Successful home school communicators consider the audience who will read or hear the composition before they begin researching the topic. Think about how a speech on euthanasia might be received by each of these audiences:

• a few medical doctors who work at the local hospice
• a Sunday School class of 11 and 12 year girls
• a funeral home director and his staff
• a group of state or federal legislators
• a gathering of elderly nursing home residents
• a convention of pharmaceutical reps

Obviously, each of these collective audiences would have a different perspective and perhaps a biased self-interest in advocating or outlawing euthanasia. No two audiences are ever the same. (My speech students who compete in different regions of the country know this hard fact!) Excellent public speakers do their best to assess the audience in advance and tailor the message accordingly. If poor or unenlightened choices are made during the content phase, the message may be doomed no matter how brilliant the delivery. Failure to communicate ultimately rests with the speaker because the audience is always right.

Whether addressing a parent, a small group of friends, a few thousand newsletter subscribers, or an auditorium full of paid attendees, the public speaker and writer is particularly challenged by this compound question:

Who is my audience, and how will I reach them?

Understanding the audience - who they are, how they think and feel, and what they need - is essential to effective communication. This concept applies to all ages and levels of expertise: from the little boy who desperately wants another cookie to the grandparent who needs a ride to the pharmacy to the teenage debater who hopes to persuade the judge to vote affirmative. Possible attitudes toward your appeal include:

supportive (they agree with you)

apathetic (they don’t care)

doubtful (they’re not sure or have serious reservations)

hostile (they are actively opposed)

knowledgeable (they already know a great deal)

unlearned (they know nothing about it)

indifferent (the thought never occurred to them)

Knowing some key facts about the audience favorably impacts the message. The speech or essay can then be crafted in such a way that the ideas have personal meaning and relevance to your unique audience. People pay attention to ideas that compliment their own hopes, needs, and goals.

Savvy public speakers and writers adjust the theme (invention), structure (arrangement), style, vocabulary, length, and delivery to each audience. If addressing a large, heterogeneous audience, more explicit syntax and background information is needed. If addressing a specialized niche (for instance, baseball players), specialized language (like earned run averages) can be used to illuminate. What do the members of the audience have in common? Do you expect them to be good listeners? Can you estimate collective age, social status, ethnicity, education, and cultural background? Consult others who have spoken before similar audiences in the past, or check out any written records (bylaws, public minutes) that are available about the group. Will the surroundings such as lighting, acoustics, and distance impact their ability to favorably respond to you?

Communication is an exchange of information. The word exchange implies giving and taking. The orator or writer gives three things: (1) a debatable idea, (2) the evidentiary proof, and (3) a call to action. The audience receives this offering and responds with verbal, nonverbal, and sometimes written feedback. Nothing is more deflating and discouraging to a homeschool public speaker or writer than a tepid, unresponsive audience. To improve immediate feedback, consider adding novelty, humor, contrast, movement, suspense, and intensity to command attention. Above all, tailor the message to the audience. Certainly, the audience has the right to disagree as in the case of the mom who refuses the 2nd cookie, but if the audience doesn’t understand the idea, plea, argument, or information, somehow the author has failed to communicate. Although it’s hard work, effective communication rests primarily with the creator of the message because the audience is always right!

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This post concludes my three-part series on Teach the Skills of the Trivium. If you happened to miss one of the twenty-three essays, you can find a complete list under the tab The Trivium which is located in the header of each web page. Although I’ve got SO MUCH more to share about the classical trivium, it’s time to tackle the third step of Three Simple but Significant Steps to a Classical Education, “Supervise the Study of Subjects.”

Tags: arrangement, audience, call to action, composition, debatable idea, Debate, delivery, effective communication, home school, homeschool, invention, proof, public speaker, Speech, style, Writing

According to the honorable Zell Miller, former governor of the state of Georgia and United States Senator,

“Twenty years of votes can tell you much more about a man than twenty weeks of campaign rhetoric. Campaign talk tells people who you want them to think you are. How you vote tells people who you really are deep inside.”

