Lost Tools of Writing: Level Three Student Workbook / Teacher Guide

SKU
033988
ISBN
9780999146651
Grade 10-12
Classical
Christian/Religious
High Teacher Involvement
Multi-Sensory
No other materials needed
Teaching Method
Traditional
Teacher-centered curriculum commonly used in classrooms that may include a text, teacher manual, tests, etc.
Charlotte Mason
A methodology based on the work of a 19th century educator who maintained that children learn best from literature (Living Books), not textbooks.
Classical
A methodology based on the Latin Trivium (three stages of learning), including the grammar stage (memorization and facts), logic stage (critical thinking), and rhetoric stage (developing/defending ideas).
Unit Study
A thematic or topical approach centered around one topic that integrates multiple subject areas.
Montessori (Discovery)
A methodology based on the work of a 20th century educator that emphasizes student and sensory-driven discovery learning and real-life applications.
Other
Other methodologies
Religious Content
Secular
Contains content contrary to common Christian beliefs (i.e. evolution).
Neutral
Avoids religious or theoretical topics or presents multiple viewpoints without preference.
Christian/Religious
Faith-based or including instructional religious content.
Learning Modality
Auditory
Learns through listening, talking out loud or reading out loud.
Visual
Learns through seeing, prefers written instructions and visual materials.
Kinesthetic/Tactile (Hands-On)
Learns through moving, doing and touching.
Multi-Sensory
Curriculum that employ a variety of activities/components.
Presentation
Sequential
Curriculum progresses through well-defined learning objectives. Emphasizes mastery before moving to the next topic.
Spiral
Topics and concepts are repeated from level to level, adding more depth at each pass and connecting with review.
Conceptual/Topical
Focus is on the “why,” often with a unifying concept as well as specific skills; coverage may be broader.
Teacher Involvement
Low Teacher Involvement
Student-led materials; parent acts as a facilitator.
Medium Teacher Involvement
A mix of teacher-led time and independent student work.
High Teacher Involvement
Teacher-led lessons; may utilize discussions, hands-on activities and working together.
Additional Materials Required
No other materials needed
Everything you need is included.
Other Materials Required
There are additional required resources that are a separate purchase.
Other Materials Optional
There are additional resources mentioned or recommended but are not absolutely necessary.
Consumable
Consumable
Designed to be written in; not reusable.
Non-Consumable
Not designed to be written in; reusable.
Our Price
$47.00
Description

No video access is included; this is the All-in-One Student Workbook/Teacher Guide only.

Instead of a Teacher Guide and Student Workbook, Lost Tools of Writing, Level 3 has a combined volume that includes both. Instruction is written directly to the student but still relies on teacher-led discussion. Included teacher information provides discussion guidelines and course plans.

Publisher's Description of Lost Tools of Writing: Level Three Student Workbook / Teacher Guide

All-in-one combination Student Workbook/Teacher Guide. Level Three does not have separate workbooks/guides. 378 pages.

Welcome to The Lost Tools of Writing Level III, the next stage on your journey to mastery of thought and communication. Through LTW III, youll solidify the foundations that you laid in LTW I and II, develop advanced writing skills, master additional forms of persuasive address, and even begin to practice tools youll use for the arts of verse and storytelling. Most importantly, the skills you gain through LTW III extend beyond academics to your life in the world and the deeper questions you ask in your heart and mind.

The heart of The Lost Tools of Writing Level III is the deliberative address, the immediate purpose of which is to determine whether an action should be taken. The bigger purpose is to grow in wisdom and prudence by practicing making difficult decisions from which you can learn principles and habits of decision making for your own life and community.

When you write your deliberative address, you practice thinking imaginatively and strategically.

Thinking Imaginatively

In LTW III, you imaginatively enter a historical or literary situation, in which you assume a perspective, generate an issue, find a necessary question, and attempt to persuade your audience (the decision-maker) to act: either to implement a change (the proposal) or to maintain the status quo. To do so, you will need to get to know your audience and then present the advantages: honor and/or utility.

