Thank you for seeking to learn more about the classical modes of teaching. I am grateful you are taking the time to do so. I too am learning more each time I teach. It is a bit scary to begin sharing all these lessons, but I know this is an area we all desperately need to need to learn about grow in, so I am doing it anyway. The lessons I upload and the assessments I give each lesson are in no way the end all be all of classical teaching. They are however steps along the path and my way of helping a fellow classical educators dive deeper into this tradition. I pray this space becomes a place where we all can learn from each other as co-inquirers into the truth. Thank you for being a part of this community.
Here is Socratic Lesson #1. Print off your Study Pages here.
Falsehood Student expressed: The student used an apostrophe rather than a ‘s’ during her dictation.
Logos student was led to: Apostrophe’s’ is used to show possession and a ‘s’ and the end of a word is used to indicate more than one.
Ironic stage: This stage began at the beginning of the recording to about 7:15 minutes into the recording. The goal of this stage was to bring the falsehood the student’s awareness. The portion went pretty well for the most part if for no other reason than it ended in a metanoia moment for the student. There was a hint of silliness that expressed itself later as resisting being teachable. The thing I could have done better here is to pick up on that before it got out of hand and hindered the learning experience some. Reeling in silliness is one of the harder things for me. I want the learning times to be enjoyable and so I have a tendency to allow that desire in me to let too much silliness happen. Then it becomes much more difficult to keep us on the path. I need to learn to judge these situations more accurately.
Metanoia Moment: The stage last from about minute 7:16 to 7:23. The student expresses they got it and began to expresses out loud the connection.
Maieutic Stage: This stage began at around minute 7:30 and lasted to the end of the recording. The maieutic stage is where I noticed the effects of my poor judgment in the Ironic stage produce its fruit. I am trying to discern why the student reacted the way they did, outside of me not stopping the silliness. I honestly think it has to do with pride for a number of reasons. First, pride on my part. I knew the school day had gone on long, and it was time for it to be over. I just wanted to finish one more thing. I wanted her to express the logos then, even though I was seeing her resistance. That brings us to the second thing, the student’s pride. While I cannot know her heart, I do know my daughter. She has a tendency to act a certain way when she is embarrassed or bored. She did not see the point of my endless questions and so was distracting herself with silliness. She also did just have a metanoia moment where she saw where she had gotten it wrong. I suppose that could be emotional for a person. It is a form of repentance to see the wrong and begin to walk towards the truth. I should have stopped the lesson and not allowed the twaddle to continue. Then, after we were in a better frame of mind gone through a couple types related to our the use of apostrophes and ‘s’, had her compare those types, and then expressed the logos. At the very least, I should have asked more questions rather than trying to move it along with leading statements.
In the end, she got the logos and has even stopped calling apostrophes ‘caphostrophes’ so it was not a total waste. Next time I will try to apply what I learned about redirecting the silliness and redirecting out time if need be, even if it interrupts my plan to finish at a certain time.
If you have any questions please ask them in the comments section below. Chances are if you are wondering about something regarding this lesson others maybe as well. Thank you for sharing!
Expanding wisdom, extending grace
Jennifer
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