The oldest surviving Latin text on communicating effectively, Rhetorica ad Herennium (possibly written by the ancient Roman orator Cicero), outlines five canons or principles by which all rhetoric is judged. These five canons form a template for critiquing speeches and written compositions as well as a pattern for educating your home school children in rhetoric. Adopted from classical Greek rhetors (orators) like Isocrates, Plato, and Aristotle, this definitive guide to rhetoric was studied by the most famous orator in ancient Rome, Quintilian, as well as leading Christian medieval and Renaissance orators like Saint Augustine, Desiderius Erasmus, and Sir Francis Bacon. Although our family has not read Cicero’s original text, we use a contemporary text, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, by Edward Corbett which extensively explains and illustrates this tradition that has been practiced in Western culture for over two thousand years. Over the next 5 posts, I’ll reveal the template or pattern of classical rhetoric. Canon one, INVENTION, is the subject of this post.

Determine the Topic

Discovering the main idea of the speech or essay is the first step of invention. What do you want to talk about in your speech or essay? Aristotle organized the potential topics of speeches into two categories: common and special. Common topics included definition of terms, division of the material into parts, comparison of similarities and contrast of differences, and testimonies of authorities. Common topics could be applied to any idea. Special topics were related to the three classical discourses and included justice, honor, and worthiness.

Sometimes we brainstorm for topics, but usually we simply select one of the more interesting subtopics of our homeschool academic reading (history, literature, philosophy, Scripture, science, etc). For example, Connor is reading about the battle of Gettysburg in the novel, The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. When I gave him the book to read, I told him that I wanted a 10 paragraph paper from him on one debatable point. As he’s read the compelling narrative, he’s been struck by the honorable character of three officers: Lee, Longstreet, and Chamberlain. Now if you were heavily influenced by the stories your great grandmother told, you may not find all three men honorable because two of the men he’s chosen to write about were Confederate officers and one a Union officer. However, Connor is going to argue that their characters transcended their national loyalties. That’s a debatable point or idea; it’s not a simple declaration of objective fact, but rather, there is subjectivity in the idea which is supported by evidence.

Discover the Arguments

During invention, ask lots of questions and discover arguments to support your point of view or case. In this exercise, try to find the core conflict of the debate. What is the real issue? Ancient orators asked four types questions:

1. Is it true?

Questions of fact deal with truth which can be supported by actual objective evidence. In the example above, there are many facts to be examined such as Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet were both Confederate Generals while Joshua Chamberlain was a Union General.

2. What is it?

Questions of definition make a call about the nature of the idea. In our example, Connor would define character, the Confederacy, and the United States among other terms.

3. Is it important?

Questions of quality ask why the idea is important. Value judgments enter into these questions as each author will have differing opinions as to the importance or meaning of the idea.

4. Is this the right audience?

Questions of jurisdiction ask whether the venue for the speech or paper is the best for this issue or idea. An ancient orator would not present a deliberative speech to a judge just as the same orator would not present a forensic speech to a city council member.

The ultimate purpose of questions is to find arguments and evidence that support your point of view or case.

Develop the Thesis Statement

Once you’ve determined the topic of your speech or essay and developed the questions that support the topic, it’s time to develop a thesis statement. The word thesis often gives my writing students the quakes, probably because a good thesis statement is generally more difficult to create than a topic sentence. A topic sentence is a declarative statement which states a general fact usually followed by supporting facts. A thesis statement is a debatable point or claim. To be debatable, there must be differing opinions or conflicting facts which call into question the validity of the statement. Thus, the orator or author must prove his idea or claim with hard evidence. To distinguish between a topic sentence and thesis statement, I’ll provide an easy example from Connor’s essay:

• Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Joshua Chamberlain were men of character. (a topic sentence)

• Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Joshua Chamberlain were men of character because they allowed their decent, chivalric upbringing to transcend their nationalistic loyalties. (a thesis statement)

What’s the difference? The second sentence takes a position on each man’s upbringing that must be proven with evidence whereas the first sentence is a statement of fact which does not claim to know why they were men of character. There could be many unique reasons for why each man has character which makes the idea debatable. The debatable component of the idea is what makes invention so much fun and challenging. We think to uncover the truth which is the essential purpose of canon one of classical rhetoric, invention. Once you’ve invented your debatable idea, you can move on to canon two, arrangement, which is the subject of my next post.

