GLORIA DEO CO-OPERATIVE
Core Subject Sequencing
SCIENCE
Objective: To supplement home study of science with hands-on labs.
Grades 3-6: (The teacher will recommend but not require curricula for home study.)
Chemistry
Physics
Biology
Earth Science
Grades 7-8: (The teacher will require specific curricula for home study.)
Apologia General Science
Apologia Physical Science
Grades 9-12:
Chemistry
Physics
Biology
Earth Science
WRITING/GREAT BOOKS
Objective: To supplement home education with a course of study in classical writing and classical literature.
Grades 3-4: Beginning narrative writing. Rewriting short fables.
Grades 5-6: Narrative writing with longer stories, rearranging the chronological arrangement of the stories.
Grades 7-8: Expository writing, explaining why something is wise, good, just, kind, right, wrong. We cover the five paragraph essay, basic paragraph writing, outlining, and how to generate thesis statements.
Grades 9-10: Argumentative writing, learning to generate proper arguments for and against an issue using the rhetorical topics of invention. (Also learning to employ both pathos and appeal to reason to persuade the audience), descriptive writing, learning to describe (praise and blame) persons, places, things, and ideas.
2-year Sequence: Ancients-Renaissance
Renaissance-Present
CORE SEQUENCING
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WRITING/GREAT BOOKS (con’t.)
Grades 11-12: Thesis and research paper writing.
Great Books – Correlate with Government 1st semester
British literature from 1600-1850 2nd semester
2-year Sequence: American Literature
Government 1600-1850 British Literature
(American and British literature would be interspersed as well.)
Book List (work in progress):
Civics (1 semester)
John Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” or “On the True End of Civil Government” (1690)
Edmund Burke, “On American Taxation” (1774)
The Declaration of Independence (1776)
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
Immanuel Kant, “Critique of Pure Reason” (1781)
Alexander Hamilton et al., The Federalist (1787-1788)
Thomas Paine, “The Rights of Man” (1792)
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)
Henry James, The Bostonians (1886)
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Why We Can’t Wait” (1964)
British Literature (1 semester)
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (selections) (c.1400)
William Shakespeare, King Lear (c. 1604)
John Milton, Paradise Lost (selections) (1644)
James Boswell, Life of Johnson abridged (1771)
Frances Burney, Evelina (1778)
Jane Austen, any other than Pride and Prejudice (on WHII list) (1811-1817)
Robert Browning, Dramatic Lyrics (1842)
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1847)
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861)
E.M. Forster, Howards End (1910)
CORE SEQUENCING
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RHETORIC (To be developed)
Topics including but not limited to:
Public speaking
Debate
Apologetics
LATIN
Objectives: Students will gain mastery of Latin for the following benefits, not necessarily in this order: reading Latin, understanding of English grammar, increase in vocabulary, increase in facility with Romance languages, increase in facility in all language learning, especially Greek, learning Ancient Roman culture, history, geography, mythology, common sayings, mottoes, etc. which all enhance literary and historical context and knowledge, and gaining in memorization skills, study skills.
Grades 1-2: Latin games and fun vocabulary; possible early memorization of chants. Reference Song School Latin by Classical Academic Press
Grade 3: Song School Latin: introduction to Latin paradigms, chants, everyday vocabulary and conversation using songs. Memorization for ease of future formal programs.
Grade 4: Latin Primer A
Grade 5: Latin Primer B
Grade 6: Latin Primer C Students will take National Latin Exam Intro Exam
Grade 7: Latin Alive 1: Students will take National Latin Exam 1
Grade 8: Latin Alive 2: Students will take National Latin Exam 2
Grade 9: Latin Alive 3: Students will take National Latin Exam 3 This ends co-op Latin requirements.
Grade 10: elective. It is uncertain which text is necessary; perhaps Virgil's Aeneas in Latin. This class will seek to challenge the SAT Latin Subject test or AP Latin exam.
CORE SEQUENCING
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LOGIC
“Logic is the art of reasoning well—of learning to think God’s thoughts after Him.” (Canon Press).
Objective: To teach study skills, logical reasoning, critical thinking, formal logic. The goal of the sequence is to give the tools to students to increase student learning across the subjects. Through logic the student will learn to evaluate reasons and arguments and to
create sound and valid arguments themselves. The higher objective is the pursuit of truth in the life of the student.
Grade 5: Logic puzzles such as Mind Benders series, critical thinking skills (Critical Thinking Press), study skills
Grade 6: Fallacies, informal logic using a text or content such as Fallacy Detective.
Grade 7: Logic 1- formal logic using Introductory Logic by Nance.
In this book, directed toward junior-high students, Douglas Wilson and James Nance lay the proper foundation of reasoning in the truth of God, and go on to train students in the crucial skills of defining terms, recognizing basic types of statements, arguing with syllogisms, arguing in ordinary language, and identifying informal fallacies.
Grade 8: Logic 2- formal logic using Intermediate Logic by Nance.
In this book, James Nance builds on the foundation of Introductory Logic for Christian and Home Schools to help students explore the more challenging terrain of formal, propositional logic.
First, students are introduced to propositional logic, logical operators, and truth tables, while reviewing and reapplying the concepts of validity, contradiction, consistency, and equivalence. Next they learn to construct formal proofs of validity by using basic rules to derive an argument’s conclusions from its premises. Finally, students discover how they can use the technique of “truth trees” to determine consistency, self-contradiction, tautology, equivalence, and validity.
This text, together with Introductory Logic by James Nance and Douglas Wilson, provides students with a rigorous course in logic that will help them excel in every other subject they will study, from math and science to rhetoric and the humanities.
CORE SEQUENCING
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HISTORY
Objective: To supplement home study of history.
Grades K-6: (The teacher will recommend but not require a curriculum for home study.)
Sequence: Ancients
Medieval
Renaissance/Early Modern
Modern
Grades 7-8: (The teacher will require specific curricula for home study.)
Sequence: Ancients
Medieval
Renaissance/Early Modern
Modern
Grades 9-10: (The teacher will require specific curricula for home study.)
Sequence:World History 1
World History 2
Grades 11-12: (The teacher will require specific curricula for home study.)
Sequence: American History
Civics/Economics