Although you’ve heard the word “rhetoric” used in contemporary conversations, you might not have a clear idea of what it means in terms of an authentic classical education. The two most common usages of the word rhetoric in my community of Christian home schoolers are as follows: (1) the inflated verbosity of politicians to win votes at all costs, and (2) the misuse of the original term to describe a “stage” of classical home education, generally the high school years. Our lack of understanding stems from the fact that the term rhetoric belongs to an art (remember the 7 “liberal arts” of a classical education?) that was constructed during ancient times, practiced for thousands of years, yet abruptly abandoned as a fundamental discipline in our public schools during the middle to late 1800s. In short,

Rhetoric is the art of oratory.

For thousands of years, classical rhetoric was classified as (1) verbal, (2) conciliatory, (3) persuasive requests (as opposed to coercive demands) that were (4) delivered by a single orator. More recently with the invention of the printing press, the term rhetoric was broadened to include written as well as spoken oratory. Oratory, derived from the latin infinitive “orare” which means “to pray”, is simply the art of speaking in public and writing for the public. The same principles of rhetoric are applied to both oral and written disciplines.

Classical rhetoric is the art or discipline of using written and spoken discourse to persuade, inform, or motivate an audience…the very essence of the speech or essay is meant to move the listener or reader. According to Scottish Presbyterian Minister and Master of Rhetoric, George Campbell,

“we discourse to enlighten the understanding, to please the imagination, to move the passions, or influence the will.”

Although Campbell was primarily interested in the art of rhetoric because he believed it would result in better preachers, contemporary home school parents see the application of rhetoric to a whole slew of opportunities from platform, interpretive, and limited preparation speeches and essays to books, sermons, and face-to-face encounters in the community.

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Classical rhetoric, simply put, consists of 3 steps: (1) the idea, (2) the proof, and (3) the delivery or style. In my next post, I’ll elaborate on the three kinds of classical discourse. Please consider telling a friend about The Classical Scholar by clicking on the email envelope above this post.

Pulitzer prize-winning American author, Annie Dillard, is quoted as saying,

“I don’t know what I think until I see myself write.”

Writing down your thought processes is a necessary step to a fuller understanding of the problem, issue, or idea. Simply listening to a news program, a sermon, or a lecture is not enough. Let’s consider a common scenario.

While you’re watching a news program with your husband, the telephone rings, and he leaves to go answer the call. When he returns, he asks you what he missed. You might be able to immediately reconstruct the basics of the story, but would you be able to accurately recount the details a week later? Now let’s assume that the next evening, you decided to take notes during the broadcast. I’ll bet if you compared your recap from both nights, you would clearly see the benefit of writing down your thoughts.

Why is writing a catalyst to intellectual development in your homeschool? The process of writing:

• stimulates the mind

• improves memory

• shapes critical thinking

• enlarges understanding

• provides a permanent record

Writing Stimulates the Mind

You’ve probably heard that you’ll retain information more effectively if you give it to your brain by more than one method. When your child reads a book, she is gathering information and storing it using visual cues. When your daughter then narrates what she learned in the book, she is organizing and storing that information a second time using auditory cues. Finally, when she writes while she is reading or even after she has read a passage, she is storing that info using both touch and sight. This child has now engaged the same information three different ways, and she is very likely to have a better understanding than she would have if all she had done was read the chapter.

Writing Improves Memory

Not only does processing information using multiple methods improve understanding, but it also improves memory. Since the late ’60s, leading memory authorities have documented the fact that organizing information (into categories) makes the info more memorable thus more likely to be retained in long-term memory. Additionally, writing down your thought processes or ideas usually results in a mental picture of the outline, sketch, or notes so that when you need to recall the information, you can readily remember your written notes by calling up your internal “teleprompter.”

Writing Shapes Critical Thinking

In order to write some thought down on paper or to type the thought on the computer keyboard, we need to first organize the information. We are forced to reduce all the incoming data to determine the main problem and identify the solution. (See “Can a Critical Thinker also be Creative, Too?” for more detail on the questions that a critical thinker should ask.) Does your child have trouble with math word problems? My kids used to really struggle with them until I showed them how to circle the important facts in the problem then translate the words into a mathematical equation or formula. As they dissected the word problem, they were able to focus on what the problem was asking and come up with the correct solution.

