Asking questions?

 

~I couldn't have said this better!  So here's a copy of an article I recently read.   It sums up where my thoughts are this summer.  My children are in all three stages of the trivium (plus preschool) this coming school year so I'm finding a lot to read and consider before we get started with formal lessons again.~

This summer at Classical Conversations Practicums, I enjoyed turning my attention, again, to the Trivium, the three stages of learning: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. We often talk about how one learns in each of the stages but I have noticed that there are distinct teaching tools we use in each stage. As a parent and teacher, I want to be aware of how I am teaching so that I can bring out the best in my children in each stage of learning.

(SLOAN)  In the grammar stage, the student needs to memorize the vocabulary of the subject. There are many tools to help students memorize: singing, chanting, drawing, hand motions, body movements—anything that makes the information memorable and pleasant to repeat. Repetition over time will secure the information into long term memory. The parent/teacher role in this stage is to drill and demonstrate. The other tools to have in your toolbox are grammar level questions which enable the student to recite the information they have learned. These questions would be: Who? What? When? and Where? Grammar level teaching should pour into the student lots of rich information, so questions at this level should just ask the student to tell you what they know.

(ETHAN)  In the dialectic stage, we want our student to think about and put to use the information that he or she has memorized. The tool for teaching thinking is also going to involve asking questions, but at the dialectic level, you want to ask questions that get the student processing the information more than they did when they answered the Who? What? When? and Where? questions. There are five good questions to keep in your toolbox. They can be used in any subject to get a student thinking. They are:

1) Can you define __________?

2) How does ___________ compare (or contrast) to another idea?

3) How does ____________ relate to other ideas?

4) What circumstances affect ______________?

5) What do authorities say about __________?

For remembering the five questions simplify them to: define, compare, relate, circumstance, and authority. (DCRCA—Can anyone think of a memory device for this?) My role in this stage is to pull out ideas from the student through discussion. Having these five questions in my toolbox frees me from having to be the expert on a subject; I am the master question asker of any subject.

(CAMRYN)  In the final stage, rhetoric, the student is expected to form his or her own ideas and create original works of writing, art, or speech. This does not mean they need to be left on their own. Life will offer plenty of opportunities for that soon enough. I am still the teacher, so I use this time to help them learn to form original ideas by practicing together. My goal is to pull out ideas from them, and push them further in their thinking. Again, the tool is asking questions to get them thinking. I continue to use the five questions listed above, and I add the more profound, but humbly stated question, “So what?” As a classical educator, I ought to devise a more eloquently stated version of this question, but even though it is plain, it is profound. “So what are you going to do about this problem?” “So what are the consequences of this idea?” “So what does it mean to you?” These are the questions that take the student further in their thinking. We strive to empower them with a sense of responsibility and leadership. They should be using the word “ought” more often. “What ought to be done about this problem?” “What is the right and noble thing to do?” “What are the consequences of these actions?” If the leaders of our country were in the habit of asking themselves these questions, our freedoms and those of the next generation would be protected. We have to train and practice this type of thinking in order to develop responsible and noble leaders. You can do this with your student as you discuss themes in literature, topics in debate, or science papers. Any subject can be questioned this way.  The key is to use rich topics for discussions with my whole family, discussions which I hope will develop their ability to think deeply and act nobly.

As the leading learner in my homeschool, I am growing in the art of asking questions, and I expect that my children will develop the art of asking themselves good questions which will make them great thinkers and leaders.