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Do you have a child who struggles with writing thesis statements? Use the following acronym to help trigger debatable points: “www.asia.” Although Andrew Pudewa teaches this as a stylistic dress up, I think you could use it for another purpose:  developing a thesis.  “www.asia” stands for:

when

while

where

as

since

if

although

If you tacked any of these words onto the end of a regular topic sentence then add a supporting phrase, you might have a thesis statement that needs proof. Try it next time!

Tags: 5 canons of rhetoric, Andrew Pudewa, Cicero, classical discourse, classical rhetoric, communicating effectively, deliberative speech, forensic speech, home school, homeschool, inventio, invention, Rhetoric, Rhetoric ad Herennium, speeches, thesis statement, topic sentence, topics for essays, topics for speeches, written compositions

Communicating effectively is not limited to classical discourse like formal speeches or written compositions. Narration is a communication skill that is used in casual conversation more than the other two combined! Think about the countless times during a day that you ask your child questions…

• How did you sleep last night?
• What did you dream about?
• What are your plans for study today?
• What was the book about?
• What would you like for dinner?
• How did you spend your free time this afternoon?
• What do you want to be when you grow up?
• What did you learn from your reading?

Moms and Dads are great at asking questions! But the risk with asking open-ended questions is that you’ll get vague responses like “okay” (how did you sleep) “I can’t remember” (what was the book about), and “I don’t know” (what did you learn today). What you want to do as a classical home educator is draw out your child’s understanding so that he or she is giving you more than one-word grunts. You know that words have the power to change the world, and you want to raise world-changers who are eloquent and persuasive! Train them in giving concise, direct answers so that when they find themselves out in the community and someone asks a question, they are prepared.

So how do you coax your reluctant child to give thoughtful responses to your questions? Socratic Dialogue is one method that we use in our home school to great effect. In this post, I’ll show you how I do it using a real-life example from Meredith’s high school biology course.

Remember that Courtroom Drama?

Unless you are a practicing attorney, you probably haven’t had a lot of experience in using Socratic Dialogue. In fact, attorneys (and some home schoolers) are the only living Westerners who still use this classical tool. Attorneys receive training in Socratic method in law school where they learn to ask leading questions of a witness.

If you have ever been to a legal deposition or watched a courtroom drama, you know that a good prosecutor asks leading questions. In preparation for the trial, the attorney “deposes” the witness. In a deposition, the attorney asks the witness pertinent questions under oath, and a court transcript is created which both the defending and prosecuting teams receive. In deposing the witness, the attorney is trying to arrive at the facts of the case. These facts are the basis for the trial, and a skillful attorney will use these facts in asking leading questions of the witness so that the witness gives him the answers that he wants. Facts are the starting point for your Socratic Dialogue preparation, too.

What are the FACTS?

Just like the attorney, you need to know the facts before you can ask useful leading questions. Unless you are already an expert on the subject matter, you need to read the material along with your child. Now I am not saying that you have to read every single word that the child reads; if you have more than one child, the task of keeping up with all of the weekly reading assignments plus all of your other family responsibilities would be overwhelming! Be selective. You might choose one subtopic from your teenage daughter’s science reading, one chapter from your preteen son’s history reading, and one picture story book to read with your youngest child. (By the way, the Socratic method works well with both fiction or nonfiction.)

In this example, I listened to a Teaching Company Biology lecture with Meredith on DNA called “The Double Helix.” We put on the 30 minute DVD, and we both took “stick and branch” notes (see image to the left - thank you, Andrew Pudewa) as the lecture progressed. We paused the DVD if there were any concepts we didn’t understand. After we watched the entire lesson and outlined the concepts, we both wrote a brief abstract or summary of the notes in paragraph form. This step ensured that we organized our thoughts and clarified any obscurities in the sticks and branches. We follow this same procedure for each lecture.

After Meredith writes her summary, she either reads it to me or lets me read it. Often there is no need for further clarification because I can see from her oral or written narration that she understands the concepts. She has effectively communicated her understanding. However, perhaps there is a concept that I think is particularly important or one that she hasn’t quite captured in her notes. That concept would serve as the subject of my leading questions. (See the blue arrows and the highlighted areas of my notes.)

