Book V: Herodotus
Progymnasmata Confirmation, Refutation, and Commonplace
~ 9th grade
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| Theory | The Herodotus Books |
| Analysis & Imitation | What to Buy |
| Practice (Writing Projects) | Frequently Asked Questions |
In 9th grade and up, the students study
Herodotus, which covers the progymnasmata of Confirmation,
Refutation, and Commonplace. The mascot for this book is Herodotus, the
Greek father of history with his vivid narratives of Egypt and the
Persian Wars.
Argumentative essay writing and analysis is the focus of Herotodus,
arguing for and against the likelihood that a certain account is
accurately recalled, as well as arguing for and against different
issues. Students who complete Herodotus will have received
writing instruction which is at least on par with a standard K-12 writing scope and sequence.
The literary models used in this book include selections from Herodotus’
Histories, the Greek myths, Athanasius’ On the Incarnation
of the Word of God, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the
English People, and Aeschylus’ trilogy The Oresteia, just
to mention a few. The weekly reading schedule suggests that the student
read through many of these classic works during the course of the school
year. This book is also appropriate for two semesters of literature and
writing at the high school level.
Herodotus continues adding to the student’s battery of paragraph
types with advanced treatment of introductory and concluding paragraphs
as well as specific instruction in writing paragraphs arguing for or
against an account of an event being is clear, credible, possible,
plausible, and appropriate. Students are also introduced to consideration
of audience and occasion, and to stasis theory.
Where
Diogenes: Maxim and
Diogenes: Chreia focused specifically on deliberative rhetoric, Herotodus’ emphasis is on
judicial rhetoric, the rhetoric of the court
room. We begin with an analysis of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, which
shows how humanity went from personal vengeance to a third party neutral
justice system to settle disputes between claimants.
With this theme of Confirmation and
Refutation, the students write argumentative essays arguing for and
against issues of credibility, clarity, possibility, plausibility,
expediency, and propriety. The final essay in this volume is the modern
argumentative essay.
Modern paragraph conventions, how to write proper citations, and
timed essays are covered to prepare the students for testing and writing
at the university level.
Chapter 5 of Herotodus covers material logic,
and beginning formal logic. We recommend going through a beginning logic course such as Memoria Press'
Traditional Logic I concurrently. Instruction in syllogistic logic will be given in more detail in
Demosthenes, our 11th and 12th grade text.
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Words, sentences, and paragraphs are
read and discussed; the author’s use of rhetoric, particularly logic, is analyzed.
Students continue to write summaries and précis, a short (one
to two sentences) summary of the essay. The through study of classical
literature selections students develop style and grace in composition.
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The writing projects begin with
retelling a narrative from a particular point of view, and for a
particular audience. Students will also argue for or against the
plausibility of a narrative account. The final chapters of Herodotus focus primarily on
the modern argumentative essay.
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The Herodotus Books
The non-consumable Herodotus
text contains about a
year’s worth of composition work. The layout of the book is linear:
start in Chapter 1 at Lesson 1 and work straight through the text to
Chapter
5’s final lesson. The students cover the material in these books simply
by working through the lessons in sequence.
We strongly recommend that the majority of our teachers and
students should use the consumable Student Guides that accompany this book.
The material in Herodotus is challenging, and most students and
teachers will need the strong organizational foundation that the Student
Guide provides: weekly schedules with check lists and coordination
of lessons,
grammar work, writing projects, and reading for each unit. Lessons and
assignments are laid out in a format that will work well in either a
home or a co-op setting. The Student Guide
include copies of the models, charts and tables for analysis and
imitation, as well as space for most of the diagramming work. Also
included are the planning forms and editing checklists for each Writing
Project. The weekly checklist also also lists each week’s assignments in
Traditional Logic.
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View the Scope and Sequence for Herodotus.
Additional Teaching Help for Herodotus
For those who would like a course overview and teacher training, the recorded webinar How to Teach Herodotus may be helpful. This webinar was taught by Kathy Weitz in the summer of 2010.
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Herodotus |
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Herodotus Student Guide |
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Herodotus Answer Key
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How do I know if my students are ready for Herodotus?
The best preparation for Herodotus is Diogenes: Chreia. However, students new to Classical Writing can start with this text. It is recommended that students have had at least some experience with retelling narratives.
What else should my student be studying along with Herodotus?
We recommend a logic study to accompany
Herodotus. Our top choice is
Traditional Logic 1: Introduction To Formal Logic by Martin Cothran,
which is a thorough and simple logic text. We highly recommend that you
buy the accompanying
Answer Key. However, you may use any
basic logic text. We provide information to help you schedule your
students’ logic lessons.
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