Writing Enlarges Understanding

When we exclusively confine our learning to reading or hearing someone else’s interpretation, we miss out on greater understanding. When we choose to write down the facts and come to our own conclusions, we inevitably stumble upon concepts that we thought we understood but later realized that we did not really grasp the problem. So, we’ve got to dig a little deeper to clarify our own understanding. Meredith and I watch a DVD on biology, and as we each draw our own “stick and branch” outlines of the lecture, we often pause the DVD to discuss concepts that we don’t understand.

Writing Provides a Permanent Record

As homeschoolers, we need to keep certain records in order to comply with the state. You also might want to keep a written record of your kids’ work in case they decide to homeschool their kids and need to refer back to their own home school work! At the end of the academic year, I ask the kids to pull their favorite examples from each area of study so that I can incorporate those writing samples in their portfolio or scrapbook.

I keep reading journals (3 ring binders or spiral notebooks) for all of my own studies. It is especially rewarding to go back through my “Quiet Time” Scripture journals from over the years and see how I am growing in my understanding and relationship with Jesus. I also keep my history, literature, and science notebooks in case I ever want to go back and consult them. They are really a “history” of who I was at that place and time because they reflect those thoughts and questions that I found most important.

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Here’s a quick exercise for you and the kids. Select an article out of the newspaper. Have the oldest child read it and narrate the main points to the rest of the family. Appoint one family member to take notes of what the narrator said. Then have the oldest child read the article again, but this time have him or her write down thoughts before narrating. Have the secretary take notes again. Compare the two accounts of the article. Which account reflected a greater understanding of the topic?

Originally written in 1999 by the mother-daughter team, Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer, The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (revised in 2004) applies the “Lost Tools of Learning” educational theory of Dorothy Sayers to systematically train the child over a twelve year period. The authors are wildly popular within the classical homeschooling community, and rightly so since they satisfied the desires of the many parents who were not classically educated by providing them with a detailed road map, by grade, for the rigorous content of a classical education.

Learning is organized around 3 main stages in a child’s mental development which hypothetically correlate to the 3 stages of the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The grammar stage comprises the early elementary years when the child is absorbing facts and experiences like a sponge. Both oral and written narration is key to this stage. During the logic stage, the maturing youth begins to critically analyze information while the rhetoric stage involves the refinement of personal communication skills through public speaking and writing.

History is the foundational building block in this philosophical method and is segregated into 4 major periods: ancient, medieval, renaissance or revolutions, and modern. The family who follows this method all 12 years will rotate through each period of history 3 times.

Science and literature are coordinated with the period of history being studied. For example, when the student studies ancient history, he also studies life science which is what the people of that age would have known. Astronomy is studied with medieval history, chemistry is studied with revolutions, and physics is tackled with modern history.

Classical literature like Homer’s Iliad is read three times. During the grammar stage, the parent reads an abridged picture book version; during the logic stage, the student reads an abridged version. Finally, the student reads the original classic during the rhetoric stage. This pattern lends coherence; as the student matures, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom widens and deepens. Latin, formal logic, art, and music are also covered in this approach.

According to the authors, there are three major characteristics of this philosophy. Primarily, the “well-trained mind” classical education is language-focused; the conversion of words (symbols) into mental concepts requires different skills from those required for image-focused methods. Secondarily, skills are built over time in that knowledge is gained (grammar stage), logical tools are acquired to analyze such knowledge (logic stage) , and reasonable personal conclusions are expressed (rhetoric stage.) Finally, to the classical student, all knowledge is interrelated as evidenced by the coordination of disciplines like history, science, and literature.

Not only do the authors provide a thorough analysis of the philosophy of classical education but they also provide extensive practical application in resource lists and schedule by stage. Although rigorous and demanding on both parents and students, the challenge is beneficial. One caution, however, for the parent who is just beginning the classical education journey: don’t try to do everything that is recommended in The Well-Trained Mind; instead, use it as a reference tool and tailor the suggestions to your own family situation.

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Are you a fan of Susan Wise Bauer’s four volume, Story of the World, history for children? If so, you might want to download a few excerpts of her newest (released March 2007) adult history, The History of the Ancient World, at Susan Wise Bauer’s Blog.

(Plus, I KNOW you would love her blog! This woman is AMAZING!! She and her husband planted a church with her parents, she home schools four kids, and she writes book after book. She is a 1st generation home schooler, so imagine what your own 1st generation “well-trained mind” kids will do when they grow up!)

