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Please help me understand Lost Tools of Writing!


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Dear Friends,

 

As Paden says, "I figure I can approach life as though everyone is my friend, or no one is". Paden and I both choose the former!

 

I jumped into this forum as though you were all my friends (since you all sound the same :001_smile:). But we really Don't know each other. And I didn't even introduce myself, or say "Good Morning", or "How are you?". I hate it when that happens, and now I'm the one who did it!! How rude! Please forgive me.

 

I'm the Camille that Andrew mentioned in his post the other day. I came because this LTW conversation had prompted a mom to e-mail me and ask me questions. So I came to see the conversation. (I love conversation. :001_smile:)

 

So now you know. I'm sorry about my oh-so-rude beginning here. Thank you Capt. Uhura for your kind words to me. I hope that I was some help with the things I was throwing out. I LOVE this LTW program because I have seen it transform so many young lives. (And one old one. ;))

 

I'm happy to help if you have more questions. Things are a bit crazy for me now, though, at year-end. If you Want my answers, you can find me more quickly in the "LTW Mentor" Yahoo loop. But I'll try to come back here too.

 

Blessings on you all as you love your children, as you learn, and as you teach! :001_smile:

Camille

P.S. Yes, Charles, you can buy the program in parts.

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Hi Charles,

 

Well, the Student Workbook is crucial for the students, because the worksheets there contain the patterns for the exercises the students practice. Those exercises will form good habits of mind for students, especially as they learn to think of something to say (i.e. to think).

 

The teacher materials you need depend on your experience as a teacher. Maybe it also depends on your courage. =)

 

The two parts for teachers are the Teacher's Guide and the lesson plans, i.e. Module Guides. The guides/lesson plans show you how to teach each day's concept - one concept per module. (That means three modules per essay/lesson - one for Invention, one for Arrangement, and one for Elocution.)

 

You could use the Teacher's Guide to obtain an overview. Then if you can present each worksheet's concept by preparing the student, giving him lots of examples, etc., you don't need the "lesson plans".

 

OR, you could buy the Lesson Plans and teach through the program without reading about the big picture first. That plan would be a bit like going on a hike without taking an aerial map. You could just follow the plan step by step, then look back later at the view once you've climbed higher.

 

It is nice though to see the big picture, then follow the step by step instructions.

 

(The CDs give the overview to the overview - kind of like "the shortcut to the shortcut" in Holiday Inn, but with a happier ending. ;))

 

Hope that helps!

Camille

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Hi Charles,

 

Well, the Student Workbook is crucial for the students, because the worksheets there contain the patterns for the exercises the students practice. Those exercises will form good habits of mind for students, especially as they learn to think of something to say (i.e. to think).

 

The teacher materials you need depend on your experience as a teacher. Maybe it also depends on your courage. =)

 

The two parts for teachers are the Teacher's Guide and the lesson plans, i.e. Module Guides. The guides/lesson plans show you how to teach each day's concept - one concept per module. (That means three modules per essay/lesson - one for Invention, one for Arrangement, and one for Elocution.)

 

You could use the Teacher's Guide to obtain an overview. Then if you can present each worksheet's concept by preparing the student, giving him lots of examples, etc., you don't need the "lesson plans".

 

OR, you could buy the Lesson Plans and teach through the program without reading about the big picture first. That plan would be a bit like going on a hike without taking an aerial map. You could just follow the plan step by step, then look back later at the view once you've climbed higher.

 

It is nice though to see the big picture, then follow the step by step instructions.

 

(The CDs give the overview to the overview - kind of like "the shortcut to the shortcut" in Holiday Inn, but with a happier ending. ;))

 

Hope that helps!

Camille

 

Is there any way to get a peek inside? What if I purchase the book and I'm dissatisfied with the product?

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Charles,

 

You could just purchase the student workbook, but we don't recommend that, especially if you don't want to have to spend much time preparing.

 

Let me share two thoughts to, hopefully, reassure you:

 

1. LTW is unconditionally guaranteed. If you don't like it, you'll get all of your money back.

2. LTW will teach your child writing, but it will teach a great deal more than that. Think of it this way: The trivium, especially classical rhetoric, is the intellectual nerve center of the classical curriculum. It's like the trunk of the tree of learning from which all the other branches grow and on which they all depend.

 

That's the role LTW plays. It orders the mind of the student to correspond to the order of reality, thus enabling to think about everything better, academic or personal. It helps them with decision making, with essay writing, with science, with reading literature or history, with planning, and with working out problems with loved ones.

 

It's about thinking and communication.

 

You will be frequently surprised by the things your child will learn. Including writing!

 

I hope that provides some reassurance at least. LTW is not the easiest program in the world, but it is the second most important.

 

Andrew

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Guest Handbell Ringer

Hello,

 

I am totally new to the process of posting on a forum, although I have been a member of the IEW email loops (at yahoo) for several months so I am not new to the issue of sharing.

 

My question about the LToW is whether or not it can be easily used by a student who is not at all interested in ancient history and other "classical" subjects: I am tutoring a Bible college student at a very conservative and small (<12 students) church run college that focuses on Bible interpretation and our particular view of doctrine. My student is studying art with my husband and I get to be tutor, advisor, chaperone, etc as well as the teacher's assistant. Our student comes from a homeschool background of programmed "mastery" instruction and her elder sister told me several months ago that "words are not her friends" although she does like to read. She is also a perfectionist, and we would guess that she has completed half (?) of the quantity that would have been required of a comparable "Art Major" program at the average Chrisitan or secular college or university. I have taken her through the TWSS program by IEW which has been helpful for our family, but she has also told me that it has never occurred to her to think about the topics that we assigned for written assignments (art in the Bible; disturbing art; evaluating art), so consequently it has been difficult for her to come up with ideas to write about.

 

I like what I have seen of the LToW, but I am concerned that the program would have her writing about topics, that may be good and valid but, which she has no interest in. Especially since she is easily overwhelmed and perfectionistic, and since "classical education" is beyond the scope or interest of our church college. I have no doubt that "classical" education would teach her the thinking skills that she needs to learn, but is it possible to get there more directly?

 

My husband & I both graduated from a fairly well known Bible college, but no one prepared us for the idea of teaching a college major of any sort, much less one in which we have no formal training. We have crafted her program at the request of her parents because of the education her elder sister received from our church, and which we were not a part of.

 

Thank you all for any help that you can give!

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I assigned "application essays" after completing each LT lesson. We generated issues from whatever ds happened to be reading in lit or history at any given time. I took lots of the history prompts from the teacher's guide questions for Clarence Carson's history series. Students can apply the process to anything they're reading about/interested in. The LT q&a process will help them think more deeply, and if during the process the stuff they're interested in comes to appear somewhat shallow then they might even be inspired to find more challenging reading material.

 

HTH,

Martha

 

On the question of getting there more directly...there's an old maxim that "There is no royal road to geometry"...or something like that. The same holds true for the rest of classical education . My motto is start where you are and go as far as you can at whatever rate you can manage.

Edited by Martha in NM
typo
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