We will be using LTW level ONE this year in challenge A. The first several essays are super short and focused on form and learning the basic model and structure of a persuasive essay. Many parents and students wonder why they are not required to write as they did in IEW in the past. They are used to seven sentence paragraphs, five of them, loaded with flowery adjectives, creative similes, and adverbial clauses. They know how to write well. They've learned it. Keyword outlines can be completed without barely a thought - like breathing or digesting.
But what if we didn't have a text to rewrite? Instead, what if we read a book together and then decided to create a thesis and write an essay? What would we write about? How would we arrange the proofs of the thesis? That's LTW.
We will spend the first couple of months learning the model of the persuasive essay and how to think about and analyze a book in order to create a thesis that is relevant and personally fulfilling. Students will be choosing characters and themes that they are excited about - which always makes writing more fun! Yes, it might seem like we are taking a step backward in our writing and using less creativity. But we are learning the parts of a persuasive essay and practicing them over and over until they are as engrained in our brains as the keyword outline. By the end of this first year of LTW, students will know how to craft and organize an essay from a piece of literature. They will certainly be reading books more analytically. This ability will serve them for years to come: in the writing section of the SAT, any AP tests they take, and any future classes in high school and college.
This silly video shows how even a "boring" and "simple" persuasive essay model can eventually be used to create beautiful masterpieces. It's just under ten minutes long and I think will be encouraging to anyone just starting out with LTW. Enjoy!
the line and the dot - a romance
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