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If you are interested in sharing ideas with other homeschool parents who relish the home education philosophy of “the well-trained mind,” consider joining one of the following free Yahoo Discussion Groups. [The following descriptions are provided by each Yahoo group.]

WellTrainedMindDscn (2835 members)

“The participants on this list discuss the book “The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home” (TWTM or WTM) by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. Although we have a moderator, we do not have any “experts” — we’re all trying to figure out how to apply these principles in our own home, according to our own experiences. This group is open to all homeschoolers who are interested in learning more about classical education methods. Therefore, although religion may be mentioned, it is not to become a point of contention. The focus of the discussion is to remain on-topic, with short friendly side comments allowed. We will discuss one main topic per week, along with whatever items members want to bring to the group (questions, successes, comments).”

WellTrainedMindFamilies (556 members)

“The families on this list discuss the book “The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home” by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. This group is open to all homeschooling families who are interested in learning more about classical education methods. This list is here to discuss how to implement TWTM into everyday life and all that goes along with it…from legal issues, to book suggestions, to discipline problems, to sleeping issues, to how to teach how to share. We believe homeschooling is 24/7, so for us, basically life is one big school.”

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Read more about the home schooling philosophies of John Holt, Charlotte Mason, and Oliver DeMille, and discover that they all encourage love of learning even though different paths are suggested to achieve such a love. Do you need some help verbalizing your own home educational philosophy? My post, “What Is Your Home Education Philosophy?,” offers 10 questions to get you started.

The third stage of the historical trivium is rhetoric…as classical Christian home school parents we want to teach our children to effectively communicate in writing and speaking. But learning the skills of effective communication alone is not enough. We need to also teach the kids to communicate meaning. Meaningless essays, speeches, or conversations might help build skills in the early years, but over time, we desire that our children will be people of influence, communicating that which is ultimately meaningful to their King.

Before your child can communicate effectively in writing or speaking, they must first understand the topic. Acquiring knowledge is the first step, and as they mature, that knowledge should become understanding and eventually (we pray) wisdom. Certainly, we want them to communicate when all they have is knowledge because they are building critical rhetorical skills, but a classical scholar strives for deeper meaning, and when he or she understands the topic, written and oral communication can be extremely powerful and life-changing. Consider this example for learning and communicating about a topic that should be meaningful to Christians.

A Meaningful Idea

In 1982, a worldwide prayer movement for the unreached people groups of the world was launched, and since its beginnings over 25 years ago, the Global Prayer Digest has helped fuel over 9400 days of prayer for an estimated 10,000 unreached people groups. What is an unreached people group?

According to the Joshua Project, there are 16,256 distinct ethnic or “people” groups in the world. Of those, 6877 people groups are considered “unreached” which means they have the least exposure to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the least Christian presence in their midst. Just to put this in perspective, of the 6.6 billion global population, the Joshua Project estimates that 2.7 billion or 41% of the world’s population are unreached! Of course, the driving purpose behind accumulating information on unreached people groups like the Najdi Bedoin people of Iraq is to ultimately assess the effectiveness of the completion of Jesus’ Great Commission to His Church (”Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations“) so that missionaries, lay persons, and resources can be mobilized for people with the greatest need for a life-changing relationship with the Living God.

Embracing The Meaningful Idea

There are many ways to research ideas - you can read, watch an instructional DVD, interview involved people, or experience the idea yourself. In my personal opinion, I think books, DVDs, or interviews function best as appetizers to the main course. In other words, researching the meaningful idea through these methods is critical, but real understanding and wisdom only come when the meaningful idea is experienced. The most passionate communicators in the world are those who have “lived” their passion!

The first step is learning about the meaningful idea. In this case, you can find books and internet sources to inform and instruct in the basic elements of the idea. For example, I mentioned the Global Prayer Digest and Joshua Project websites above which both provide lots of informative data and perspective on the big picture of unreached people groups. Books like Operation World and You Can Change The World can illuminate on specific unreached people groups. Many local churches support missionaries to unreached people groups; an email interview or free skype internet call to the missionary can add a different dimension to your child’s knowledge base. If the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course is offered in your area (over 200 U.S. locations), your high school senior could enroll in this semester course, earn dual college credit, and learn more about the people groups movement.

