A Simple Paradigm for Teaching Recitation

In the classroom of novice reciters, a simple paradigm suggests itself.
One begins with the instructor and the poem. The poem is perhaps chosen from the assigned textbook, or perhaps from an organized, supra-annual, list or program that the teacher or district is following, or perhaps simply the teacher's choice, or favorite, or else a student's favorite whatever. Let's say, Frost's The Tuft of Flowers.
The instructor, of course, performs it; hopefully from memory. In this form of poetry study, repetition is essential. Performance and affection depend on repeated hearings. And so the teacher may read repeatedly from a personal anthology a particular poem and read or lecture on it repeatedly.
The class reads from the text; perhaps a whole group recitation. The group is then broken down as is the poem, and passages are assigned to the subgroups. The poem is then read by the successive subgroups, perhaps a couple of times even. Hopefully demonstrating that progress is possible with practice. Then the students are encouraged to practice at home for a while, 10 to 30 minutes, trying to make their delivery more smoothe and rhythmic. Some practical prosody is taught. Best if the verse has already been scanned, and typographically marked-up. Then they return to short (10 minutes?), sessions of group recital each day. More poems are added. Different sizes and choices in subgroups are made. The delimiting of passages can be changed, even for the same poem. There is a goal of moving toward smaller groups and hence to individual recital. Traditional forms, especially choruses, lend themselves well to this kind of group play. Romeo and Juliet is a traditional aspiration: it includes the most verse written in heroic couplets; one begins with selections.
MP3s are assigned for listening, or are recorded, organized, and passed-around, listened-to in class.
In time this becomes fun; I believe. (Yes there will always be the pathologically shy student. But the above process can presumably be arranged so as to aid his need for anonymity. And the fact that shy one is practicing speech, and human interaction, in a controlled way using a set script, provides him with the opportunity to work on a personal weekness.)

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