As always, you develop your argument through invention, using the common topics already learned plus the special topics that apply to a deliberative address. In addition, you will add three new and powerful tools to your box: the modes of persuasion, the four causes, and analogical reasoning.

As we mentioned above, perhaps the most significant difference between judicial and deliberative thinking is that the former is directed toward the past and the latter is directed toward the future. The problem you run into when you have to make decisions about the future is obvious: you dont know it. In real life, that means any decision you make is, to some extent, uncertain. It takes maturity to accept this when an issue matters to you.

It raises yet another challenge for you when you deliberate about a narrative: when you have completed a story, you know the whole thing, including what follows your issue. You know the future, but your audience, being stuck in the world of the story, does not.

To make your address more realistic, therefore, you must pretend (you can think about the irony of that later!). Specifically, when you develop your LTW III addresses, you pretend that you are in the same time frame and location as your audience, which means that you also do not know the future, including the outcome of your proposal.

By pretending in this way, you create an artificial limitation on your own knowledge that matches the real limitation we all experience in reality.

Practically, that means that for the sake of the LTW III deliberative address, neither you nor your audience can know or use any information or events that happen from that point forward. You are allowed to make predictions about possible results to a decision, but you cannot say that something will happen because it happened in the story. You will read how to do this in Invention Step Three below.

In short, you pretend to meet the decision-maker in his situation where you assume a perspective and deliberate on the issue so that you can persuade him to act on your thesis (e.g., Hamlet should or should not kill Claudius in the chapel). You build your case with an eye to an unknown future.

Please note that we use the terms audience and decision-maker interchangeably. Your goal is to persuade this audience or decision-maker. The mention of a goal gives rise to the idea of strategic thinking, which includes identifying goals and the means to reach them.

Thinking Strategically

When you develop your deliberative address, your goal is to convince your audience to perform an action. You must make a strong case and present it to your audience in a compelling manner. When you have done so, you have written a successful address.

The overall strategy of a deliberative address

When you seek to show a decision-maker that he should or should not act in a particular way, you must first persuade yourself, then your audience.

To do so, you ask a few questions:

  • What is the necessary question?
  • What is the issue?
  • What is the status quo?
  • What do the common topics reveal about the issue?
  • What are the potential advantages or disadvantages to be experienced by the decision-maker and/or the community through the proposal and through the status quo?
  • What do the principles of logic, the four causes, and analogical reasoning contribute to my deliberations?

In addition, you will learn to use principles of logic to further develop both sides of your argument. These are explained in detail in the lessons; however, here are some questions that logic gives rise to:

  • If the thesis and proof, and the counter-thesis and refutation are converted into a syllogism, what premises are revealed?
  • Are the assumed premises true?
  • How can they be proven or refuted?
  • What additional propositions can be derived from the ideas already generated?

Once you have completed your invention and chosen a side to defend, you fashion your argument in a way that is easy to follow and that emphasizes the most important points. The deliberative outline is essentially the same as the other persuasive outlines, but you will adapt the elements (amplification, narratio, proof, etc.) to the needs of the deliberative address. Details on the elements can be found in the lessons.

Finally, your argument deserves and needs to be expressed appropriately, which means clearly, coherently, cohesively, and effectively. You ask questions like the following:

  • Does the sentence express its idea clearly and efficiently?
  • Is each paragraph coherent (i.e., does it communicate a single idea)?
  • Is each paragraph cohesive (i.e., do its sentences link in an orderly, logical sequence)?
  • Are the schemes and tropes used in appropriate ways and places in the address?
Category Description for Lost Tools Of Writing

Teaching students to think and to communicate ideas--it's a large goal and a worthy one. It's also the classical way of approaching the skills of rhetoric to focus on the thinking that leads to good writing. Lost Tools of Writing provides a thorough breakdown of skills, tools and basic principles to learn and use in the step-by-step process of developing the art of communication. After all, (in their words) "writing on paper, parchment, or a screen is only a record of something that has previously happened in the mind."

