"Composition" part of the Great Books

[missesd]

Going by the information in TWTM it says,

 

"Write about the text. This is a flexible assignment; the student can write a book report, an evaluation, an argumentative essay proving some point about the book, or an analysis of the book's ideas. All of these forms have been taught in the writing programs recommended in Chapters 17 and 25 and in the rhetoric programs recommended in Chapter 24. Put the finished composition (at least two pages) in the Compositions section of the notebook."

 

In reference to the bolded part.... what if they just started last year, as Freshmans no less, and have never had the benefit of said writing programs or logic and rhetoric?? Then what :confused:

[jamajo]

OK...I may not be much help but I understand your question because I encounter the same issue on different levels as we just started homeschooling 1.5 years ago.

 

Taking one year to lay a foundation I believe will be very helpful before you can move forward with what TWTM is suggesting in the quote you posted. I printed out SWB's guide to the Research Paper and there were suggestions for what to do with your 7th and 8th grader in preparation for writing in high school.

 

OK too late for me to use the 7th/8th grade recommendations but my daughter grew leaps and bounds homeschooling 8th grade using a writing program through the Classical Conversations Challenge Program after coming home from PS second semester 7th grade.

 

There are still struggles in areas of her writing and she may never have the advantage of the homeschooler who has worked consistently in the grammar and logic stages through their academic experience but I evaluate my DD on HER progress and we use the suggestions here (on the boards) or from other curricula we use and do the best we can for HER abilities.

{that was a really long sentence or run on :tongue_smilie:}

 

Oh boy...I remember sitting around the kitchen table that 2nd semester of 7th grade and thinking "her writing needs some serious help." With my limited knowledge of all that was out there in way of resources, I ended up purchasing the Elegant Essay which helped. Then like I mentioned above the 8th grade year built on this foundation and now we are still laying the building blocks and by 12th grade I pray that we have a well written high school graduate.

 

My suggestion for you: focus on one of the resources TWTM is suggeting in Chpts 17 and/or 25 and just do that until you feel you DS or DD is ready for the next thing.

[1Togo]

Use guides that include short answer/content questions; i.e. Smarr, Memoria Press, Genesis study, etc., while your student is developing the writing skills needed for the essays suggested by SWB. You may not be able to cover everything on WTM list, but there are materials available for a good selection. Using this method, you can stay on track with a four-year cycle. Also, combine the guides with lectures from The Teaching Company; i.e. Van Diver on Iilad and Odyssey.

Edited October 6, 2011 by 1Togo

[Nan in Mass]

Writing Strands contained these forms. We were a little behind working through WS but by 9th, mine had at least used several of these forms. Sometimes they did projects instead of writing. Sometimes they had a unique idea that I had them write out (this was more like description or creative writing than anything else, something they had done in WS). I concentrated on writing at other times and so I worried more about the ideas in their great books papers/projects than I did about the format. We worked on the argumentative format in 9th and 10th grade and they just didn't write any of those in any sort of formal format until we had covered it. We did a comparison paper using Jensen's Format Writing, but I found the formats in Writing Strands or their own ideas produced more thoughtful papers.

 

But that probably isn't very helpful because you haven't done that and you need to know what to do now. I would quickly go over how to write a good paragraph. Then as we discussed the books with TWEM questions, I would keep my eyes out for a good observation made by my student. As soon as the student made it, I would suggest that he write it down. I would help him to remember what he said and help him work out how to write a quick introductory sentence, something like, "In author's title, character A says, 'blankety blank.' This shows [child's idea]." Or sometimes I had mine avoid the impersonal and had them say something like, "I think [idea]." Or whatever. At any rate, I made sure they had that knew what the first sentence was going to be and that they had a list of the points they wanted to make and a few specific examples or quotes before I let them go write their paragraph. The results sounded a bit stilted and weren't always organized very well, but at least the information all got included and they were able to write the paragraph in a reasonable amount of time. After a few, they were able to do this by themselves. It took about 5 minutes and then we went back to reading aloud or working on the questions. It wasn't much, perhaps, but for where my children were writing-wise when they began great books, it was pretty good, and it taught them to write out their own thoughts and observations and was easy enough that it made them willing to go do it. I think eventually this will grow into an ability to make thoughtful annotations in a book. Meanwhile, I had them annotate their books along much simpler lines, with things like "No way!" or "Good idea!" or "Boo hiss" or a star for a bit with wording that struck them as beautiful. They might not have been able to write an argumentative paper, but they were able to do things that didn't require a format, like write a description of their friends in the same fashion as at the beginning of The Iliad, or rewrite a scene from Shakespeare set in space, or explain why they liked the King James translation of Genesis better than the modern one.

 

As people keep saying here, you have to meet your children where they are. If your child hasn't done all those forms yet, then he hasn't and you will have to find something for him to write that he actually can write. If all else fails, he can write simple book reports until he learns those other forms - In [title] by [author] ...brief plot summary which includes the main characters, their problem, and the setting's time and place] and a few sentences saying why he did or did not like this book.

 

HTH

Nan