Class Ed Newsletter May-June, 2000.


Suggestions for Simple Writing Exercises for the Grammar Stage

Update 2002:
These exercises have since developed into several books in the Classical Writing series.
See Classical Writing Home Page for more information.

This article springs out of my own pursuit of the ancient Greek Progymnasmata as found in a number of contemporary rhetoric texts (see book list below) as well as on-line sources (see on-line sources). I am also indebted to the ideas of the participants of the Classical Rhetoric eGroup for wonderful discussions on the theory behind these exercises and their practical applications.

After a brief introduction to the ancient progymnasmata, I aim to explain, explore and suggest practical uses of the first few progymnasmata as a framework for a possible grammar stage writing curriculum.

Background:
The ancient Greeks prepared their grammar school and dialectic stage students for rhetoric study by having them work on a series of writing exercises called the progymnasmata. These preliminary exercises increased in length and complexity as the student advanced through the list.

The progymnasmata provide a firm foundational outline for imitations of great writers. Through these imitations Through these imitations the student is introduced to a variety of writing techniques and concepts which are later combined into more advanced rhetorical work.

The sequence of these exercises varies slightly among rhetoricians. For example, there is some debate as to where the exercise of description fits into the sequence. Below is an outline of the exercises compiled in the 4th Century AD by Aphthonius (see on-line resources).

1. Fable: Retelling of a fable, usualy Aesop's

2. Narrative: Summarizing a short narrative, usually a couple of paragraphs.

3. Anecdote (chreia): Amplification of a wise saying or an action, usually with a moral point.

4. Proverb: Similar to the anecdote, amplification of a proverb

5. Refutation: Arguing against an issue in question.

6. Confirmation: The reverse of refutation.

7. Common topic: Elaborate upon generalizations.

8. Encomium: Praise of a given subject, usually a person.

9. Invective: The opposite of encomium.

10. Comparison: Compare a given subject with another subject.

11. Characterisation (êthopoiia): Invention of dialogue which a given person might have made on a specified occasion.

12. Description (ekphrasis): Vivid description of an event or place.

13. Thesis: Reasoned inquiry into a debatable question, which argues a general point.

14. Proposal of law: Arguing for or against a legislative proposal in general terms.

Pre-Grammar Stage Writing: Before attempting any of these exercises the child should have mastered the mechanics of writing: Holding a pencil, letter formation, basic copybook, spelling and grammar skills. Lynette Tedlund at Classical Homeschooling has outlined a complete course in how to teach writing mechanics .

A Simple Grammar Stage Writing Curriculum:
Start with a 3rd, 4th or 5th grade student with confident writing mechanics as described in the link above.
For the first couple of years I have chosen to focus on the first two progymnasmata, teaching imitation of writing based on fables and narratives. We study and apply the techniques of these two exercises continuously building on previously learned skills, until the student is ready for the exercises requiring more logic. Then we move on to anecdote and proverb, concentrating on mastery of those forms, integrating previous learning and so forth through all 14 exercises. But I am getting ahead of myself here, so we shall return to the grammar stage.

The sample writing schedule which I have put together for each exercise assumes writing instruction 5 times per week of duration 30 to 45 minutes. That time is mostly time spent with your student until he or she is confident enough in a particular exercise to partially carry on alone. (This schedule is not a complete language arts curriculum in that it includes neither spelling, nor formal grammar).

The beauty of the Progymnasmata is that there is no fixed pedagogy of how to do it. The common ground, whichever route you decide to take, is that the student is learning one writing technique at a time to mastery. For example writing dialogue is taught in isolation, focusing on the task of just that, while the accompanying work required is either FIXED by the outline and the content (usually a familiar fable), or requires only skills mastered in prior learning.

Much as we love Aesop, we did not think we could handle a continuous, stream of his works for a full two years, so we decided to intermingle the exercises of fable and narrative whenever possible. That approach also lends the advantage that once a concept has been mastered with the fable, one can practise that same concept on a longer piece of writing, the narrative.

I divided the writing skills to master in those first two years into 6 categories:

1. Outlining and retelling a) fable b) narrative

2. Precis writing for a) fable b) narrative

3. Descriptive writing ....(note similarities with progymnasmatum # 12) of a) fable b) narrative

4. Writing of dialogue (similar to progymnasmatum # 11) for a) fable b) narrative

5. Rewrite a story in a new setting for a) fable b) narrative

6. Poetry a) turning a ballad to prose b) turning a simple fable/narrative to ballad or other poetry

A Sample Schedule:

Month I - IV:

Outline and retell Aesop's Fables, one fable per week ....or for narratives, one narrative per week.

