Garden of Verses
Mindprint Rating
Tags
Skills
Mindprint Expert Review
Pros
- The poems are entertaining and revolve around fun, relatable topics.
- Introducing new vocabulary words through rhyme can be an effective and motivating strategy.
Considerations
- Students might have difficulty understanding the vocabulary definitions and/or reading the poems independently.
- The pages presenting the vocabulary word and definitions are overly crowded and difficult for a child to read.
- Many of the illustrations intended to teach the new vocabulary are too abstract for children in the target age range.
Mindprint Expert Review
Garden of Verses is a vocabulary-building poetry book which uses child-friendly themed poems to teach new vocabulary words. Each poem has one or two vocabulary words highlighted per stanza, which are then defined, illustrated and used in a sentence on the adjacent page. In general, teaching new vocabulary through catchy poems can be an effective way to promote understanding and retention. However, while the poems themselves are fun, they are relatively long and the vocabulary words are not sufficiently emphasized to support retention. The companion pages that present the vocabulary words are crowded and the illustrations supporting each word are not always memorable or easy to understand for the target age range. The book does not include exercises to practice using the vocabulary words nor assess comprehension. Overall, a great concept but this book might not be effective for most students.
Academic Benefits
Improves academic skills
- Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
- Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
- Presents educational concepts accurately
- Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
- Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
- Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
- Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)
Fun
Engaging for the Mindprint recommended age range
- Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
- Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
- Includes reward stickers
- Visually stimulating and appealing (uses student-centered pictures, colors, and themes)
- Graphics and overall feel of the workbook is appropriate for the target age range
- Relative to most workbooks, fun to use from a child's perspective
- Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
- Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option
Easy to Use
Understandable for children in the Mindprint recommended age range
- Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
- Student should be able to use independently after first use
- Specific topics/lessons are easy to find
- Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
- Overall - Easy to use
Cognitive Concerns
May not be advisable for students with the following cognitive needs
- Auditory Processing
- Reading Basics
- Reading Comprehension
- Reading Fluency
- Verbal Memory
- Visual Discrimination
- Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
- Vocabulary
Manufacturer Description
Parents will love the Garden of Verses because while it entertains and delights, it also delivers a myriad of facts, teaches compassionate character development, as well as a way to learn "big" vocabulary words. Each rhyme is supported with a companion page that defines the vocabulary with pictures and written definitions with examples of sentences using the word. The entire book is supported by a free website with additional audio vocabulary learning tools as well as many more stories in rhyme and song.