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Mackfam
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| Posted: Jan 30 2012 at 4:31pm | IP Logged
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We are embarking on a new course that I was inspired to undertake after reading the Nov/Dec 2011 Gilbert Magazine (back issues available here). In an interesting article entitled, The Children and the Cross, the author (Mr. Dale Ahlquist) described a writing course offered to a group of homeschoolers in which the children wrote essays, modeling them after Chesterton's essays. The premise was simple:
** Each week the class analyzed one of the essays in Tremendous Trifles (which is free for the kindle). If you've never read them, Chesterton's essays can be quite humorous. After reading an essay, the class discussed:
** Sentence construction
** Divisions
** Word count
** Detail selection
** Meaning
** Impact
Finally, after discussing Chesterton's essay, students would choose a topic of their own, and model Chesterton's style of writing from that particular essay.
From Ms. Thompson, the teacher of this homeschool writing course referenced in Mr. Ahlquist's article:
Quote:
| We talked about how Chesterton saw rich meaning in all of God's world, everything around him. The kids were a bit taken aback by this because, I think, we have inadvertently separated our everyday lives from the spiritual aspects of the ordinary. I taught them to reflect, as Chesterton did, upon the little things in their lives and to see everything as meaningful." |
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Inspired by and modeled after Chesterton's essay, The Extraordinary Cabman, the students composed their own essays.
This is not a new concept - emulating a great writer. Many learned to write by doing just this....this is before a plethora of "writing curriculums" could be had via the favorite homeschool catalog.  Folks read great authors and then sought to rewrite the ideas: modeling the author's style, and challenging themselves to write it better. (By the way, it strikes me what an amalgamation of narration and commonplacing this approach is.) A most popular example is Thomas Jefferson, who frequently took passages, copied them, summarized them, and then challenged himself to then reiterate the ideas conveyed in his own words.
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I was so inspired by this idea, I'm using it as the basis of a course using Chesterton's essays for our next term. The course will be very simple - we'll read an essay in Tremendous Trifles, enjoy a narration/discussion of the essay, being attentive to details and nuances of Chesterton's essay, and then my dd will write her own essay, based on Chesterton's.
I'm wondering if anyone has ever done anything like this before? Other ideas? Insight? Care to join us? 
Edited to say: After great interest we'll begin a series of threads enjoying Chesterton's essays. Index of those threads is below:
*************************** Index of Threads discussing Chesterton Essays ***************************
Chesterton Essay - A Piece of Chalk
The Perfect Game
The Extraordinary Cabman
The Wind and the Trees
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Jen Mackintosh
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MaryM
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I can't help with practical experience, but am a willing tag-along...
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Mary M. in Denver
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: Jan 30 2012 at 9:39pm | IP Logged
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Would this be an essay every week? Seems like alot as his essays are so full?
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Kristie in Canada
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: Jan 30 2012 at 9:41pm | IP Logged
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We haven't done this per say but my ds has modeled essays after other writers' essays, looking at the things you described (he did one last year on 'On Studies'). It was a good paper and we really dug in on the essay which he found difficult but rewarding!
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Kristie in Canada
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Donna Marie
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| Posted: Jan 30 2012 at 9:52pm | IP Logged
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My girls and I love Chesterton.
But!...
Would this be too hard for me?? 
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Donna Marie from NJ
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Jan 30 2012 at 11:07pm | IP Logged
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Kristie 4 wrote:
| Would this be an essay every week? Seems like alot as his essays are so full? |
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We won't be digging into some of his meatier works, but his simpler essays. To be honest, I find a great levity in all of his writing, but the essays in Tremendous Trifles are really quite extraordinarily delightful to read and consider. Today my dd read A Piece of Chalk; it's a very short essay. We had a delightful and very humorous discussion about the essay.
I do envision her reading an essay a week with discussion and narration to follow, but I'm flexible on the writing part and will follow her lead on that. If she'd like to take longer than a week to write an essay, that's ok with me. To be honest, Kristie, I'm just not sure exactly how this will play out - just know that we both enjoy Chesterton's shorter essays. My dd read his essay: On Lying in Bed a few weeks ago, and we both had such a great time discussing it! So when I saw the idea for making use of the essays from his book Tremendous Trifles in Gilbert Magazine, I discussed it with dd and she was excited to give it a try.