General weekly plan for Months' I - IV:

Day one: Copy fable into copybook (If doing narrative, copy one paragraph)
Day two: Outline fable, choosing 1-2 words descriptive of each sentence, discuss and list traits, feelings and thoughts of animals in fable.
Day three: Rewrite fable in own words.
Day four: Improve the writing by correcting errors of spelling and grammer... then brainstorm for more descriptive nouns and adjectives, livelier verbs. (I highly recommend the Institute for Excellence in Writing Syllabus for descriptive writing and for learning the elements of style. Also, Click here for on-line ideas and checklists for editing.)
Day five: Write (my kids type in the word processor)final version.

Explanation: Outline and re-tell fables (usually one paragraph) for two months all the while increasing the requirements for descriptive nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. If you are using IEW syllabus, slowly add more elements of style from the IEW style check list; otherwise make your own check list of terms to master, one item or so per week , requiring the items of the check lists to appear in subsequent writing. In month III start the same exercises with a fairly short narrative, using the same weekly plan. Note when working with narratives that the child would no longer outline each sentence, rather have them attempt to pick 3-4 outline points per paragraph.
---- As the weeks go by start paying attention to a variety of ways in which your student can begin his or her sentences: subject, preposition, adverb, etc and help your student incorporate those into the writing.

Sources:
Aesop's Fables, Book of Virtues, Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, 1001 Arabian nights, Jesus' Parables, Bible Stories, Grimm's Fairy tales.

Months V - VIII:

Precis writing using fables and narratives.

A Precis is a condensed statement, a summary or an abstract of the essence of one paragraph or more of writing. Dennis L. Peterson wrote an excellent article on Precis writing at Journal for Christian Educators, which gives step by step practical suggestions for how to implement this form of writing. With the idea of moving from the simple to the more complex, spend one month on writing Precis-type exercises starting with one line sentences moving on to fable length stories and the following month, move on to increasingly longer excerpts.

Weekly Plan (as condensed from Peterson's article) for every day writing assignments:

Week 1: Read selections together and create verbal Precis for each selection.
Week 2: Practise writing Precis together on short sentences.
Week 3: Same as week 2, only longer sentences or two sentences.
Week 4: Student writes alone with the prescription of
1) read
2) reread
3) compose 2 sentences
4) re-read
5) final writing
Week 5-7: Continue having your student write with increasingly more complex passages.
Week 8-9: Write a Precis from oral reading, eventually limiting to one oral reading of the passage prior to writing.
Week 10-16: Vary the formats for the selections to include: Narrative, dialogue, description, exposition and explanations (how-to books) as described in Peterson's article.

Suggested sources: Technical "How To" Books, letters to the editor, Aesop's Fables and narratives as mentioned for Month I-IV

Month IX - XII:

Writing Descriptive Passages: We will focus on two types of writing
1) spatial description: a person place or thing and on 2) Chronological description: an event. (This second type of writing will re-appear in a later section as we rewrite a narrative in a new setting.)

A description is a "snap shot" of the object or event in question. Utilization of the five senses play a big role in creating this "snap shot" in the mind of the reader. Describe the person's/object's color, texture, size, condition, material, shape, age, weight. Likewise, you have to generate emotions and thoughts in your reader's mind....what did it make you feel like, think, wish, assume, remind you of? For more hints on descriptive writing see: Narrative Writing

Weekly plan:

Day one: Copy an appropriate fable or paragraph of narrative into copybook (20 minutes or so)
Day two: Look at good descriptive writing from other authors
Suggestions - Laura Ingalls Wilder, E. B. White, Kenneth Grahame, C. S. Lewis children's books, J. R. R. Tolkien.
Pick a descriptive passage and identify ways in which the author takes a "snap shot" of the scene.
Day three: Pick a scene, person, event from your fable or narrative, using the model from the author from the day before, try to "liven up" the scene, person or event with description. Brainstorm for more descriptive nouns and adjectives, as well as for livelier verbs.
Day four: Write scene and correct for errors.
Day five: Write final version of the descriptive passage.

