) )
• Outline ~ Summarize fable in outline form. This is a very useful skill to work on, so I appreciate that it shows up in each lesson. The Teacher Guide includes suggested outlines, so you can work from that directly, but the walk-through on the DVD is also valuable. 
• Paraphrases ~ Generally two paraphrases per fable. The first generally adds in specific Figures of Description (using the Latin names for each one*), and the second is usually written "by reduction" in the briefest form possible without any descriptors.
• *The Appendix includes 18 Figures of Description with examples for each. These words may or may not be familiar to you, depending on your experience with Classical Education. Here are a few: Anemographia, Dendrographia, Dialogismus, Effictio, Prosopographia, Sermocinatio... These are things that I certainly didn't learn in my public school education. ;) 
• Variations Part 2 ~ Same thing as Part 1, but with different words/sentences
• Appendix~ I mentioned the Figures of Description above. The Student Book also includes an "Introduction to the Progymnasmata" by James A Selby, that might be interesting for an older student to read. 

The Teacher Guide begins with teaching guidelines and an advanced rubric for grading purposes. The rest of the book has identical pages to the student book, with instructions specific to each lesson, including vocabulary words, and a more general grading rubric geared to that lesson.

If Classical Education is your style, Memoria Press definitely offers materials that will challenge your child, with ample opportunity to practice the skills that they are being taught.

One minor point that I will mention here~ if you have a student for whom handwriting still isn't smooth and natural, the lines and spacing of the Student book may be a little short. On his best days, his handwriting isn't fabulous, but the more college ruled spacing definitely contributed to a bit of a defeatist attitude. When I suggested that he write his outline on a piece of wide-ruled notebook paper (and do it in cursive), the readability improved drastically. Still not fantastic, but better.

Memoria Press offers sample pages of the Student Book and Teacher Guide as well as a "General Sequence and Outcomes of Program" to download on the product page linked below.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Memoria Press
• Product: Classical Composition I: Fable Set
• Ages: Grades 4-12
• Price: $85

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Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say about this and the other products that were offered for review: Products from the New American Cursive Penmanship series, the Traditional Logic Series, and the Classical Composition Series, of which Fables is the first part.

As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

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