In part two of this three part blog series, Liane demystifies the line learning process so that your child is word perfect!
If your child is working towards one of the Speaking Verse and Prose LAMDA exams, they’ll need to memorise a poem.
The great thing about learning verse is that the poet usually includes one thought per line.
Days fly by on holidays,
they escape like birds
released from cages.
Therefore ask your child to memorise each line as one thought:
/Days fly by on holidays,/
Just as described in Part 1, take the thought (the line) and ask your child to find an object or place in the room which will prompt them. Ask them why they have chosen this specific object or place to cement the reason in their minds. For instance, you might choose a family holiday photograph to remember “Days fly by on holidays”.
As before, now that your child has anchored the thought to an object, ask them to point at the object and say the thought monosyllabically three times to keep the lines as ‘data’.
Now repeat this for the following lines making sure your child remembers each anchor in order. Just as we would with learning lines for an Acting piece, get your child to stand still and recite the piece without the pointing. Then test their accuracy by asking them to write their whole piece down, checking against the writer’s intended words.
Learning Lines for Prose
If your child is working towards Grade 2 or above they’ll also need to memorise a piece of prose.
As before, ask your child to establish each thought in their prose piece:
/The next day, / George’s father came down to breakfast / in a state of greater excitement than ever./ ‘I’ve been awake all night thinking about it!’ / he cried./
Using exactly the same method as above, anchor each thought to objects around the room, repeat the thought monosyllabically three times, and then test your child without them pointing to each object.
As mentioned in Part 1, it may take several sessions before your child has anchored each thought. Even when the thoughts have been anchored it usually takes three days for the lines to be committed to their long-term memory. Once your child can remember all of their lines, ask them to write them down and check against what the writer intended so that what they have memorised is word perfect.
How do you eat an elephant? One chunk at a time!
The key with learning any piece of text by heart is to work on it little and often. I always explain to my students that it’s impossible to eat an elephant in one go and it’s the same for line learning – we have to learn one chunk at a time!
Why Learn Lines?
By committing the writer’s words to memory accurately (without adding any extraneous words or approximating) my LAMDA students start to comprehend that every word and punctuation mark on the page has been put there by the writer for a reason.
In reciting the text from memory, they also understand that they must use the full weight of each word, punctuation mark and sound to project the meaning of what they are saying.
Using the full weight of each word also allows the student to slow down and resist the urge to rush to the next line or thought. They learn to communicate clearly and expressively.
Next week, in the final part of this blog series, Liane will explain how she helps her students learn their lines for their Speaking in Public exam.
