Exordium–arresting the attention of your listener/reader

"An exordium is a passage which brings the mind of the auditor (or reader) into a proper condition to receive the rest of the speech. This is accomplished if he becomes well-disposed, attentive, and receptive." (Cicero)

In Lost Tools of Writing, we learn some introductory tools for creating an exordium. An exordium is the very first thing the reader reads or the listener hears.
Here are a few ideas for elements that you can use to  implement an exordium in your writing and ready your reader for what you are about to present:
Question

• What if we still lived under the Articles of the Confederation?
• Is a man to be loyal to his friends or to the woman he loves?
• Can being loved convert a man from a beast to a beau?

Challenge

• Stop and consider life under a government different from today.
• Dare to stand for a lady!
• Love in spite of  difficulties!

Statistic

• The population in America grew 200% in just eight years.
• 5 of 8 men would choose their wife over their friends to spend time with.
• Health care workers say that 80% of their patients recover faster when they have loved ones caring for them in recovery.

Quote

• That government is best which governs least – Jefferson   
•  Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. - Benjamin Franklin 
•  May I be so converted and see with these eyes? – Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing

Week 2

Logic / Advanced Math A
Our class time was profitable as we reviewed the area of a sector and some other geometry problems from lessons 1-4.  Students should work on Lesson 5 and 6 and bring questions this coming week.

Research / Chemistry

In class, we completed an experiment from Module 1 on the density of liquids. Students should read Module 2 and complete the On Your Own questions and bring them to class.
Have you purchased a lab journal book? A composition notebook that is quad-ruled works beautifully for recording notes, graphics, and diagrams during our experiments.

Debate / American History

• Read - see the guide for the reading schedule for this week.
• Rhetorical event: Outline and practice presentation due on Week 4
• Research essay: Select topics and begin outline for essay due Week 5.

Who is best fit to govern others?

Exposition / Shakespeare & Poetry

• Work on essay ANI Chart and Outline
• Guy's issue: Whether Benedick should have killed Claudio
• Girl's issue: Whether Hero should have played dead
• Fill out your ANI chart a bit more using these questions:

1. Definition: Who is Hero? Who is Benedick? Who is Claudio? Who is the friar? What is friendship? What is marriage? What is love? What is honor? What are "man points"? What is modesty?
2. Comparison: How are Benedick and Claudio the same? How are they different? How are Leanato and the friar similar? How are they different? How is Beatrice and Benedick's relationship the same as Claudio and Hero's relationship? How are they different? How is Claudio like Joseph? How is Claudio different from Joseph? How is Hero like Mary? How is Hero different from Mary?

• Students are working systematically toward their first persuasive essay for this class which is due week 6. Remember essays are to be emailed to me at fiveshirleys@aol.com.
• Students are also looking for 30 lines from the play to memorize (practicing the memory canon of rhetoric) and present (practicing the presentation canon of rhetoric) to the class week 6.
• Poetry work: Be sure to work on poetry a little each week. This week you should have completed the exercises from Chapter 2 in Roar on the Other Side. I have asked students to complete one chapter a week if possibly. We’ll weave in the poetry appropriately throughout our seminar time. 

 Do you agree with the statement from Cicero: Friendship is only possible among good (virtuous) men. And do you agree with Cicero's definition of a good man being a man who possesses wisdom?

Rhetoric / Philosophy

Follow the reading outlined in your guide. This seminar we will learn how to seek understanding through discussion of ideas. We’ll learn how to love our neighbor in our discussion and discover of truth.

Grammar / Latin

A great day of reviewing Latin and tackling lots of ideas in Lesson 20. Thank you, Emily S, for facilitating a few examples of translation. Christina is set to facilitate a few sentences for translation  from Lesson 21 this coming week. Latin students please come to class with work completed and also any questions you have from your homework.

Semester 1 - Week 1

Advanced Math A
Work on lessons 1-4 this week and bring questions to class.

Chemistry
Complete the On Your Own problems for Module 1 and bring questions to class.

Latin/Language
Work on Lesson 20 at home.  Next week, in seminar, we'll be looking at the six concepts, paying special attention to 4, 5, and 6. Come ready to discuss concepts and translate a few sentences from the lesson next week.
Bring your poetry books to class this coming week too.

What is friendship? Come to class with a definition next week.

American History
Follow the reading in the guide and come ready to discuss next week.
Christina and Robbie will be leading Socratic circles for this discussion.
Begin working on your 4 minute expository presentation, see page 35 in your guide. Remember this presentation is due week 4.
Choose your topics for your research paper which is due week 5, see page 32 in your guide.

Shakespeare/Poetry
Read through the play with a highlighter and mark anything interesting you find.
What lines do you want to memorize? These will be due week 6.
Come ready with affirmative and negative proofs for our issue:

Whether Hero should have played dead

Begin your poetry exercises. You can ignore the exercise from the "pilgrim at tinker creek" book since you all don't have it. I'll bring it this week and show you all the book, if I remember.

Bring your poetry book and Roar on the Other Side to class.

Review my notes on the blog about ANI charts and the persuasive essay.

Philosophy
Read and outline Chapter 2 and come ready to discuss this in class. I'll assign group discussion leaders that day.

