We just finished the NFL draft. The draft offers drama, excitement and the nail-biting tension of who gets picked and who doesn’t. Fortunes lay in the balance between players. The smallest differences in performance are magnified as the bosses and coaches make their decisions on who will get the coveted shot at being an NFL player.

Now imagine that a coach had a choice between two players. Both players are strong. Both players run fast and can catch the ball. The difference is that one player knows the rules of the game and the other doesn’t.

Which player will get the millions? Is there really any contest?

This story popped into my head recently as the draft ended. I was talking to a fellow professor who will remain nameless. He had attempted to arrange internship opportunities for some students. The students dutifully sent their resumes to the human resources department.

The HR department contacted the professor and, after some uncomfortable moments, said that they could not forward the resumes to the managers hiring for the internships. The resumes had typos and grammar problems and the department’s policy is not to consider such resumes.

Please tell your students that if they expect to play the game, they have to demonstrate they know the rules. That’s true of their resumes, their college entrance essays and the attention to detail they give to any task.

We have noted calls on the Austin home school list serv for help with teaching students to write good paragraphs. One home schooling mother hoped for online help. Our long-term goal is to offer tools and sessions on this website. Unfortunately, we do not have the capability yet. Starting up Cicero’s Academy requires juggling a lot of moving parts and we have not mastered the art and science of turning our methods into online tools. So, to help out those parents in need, we are preparing to roll out our next workshop— Elementary Paragraph Writing – “This is My Box” — at the end of November.  We are still working out the logistics for the workshop and will post the details soon. In the meantime, we thought we would share a few “pearls of wisdom” related to writing good paragraphs.

Elsewhere on this website, we talk about our building block approach. Good paragraph construction is one of the most important building blocks we teach our young writers at Cicero’s Academy. The paragraph is the basis of essays and eventually research papers. If a student understands how a paragraph is structured – and why it is structured that way – the transition to writing essays is smoother. The ability to think in paragraphs is also a stepping stone to good public speaking. Like a brick in a sturdy wall, the paragraph is an important building block of a lifetime of communication.

We recognize that the end of November is still a month away from this writing and the online discussion is happening now. So, here is a sneak peek.

We sub-title the workshop “This is My Box” for two basic reasons:

• We like that song from the old “Amahl and the Night Visitors” movie; and
• Because we use a box to teach paragraph structure.

Hopefully, that sounds intriguing rather than crazy. Bear with us either way.

The box serves double duty in teaching elementary students about paragraphs. It provides a very physical tool that elementary students can literally get their arms around. A box has a top and a bottom and it is filled with things that are in that box for a reason. We take students through exercises in which they write about several physical boxes and their contents. Secondly, this idea of top, bottom and details provides a metaphor for structuring paragraphs from other material. For instance, students apply the metaphor in ways such as explaining pictures and summarizing a fable. The box provides a simple, everyday construct for young writers to use to shape their thoughts.

It’s fun and we’ve used this approach in both group and tutoring situations. Please check back again for details on Elementary Paragraph Writing – “This is My Box”  and feel free to use the idea in the meantime.

Cicero told his students to practice their communication skills in the Roman Forum. The forum was a rectangular area in the city center that provided Rome’s public sphere for debate. Cicero admonished his apprentices that to be persuasive in the forum required skill, knowledge of weighty matters and the ability to think on your feet.

Today, the forum stands in ruins. The Internet is the closest 21st century analogue. So, welcome to the forum at Cicero’s Academy™.

Cicero’s Academy™ is about workshops, curricula, our innovative Writing Slams and other event-driven forms of education. This website is also part of the package for those who register. Cicero’s Forum™ is our primary blog and it will be updated regularly with topics on education, communication and things that strike our fancy. We will also invite Crassus, Cicero’s alter ego from his own writings on communication, to weigh in from time to time.

The website will evolve and we welcome your input on content you would like to see. Some of our own ideas include an “Assign This” section for home school writing assignments, recommended books, a collection of our own tools and curricula and eventually a password-protected “Ask Cicero” forum where we can share ideas about writing from all those registered at the site.

Membership in Cicero’s Academy™ will have its privileges.