Months XIII - XVI:

Writing Dialogue:
Week 1 - 4 : Using Aesop's fables, write the action of a story into dialogue using the following writing schedule:
Day one: Copy fable into copybook.
Day two: Outline fable, choosing 1-2 words descriptive of each sentence. Discuss verbs to describe different modes of the expressions "he said, he thought, he shouted.."...... explore the feelings and thoughts of the animals in fable... what might a particular character wish to say at this point?
Day three: Rewrite fable including dialogue wherever possible, .... review proper punctuation of dialogue in a sentence. Correct with student for errors.
Day four: Improve the writing by brainstorming for more descriptive nouns and adjectives, livelier verbs, as learned in previous section.
Day five: Type/write final version.

Week 5-8: Same writing schedule as for rewriting Aesop's fables. Include body language and gestures interspersed with the dialogue ..... What might he be doing while he said that?... He was puzzled, what body motions do we usually perform when puzzled?
Week 9-12: Pick passages from good children's books with dialogue between two persons, rewrite into action with no dialogue. Same author suggestions as for descriptive writing.

Weekly plan for writing dialogue into action:
Day one: Copy dialogue passage into copybook
Day two: Discuss passage of dialogue and write a Precis of passage.
Day three: Outline passage: 1) Carefully discuss the flow of the action with your student. 2) Pick 1-2 key words per exchange. 3) Rewrite into a paragraph with action only.
Day four : Time to decorate the passage with descriptive nouns and adjectives, livelier verbs as discussed above.
Day five: Type final version.


Months XVII - XX:

Rewrite a familiar story in a new setting.

This will draw on all the skills learned in the previous months. We will draw on Aesop's fables for the first months' story. If you feel adventurous, try a longer passage like a fairy-tale for the third or fourth month. Each story will take about a month to write, give or take 2 weeks.

Most short stories include a beginning, some conflict or suspense, leading up to the climax and then a conclusion. We use a familiar fable for our setting. We analyze the story, find the timeless components, its moral lesson, and rewrite the story in a setting of the student's choice.

Week 1: Getting ideas
Day one- Copybook of the fable chosen.
Day two - Outline fable, identify beginning, conflict, main event and resolution/conclusion in your outline, especially identify the moral lesson/dilemma of the fable which will transfer to your new story
Day three - Choose a new setting: Location, types of creatures (animal, mineral or vegtable), place in history, future or fantasy etc.
Day four - Choose your point of view for the story: 1st person, 3rd person. Is this written from the perspective of the protagonist, the antagonist or from a neutral observer? Choose the nature of the conflict, the resolution and focus on the moral lesson to be learned, modeling from the fable chosen.
Day five -Finish bainstorming, list your new setting: Characters, point of views, conflict etc. Write your new outline

Week 2 Writing beginnings:
Day one- Choose several good children's authors, look through books and short stories. Notice how stories, books or chapters begin. Make a list of the possible sentence types used to begin stories. (A thought, a sound, a scene, etc)
Day two- Using the models from the day before write a beginning sentence to your story (A dialogue, action, a question or perhaps a thought or a feeling.)
Day three - Look through the different children's books to get ideas for necessary components of the beginning scene of a story, how to introduce the characters, the setting and the conflict, note proximity to the climax of the story.... as in, don't start with "Adam and Eve" = )
Day four -List descriptions of the people and setting for the beginning scene of your story.
Day five - Write the beginning scene, decorate with adjectives for description .

Week 3 Writing description and suspense:
Day one - Read suspenseful scences from favorite authors and try to identify the literary devices used to create this excitement in the reader.
Day two - Given an author model from the prevoius day, list items of your dilemma/crisis/suspense. How is the protagonist feeling? What does he do? Similarly depending on your point of view, you might create a snap shot of the actions or feelings of the antagonist.
Day three- Write your suspense/dilemma with action, dialogue, and description from the point of view chosen. Real suspense leaves out part of the picture, leaves the reader wondering until the last minute.
Day four - Rewrite your suspense with stronger verbs, adjectives, adverbs etc. Check to make sure your sentences are varied in strucure.
Day five - Read back over your entire story so far, check for consistency, flow of thought. Make corrections.