This gets a little technical, but bear with me. For this example, let’s say that I want to make sure that Meredith understands how nitrogenous bases (A, T, C, G) pair up as they attach to the sugars on the two DNA strands. The sugars on DNA strand #1 have nitrogenous bases (NB) which attach to the NB on DNA strand #2. Imagine that the DNA strands are the side rails on a staircase, and the NB connections are the stair treads. (See the highlighted area in my stick and branch drawing.) Now the tricky thing is NBs are either pyrimidines or purines which means that one is larger than the other one. So the larger NB on DNA strand #1 must attach to the smaller NB on DNA strand #2 (C + G), then the smaller NB on DNA strand #1 must attach to the larger NB on DNA strand #2 (A + T), and so forth all the way down the double helix or the imaginary stair tread would be lopsided, and the double helix would not be a double helix!

Plan the Leading Questions

Now that I know where I want to end up, I can plan the questions. The easiest way to tackle this task is to break the entire concept up into short answer questions like this:

1. What are the 2 nucleic acids on each DNA strand? (sugars and phosphates)
2. What are the 2 types of nitrogenous bases? (purines and pyrimidines)
3. How are the purines different from the pyrimidines? (size - purines are smaller)
4. What are the 2 purines? (adenine: A and guanine: G)
5. What are the 2 pyrimidines? (cytosine: C and thymine: T)
6. Which of the 2 nucleic acids, sugar or phosphate, attaches to the nitrogenous base? (sugar)
7. Can a sugar attach to any of the 4 nitrogenous bases? (yes)
8. If a sugar has a purine nitrogenous base, what must the connecting nitrogenous base be? (pyrimidine)
9. What would happen if a purine attached to a purine on the DNA strand? (the “stair tread” of the double helix would be lopsided, so that it didn’t look like a double helix anymore)

If you have carefully structured your line of questions, your child should end up right where you expected and chances are good that she will understand the steps of the concept better now that she has had to think through them logically. Additionally, as the child answers the questions, you can detect any misunderstandings and discuss them right away. Yes, it would be much easier to just tell them the answers, but then she wouldn’t own her understanding, would she? Socratic Dialogue is an effective communication tool because the child learns to break the concept or idea up into components, organize the thoughts, and relate them to the parent. The conversation usually expands beyond the initial questions as a full-fledged discussion emerges, and your rising classical scholar practices the art of rhetoric through narration and Socratic Dialogue.

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Do you have any questions for me on Socratic Dialogue? Please use the comment box below, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Tags: classical discourse, classical home educators, communicating effectively, communication skill, critical thinking, high school, home school, homeschoolers, narration, questions, Rhetoric, socratic dialogue, Socratic method, speeches, think logically, written compositions

We interrupt the series on “Communicating Effectively,” to bring you an important bulletin about a bit of false information that has NOT been communicated effectively.  What does this have to do with you?  You may have fallen prey to this mistaken philosophy.

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Recently, I attended our annual statewide home school convention, and I was appalled by the number of products available in the homeschool market that teach a false understanding of the classical trivium! Have you ever played a child’s game called “telephone?” In this simple game, one person starts a rumor, whispers it in his neighbor’s ear, then the neighbor passes it on to the next and so forth until the message is finally repeated to the original “caller.” Without fail, the message comes back garbled and often bears no resemblance to the original rumor. A similar misstatement of the truth is occurring right now in the classical home schooling community, and it is costing you and your children! Continue reading about the myth that is being passed along…

Not long ago, I witnessed the trial of a first-time juvenile offender. Furious with his mom for refusing to drive him to his girlfriend’s house, this fifteen year old young man demolished the back window of her truck. His frustrated parents pressed charges, and he soon found himself in front of a judge and a jury on the witness stand. Regrettably, this in itself is not unusual in our culture; however what I found most astonishing and disturbing was the manner in which this young man communicated with his interlocutors: grunts!

Single word grunts issued from his scowling lips. He was extremely disrespectful towards the judge and showed no indication of repentance or remorse. The judge had to ask the young man to respond in complete sentences! But the real shocker came when the jury was dismissed to deliberate: both parents began an eloquent conversation with the court officials. Clearly, his parents were well-educated and effective communicators. How did this young man end up with such a deficiency in communication skills? Do we run the same risk as these parents? Is it possible that our children, when faced with unexpected situations, will find themselves answering in one word replies? Do we take effective communication skills for granted?