Students and teachers have typically struggled with some universal writing challenges: coming up with ideas, putting ideas in order, and expressing ideas appropriately. Classical rhetoric consists of five Canons (principles/laws). The first three of these define the writing process, providing solutions to these three universal writing challenges: Invention (ideas), Arrangement (ordering of ideas), and Elocution (expression of ideas) are explained and then incorporated into lesson exercises and assignments.

Aiming at "creative discipline" as well as "disciplined creativity," there are 28 weeks of instruction; three weeks for each of nine lessons, each producing an essay or address plus one introductory week. The four-day week has the general expectation that the teacher is meeting with students twice each week with the student completing independent work on two other days. Teacher contributions include concept presentation and development as well as discussion. Instruction is based on teacher/student interaction and support for the teacher is impressive. There are instructional videos for the teacher (lifetime access available free from the publisher's website for the program's purchasers), lesson plans are thoroughly developed, and extensive samples are provided. Additionally, there is a solid orientation to the "tools."

The Teacher Guide for each level is the teacher's companion and foundation; a very necessary component. It provides a thorough explanation and introduction to classical writing and to the way it is developed in the Lost Tools. Then follows a proposed Plan of Action, a Year-at-a-Glance Chart, a Lesson Sequence, and (most importantly) the comprehensive Lesson Plans with samples and worksheets. An impressive set of Appendices (How to Edit with checklists, Guide to Assessment with rubric, Essay templates, On Mimetic Teaching (summary of type of teaching used in LTW), FAQs, Glossary, Essential/Recommended Resources, Lesson Summaries, and Sample Essays) complete the Guide.

The Student Workbook provides worksheets for the lesson exercises, essay templates, and Appendices (Self-Edit Checklists, Sample Essays, Glossary, and Lesson Summaries). The student uses this to complete the preparatory assignments leading up to the crafting of each Lesson's essay assignment. One Student Workbook (not reproducible) needed per student.

The Teacher/Student Set includes the password necessary (and found only in the Teacher/Student Set) to access the instructional videos from the publisher's website.

Level One begins with the assumption of some writing instruction/experience (9th grade, or a middle schooler with some writing prep could be ready for the course, or even upper level high schooler swould profit from the course if their writing instruction had been minimal). Students construct persuasive essays, with a thorough coverage of all the basic classical tools of writing. The Handbook of Types available for this level provides additional examples taken from classic stories.

A newly revised Level Two refines the study of classical rhetoric by focusing on the Judicial Address. There are eight lessons (review lesson plus seven addresses) in this course and students will continue to work within the framework of the three Canons: invention, arrangement, and elocution. Guiding/mentoring by the teacher is continued. The publisher does not recommend using older 1st edition materials with the 2nd edition as there have been extensive edits.

Level Three's focus is Deliberative Address. This is a combined teacher-student volume with instruction written directly to the student but still relying on teacher-led discussion. ~ Janice

Category Description for Lost Tools Of Writing Level 3

A follow up to LTW Levels I and II, this course expands on writing skills taught in previous levels. Students learn about deliberative rhetoric as they establish a perspective on an issue and persuade the audience to make a wise decision. Step-by-step instructions are given as students learn to think strategically and use prudence to develop both sides of an argument. Cohesive paragraphs are also taught as students express themselves in a clear and effective fashion. The 378-page spiral bound book is an all-in-one teacher/student guide. The optional Video Access Card provides additional instruction. Complete set includes book and instructional videos.

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Product Format:Other
Brand:Circe Institute
Grades:10-12
ISBN:9780999146651
Length in Inches:11
Width in Inches:9.75
Height in Inches:1.25
Weight in Pounds:2.35
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