Week 4: Main Event :
Your main event is the climax of your story, it should evoke some emotional response in your reader. Use all five senses to create the snap shot at this climax, make sure to describe feelings and thoughts, as well as what was learned from the event. Because our story is an exercise in imitations, fixed within the framework of Aesop's fable, make sure the outline and main moral idea is intact.

Week 5 Conclusion :
How does the protagonist feel, what is he thinking of, wishing for, going to do? You may end your story with dialogue or you could end it with action or body language to simply imply the sentiments of your hero.

A general weekly plan for weeks 4 and 5 :
Days 1-5 same pattern as previous weeks, which is:

Day 1) Reading other authors, identifying models of either main events or conclusions, respectively.
Day 2) Pick an author model for main event or conclusion, list items (people, actions, settings) which contribute to your scene.
Day 3) Write the scene.
Day 4) Bring your scene alive with "delicious" (word on loan from "Anne of Green Gables") words.
Day 5) Final write up of that scene, check on entire manuscript and produce final version. This might take another week.

Month XXI - XXIV :

Poetry

Weeks 1-7:
Classical education teaches basic writing skills by imitation. A stepping stone to writing poetry is reading and memorizing poetry as a regular part of your homeschool day. In our homeschool, we memorize a new stanza of a poem every week, we also have poetry recital once a week to review previously poems.

Being very inexperienced in teaching anything to do with poetry, I was thrilled to find beginning poetry lessons for 5th graders at SpotLight. The lesson plans at this excellent web site study and imitate known poets. Several literaty devices, basic tropes and schemes used in poetic expressions, are taught and reviewed one by one.
After the 27 lesson plans at Spotlight, which could take anywhere from five to seven weeks or more, we return to the narratives.

Weeks 8 - 12 :
Work on turning narrative poetry (such as Casey at the Bat and Captain Kidd) into prose. (See online lesson example about rewriting a poem by Robert Frost into prose).
Choose one poem per week, using the devices from Spotlight and the writing plan from the section on description.

Weeks 13 -16:
Turn simple historical narratives such as The Story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree into a ballad. (The Book of Virtues would be a good place for a variety of selections.) This will take considerable effort, in turns of phrases, schemes, rhymes and meter, so one or two ballads composed in this time fram would be considered a writing success. Use Spotlight's 27 lessons' patterns, schemes and strategies for this.

Sources: The Harp and the Laural Wreath by Laura Berquist, A child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, Poetry Patterns by Evan-Moore, and of course The Book of Virtues.


Following these two years, the students enter the dialectic stage and are ready to tackle .....

Anecdote (chreia): Amplification of a short narrative with a moral point.
Sources: The Book of Virtues, a book on anecdotes from the library, (f.ex. a Toastmaster's or other speaking handbook, Bartlett's Quotations or such.)

AND .... Proverb: amplification of a moral saying
Sources: online proverbs, Bible's Book of Proverbs, Poor Richard's Almanac by Benjamin Franklin.

..... but that's another article for another school year, any takers? -- lmj
On-line Writing Sources:
Aphthonius Progymnasmata : A loose translation Aphthonius' text about the Progymnasmata.

Aristotle's Rhetoric: plain text version

Preliminary Exercises : Brief descriptions of each exercise in the progymnasmata from Leeds University.

Silva Rhetoricae : Brigham Young University's extensive rhetoric site

Aesop's Fables On-line

Anecdotes On-line

Famous Quotations

folklore and legends

Beth Parker's Reading List Page
Rhetoric Books:
Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward P. J. Corbett
A composition course focusing on the five canons of rhetoric, touching only briefly on the Progymnasmata

Composition in the Classical Tradition by Frank D'Angelo
A college composition text, using the progymnasmata as a springboard for composition and rhetoric.

Ancient Rhetoric for contemporary Students by Sharon Crowley
A college rhetoric and composition text with an appendix about the Progymnasmata

All three of these books are expensive college texts which contain contemporary and at times unsuitable or objectionable illustrations. They are not ideal texts on rheoric, however they are the most comprehensive and helpful contemporary texts out there on the subject. D'Angelo's text was instrumental in my own understanding and implementation of the Progymnasmata, the Crowley text also supplemented my understanding. Corbett's text is my favorite as an insightful presentation of the five canons of rhetoric, but it contains very little information on the Progymnasmata. Initially, I obtained the three books through Inter Library Loan to flip through and decide which ones I would purchase for our homeschool.




since May 2000.