Christians are called to more than grunts! We seek to glorify God in every word and deed. Colossians 3:17 succinctly summarizes our responsibility as Christians:

And whatever you do, in word and deed, do everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

What does it mean to speak every word in the name of Jesus? Let’s look at the term “word” in Scripture. The Gospel of John refers to Jesus as the Word of the Father, and the Old Testament prophets regularly delivered the “Word” of Yahweh to the King. The Creator reaches out to the creature and communicates, through spoken words like those delivered to the prophets, through invisible encounters as in the apostle Paul’s conversion story, through the written word of the canon of Scripture, and finally through the incarnation of Jesus. The Word of the Lord is of utmost importance because it is through that Word that the Living God reveals who He is for the sake of a full relationship with us. Communication is vital to our relationship with Him and with others, so we, as little “Christ-bearers,” recognize that our words, whether written or spoken, are also meant for relationship with others, and as such, they have the power to change lives. We speak in Jesus’ name as He would speak…in truth, in love, and with a mind toward advancing His Kingdom.

As classical home schooling parents, we have a deed to do: train our children in effective communication skills. They may have a true desire to speak every word in Jesus’ name, but if they don’t have the tools, their efforts may not reach full potential. All that we have done in teaching the classical trivium comes to fruition in step 3, “Communicating Well.” In order to effectively influence others, our children must marshal the language, seek out the best arguments, and organize ideas with compelling style and captivating delivery. Equipped with the necessary skills, our eloquent children will respond to difficult questions with thoughtful, persuasive words that, unlike base grunts, have the power to change the world!

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Next up for step 3 of the classical trivium, “Communicating Well,” is an introduction to classical rhetoric and the three kinds of classical discourse.

Writing consists of two skills: first, the child practices the mechanics of developing correct letters and putting them together in properly spelled words, and secondly, the maturing child practices incorporating meaning into the composition. In this final post of the series, “Learning the Language,” step one of the classical homeschool trivium, I’ll give you concrete steps that you can implement which will help your child master the mechanics of writing. Writing with meaning will be covered later when I discuss step three of the classical trivium, “Communicating Effectively.”

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Setting the Stage

You’ve been encouraging your child since birth to expand her spoken language abilities by surrounding her with music, conversations, nursery rhymes, and reading. You’ve gently corrected her when she made mistakes and always respond to her attempts to communicate with praise and excitement. You, your spouse, and her siblings are good role models in that you all love to read. She sees you reading all the time for pleasure and for learning. You read to her every day, and you answer every question with enthusiasm and maybe even more information than she wanted. You’ve looked at the pictures in the books and predicted the story plot line. You’ve shown her that the text moves from left to right and down by using your finger to point out occasional words. You’ve already taught her the Alphabet song. You’ve diligently laid all the necessary groundwork of a rich, literate home where printed text is meaningful and pleasurable to read. Somewhere around the age of 5 or 6 years old, she’ll be ready to acquire another critical skill of language development: writing!

Learning about Letters

Now that she can sing her ABCs reasonably well (even if she slurs the phrase “lmnop”), it’s time to start writing the letters of the alphabet. She may already know the names of some letters from your daily reading-aloud time. You don’t need to purchase an expensive curriculum to teach your kids their ABCs. Just purchase a unlined art sketchbook with smooth paper, or go to Kinkos and have them bind 100 pages in a spiral. You’ll put one letter on each of 26 pages then later you’ll add the letter blends like the sound “sh” and the sound “ck.”

Start with her name. Teach her how to make the letters of her name by saying each letter as you write. Be very specific when you show her how to make each letter. For example, to make the uppercase letter “T” say something like “draw a straight line across” then “now find the middle of the line and draw a straight line down.” Or when showing her how to draw the letter “B” say “start at the top and draw a straight line down” then “go back to the top and draw a fat tummy that points to the right and stops halfway” then draw a 2^nd fat tummy that starts at the center also points right.” Make sure you show her how to write both the uppercase and lowercase letter on the page. Be sure to use the words uppercase and lowercase instead of big and little when describing the letters.

Help her find pictures from magazines that start with each letter, or if you or she are good artists, draw a picture and color it like an apple for the letter “A.” So now you have one page with the uppercase and lowercase letter and a picture or drawing of an object that starts with that letter. When you are finding pictures for the consonants, select images that sound like the single consonant and not a blend. For example, pick a “sock” for the letter “S” and not a “sheltie.” You’ll be adding photos of blends later.

