Thursday, March 15, 2012

The Art of Argument~TOS Review

Classical Academic Press publishes different curriculum.  Their moto is "Classical Subjects Creatively Taught".  The company was formed in 2001.  In the following year they published their first book "Latin for Children, Primer A.  The rest they say is history.  The curriculum they publish are Latin, Greek, Spanish, and French.  They also publish Bible, Logic and Poetry.

As a part of TOS Homeschool Review Crew we were sent The Art of Argument an Introduction to the Informal Fallacies.
We were sent the student text.

And...
Teacher Edition

This curriculum is designed for Junior High students.  The Art of Argument is designed to teach the argumentative teenager how to reason with clarity, relevance and purpose. This is the time in their life when they really want to know the how and why.  Children in this age group are a target group for advertisers.  The Art of Argument teaches your Junior High student to recognize and identify 28 fallacies.  They will also be taught how to recognize the sneaky way companies use words to trap them into purchasing their product.

The student text includes:
Dialogs
Worksheets
Real life application
Phony Advertisements
Dialect discussion questions
Tests
Many fun extras like: skits, and famous short stories

We were also sent a DVD that showed the first 6 chapters and an introduction.  The DVD has 4 very eager students and three logic teachers.

You can view a sample chapter here.

WHERE TO PURCHASE:
The Student Text sells for $21.95

The Teacher Text sells for $24.95

You can also purchase a DVD set to go along with this curriculum.


OUR THOUGHTS:
This was the first time we had tried a Logic course.  I figured my children argued with us enough.  They didn't need to learn how to do it better!  I have to say I loved this course.  This course is very well written!  It's easy enough to grasp, but not so easy you will not be challenged.  I've mentioned before that we have 2 with learning disabilities.  So I've often stayed away from the "extra" courses that are not required by our state.  This really is more than just a logic course.  This course is teaching us all how to see through the glitz and glamour of advertising.  We are also watching the politicians with clear eyes thanks to Classical Academic Press.

My kids love to "act" out things.  So they were very thrilled to see that this course would have them doing skits.  They are also working on their own different kinds of fallacies, they will then make up skits or commercials to go along with them.  If we have a chance I will record them and post them here as an update.  I am really surprised how much they really got into this!!

This course also comes with a "warning" from the publisher:
"Parents and Teachers beware~~students may use these skills against you."

OH great!  Now they tell me.  We are having a lot of fun with this one.  This is going on our schedule for next year.

**As a part of TOS Homeschool Review Crew we were given the above free in exchange for my honest review.**


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