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Introduction to Scriptorium Writing
Scriptorium Writing's lessons are the result of 20 years of teaching composition and English language. I have endeavored to create a writing curriculum based on the classical progymnasmata that is beautiful, timeless, simple, relational, and joy-filled.
The Progymnasmata
Progymnasmata literally means the proto-exercises, or primary exercises, that prepare students for formal rhetoric. It trains students in 14 exercises that progress from concrete to abstract, normative to controversial, poetic to civic, and narrative to persuasive. The progymnasmata teaches students how to think about their writing painlessly.
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This was the primary mode of teaching composition and rhetoric from nearly 2000 years ago until early Modernism. Its influence can be recognized in great writers like Plutarch, Saint John Chrysostom, Erasmus, Shakespeare, Montaigne, and Milton.
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The progymnasmata is not the same as the contemporary academic essay; in fact, it is a big mistake to begin teaching the academic essay before high school. High school students often struggle with writing the academic essay, and the hasty remedy has been to begin teaching this form at increasingly younger ages. However, the academic essay is not developmentally appropriate for younger students who ought to be learning to enjoy writing in all its varieties. The solution, rather, is teaching narration and then the progymnasmata through eighth grade.
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The primary exercises in the following pages train children in topics of invention, the critical though forgotten tools useful for helping answer the perennial question, “What do I write?” Once mastered, the skills acquired through Scriptorium Writing will better prepare students for writing in high school and beyond.
Beautiful
We become what we behold. If we ask our children to spend hours looking at images or words, we want to be certain that those images and words are worth their time. We want them to learn to love the best things and conform their heart to things worthy of their care.
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Therefore, the Scriptorium Writing program includes images of art created by the masters, instead of cartoons or thoughtless illustrations. Occasionally, students are asked to interact with the paintings, but most of the art herein is present simply because it is beautiful. In addition, stories, poems, essays, and excerpts have been selected, not only for their relevance to the lesson, but also for their authors’ winsome use of words.
Finally, I prefer an elegant use of space; clean, clear, and welcoming. Some curricula present spaces and pages cluttered like a website from the 1990s; I prefer things tidy. There is something restful about white space on a page.
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Our image-saturated culture is waging war for the hearts of our children; our response must be to educate their hearts to love the beautiful so they can recognize and reject the ugly. Quoting Plato, C. S. Lewis reminds us that the “well-nurtured youth is one ‘who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works of man or ill-grown works of nature, and with a just distaste would blame and hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to beauty, receiving it in to his soul and being nourished by it, so that he becomes a man of gentle heart.’”
Timeless
For about two thousand years, the progymnasmata was the primary rhetorical training tool for youth. Reintroducing it to our schools and homes is not a fad, but a return to our tradition. Tradition is what helps a child know who he is and where he belongs. In this case, I am referring to the tradition of the English language.
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We pass this tradition to our children by shaping their imaginative landscape with classic fables, fairy tales, and myths; introducing them to friends like Rat and Mole, Anne Shirley, and Ebenezer Scrooge (who is not so bad once you get to know him); and sharpening their wit with words composed by poets and essayists that have stood the test of time.
Simple
Do not be deceived by the simplicity of the lessons. More is learned through practice than through explanation. Lessons ought to be simple to understand and apply. Therefore, these books are designed so that little, if any, preparation is necessary prior to use. In addition, the lessons are scripted, relieving a busy teacher from decision fatigue.
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Simplicity, however, does not mean that the students will not be challenged. They will grow at a steady pace, without finding the content overwhelming. I follow the principle of festina lente, that is, making haste slowly. When Roman soldiers were in training, their repetitive exercises may have appeared simple, unlikely to defeat an enemy. A passerby might have observed nothing more than men swinging swords in the air and marching. However, when called to action, it was evident that their slow yet consistent exercises had prepared them for the decisive moments that ultimately granted them victory. Festina lente is the power of a steady drip carving a stone.
Relational
To get the most out of Scriptorium Writing, all the lessons should be read aloud and the narrations and discussion questions completed verbally in groups or with partners. Like iron sharpening iron, we learn most by mind sharpening mind. Sometimes, we think we understand something until we are called upon to put that thing into our own words, and only then do we encounter the opportunity to articulate our understanding, refine our thoughts, and choose the best words we can to communicate our ideas. Moreover, observing the class talking about the lesson is one way that a teacher can understand better the strengths and weaknesses of her students.
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Joy-filled
I would like to share with you a scene from a favorite novel of mine, The Wind in the Willows. Mole, in a fit of exasperation, has given up his spring cleaning and elected instead to ascend from his cozy underground home to explore the greater world. He comes upon The River, a splashing, gurgling, singing, living thing. Imagine seeing a river for the first time. What wonder and enchantment! Indeed Mole was “bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories.”
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Presently he sees Rat who invites Mole to spend a day with him on The River. Delighted, Mole helps Rat load the picnic basket into the row boat and settles in.
In a moment of daydreaming meditation, Rat, with a solemn look on his face, muses, “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing.”
