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Tina in Ouray

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  1. If I had to pick just one book of Aristotle's, I think that I would pick “Nicomachean Ethics.” Second to that, I'd read “Rhetoric and Poetics.” I love your ambition and enthusiasm. I also like following a chronological order. However, if you want to get a taste of a broader range of Great Books, there is a very nice series of books that is written just for someone like you who is reading themselves through these works. The series is called “The Great Ideas Program.” Each volume in the series is topical and includes suggested readings from about ten different Great Books. Along with the reading suggestions there are short background notes and just a few key questions (and discussion of them). You need to actually go to the Great Books themselves to do the readings, but this series is a great aid to self study. See http://www.thegreatideas.org/gip.html for a list of the titles in this series and the selections read in each volume. Most libraries keep “The Great Ideas Program” on their shelves. Good luck! Are you considering attending any of the “Great Books” colleges? You might to take a look at Gutenberg College in Eugene, OR ( http://gutenberg.edu/ ). They have a Great Books reading list posted here: http://gutenberg.edu/academic_program/great_books_reading.php Tina in Ouray, CO
  2. You might try "Practical Beginning Theory" by Benward, Jackson, and Jackson. We were in your shoes a couple years ago, and this is what my daughter ended up working through. Tina in Ouray, CO
  3. I can help you. Later this afternoon I'll email you the outline I followed when I taught from this book. At least you'll be able to see how someone else did it and move on from there. Tina in Ouray, CO
  4. Clare and anyone else, I have a friend who has several copies of both "The United States in Literature" (SO American Lit) and "England in Literature" (SO English Lit). If you write to me privately, I'll connect you up with her. I picked up the former for $10 (including shipping/handling). When you write, Clare, tell me your daughter's name, and I'll be able to connect one more student name with a mom "face." Tina in Ouray, CO
  5. Ooooo, perhaps we can help spur one another on this year! My son is Bryce. He'll be taking English Lit this year. (If you are in need of a very inexpensive copy of the text for this class, I might have a lead for you.) Tina in Ouray, CO
  6. Merry, Both my high school students will be taking SO literature classes this year. My 12th grader will be simultaneously going through "Classical Rhetoric for Modern Students" (Corbett), "Writing Workshop" (Roper), and "Style" (Williams). That's a heavy load; I posted a week or two ago about using Corbett this way. My 15yos is in need of some serious one-on-one coaching in writing. I'm going to be using Lost Tools of Writing with him and coordinating assignments with some of the things he is studying in history and literature. Last year, when this same son took SO Western Lit to Dante, I used Lively Art of Writing (Payne) with him. If I'd followed through on this better, we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in now. It's a very inexpensive alternative to teaching writing. The real trick is to consistently keep your student writing about the topics/ideas they are studying. (Did I mention how I failed to do this?) Which literature classes will your student(s) be in? Tina in Ouray, CO
  7. I always encourage or require my students to ask questions about things they are studying in other courses; e.g., science, literature, or history.
  8. I can answer this. I have a Latin I student who used the 6th edition. Whenever I study Latin to help him, I use my old 5th edition. The differences (aside from the addition of some maps and stuff) that I've seen are that in the translation work the 6th edition often has the same sentence as the 5th edition but with a few words added here and there. There are also occasional differences in the vocabulary listing with the 6th edition giving fuller or more accurate descriptions/explanations. None of these are a big deal, but a student in a classroom setting is going to run into problems offering his/her translation and not understanding why or when it is going to be slightly different than the rest of the class's. Since this text isn't outrageously expensive, I would encourage you to find a 6th edition. Tina in Ouray, CO
  9. This is a REALLY good question, and I'm going to take a stab at addressing it. I don't think that people really are teaching what you are talking about --- at least not yet. (Please know this is a generalization, and there may well be some of you who are teaching this. My hats off to those who are!) We should be. I think we should be either teaching this explicitly in the manner you are looking for or implicitly through the other things that we teach about rhetoric which then manifest themselves in various rhetorical effects. I think that a study of classical rhetoric implicitly yields what you are looking for through several different avenues. One avenue is through teaching what are called the “three modes of appeal.†We appeal to others in three ways: to their reason (logos), or to their emotions (pathos), or through our own personality or character (ethos). Each of these categories is studied in classical rhetoric. How we use them depends on the nature of the point we're arguing, the particular circumstance, and/or (most importantly) by our particular audience. The effect of the words and constructions we choose, then, will be mediated through one or more of these appeals. That leads to a second avenue. Classical rhetoric, if you read Aristotle's Rhetoric, is largely a study of human nature. To understand how different grammatical and syntactical constructions effect human beings, you must first know a lot about the nature of man. Classical rhetoric also traditionally distinguishes between three forms of speech: political (deliberative), legal (judicial), and ceremonial (epideitic). Each of these forms is contingent on the nature of man, as well, and is directed towards particular aspects of his nature. So the different characteristics of different forms of speech provide a third avenue for controlling the rhetorical effects of our speech. Lastly, there is a more direct way that classical rhetoric teaches what you are looking for --- through its doctrine of figures (of speech). Think of a figure of speech as a particular form that a thought can take. The shape or form that we use to clothe our thoughts is integrally related to its content and directly affects a reader or audience. In classical and medieval rhetoric there were elaborate classifications of figures which related figures to topics of invention, modes of appeal, etc. It was largely through this approach to the figures (many of them grammatical constructions) that one learned about rhetorical effects. I am not familiar with the book you referenced by Kolln. I have, however, used “Writing and Thinking†(Norman Foerster and J. M. Steadman) for similar purposes. You might want to look at it. Until this morning, I was straddling the fence about buying the TC course Cedarmom mentioned. I went ahead and jumped down and listened to the first lecture. It sounds like something you might be interested in. I can't say much more about it after only one lecture, but at least it is promising. Tina in Ouray, CO
  10. Thank you, all, for your help. So, it looks like there probably was such a thing, but whether there are still any to be found is questionable. That explains why I haven't been able to dig one up. I'll keep digging. And Jane, I'll be your second customer, unless I can worm my way in ahead of Karin. I'm going to need this. I may well be knocking on your for help, too. Thanks! Tina in Ouray, CO
  11. Or does the Teacher's Edition have solutions worked out? If there is such a thing, what is it called? And does anyone own one? Thanks, Tina in Ouray, CO
  12. Maybe 1-2 hours study time a day. Hard to remember. Tina in Ouray, CO
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