But don’t stop at acquiring knowledge about the topic…get involved! Once the child or youth begins to learn about the topic, have him or her experience the topic firsthand. In this particular scenario, you can participate in reaching these ethnic groups by regularly praying as a family for the needs of the people. Another idea that also teaches the concept of tithing is to pay your children for some special projects around the house then have them tithe to their people group out of their earnings. Service in the form of collecting resources for foreign missionaries or organizing prayer chains in youth group force hands-on involvement. You might even be called to travel overseas and visit your adopted unreached people group!

How Our Family Embraces The Meaningful Idea

Throughout the years, my family has “adopted” various unreached people groups. When David was teaching in India a few years ago, the kids and I chose 12 Indian people groups to pray for while he was gone. We chose people groups in the geographical area of the country that he would be visiting. We read about each group and prayed for a different one each day. At other times (like the Muslim holiday of Ramadan), we prayed nightly using the facts on a website like Frontiers or a prayer guide like the one published by Global Prayer Digest (daily email guide is free.) Each day we read a little bit about the culture of the unreached people group and included them in our nightly family prayers.

When the kids were doing elementary level work, we read a great book by Jill Johnstone called You Can Change The World. Now that the kids are older, we frequently consult a terrific reference book that I believe every Christian family should have in their library called Operation World when we want to learn more about specific people groups like the percentages of Christians by denomination, number of missionaries, and the top 10 prayer needs for effective evangelism.

Currently, we partner with missionaries in three unreached people groups in Southwest Asia, South America, and Central Africa (represented by the mission agencies: Frontiers, Wycliffe, and International Leadership Institute, respectively) through monthly financial support. Of course, we pray for those people all the time because we hear first hand through regular emails what’s going on with the communities so we can pray as immediate needs arise.

In addition to our family giving, the kids each select a people group to support with their personal tithe. Meredith has been sending her tithe to Lebanese orphan girls through Partners International for several years; in fact, one year she got so involved with her adopted little sisters that she asked her local friends to give the money that they would have spent on her birthday present to the orphanage. At her birthday party, they created a card that they all signed to send to Lebanon. Now that is experiencing the meaningful idea!

Communicating the Meaningful Idea

Once your child has acquired knowledge about the meaningful idea, it is time to incorporate written and oral communication. You might start with assigning an essay or short expository speech with visual aids. Younger kids can give their speech to family members or “publish” the essay by posting it to the refrigerator for all to read! For an older teen, you might arrange some public speaking engagements like the local retirement home or youth group where your child can practice persuasion skills and field questions from the audience. If you have immersed the kids in knowledge and given them a chance to personally experience the meaningful idea then it is very likely that they will have generated some true passion, understanding, and maybe even wisdom that will certainly be conveyed when they write or speak about the subject!

Take the Plunge

You can apply these concepts to any meaningful idea. As classical scholars, we should be encouraging our kids to do more than simply memorize useless facts to parrot back on true/false quizzes. Take them deeper, and explore real meaning. Start with ideas that you and your husband are passionate about then move on to ideas you as a family want to learn more about. Each of your children has a significant calling on their lives, or you wouldn’t be investing such time and energy into raising classical scholars who can communicate effectively as they influence their culture. Recognize that calling, and do all that you can to help them get ready. The rewards of such preparation will yield profound results now and for generations to come!

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Do you have examples to share about how your family has explored or communicated meaningful ideas? Your stories are welcome!

How many times have you, as a home school mom, heard these plaintive words when you have given your child a writing or speech assignment?

“But, Mom, I don’t know what to write!”

Consider adding topical, thematic, and quote prompts to your home school writing toolbox to spark creative ideas and increase the frequency of writing and public speaking. Prompts are also beneficial in helping your homeschooler narrow the focus of the topic and organize thoughts before wasting time in undirected meandering. Don’t encourage writing or speaking just for the sake of checking off a “to-do” on your long list of objectives for the kids. You want to raise effective communicators, and prompts can give you control over the process.

