The Grammar Stage Writing Program; Developing the Classical Skills

1. The Grammar Stage Writing Program; Developing the Classical Skills

2. Goal of a Classical Writing Program in the SoG The students study, memorize, and practice the structure of good writing, emphasizing: • Clarity • Vivid impression • Relevance • A relaxed natural style that represents faithfully the thing being described • Systematic organization • Descriptive, not persuasive; no student voice • Correct mechanics, grammar, etc. • Neat presentation (including handwriting) - From Dr. Whalen

3. Basic Skills We Practice 1. Conventions • Handwriting • Punctuation • Grammar 2. Copia • Clear and beautiful expression of ideas • Ability to “play” with words; just as students know multiple ways of making 10 in math, they should know multiple ways of stating an idea to be able to find the best way for a given situation.

4. Basic Skills We Practice 3. Facilitas (the capacity to produce appropriate effective language in any situation) • Progymnasmata (14 styles of writing) • Students memorize the structure of different styles as they get older • The goal is to develop the ability to choose the appropriate writing style for different situations • To begin, students copy and imitate the teacher’s writing; this gradually becomes guided writing and finally is done independently • Teachers emphasize listening, speaking, and reading skills that support or stem from writing skills

5. Basic Convention Skills by Grade Level Kindergarten • Handwriting (printing) • Phonograms • Beginning sentence structure (capital letter to start, end punctuation, space between words) • Retelling stories

6. Basic Convention Skills by Grade Level 1st Grade • Handwriting (printing) • Sentence structure; declarative, imperative, interrogative • Connecting grammar (nouns, verbs, etc.) to sentence structure • Capitalization rules • Complex sentences with “and, if, but”. • Introduce paragraphs • Retelling stories • Beginning summarizing (looking for main idea)

7. Basic Convention Skills by Grade Level 2nd Grade • Handwriting (printing) • Sentence structure; simple and compound • Using adjectives and adverbs to create strong sentences • Friendly letter format • Summarizing in paragraph format • Answering questions with complete sentences that use words from the original question • Simple paragraph format; topic sentence, at least 2 supporting sentences, concluding sentence • Editing skills; punctuation, spelling, basic grammar

8. Basic Convention Skills by Grade Level 3rd Grade • Handwriting (printing and cursive) • Review correct punctuation and sentence/ paragraph format • Using adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions to create strong sentences • Editing skills; punctuation, spelling, grammar, clear and accurate details • Sentence fluency (length, non-repetitive word choice, etc.) • Imitate some historical writing (diary entry, letters, etc.) • Beginning outlining • Introduce essay structure

9. Basic Convention Skills by Grade Level 4th Grade • Handwriting (cursive) • Using adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions to create strong sentences • Summarizing • Editing skills; punctuation, spelling, grammar, clear and accurate details • Understanding and showing cause/ effect (using signal words) • Imitate some historical writing (legends, speeches, etc.) • Essay structure • Conducting research before writing an essay; not plagiarizing

10. Basic Convention Skills by Grade Level 5th Grade • Review using adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions to create strong sentences • Summarizing • Editing skills; punctuation, spelling, grammar, clear and accurate details, complete thoughts • Understanding and showing cause/ effect (using signal words) • Imitate some historical writing (speeches, etc.) • Essay structure with strong thesis statements and clear supporting details in all subjects • Conducting research before writing an essay; not plagiarizing

11. How to Help with Building Convention Skills • Lots and lots of practice; we aim for authentic practice, though worksheet exercises are also used for instruction and practice with specific concepts. 2. Writing is strengthened by good reading; emphasize endmarks, paragraph structure, etc. 3. This year we’re starting to do some practice with dictation exercises. Though not every student will do these at school, they’re GREAT for review at home.

12. How to Help with Building Convention Skills 4. Help students edit their own work by looking for only 1 thing at a time. • Checklists are very helpful. • Encourage students to read their writing out loud or even listen to someone read their writing out loud. • If students are consistently making (or missing) the same errors, they haven’t mastered something and need more practice. • Remember that it is MUCH harder to edit your own writing.

13. How to Help with Building Copia Skills 1. Use accurate and specific language and explain terms rather than simplifying the language. (“suffix” instead of “word ending”) 2. Encourage synonyms and homonyms and explore how they change the meaning of a sentence. • This fits well when learning parts of speech in Grammar. 3. Describe people, places, actions, etc. • This is a great way to review in History, Science, Music, Phy. Ed., and Art.

14. How to Help with Building Copia Skills 3. Older students could try Erasmus’ letter exercises. • “Your letter pleased me greatly.” • “Your epistle was an incredible joy to me.” 4. Write Grammar “Mad Libs”. Or do any Mad Libs.  • My (subject noun) was sleeping quietly. • My dog was sleeping quietly. • My Loch Ness monster was sleeping quietly.

15. How to Help with Building Copia Skills 5. Highlight beautiful writing or language that’s already a part of your daily life. • Favorite books and poems • Family stories • Common quotes or sayings • Songs

16. How to Help with Building Copia Skills 6. Although it takes time and practice to get students used to thinking copiously with words, Temperance is also important. • “The aspiration to copia is dangerous.” – Erasmus • Stop kids who add words just for more words sake.

17. The Progymnasmata The 14 writing styles: • Fable • Narrative (Story) • Chreia (Explanation about a wise person or choice) • Proverb • Refutation (Argue against) • Confirmation (Argue for) • Commonplace (More detailed description of something or someone, highlighting a virtuous or unvirtuous aspect)

18. The Progymnasmata The 14 writing styles continued… • Encomium (In praise of someone virtuous) • Vituperation or Invective (Against someone unvirtuous) • Comparison • Impersonation (A character monologue explaining a choice) • Ekphrasis(Description) • Thesis or Theme • Defend/ Attach a Law

19. Facilitas The knowledge that writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills are tied to each other. Practice in one area helps all of them; weakness in one area affects all of them.

20. Facilitas Teachers highlight exactly what they want to see from students when they listen, speak, read, or write. Some of the most common expectations are: • Tracking the speaker • Posture • Stand to answer questions • Eye contact with your listener(s) or the speaker • Track text with a finger • “Clock” positions for letter formation • When are students beautifully doing these things? How will they know?

21. How to Help with Building Facilitas/ Progym. Skills Read a lot, talk a lot, listen a lot, and write a lot. Model what good behavior looks like. Remember that instruction is imitation and modeling, followed by exercises to built the knowledge, and only then do students begin to compose their own.

22. In Conclusion… The Grammar Stage writing program is devoted to teaching and practicing numerous writing skills in every subject to make them as automatic as possible. The framework of the progymnasmata is used to structure writing and lead to more logical and rhetorical writing in the upper grades.

23. In Conclusion…to Build Mastery of Writing Skills Think of practicing writing skills like you think of practicing basic facts in math: • They must be practiced daily until mastered. • They’re either correct and automatic or they need more practice. • You don’t practice only addition, just like we shouldn’t practice only punctuation or other mechanics. • Writing skills go through the same development process as learning math concepts. • Apply writing skills in all subjects just as you use math facts in other areas.

24. In Conclusion… Finally, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions about the goals of the Grammar Stage writing curriculum. Becky Lund blund@novaclassical.org