During the first 30-45 minutes of each class, your student will explore how films use literary devices such as structure, character development, themes, motifs, and more. We'll write about a film's plot and exposition every two weeks, learning more about seven key film elements. Every other week, we'll journal about the film's virtues and moral implications. Students learn how to ask good questions about literature and film by discussing observations in class in the first semester and sharing their own questions during the second semester.

After a 5-minute break, your student will spend the next 35-45 minutes in each weekly class using forms from their LTW 1 Student Guide to practice the rhetorical elements of a persuasive address. This course leads your student to practice using common topics to reflect on a character's decision, construct an outline to gather and organize thoughts, craft an introduction, and elaborate on a thesis in the conclusion.

This is not a formal writing and editing course. This is a course on high school rhetoric.

Your student will need to be proficient in understanding and constructing complete sentences, as well as in formatting documents in a word processor.
Students need to have mastered recognizing the eight parts of speech in a sentence and how they function as subjects, objects, the various types of verbs, and phrases and clauses, as well as applying basic editing and formatting skills.

Parents may need to assist with editing and formatting.

Assessment in this course will focus only on the lessons taught in LTW Level I.

Students will need enough time in their schedules to:

• watch the films multiple times
• take notes
• complete film forms
• complete weekly writing lessons within an 8-day cycle.
• spend about the same time they would spend reading a high school literary assignment
• complete 1 LTW Level 1 lesson per week.

Course Objectives:

1. Practice with five Topics of Invention
2. Practice arranging the formal elements of a persuasive essay
3. Practice using schemes and tropes
4. Write persuasive essays
5. Practice rhetorical thinking skills.
6. Learn how to "read" good films.
7. Make good observations, then ask good questions

Course Set-up: Students have 4 days to turn in their first draft. I offer corrections within 48 hours. They have until midnight the day of the next class to submit their final corrections. Once an assignment is closed, work will not be accepted. I offer 20 points per lesson. 2 points off for late work, 5 points off for each element not included, and 1-3 points off for items not corrected before the assignment closes. LATE WORK IS NOT ASSESSED.

Course Prerequisites:
Students should:

• Have proficient knowledge of the function of the eight parts of speech in a sentence.
• Be able to write complete sentences and paragraphs.
• Be familiar with verb tenses.

Younger or inexperienced writers can prepare for this course by taking an IEW or an introductory writing course that covers the parts of a sentence and the parts of speech, and by practicing paragraph preparation.

A strong recommendation for Lost Tools progression is to take the Level 1 course twice, before proceeding to Level II, so that all the foundational elements through Essay 8 are well understood and easily applied in a student's composition.

Films* your student will watch for discussion and writing throughout the year:
Semester 1

• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Director: Sidney Lumet
• The Sandlot (1993)
• Director: David Mickey Evans
• Holes (2003)
• Director: Andrew Davis
• Home Alone (1990)
• Director: Chris Columbus
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
• Director: Wes Anderson
• Rise of the Guardians (2012)
• Director: Peter Ramsey

Semester 2

• The Karate Kid (1984)
• Director: John G. Avildsen
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• Director: Peter Jackson
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
• Director: Peter Jackson
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• Director: Peter Jackson
• Secondhand Lions (2003)
• Director: Tim McCanlies
• October Sky (1999)
• Director: Joe Johnston

*All films are selected for narrative clarity, moral seriousness, and suitability for discussion in a Christian classical rhetoric context. Some films may contain content that your family is not personally comfortable with. Families are encouraged to review films in advance using their preferred resources for critique and disclosure. Neither Kepler Education nor Cheryl Floyd is responsible for individual family viewing decisions, which remain under parental authority and discernment. Films cannot be substituted.

Two end-of-semester projects are offered as a form of assessment and celebration, where your student has the opportunity to combine their observations and creativity and present a submission to the class. These are worth 50 points each.


Curriculum Texts:

• Lost Tools of Writing, 5th Edition, Student Workbook, published by the CiRCE Institute

Film notation hand-outs given in class