When I received The Art of Argument and was looking it over and preparing to incorporate it into our curriculum both of my kids came over and said, "Mom, we don't want to argue with you. You know it talks in the Bible about children obeying their parents." I wanted to laugh out loud because I don't think they realize just how often they "argue" with me. Trying to talk me into not cleaning their rooms, no doing dishes, or how about let's have a "fun" day instead of a school day, they don't argue that often but sometimes they can be pretty persuasive! Anyway, on to the new curriculum.
 |
| The Art of Argument bundle is $88.95 |
Classical Academic Press was very generous in sending us the Art of Argument Student($21.95) and Teacher Books($24.95) as well as a DVD disk set ($54.95) containing fallacy discussions (with students) of the first 7-8 fallacies members for review. All of them can be purchased separately or as a bundle.
From Classical Academic Press,
“Logic is a fascinating subject for students in middle school or high school. As a fundamental part of the trivium, logic study will impart to students the skills needed to craft accurate statements and identify the flawed arguments found so frequently in editorials, commercials, newspapers, journals and every other media. We regard the mastery of logic as a “paradigm” subject by which we evaluate, assess and learn other subjects–it is a sharp knife with which we can carve and shape all manner of wood. Mastery of logic is a requisite skill for mastering other subjects.”
I think this was a little too advanced for my 4th and 6th grader. I think it would be wonderful for any high school student and some very advanced junior high students although it says on the website that it's geared for 7th-9th graders.
According to the Classical Academic Press website the Art of Argument text contains the following in order to teach the 28 fallacies:
- Dialogues
- Worksheets
- Real-World Applications
- Phony Advertisements
- Dialectic Discussion Questions
- Tests
- Fun extras such as a humorous skit for students to perform, and the famous short story, Love is a Fallacy by Max Shulman
The Art of Argument has been revised to include:
- Improved chapter and unit organization for greater ease of use
- Fallacy explanations rewritten for clarity
- Many added and updated examples
- Ten new and revised advertisement illustrations
Lessons don't seem to follow a consistent format and that actually does make it more interesting since you are skipping from one subject to the next. Review questions and exercises pop up unexpectedly which also helps keep your student more focused.
This course could be used as independent study for older students but with my two younger ones I had to work through it with them the whole time. The teachers edition serves as an answer key for the student book, it has quizzes and test and their answers as well.
Thanks for reading,
No comments:
Post a Comment