Diogenes Maxim & Chreia

[Janice in NJ]

Hi! Long time no speak.

Let me start by thanking you gals for introducing me to the notion of the Six-Sentence Shuffle. It has changed the way I think about grammar and writing. If I didn't take ANYTHING away from your materials except that, the investment in your program would have been worth it to me.
Thanks to you gals and R&S grammar, I understand diagramming. I appreciate books/materials/Teaching Company Courses on sentences. Aren't they a wonder??!!!

So thanks! Loads!

I'm trying to tweak (once again!) a language arts program for my dd. She is a lover of words and is a sponge for instruction. I figure things out; I tell her; she's gets it AND uses it in her writing. She and my older son are working their way through an IEW Student Writing Intensive Course (Level C) in order to give them some more tools for attacking those standard high-school level writing forms. We're doing this as a "before all of the on-line classes hit us" exercise. It's going well.

I've always stuck my nose up at the IEW "Dress Ups," but honestly now that my kids have the grammar (and so do I) to understand all of this, we use the correct grammatical terms and I am ENJOYING watching them sweat to put all of those "parts" into every silly paragraph. It's kind of funny actually; it's stimulated some great discussions about what makes a good sentence "good."

My 8th grade daughter has been through most of your Homer B material. I'm looking at Diogenes in its two-part form. I have the second (and 1st ) editions of Maxim. I am LOVING the grammar integration. Woo-Hoo! Nice, nice, nicely done! BUT because of some of the courses that I would like her to take in high-school, I'm thinking that I would like to take her through the ideas in both Diogenes books in one year.

Now. I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my brain around this because I don't have Chreia in front of me, but I think I have figured out the grammar break-downs between the texts. I have an idea of how I want to review the grammar so she can complete the exercises. So much of this will re-enforce the material she is covering in Latin II and French II; THANKS for that!

It appears that Maxim & Chreia cover each of the paragraph types in a similar order. Correct?

I also noticed that you cover "Essay Analysis and Imitation Routines" Parts One & Parts Two (A20 & 21 Maxim) by the end of week 8. THANKS for that. I would like to move into that as soon as possible. Actually? I would really like to start to tie so many of the essays in the Norton Reader to the themes that she is covering in her literature class. We'll be reading some great fiction this year, and I plan to really focus on worldview issues with her - those "Is it true?" questions. So many of the themes can be traced to the "general" topics (education, gender roles, nature, etc...) which tie in SO nicely with the essays in the Norton Reader and other anthologies that I have. If we tie in history and current events, we should have SO much to talk about - lots of connections between ideas and points of view! Thanks for giving me some tools to use with her.

My "biggie" questions:

Should I plan to spend most of our time with the Chreia text? From first glance it looks like you are reviewing so much of the Progym from Maxim with more of the literary devices and their effect (simile/hyperbole/etc) tucked in around the edges.

Maxim has two parts to the "Essay Analysis & Imitation" routine. Does Chreia add more?

Any advice?

Thanks!
Janice

Enjoy your little people
Enjoy your journey

P.S. If my questions are all going to be answered as soon as I received a copy of Chreia, you can just ignore me. OR if you can direct me to some "overview" info for the Diogenes series that will help, I would appreciate it. (You seem to provide more "overview" guidance in the Homer manuals; LOVE all of the scope-n-sequence tables and charts. I can see why you left them out of Diogenes; I realize that most people want daily lesson plans and fewer "big picture" shots, but I think I'm one of those "big picture" gals. Any scope-n-sequence stuff on-line that I'm missing?

Thanks again for you materials! You dig so deeply! Well done!!!

[greengables]

Hi Janice,

Thanks so much for your kind words. I'm glad you are finding our materials helpful.

I am actually teaching a Diogenes Maxim and Chreia Accelerated Pace online tutorial this fall for high school students. So yes, I do think it can be done. Here's the link to the website. home.att.net/~classicalwriting/OnlineClasses.htm

My plan is to cover the material together in Maxim and Chreis, so that when we do the work on Encomium paragraphs, for example, we will cover the material in both Maxim and Chreia pertaining to that.

The essay analysis steps are essentially the same, with a few added items and deeper analysis, for example, of cause and opposite. I think it will be clear when you get your Chreia book.

I hope this information helps you!

Kathy

[materdela8]

I am still wondering if you can give any more information than you've already given regarding your upcoming combo Diogenes class. If you cannot, I will try my best to muddle through. My problem is that there is so much good information in all of your books I would hate to skip a lesson leaving something important out. I simply would love to see an outline of your class. I realize I am asking for a lot but the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

God Bless,
materdela8

[greengables]

I am not planning to skip any lessons in either Dio or Chreia. The pace will be accelerated, as you can imagine! As I have spent the last week in serious class planning, I decided it would be more efficient to keep the lesson order from Maxim and Chreia. I have modified the original ideas I sketched out below, and here is my more firm plan: 4 weeks of Homer, 12-13 weeks of Maxim, and the remaining 13-14 weeks for Chreia. There are a few minor lessons (which were optional anyway) which will also be optional for my students, and which we probably won't cover in class unless someone has trouble with them.

I am actually really excited about the way this is shaping up. It will be a challenging course, but very rewarding and a wonderful preparation for higher level writing and reading.

I hope this helps you!
Kathy

[materdela8]

Thank you so very much for your reply. I am eager to begin and just by knowing your general layout will help me to hone in on a gameplan for my daughter. I wish we could take the online course, however, time and money are both nonexistent.

God Blessyou,
siobhan