In addition to working in your ABC book, use magnetic letters on the refrigerator, dry erase boards, magna doodles, paint, sand, or play letter games. You can make an easy BINGO board game on cardstock with the letters and letter blends, but don’t just say the letter “D;” say “D as in dog.” I really appreciated the DIY games in Peggy McKay’s book, Games for Reading. Even as the kids got older, we played a reading game every Friday. Make learning the alphabet fun!

Putting it all together in 30 minutes a day

Now that she is becoming familiar with her ABCs, she is ready to begin reading out loud, narrating the story, then writing her synopsis. This will probably be hardest for you because it will take longer, and it might be painful at first as she struggles with pronouncing and deciphering each word, but it is worth the effort! Continue reading out loud to her, but give her 30 minutes a day of dedicated reading time where she reads instead of you. (Caution: many parents make the mistake of discontinuing read-alouds once the child is reading by herself, but this is a big mistake. They need to hear an advanced reader speak difficult words and add inflection, pauses, and emphasis where needed.)

Here are some constructive ways to spend that 30 minute daily reading and writing time. (Don’t worry if you spend more than 30 minutes in the beginning…they’ll pick up speed as they gain proficiency):

1. Select a familiar book that is below her reading level (easy.)

2. Have her read the book out loud.

3. Select a new book from your own collection or from the weekly library trip that is slightly above her abilities. (difficult.)

4. Have her read this book out loud, too.

5. Work on a letter or letter blend in your ABC book, or play a game.

When you think she has mastered her ABCs (both upper and lowercase), you can introduce a handwriting book or purchase a handwriting pad at the local school supply store and create your own contextual words and sentences for her to copy as she practices writing.

Adding narration, dictation, and copywork through stories

When you begin to notice progress, create another blank book for her stories and incorporate this step in the daily routine:

Write a short story together. Let her generate the idea. In the beginning, have her dictate the story, and you write it down. Spell the word back to her before moving on to the next word. Repeat the entire sentence as it is completed. As she progresses in her skills, have her copy your dictation. Eventually, she can write her own story. (It can be 1-2 sentences long in the beginning.)

Here are two options for the story book.

Option one: take a blank piece of copy paper and turn it so that the short side (8 1/2”) is north. Draw a horizontal line about 2/3 down the page. Then draw lines like wide-ruled notebook paper under the horizontal line to fill the bottom 1/3. First she will write the story on the lines, then she’ll illustrate the story above the text. (This is also great for narrating and dictating daily Bible stories.)

Option two: have Kinkos bind 100 blank pages like the alphabet book, but this time use one side for the draft and the opposing side for the final, proofed text. Open the book flat, turn the book sideways so that the 11” side is north and have her write the first draft of the story on the top page. Have her read it and decide if she likes it the way it is. Gently correct any errors with a red pen, and add any new adjectives or details that she wants to add in red. Then have her recopy the edited draft on the bottom page. This is valuable groundwork for the 3^rd stage of the Trivium, “Communicating Effectively.”

Have her read her story to Daddy when he gets home or to brothers and sisters after she’s completed it. Affirmation of her accomplishment will greatly contribute to her joy in her new skills!

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So there you have it, step one of the classical trivium, “Learning the Language.” Your children learn the language through hearing, seeing, speaking, and writing.* All efforts to teach the language should result in the ultimate message that language, both spoken and written, has meaning or purpose. Spend the early childhood years helping your child master the language so that they have the necessary tools for steps two and three of the classical trivium, “Thinking Critically” and “Communicating Effectively,” respectively.

Focus your energies on copious amounts of reading of great variety, and dump the public school myth that would have you believe you need to plop the kids down with workbooks and textbooks by subject!

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To recap, the posts of this series on “Learning the Language,” are:

Learning the Language through Listening

Reading Aloud: the Key to Language Development

What is the Purpose of Reading?

Is Phonics Instruction Really Necessary for Teaching Reading?

Practicing the Mechanics of Beginning Writing

*(For those of you who are wondering where “English Grammar” is in this laundry list, you’ll have to wait until step 2, “Thinking Critically.” ) If you think this series will encourage a friend who is already homeschooling or thinking about homeschooling, please tell her about The Classical Scholar by forwarding this post.