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We can bless our students by creating this joyful atmosphere of messing about in boats. Like boating, there are definite rules and limits—no one wants to tip the boat—but there is also plenty of room for exploration and discovery.
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Mole discovers a whole world of river life in just one afternoon; his joy is unparalleled. This is the same joy our students find when they are at once enchanted by a new idea. Let us guard their wonder; when they write, let them mess about in boats.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Why did you create Scriptorium Writing?
I spent almost 10 years trying to teach children to write in the conventional manner. I taught children from 4th through 12th grades, advanced classes and classes for struggling learners, but it did not matter whom I taught; the universal problem all those students shared manifested in one question: “What am I supposed to write?” It was a content problem.
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Let me give you an example of how this plays out in many classrooms across the country:
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The teacher gives an instruction: “Explain why Odysseus is a hero.”
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The student asks, “What do I write?”
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The teacher says, “Give three reasons why Odysseus is a hero.”
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The student replies, “He’s strong. He’s smart. He fights for his family.”
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The teacher says, “Now write a thesis using those words. Odysseus is a hero because he is strong, he is smart, and he fights for his family.” (Never mind for the moment that the sentence lacks parallel structure.)
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Then the student says, “Okay. Now what do I write?”
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So the teacher shows the student how to make “He is strong” into a topic sentence.
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Then the student says, “Now what do I write?”
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Now the teacher proverbially rolls up her sleeves because she knows that she will have to break this down into tiny steps. So she creates a model for a paragraph and teaches that a paragraph starts with a topic sentence. Then comes the evidence. Then two sentences of commentary. Then the conclusion. Now, having just been taught the five-sentence paragraph within the five-paragraph essay, the student still asks, “What do I write?” The teacher might even begin to realize that she doesn’t know how to describe what commentary is although she knows it when she sees it.
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So the solution that she offers is to break writing into more and more tiny parts, or to offer outlines that grow more and more rigid and prescriptive.
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In the worst case scenarios a teacher may end up teaching write-by-number, or a kind of Mad Libs process of writing in which the students are filling in the blanks, or in the best case scenarios, learning to outline, which, while a great skill, still leaves the student begging the question, “But what do I write?”
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So after years of dissatisfaction with the conventional approach to writing, I discovered the progymnasmata. These ancient exercises that prepare children for formal rhetoric are timeless because they are simple and intuitive. When implementing them in the classroom, I see children joyfully rising to the occasion and accomplishing more authentic writing with ease than I have ever seen using conventional approaches. The elegance of this approach makes writing a joy for both teacher and student.
What happened to the five-paragraph essay?
This curriculum neither models nor expects students to write five-paragraph essays. The five-paragraph essay does not teach students how to write; it teaches them to fill in forms. While the five-paragraph essay forces a student to press his ideas into a form, Scriptorium Writing teaches students to find a form for their ideas.
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Modern systems try to cram ideas into outlines. They do not begin with ideas. They begin with five sentences or five paragraphs and then a child must somehow cram their thoughts into that rigid form. Modern writing programs begin with the pieces and try to get a child to paste the pieces together. The classical way of the progymnasmata begins with the idea. Then the child finds a form that fits the idea.
How will technology change the future of writing?
Programs like chatGPT are excellent at writing the five-paragraph essay in plain academic prose. This should give us pause and make us ask ourselves questions such as: What about writing is human? Is there something about writing a computer cannot do?
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First, voice is the most important characteristic of our writing that sets it apart from computers. There is a broad, formal style of writing commonly taught that is not much better than the plainness of an instruction manual. However, the writing models presented in these books are as varied as the people who wrote them. In fact, students will benefit from reading fairy tales, sonnets, essays, epics, short stories, speeches, plays, biographies, and proverbs, so that they encounter and come to understand the flexibility of English. In addition, reading from a wide range of authors frees students to notice and enjoy the uniqueness of individual writers’ voices.
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Second, amplification—the primary mode of creating content in this curriculum—is not logarithmic. Amplification is a way of elaborating on an idea. The contemporary five-paragraph essay and the five-sentence paragraph are predictable, following a formulaic pattern like a computer logarithm, but the human mind is not predictable. Akin to the human mind, amplification generates ideas organically. A list of topics helps the writer take an inventory of what he already knows; then intuitively, he can follow his most natural line of reasoning, whether his idea is channeled through a narrative, testimony, or definition, for example.
Will this prepare them for high school writing?
In high school, most programs expect students to be able to write organized papers driven by a thesis and supported with evidence. This is definitely covered in our program. However, high school students’ biggest problems with writing are generating ideas and developing their own style. Scriptorium Writing addresses both.
The progymnasmata prepares students for the more rigorous and abstract work of the academic essay by inviting students to become comfortable playing with words, by introducing the topics of invention, and by training students with a wide range of writing styles. It is the soil in which to sew the seeds of advanced writing.
How can I learn how to implement Scriptorium Writing?
The Scriptorium Writing Teacher’s Guide elaborates on the philosophy of the curriculum, the method of a lesson, the role of the teacher, how to plan a lesson, and how to assess. It also includes a glossary of terms and suggestions for extending lessons. It is a highly recommended companion to the writing curriculum.