Prompts restrict the focus of the broad topic

Even an excellent author needs to restrict the focus of the topic before beginning the writing process. G. A. Henty is a popular author among home schooling young men and is known especially for his historical fiction. Henty likes to write about major events in world history, but he purposefully narrows the focus of the event to a few significant events. For example in one our family favorites, The Young Carthaginian, Henty tackles the monumental military feat of General Hannibal when he led the troops of ancient Carthage across the Alps to engage the Romans. Extensive coverage of a 15 year military campaign would be impossible in a book of a few hundred pages, so Henty restricts the broad topic of Hannibal’s campaign to the first 3 battles of the Second Punic War: Trebia, Trasimene, and Cannae. In restricting his topic to these 3 victories he eliminated other topical possibilities. He could have focused on 3 major people of the engagement: Consul Gaius Flaminius Nepo, Dictator Quintus Fabius Maximus, and General Scipio Africanus. Or he could have restricted the topic to any number of other interesting facts: weapons, animals, and weather.

So, too, topical prompts help your child narrow the focus of the written or speaking assignment. Select a topic from the subjects currently being studied. As in the case of Henty, have your child select a broad topic from the history reading then brainstorm possible subtopics. Here’s an example: Connor is currently reading about the American Civil War. Unlike Hannibal’s war, this war only lasted 4 years; however, there is still a vast wealth of subtopics for consideration. Here are a few ideas for restriction of the topic:

• Battles: Bull Run, Shiloh, and Gettysburg
• Confederate Generals: Lee, Jackson, and Stuart
• Politicians: Polk, Lincoln, and Davis
• Political parties: Whigs, Republicans, and Democrats

He could restrict the writing to the economic conditions before, during, and after the war. He could narrow the focus to any number of subtopics on the Civil War!

Not only do topical prompts restrict the focus for history writing and speaking, but the broad topic can also be restricted for science and geography reading. If your child is studying the animal kingdom (broad topic), let them restrict the focus to mammals, insects, or microscopic life. Once the subtopic of mammals is chosen, the child can then further restrict to cats: tigers, lions, and pumas.

Restriction of topic in writing about their geography studies is equally helpful. Is your child currently mapping the Middle East? Restrict the broad topic to Jordan, Syria, and Israel. Further restrict to politics, topography, or culture. The possibilities are endless.

If you don’t want use a topical prompt from the assigned reading, choose a random prompt from BrainyQuote or Phillips’ Book of Great Thoughts & Funny Sayings.

Thematic prompts and quote prompts are just like topical prompts in that you start with a broad topic then restrict. Thematic prompts usually come from literature or history. Are you listening to the audio version of Treasure Island with your children? Assign the theme, “going on a quest,” and let the kids narrow the topic from there. They could discuss Jim Hawkins adventures in terms of the journey, the dangers, and the valuable treasure. Quote prompts are really just topics or themes rolled into a complete statement. Can you find a broad topic or theme in the following quote prompt?

“But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.” - Thomas Jefferson

When using a quote prompt, look for the nouns to determine broad topics or themes then restrict. In this example, the homeschooler could examine the broad topic of friendship and write about 3 friends in real life, literature, or history. Or an older teen might want to speak about theme of old age (the shade of life) and youth (the sunshine of life) with restrictions from his own personal observations, Scripture, or culture.

Prompts of all kinds, whether taken from assigned studies or randomly chosen, can spark ideas, increase the frequency of writing, and narrow the focus of the broad topic.

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Composing a good impromptu speech in your home school takes some practice. Under most circumstances, you only have a little bit of time to think of what to say. Use this list of ideas to generate content for your impromptu speeches or high school SAT practice essays:

history

literature

Bible stories

current events

personal stories

movies

fairy tales

nature

hobbies

sports

In Andrew Pudewa’s High School Essay Intensive, he teaches the student to know one piece of content REALLY well. For instance, if your son loves The Lord of the Rings Trilogy like my son does, have him pull from that one piece of literature or set of movies to structure the illustrations for his impromptu speech or SAT essay. If your daughter loves Jane Austen, have her pull her illustrations from Pride and Prejudice or Emma. A young man who is a baseball fanatic could use his knowledge of the sport through time on the recreational team, biographies of great players like Willie Mays, or the Major League Baseball World Series to inform his impromptu speech. Current events like immigration and health care reform can fuel the speech of a savvy, informed student.

