Writing & Rhetoric Book 5 Student: Refutation & Confirmation Program, Revised Edition

Program Overview:  The Writing & Rhetoric series emphasizes fluent reading, careful listening, models for imitation, and progressive steps. It assumes that students learn best by reading excellent, whole-story examples of literature and by growing their skills through imitation. Each exercise is intended to impart a skill (or tool) that can be employed in all kinds of writing and speaking. The exercises are arranged from simple to more complex. What’s more, the exercises are cumulative, meaning that later exercises incorporate the skills acquired in preceding exercises. This series is a step-by-step apprenticeship in the art of writing and rhetoric.  The full series is 12 books that will train students over 6 years, starting in grades 3 or 4.

Book 5: Refutation & Confirmation is a one-semester course for grades 5 or 6.

• A refutation is a short essay that attacks certain parts of a narrative. In this book, students will learn to identify and refute, or criticize, parts of a narrative that are unbelievable, improbable, unclear, or improper. A confirmation is a short essay that defends certain parts of a narrative. When students see parts of a narrative that are believable, probable, clear, or proper, they will confirm them. After learning to identify the parts of a story that can be attacked or defended, students will practice writing refutations or confirmations using sound arguments to explain their opinions. Be assured that this exercise of refutation and confirmation is not about taking the magic out of stories. On the contrary, it is designed to help students love truly good stories even more because they will think about them more deeply. As students practice refutation and confirmation in this book, they will not only learn to form arguments and express their opinions, but also to find delight in the stories they read. Students will learn to:
  • Write four-paragraph essays
  • Outline
  • Refute or confirm parts of stories
  • Understand comparison and contrast
  • Introduce and conclude an essay
  • Use narrative to further the purpose of exposition
  • Use direct quotes to support an argument
  • Deliver writing orally
  • Revise writing

The student edition is a consumable book.  Answer key not included.

If you are not teaching multiple students, we suggest you purchase Book Set 5. It includes one student book along with the teacher’s edition (answer key, teacher notes, and explanations), and Mp3 audio files (to help engage their sense of hearing and listening).

What’s New in this Revised Edition? In this revised edition of Writing & Rhetoric Book 5, the illustrations in lesson 5 have been changed to better reflect the content of the chapter. In lessons 7 and 8, the story about which students will be writing their first refutation and confirmation has been changed, as have the exercises and illustrations pertaining to that story. These changes have been made in response to customer feedback regarding the story included in the original edition of the book. As a result, the publisher does not recommend using a combination of original and revised editions, such as the revised edition of the student book (ISBN: 978-1-60051-692-4) with an original teacher’s edition  (978-1-60051-276-6). They recommend upgrading to the revised edition for both the student and teacher’s editions.  Both can be purchased in Book Set 5, along with the MP3 audio files.

Placement: In Writing & Rhetoric, placement is based on the student’s current experience in writing. The publisher first suggests looking through the table of contents included in each of the free Writing & Rhetoric samples (found on the individual product pages). Reviewing both the table of contents and the sample lessons will help you determine a good starting level for your student. They encourage parents to download and print the sample chapters of the textbooks (student book) to assist in determining placement. Other suggestions are:

• If you have a student in 4th–7th grade and are considering Writing & Rhetoric, the initial identifier of placement is to evaluate whether your student can acknowledge the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why) in an essay or is comfortable writing 6-paragraph essays. If not, we recommend looking at Book 3: Narrative II. Starting here will provide review from the first 2 books in the series, as well as more age-appropriate material with longer stories and more thoughtful questions in the lessons.
• If your student is confidently working through the 2 skills mentioned above, we would then suggest looking through Book 5: Refutation and Confirmation. In this book, students begin to support a cause or refute it. This is the beginning mark of persuasive writing (pre-thesis work) and helps them to begin research for an idea they will support in an essay.