I'm just going to keep it pretty simple in terms of expectations and enjoy it playing out pretty naturally.
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Jan 30 2012 at 11:08pm | IP Logged
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MaryM wrote:
| I can't help with practical experience, but am a willing tag-along... |
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Yay! 
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Jen Mackintosh
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Jan 30 2012 at 11:10pm | IP Logged
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Donna Marie wrote:
My girls and I love Chesterton.
But!...
Would this be too hard for me?? |
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I don't know - I'm wondering the same thing! But, we so enjoy reading Chesterton, that I'm just going to give us permission to enjoy the reading and discussing and we'll see how the rest goes. I'm not usually a big stickler for deeper, more academic analysis of a work, and to be honest, something like that would be a real turnoff for my daughter. So, our plan is to enjoy the essay, enjoy sharing about it together, and see what happens when she models an essay after Chesterton's.
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Jen Mackintosh
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lapazfarm
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That sounds really interesting! I'll take a look at Tremendous Trifles and then talk to my son and see what he thinks. However, his schedule is so full right now we may not be able to swing it.
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MaryM
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| Posted: Jan 31 2012 at 1:05am | IP Logged
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Free for the Kindle - thanks, going to get it and we'll join you then.
Mackfam wrote:
| I'm not usually a big stickler for deeper, more academic analysis of a work, and to be honest, something like that would be a real turnoff for my daughter. So, our plan is to enjoy the essay, enjoy sharing about it together, and see what happens when she models an essay after Chesterton's. |
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Ditto here on not wanting it to be something that would be a turn off, and so this is appealing.
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Mary M. in Denver
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Shari in NY
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Jen,
We did this last year and it was a lot of fun. I think the guys would be willing to join you. We called it Ocular Athletics after the quote in the preface of Tremendous Trifles where Chesterton encourages everyone to become "Ocular Athletes" and "learn to see the startling facts that run across the landscape..." Even my then 11 year old joined in. It wasn't hard at all. I've been reading Saint Francis outloud this year and one of the boys commented that he did realize Chesterton could be so serious!
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Mackfam
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Oh, Shari - I'm so glad you chimed in! It's so great to hear that your crew enjoyed something like this! Ocular Athletics is a great name!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Donna Marie
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We read several of Chesterton's works last year and are looking forward to more! It is amazing what you can get out of his work when you read S L O W L Y and out loud 
Count us in! 
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Donna Marie from NJ
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Kristie 4
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My son has read all of Chesterton's shorter works this year so I bet he would love this!! I will see if I can squeeze her in!
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Kristie in Canada
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Angie Mc
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I gave a quick oral description of this opportunity to Aiden. He laughed and said, "I'll do it if I can take a break from writing five paragraph essays." So there you have it, we're in!
Our pace may be slow and don't want to feel like we are holding anyone back. So full speed ahead! Thanks for asking, Jen!
Now...back to my Kindle decision  .
Love,
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Angie Mc
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Paula in MN
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We are joining in too, more for my benefit than the kids.
Can you believe I've never read Chesterton? (sheepishly, she stated)
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Mackfam
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Paula in MN wrote:
We are joining in too, more for my benefit than the kids.
Can you believe I've never read Chesterton? (sheepishly, she stated) |
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Oh, this is a great place to start then, Paula! These essays are so simple to read, so humorous. They're short and simple and take 15 min to read. Using humor and wit, Chesterton manages to take one on a journey they could not have initially imagined (even knowing the topic of the essay), often deftly and quite charmingly weaving a moral thought or two in and around the central thread of the essay. Lots of fun to read and discuss!
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Jen Mackintosh
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JodieLyn
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we might join in too..
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Grace&Chaos
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Reading Shari and Donna Marie's posts has inspired me to at least at this to my 12yo dd kindle. I'll see if she bites I'll try to encourage discussion and at the very least add some quotes to her book of quotations, no pressure on the writing portion, to start.
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MicheleB
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That looks fantastic. I definitely want to follow your adventures. Mine are a bit young at 7 and 11 still! 
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Topic: High school essay course using Chesterton