The point is this: don’t try to pull illustrations from your entire knowledge base. You only have a short amount of time to organize your thoughts for the impromptu speech or the SAT essay, so use knowledge with which you are VERY familiar! To illustrate, let’s say 3 students were given the same topic, “bondage,” for the impromptu. The LOTR devotee could talk about how the ring represented bondage to several characters like Gollum, Aragorn, and Frodo. Jane Austen fans could discuss marriage as desirable bondage in both Emma and Pride and Prejudice. The baseball fan could get creative and talk about how MLB players are bound by a contract to the team until it expires and little league players are bound to follow certain rules of play.

Use the knowledge that you already have mastered in an area of interest like history, literature, sports, current events, or hobbies to make your homeschooling impromptu or SAT essay writing experience easier! Also, if you aren’t already using the TRIAC method for organizing your impromptu speech or essay, give it a shot.

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Want to read more teaching tips for effective written and oral communication? Read my post on using prompts in homeschool essays and speeches.

Our home schooling philosophy is based on 24/7 learning, so it won’t surprise you to find that we use time in the car to learn! This weekend my family traveled to middle Tennessee for a family gathering in the Smokey Mountains. During the car trip down, David and I practiced impromptu speeches with a new technique called TRIAC that I learned last week from Andrew Pudewa. I’m used to preparing impromptu speeches from a 3 point mental outline (intro, 3 points, conclusion), but after a few rounds of impromptu with David (the kids declined our invitation to try it!), I’ve decided that I really like the TRIAC method better than the traditional method. Here’s what TRIAC stands for:

Topic

Restriction

Illustration

Analysis

Clincher

Ok, here’s how we “played” the impromptu game. I gave David a topic (birds), then he had 2 minutes to organize his thoughts using TRIAC. He thought my choice of topic was boring and wanted to talk about a more unconventional aspect of birds, so he restricted his topic to extinct birds. To illustrate, he chose 3 extinct birds (the carrier pigeon, the dodo, and the dinosaur); next he analyzed the reasons behind each bird’s extinction. Finally, he clinched the impromptu speech back to his “attention-getting” opening by rephrasing what he had said in the beginning.

As we played the game, we found that we that we gave a better impromptu speech if we started our organizing with the analysis step…we tried to decide on the meaning of our restricted topic first. This made the speech more purposeful. It was tough but a great exercise in organizing your thoughts without pen and paper. Later, I’m going to practice writing using TRIAC in my blog posts, and I’ll be assigning the kids a few essay prompts as part of their homeschooling…have you ever used this method? I’d love to hear your comments!

Someone asked me what I like most about Andrew Pudewa’s Institute for Excellence in Writing program for home school students. Here are my thoughts regarding the beginning DVD course, Teaching Writing with Structure and Style.

Key Word Outlines

Pudewa teaches a method where you take a passage of text and select the key words from the passage, narrate the passage back from the key word outline (without looking), then draft your own passage from the outline. For a one paragraph passage, you are allowed 3 key words for each sentence. So a 3 sentence paragraph on cats might look like this:

1. cats, animal, kingdom
2. tiger, puma, lion
3. feline, mammal, curious

It’s a great tool that solves the common dilemma of “I don’t know what to write.” Just read the text, select key words, organize them in an outline, and write.

Stylistic Techniques

He also teaches (over time) a brimming toolbox of stylistic techniques that, when added to the draft composition, provide flair and a polished final copy. For example, he teaches 6 different ways to open a sentence, 6 ways to dress up a sentence (ex. strong verb, quality adjective), and more. Once your son has mastered the basic key word outline and is writing his own rendition of the original text, he would then begin to add the stylistic dress ups.

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Those are just two of the features of Pudewa’s program that I have found helpful. He also teaches a GREAT persuasive essay model that moves your reader from their position to your position without immediately turning them off to the topic. If there is any drawback to the IEW option, however, it is the cost. His beginning course is very expensive (the teacher/student package is $229) although you will use it for several years as you continue to layer on more advanced techniques. It might be good to find a friend who wants to go in with you on the initial cost or share it in a co-op teaching environment. Additionally, you’ll probably want to buy future products down the road like the High School Essay Intensive. Anyway, I’m one of those homeschooling moms who’ve spent alot of money on products that didn’t work, but this is one that I can wholeheartedly say works. Hope this helps!