Dialectic Writing - Chreia/Maxim

[EllenG]

Please see attached course description/welcome letter

[PhyllisG]

Dear TOG writing moms,

I am looking forward to teaching writing to your students this year and have been praying that all of my preparations will not only help prepare your children for Rhetoric-level writing when they get to that level, but that they would also be challenged and learn to enjoy writing as they practice the skills taught at co-op. It's very important to understand that our writing class will essentially be intertwining two approaches to writing. We are using a classical writing curriculum called Classical Composition that teaches various skills that can be used both in traditional writing as well as in the writing book they will receive on the first day of class. This classical approach primarily focuses on quality of writing over quantity, logical and clear thought, and finally, judicious use of vivid phrases and figures of speech. As homework is assigned after each co-op, I ask you to help your student to please do a little of their writing work each day. This third stage of writing focuses on thinking well before sitting down to write and the more students form that habit, the better their final product will be. Students will get so much more out of this writing class if they work on their assignments each day versus procrastinating and trying to "just get it done".

During the second semester, we will continue to hone the skills learned from Classical Composition as we work on the more traditional writing approach used in biographies, essays and creative writing. As always, you have final say on the level of work that is appropriate for your student. I have attached a homework assignment document that will need to be printed and brought to class on Thursday. Please take a close look at it, go over it with your student and don't hesitate to post any questions on this thread of the forum. There is no homework due the first co-op and you will notice that only the first semester assignments are posted. I will publish the last semester's homework assignments as soon as I have a good feel for how the homework is going and whether I need to make adjustments. The final column of the document is a summary of what's due at that co-op and I hope that it is helpful, not confusing. Again, please don't hesitate to ask if there's a question.

All rough draft work will be completed and written by hand in the Classical Composition workbook. In order to facilitate grading, I ask that all final paragraphs/papers turned in to me be/have:
1. Typed and double-spaced unless noted otherwise on the homework assignment
2. Edited at home and as free of grammatical and spelling errors as possible so I can make best use of my time by focusing on grading content**
3. Figures of description underlined followed by the figure they used in parentheses
4. Figures of speech in bold followed by the figure they used in parentheses
5. A completed copy of the checklist that I will provide on the forum soon

**After each paragraph is graded, the corrections will need to be made on the computer as they will slowly build an 8-point essay from them.

Supplies: Although I am not requiring a separate binder this year, I would like your student to have three dividers in the writing section of their binder. One section is for their notes, another section will be for their rough drafts, and the third section for their final typed papers. Each student will need a small folder to turn in to me with any worksheets or written assignments in them along with their Classical Composition workbooks. Finally, I would like the students to have a ring with index cards that they can use to memorize their figures of description and speech. They will be quizzed over these and will be writing them down as part of their homework.

Again, I am excited to teach your students and am expecting to have a productive and fun year.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

I am looking forward to teaching your students again this week and hope that all has been well in their writing world. If your student has not yet set up his/her binder, I would greatly appreciate it if you would assist them in doing that before we get further into the school year. They will need a place for their notes so they can reference them as they work on their assignments. Also, I've put a reminder of the homework that's due on their homework assignment sheet. I will be looking at their figure of description cards on Thursday.

Below are the notes for Thursday's class, the promised writing checklist that I'd like attached to every assignment they turn in, and an example of the format for their paragraphs as they write the individual parts of their 8-point essays. As always, please don't hesitate to ask if you have a question.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Ladies,

Elijah made me aware of an online grammar site called grammarly.com that if you download it, it will do a basic grammar check on all that's being written, including e-mails and forum posts. It can be a help to your students for proofing and editing their papers before they bring them to you. The basic version is free but there's also a premium version for about $12/mo that includes a deeper level of checks as well as a plagiarism check. For large families of high school and college level kids, this is a very good deal and can cut down on the Mom workload quite a bit.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Notes for co=op tomorrow are attached. If your student is struggling with copying the notes off of the board during class, I am happy to send my teacher's notes to you, which have all of the information from class.

Sorry for the edit!! I'm also re-attaching a slightly modified checklist. If your student doesn't have this tomorrow...no worries.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Hey Ladies!! Carol Gardner put all the figures of description on the quiz site below to help the students memorize them. It's pretty awesome...they can even get practice with the correct spelling on this site. The students were all warned at co-op 3 about the quiz coming tomorrow on all 18 figures of description, so I hope they've been studying.

https://quizlet.com/join/6YVYE59TX

As always, here are the notes and downloadables for tomorrow.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Co-op 5 notes are below. See you on Thursday!!

[PhyllisG]

Co-op 6 notes are attached for your printing pleasure. The notes contain two worksheets that will be done at home as part of their homework

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Dear Moms,

I'm writing just a quick note to wrap up a few loose ends and give you an idea of what's ahead for your students. They will be taking another test at co-op 7 over figures of description AND the figures of speech. They have three weeks to prepare for this and, if they've been completing all of the homework, they should already have flashcards to help them study. In addition, Carol Gardner has put the figures of description and speech on a great site that can help with mastering terms in a more engaging way.

https://quizlet.com/242923500/figures-o ... ash-cards/

https://quizlet.com/229498769/figures-o ... ash-cards/

As I mentioned in my introductory letter, we are soon going to be shifting gears in writing class and in the amount of homework that will be assigned. Co-op 7 will conclude our classroom lessons for the Classical Composition curriculum. All of the concepts will have been taught so we will shift the primary focus during co-ops to covering more traditional writing concepts. As we make this shift in the classroom, the students will have work to do based on the lesson in class as well as continue to practice and hopefully master what they've learned in the Classical Composition workbook. I have structured the homework so that they will likely have to work on writing every day. More advanced writing students should be able to do both assignments with few problems, however, feel free to adjust the workload as best fits your family's needs. If you prefer they only complete one part of the assignment, then please just let me know that you have adjusted the assignment for them and I will grade accordingly.

I would also appreciate any feedback you have with respect to the grading so far. I'm trying a new grading sheet this year and I'm not sure if it's providing enough of the right kind of feedback of if I need to make some adjustments. Also, if you prefer that your student not receive a letter grade, please let me know that as well.

I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to teach your students this year and have been very pleased with their improvement in the Classical Composition curriculum. I realize that this curriculum poses challenges at home, so I'm also very thankful for your perseverance in helping them with their assignments.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Tomorrow's notes!