This post will hopefully count as a Library Post for Monday as well, since I'll be on the road and likely not able to swing it then. Who am I kidding — how would I even do that? It's all old-fashioned blogging here, with me actually sitting down and writing a post on the day.
Very rarely do I have the sheer will power to schedule a post, let alone the technical know-how to post from the road. {Wait, I might. We'll see.}
A book I would recommend for your young high schooler (maybe during your American Founders study) would be The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
Go ahead and get it now and read it yourself. There are so many angles to this work. The sheer history of it all; the pleasure of a genius opening up his mind and letting us rattle around in it for a while; the compelling question of what Franklin is letting us see, exactly, as we do that; and the realization that an education is often the result of a mind hitting an immovable object, greater than itself.
Bringing us to the Franklin method of learning writing, which is simply taken from his autobiography and implemented in the classroom or home school. So that's why it's worthwhile to read what he himself says about it. You will certainly find the method distilled for you in many a writing program, but you must realize something about that, which I'll get to after I describe the method.
Briefly, Franklin realized that in order to write, he must imitate authors he admired. He set about using various techniques to accomplish this. The simplest way was to take the passage, write out the main points in what we would call “bullet” form, hide the original from himself (I mean, just cover it up or put it away), and attempt to recreate the original using the points as an outline.
The elegance of this method is that it quickly conveys so many steps without the tedious breakdown and subsequent slog that so many writing textbooks impose upon us all, teacher and student… apprehending that a paragraph, for instance, is meant to incorporate and expound upon an idea and requires some sort of statement; the indispensability of an outline, however constructed; the arrival at the necessity for words — actual words in the form of a vocabulary suited to the task.
One quite naturally arrives at an impasse — “I know what I want to say, but not how to say it” — and then, back to the mines to dig out some nuggets in the form of nouns and verbs that will do you some good.
Franklin varied his approach. You can read about it here (I'm not endorsing this program, necessarily, but this is a good enough explanation of the second part of the idea). He used expository writing, but also poetry to sharpen his skills on the stone of good writings. I say stone because good writing is concrete, existing, particular. It's not an abstract ideal floating above, separate from its writer.
And that brings me to my warning. It's not enough to go straight to this method. It's almost impossible for me to emphasize enough, and I believe most textbooks and programs do not emphasize enough, that first, the writing you're copying must be of the highest quality. This is why it's so important to keep the gate of your child's reading.
A person — a child, let's say — has nothing much to say, and certainly won't say even that little bit well, unless he has learned and studied and read for a good long while. It's futile to try to get a young child to write (in the sense of producing something synthesized and creative) until you have gone along the path of absorbing what is excellent and patiently trying to imitate it.
The Franklin method is often referred to as the Copy method, and that hints at what I'm saying here. Copying is indeed the best way to learn — if the matter for copying is time-tested and true and beautiful. For the young child, copying a Robert Louis Stevenson poem, the moral from an Aesop's fable , or Psalm 23 will be time well spent. For the fable, have him draw a picture and then illustrate it with the moral, beautifully translated into archaic language. For the Psalm, learn to sing The King of Love my Shepherd Is and then copy it out, stanza by stanza.
For the older child, when your writing program calls for copy work by beginning, “Read an article,” find a stellar article. (Or better, essay. Here you will find the Project Gutenberg collection of essays.) If you want to read one out loud that will amuse the family and bring a nice sense of irony to the occasion, try this one on peacocks by Flannery O'Connor.
But then, it's not enough to copy only.
This, along with its simplicity, is the genius of Franklin's method. He doesn't stop at copying — he studies, internalizes, and then synthesizes. The young child starts with copying (for one thing, simply learning the mechanics of writing is a greatly underrated task); we want him to progress to being able to express ideas on his own, even ideas of his own.
“I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language.” ~ Ben Franklin in his Autobiography.
Kiera says
Thank you, Leila, for a message that encourages and helps simplify the homeschool! A true gift.
My children practice copywork each day and, beginning about age 10, they compose some of their narrations in writing. It seems to me that the Ben Franklin type of writing practice would begin after written narrations, right? At what age/grade would you suggest that an older child begin this kind of writing practice? I can’t say enough what a breath of fresh air it is for me to be reminded that good writing does not require another expensive writing curricula. Hooray!
Leila says
Kiera, I think the Ben Franklin method can begin whenever you see your child able to tell you *about* what he’s read — as distinct from just recounting the narrative. (Imagine telling what Cinderella is *about* vs. retelling the story… )
Waiting until high school is fine.
Kiera says
One more question, please! I have been on the hunt, since reading this post in August, for a good source of essays or something with which we could practice this method. We’ve tried Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories (which are fun and a big hit in my house in general), with some success. But I’m wondering what might be better. Could you make a suggestion, please? Thank you!
Leila says
Kiera, I think that you will find it easier to do this method with nonfiction.
I can’t go into detail here, but think about age-appropriate informative and interesting essays to have your kids read, and then apply the method.
In the Ambleside Online curriculum in the later grades, they suggest very good essays that would work very well for this method.
Kiera says
Thank you very much, Leila! I’ll poke around Ambleside.
Nancy Starkey says
Excellent idea on teaching writing!
Kara says
Sorry this is going to sound like a commercial. It’s really not one! I’m not affiliated in any way. 🙂 This idea of copying excellence and learning from it is something I really wanted to do but had trouble with the practical how to. The institute for Excellence in Writing (iew.com) offers some great ideas on how to do this if anyone else struggles with putting it in practice. I was thrilled when I saw an instructional video on it at a conference. I’m a person that needs some specific instructions on the how-to! And they aren’t out to sell you a ton. I bought a 3 ring binder with all the needed materials (for all grades) for around $40, I think.
Julie says
OOOH! I love this post. I am one of those who tends to make things WAY more difficult for myself. I needed this.