Classic Literature and Composition (Katy)

Class Year:  2023-2024
Time:  Tue 12:30 pm - 02:30 pm;
Teacher:  Brooke Goschy
Tuition:  $625 / Year ($600 if paid in full by first day of class)
Supply Fee:  $75 - Due Upon Registration (Non-Refundable)
Location:  West (Katy)

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Tuition: $625/year ($600 if paid in full by first day of class)

Supply Fee: $75. This is a non-refundable fee due upon registration (includes the cost of the Lost Tools of Writing Student Workbook). Payments accepted via Zelle, check or cash brooke.goschy@prepclasses.org. Your student’s spot in the class is not guaranteed until I receive the supply fee.

Texts: Parents supply all texts (unmarked, specific editions and translations). Possible texts may include some of the following titles: The Iliad, Mythology (selected tales), Till We Have Faces, The Confessions of St. Augustine, The Bible (selected books), The Odyssey, and The Aeneid, Julius Caesar. Once selections are finalized, a list of required texts will be posted via an online platform (to be announced).

In this course students discuss themes within selected short stories, novels, plays and poetry and practice critical thinking skills concerned with finding truth and the substance of argument. This course covers the basics of writing, including how to gather information, outline thoughts, and write with style. At this level, students learn critical thinking skills concerned with finding truth and the substance of argument.

Lost Tools of Writing Level One (LTW I)

The Lost Tools of Writing is a high-school level classical rhetoric curriculum that teaches the persuasive essay. Rhetoric is the art of decision-making in community. It acknowledges that the truth can be known and expressed in such a way that we love our neighbors and love God. It cultivates humility and mercy. In LTW I students practice decision making by judging the decisions of characters in a story. In doing so, they grow in wisdom and are better prepared to make good decisions in life.

Persuasive writing contains the seeds of every type of writing. As early as their second persuasive essay, students will learn there are five places writers go to gather information: comparison, definition, circumstance, relation, and testimony. A research paper, for example, concerns the testimony of authority. Students will learn to answer questions that challenge every writer. Each essay features three canons of writing: the discovery of ideas, the arrangement of ideas and the expression of ideas.

We will begin by authoring a rudimentary persuasive essay and add new elements to each of the subsequent eight essays. While this rudimentary essay may seem like a step back, consider that we are laying a foundation for deeper thinking and literary analysis. “Who dares despise the day of small things …” (Zechariah 4:10a NKJV).

Literature, Discussion and Commonplace Book

This course gives students an opportunity to read great literature and seek answers to questions that humans have wrestled with throughout history. Close reading and thoughtful in-class discussion will fuel their writing. Students will learn to keep a commonplace book to record thoughts, ask questions and document significant passages as they read.

Assessment

Writing will be assessed as either acceptable or incomplete based on expectations clearly outlined for each essay at the beginning of the course. All students will have the opportunity to revise their writing. Further, class assignments, discussions and student progress will be posted via an online platform (to be determined later).

 

Prerequisites

Students should have email and internet access, a basic understanding of grammar and paragraph construction, and basic typing and word processing skills.

Note: Upon successful completion of this course, parents may choose to award 1 High School Honors English credit.

How this class fits into the sequence of PREP High School Literature and Composition (Courses differ in complexity of ideas, type of literature, depth of discussion, writing and pace).

9th grade (& up) – Classic Literature and Composition

In this course students discuss themes within selected short stories, novels, plays and poetry and practice critical thinking skills concerned with finding truth and the substance of argument. This course covers the basics of writing, including how to gather information, outline thoughts, and write with style. Students learn the persuasive essay which is concerned with making decisions based on a character’s past actions.

10th grade (& up) – World Literature and Composition

In this course students expand the breadth and depth of their understanding about key ideas presented in selected short stories, novels, plays and poetry from around the world. Students learn the judicial address which is concerned with determining if a character should be admonished based on their past actions. It teaches students to think in two modes: imaginative and strategic.

11th grade – American Literature and Composition

In this course students will read a range of literature from the start of the American colonial period (circa 1580) onward. Students learn the deliberative address which is concerned with how community should respond to a present situation or how we come alongside our leaders to make decisions about what might be done in the future. In this course students will complete an end-of-the-year thesis.

PREP High School Lost Tools of Writing (LTW) Course Offerings
	23-24	24-25	25-26
Classic Literature and Composition	LTW Level One	LTW Level One	LTW Level One
World Literature and Composition	LTW Level One	LTW Level Two	LTW Level Two
American Literature and Composition	LTW Level One	LTW Level Two	LTW Level Three