Unit I: Basic Clarity of Thinking and Communication
IN THIS LESSON
Agenda
Collect summer reading essay: share/discussion (try to tease out an important question that surfaces in their own thinking, and move into a dialectic if possible)
Apprehension walk-write-talk
Grammar: Review parts of speech, linking verb sentences (have them try a few, link to Material Logic whenever possible); introduce action verb sentences (transitive, intransive)
Material Logic Lesson 3 read in class in light of the apprehension walk.
Homework
Quill
If they need to revise Material Logic Lessons, etc, they can take this opportunity; draft ML 3 questions
Look for vocab words (encourage SAT list, word families (etymology), words with synonyms…
Notes
1. “Apprehension Walk”: This activity is in relation to ML Lesson 3, in which the three acts of the intellect are introduced (the first act is apprehension). Apprehension is the grounding, in Classical-Christian philosophy, for our ability to know truth, as we learn through our senses...if we cannot apprehend what is truly outside of us, we are--in effect--locked in to our own perceptions, and truth becomes relative, communication all about the most persuasive rather than about what is REAL.
In the apprehension walk, I ask students to go out and take a walk around campus...they should be absolutely silent, taking in all the sensory information they can. Only about 5 min is needed; they then return and write down what stood out to them and what meaning they gather from it.
I like to have them do this in little groups of three (so that when they discuss after writing, they can see that they apprehend basically the same things, but with different emphases). Yes, they will probably have some discussion while walking around, but I try to emphasise the need NOT to talk (at least for a few minutes).
You can put the following questions on the board as they return for them to answer:
What stood out to you? A sight, sound, smell, touch, taste?
Did you immediately recognize it?
If not, what thinking process did you go through before you categorize/define it?
If so, did it spark reasoning? Questions? Memories?
Did you come to a final conclusion about it?
Did you try to communicate about it?
What part did words play?
This is the end of UNIT ONE: The students should have 1) an understanding of the direction and expectations of the course, 2) an experience of definition as the foundation of argument, and beginning understanding of the following concepts: definition (esp of human nature, human faculties, communication, truth (reality), empirical as compared to natural or essential evidence, apprehension, judgment (assertion), and reasoning, dialectic, logic, grammar, rhetoric, argument, synthesis. They should know the basic AP terms: FRQs, MCQs and the basic structure of the test.
After a few minutes, I ask each student to tell us his or her focus point. I then go back and “interview” some students, getting them to talk about their experience of conceptualising, affirming/denying, or reasoning (yes, they don’t know all the terms–three acts of the mind— yet, but they do experience them all the time). Some students conceptualise based on direct sensory experience; some will infer concepts based on sensory experience; some will synthesise the entire experience into extremely general concepts; some will go into long chains of reasoning). I highlight all these different acts and then ask the class how they know the truth of these apprehensions, judgments, and arguments. This gets us into a discussion about the criteria/on of claims and reasoning. We then talk about how/why we communicate and what truth means in this situation, how this relates to the Questions to Ponder.
2. Grammar: If one uses a series of simple sentences with no reason other than that they are simple, we call that style “choppy.” It sounds a bit babyish and the writer can end up with a “lower ethos”---depending on the audience. A series of simple sentences is great for little children or to show a mind that is factual or childish or wounded. However, logically, we reason…we don’t just make assertions, one after the other; combining sentences by creating compounds is a way we create connections between ideas, and we can use conjunctions and punctuation to show the logical relationships between those ideas. (boysfan, etc—those conjunctions all have logical content)
But–contradiction; or–comparison or contrary; yet–counterargument; so–conclusion; for–premises; nor–negation
This is a good chance to talk about the meaning of punctuation and how to use it when creating compound sentences. Comma splice figures here…a little practice combining sentences can help (though this is happening on Quill quite a lot).