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Language Arts for Upper School Poetics & Progym - Level I Student
This series provides twenty-eight weekly lessons in composition, literary analysis, vocabulary development, grammar, usage, and mechanics. This first level reviews the Fable and Narrative stages of the progymnasmata, and focuses on the Anecdote (Chreia) and Proverb (Maxim) stages. This level emphasizes sentence and paragraph construction skills and a variety of composition types including poetry. Poetry lessons are designed to foster delight as well as identify basic forms and literary devices. Lessons, likewise, include grammar practice (including extensive sentence diagramming) and vocabulary exercises. The Student Book provides instruction directly to the student. It is assumed, however, that the course is being taught by the parent rather than the student working independently. Weekly lessons are laid out in a step-by-step fashion. Background information on poets and authors as well as their works is provided. The student is expected to compile a Commonplace Book where prose and poetry selections are copied. It also becomes a collection place for any literary tidbits or thoughts that surface while completing the lessons. In contrast, the Writer's Journal is the place where the student records vocabulary lessons, sentence diagrams, lists of studies literary devices, and completes writing assignments. Instructions for setting up the Writer's Journal and Commonplace Book are included in the appendices of the Student Book. Other appendices include grammar terms and definitions, narrative elements, and a bibliography. 375 pgs, pb.
Required Books and Resources: Poetics & Progym I Teaching Helps, Sentence Sense, and three composition books.
Required Literature: Odyssey of Homer (Lattimore or Fitzgerald), The Odyssey: A Christian Guide to the Classics - a commentary on Homer's Odyssey by Leland Ryken, and Committed to Memory (ed. John Hollander).
Recommended Literature: Bulfinch's Age of Fable.
Recommended Resources: Book of Centuries Historical Timeline Notebook, Quizlet (online flashcard review set), Key to Harvey's Practical English Grammar (suggested for answers to extra exercises; all answers to lesson exercises are included in Teaching Helps), Dictionary (print), Thesaurus, and Rhyming Dictionary.
Twenty-eight grammar and composition lessons. Every lesson includes:
Poetry & Prose—literary analysis: reading and comprehending the elements of a story or poem, including genre, characters, setting, plot, sequence, rhetorical situation, literary context, poetic form & meter (scansion)
Language Logic—grammar and word usage: grammar lessons, vocabulary study, parsing the parts of speech, and sentence diagramming
Eloquent Expression—style development: building copia (abundant and ready supply) of words and construction, paraphrasing, figures of speech, figures of description
Classical Composition—imitation of a worthy literary model: outlining and retelling a narrative, summarizing, working with chronology, and employing the writing sequence (plan, write, revise)
Commonplace Book—a time-honored practice for writers of all ages: collecting and copying worthy literary selections
Language Arts for Upper School Poetics & Progym levels continue the progymnasmata sequence begun in Bards and Poets. Each of these three high school levels will require reading at least one major literature classic along with poetry. Students will study grammar with sentence diagramming and will create Commonplace Books (Writer’s Journals). This series will focus on the skills from which flow expository and persuasive essays as well as poetry, grammar, vocabulary, word usage, and punctuation. It's assumed the student completing this course is simultaneously reading a large quantity of quality literature; particularly the classic works found in the Great Books. It is also assumed that these lessons are being completed in the context of a Christian home, where the student is reading the Bible and is being trained in Christian doctrine and practice.
Level I1 teaches maxim and chreia, serving as a catalyst for persuasive essays. Students will read Homer’s Odyssey. Level II teaches refutation, confirmation, commonplace, encomium, and invective, building toward argumentation, research, and bibliography skills. Students will look at material from differing viewpoints in their evaluation of characters in the Aeneid. They will also read Plutarch’s Lives (Volume I and II), Macbeth (including an annotated bibliography). In Level III, students will complete the last two stages of the progym (thesis and law) and write an in depth response to Dante’s Divine Comedy. Along with poetry of their choice, students will also read a number of C.S. Lewis essays from God in the Dock. With this extensive amount of reading and writing assignments, you might consider taking two years to complete either Progym II or III.
Product Format: | Paperback |
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Grades: | 8-12 |
Brand: | Cottage Press |
ISBN: | 9781079478303 |
Length in Inches: | 11 |
Width in Inches: | 8.5 |
Height in Inches: | 1 |
Weight in Pounds: | 2.15 |
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