The Persuasive Essay–Part 1

From our Shakespeare plays, students can chose to practice writing a persuasive essay. Some students are familiar with writing persuasive essays already, but for those that are new to the idea here is a form you can follow, which is based on Lost Tools of Writing:

1. Pick a character in the play (ie. Don Pedro)
2. Pick an action the character did (ie. use deception)
3. Form a question using the word should (ie. Should Don Pedro use deception to make Beatrice and Benedict fall in love?)
4. Turn the question into an issue: (ie. Whether Don Pedro should use deception)

Here are more examples:

Character	Benedict	Hero
Action	listen	play dead
Should question	Should Benedict listen to Don Pedro?	Should Hero play dead?
Turn into Issue starting with word “Whether”	Whether Benedict should listen to Don Pedro	Whether Hero should play dead

Students should come to class ready to share their question. You’ll note that Lost Tools of Writing emphasizes a persuasive essay built from a “should question” which are spring-loaded with virtuous considerations which is great fertilizer for practice and learning to judge rightly. Such ponderings require students to seek for understanding and wisdom. Once students have formed their should question, they are to turn it into an issue using the word whether.

In Part 2, I’ll introduce students to a tool called and ANI chart. Affirmative, Negative, and Interesting. We’ll use the ANI chart to help us explore both sides of the issue before choosing a side and forming a thesis statement.

So stay tuned!

MLA Formatting for Essays

Paper layout, formatting, and handling citations:
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic1/mla-style-papers/
Students should follow this format in their American History essays and their Shakespeare essays.

Invention: ANI Chart

One you have developed your issue for your persuasive essay, you’ll want to “discover” more about your issue or “invent” content to help you explore the issue you are writing about.
The first tool to help us do this, before we have formed our thesis statement, is the ANI chart – the Affirmative, Negative, Interesting chart.
Below is an example.
Issue: Whether Claudio should trust Don John
Let’s use the ANI chart to help us “think on” and develop this issue in our minds.
In the affirmative [A] column, we list why Claudio should trust Don John; in the negative [N] column we list reasons he should not trust Don John; and any interesting facts that don’t seem to apply to either the A or N column, we can list in the interesting [I] column.
This is a thinking exercise, so record away. Record all ideas presented in one of the three columns. Don’t worry about judgment of quality or repetition of ideas at this point, rather focus on generating a climate of thinking, contemplating, pondering the issue.

A	N	I
Don John (DJ) was a man	Claudio’s troops just defeated Don John’s in war	Hero was beautiful
DJ was a soldier	DJ was jealous of Claudio	Claudio home from war
DJ was Don Pedro’s brother	DJ was angry and bitter	Claudio worked for Don Pedro
Claudio needed help to woo Hero	Claudio was naive	DJ was Don Pedro’s half brother
Claudio valued other men’s opinions of Hero	Claudio should woo Hero for himself	What does DJ know about woo’ing women?
Claudio needed someone to lean on for help	A man should woo his own woman.	Women can’t be trusted
Men have to stick together	Claudio should talk with Hero to get to know her	Men fear losing honor

Put this tool of invention in your writing toolbox! We’ll learn more tools of invention as we go through the year. Stay tuned!

Semester 1: Getting Ready for Challenge III

Grace-filled greetings, Challenge III parents,
Our first day of class is Tuesday, August 20th. I look forward to all the Lord has in store for us this coming year!

Our Parent-Student Orientation will be one of two days. Please RSVP via email on which date you will attend.
Both parents and students are to attend these sessions together. I look forward to getting off to a great start together!
Please mark your calendars:

Thursday, August 15th at 7pn

Thursday, August 22th at 7pm

We'll be covering lots of information as we prepare for the year.
Language and Truth
American History/Debate, Rhetoric/Philosophy/Logic, Literature/Persuasive Essay; lesson layout,  persuasive essay lessons, essay and presentation calendar, assessment, transcripts, goals, etc.

• Canons of rhetoric: thinking, ordering, expressing, memorizing, presenting
• Invention and unified thinking
• Literature as a mirror
• The power of the persuasive essay
• Ideas, history, and philosophy - glass walls and stained glass windows that shape our lives, priorities, values, and decisions; as well as families and societies and nations.

Parent role, student role, tutor role
College prep questions and conversation
Other events and calendar items

1. You will receive your Challenge III Guide the first full week of August assuming I have your semester tuition payment and feeds.
1. American History/Debate: Encourage your student to begin bonding with their A Patriot’s History of the United States book! Reading more sooner will pay off greatly in the weeks to come.
2. Literature/Poetry/Exposition: Students should read through Much Ado About Nothing before they come week 1. Watch the movie too!
3. Chemistry/research: Students should begin looking over Module 1.
4. Math/Logic Conversation: Look over your first few lessons and have the first few complete before you come to the first week. Bring your questions to class as these will direct the conversation and activities for this hour together.
   
5. Philosophy/Logic/Rhetoric: Students should begin reading Chapter 1 of Consequences of ideas.
6. Latin/Grammar: Students should have Henle II and begin reviewing lesson 20-25. I have a special surprise for students as we study Ceasar and Cicero this year. Stay tuned!

Not sure what books you need? View Challenge III books here and purchase:

http://www.stallionpublishers.com/publication.aspx?pid=1203&pkey=idvoxdeus&pageid=61

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The Ants and the Grasshopper ~ Aesop’s Fable

THE ANTS were spending a fine winter's day drying grain collected in the summertime. A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. The Ants inquired of him, Why did you not treasure up food during the summer?' He replied, I had not leisure enough. I passed the days in singing. They then said in derision: If you were foolish enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter.

It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow