The Torch

In this month's Torch, I will be talking about the Grammar Stage of classical education. As we've explored in September and October, Nova Classical Academy operates with the following definition as our North Star to shape our teaching and learning.

Nova Classical uses classical education to teach our students. Classical education uses three stages called the Trivium —grammar, logic, and rhetoric— to train thinkers. We help our students learn facts, connect ideas, and use their learning in new ways. We use virtue instruction to help them make wise and ethical decisions. Students use these skills to improve their lives as well as the lives of others.

The Trivium breaks down into the following components from our definition:

• "learn facts”: grammar stage,
• “connect ideas”: logic stage,
• “and use their learning in new ways”: rhetoric stage

Since I like to structure each issue of The Torch as I would teach in the Nova Classical classroom, I will use the refrain from our School of Grammar Pedagogy Lead, Ms. Becky Lund: The Grammar Stage, no matter the age, is thoughtful, purposeful training. This "thoughtful, purposeful training" applies to anything that we learn, whether it is learning to change the oil in our car or learning to write the letters of an alphabet.

In our new teacher training, Ms. Lund presents the radical idea that the grammar stage of learning is about building the crucial foundation of knowledge for all learning that comes after it. In Kindergarten through fifth grade, our Nova Classical scholars build that crucial foundation through memorization and utilization of those memorized pieces of information. Our teachers in the School of Grammar use chants, songs, call-and-response, as well as higher-level memorization techniques as they proceed to fourth and fifth grade.

In the School of Logic (grades 6-8) and the School of Rhetoric (grades 9-12), our students build upon the memorization techniques they learned in the School of Grammar. Our teachers in the Schools of Logic and Rhetoric still use chants and choral response, but also use strategies such as flashcards, disputatio (a class-wide competition of knowledge with the last scholar standing as the champion), as well as review and reflection on facts they have learned from days, months, and years past to keep these pieces of information fresh and easily retrieved. If our scholars struggle with the purpose of flashcard practice ("What is the point?!?!"), a wonderful answer is that using flashcards (or similar techniques) is a practice needed to make factual knowledge or skills habitual.

A note with all of these memorization techniques from Kindergarten to twelfth grade: I am a firm believer that each piece of information that our scholars absorb has a precise purpose, and is not "just rote memorization" which suggests learning without purpose. Again as Ms. Lund says, "Just like trees can't live without their roots, learning can't flourish without the grammar stage."

I wanted to close with an amendment from the August edition of The Torch, which mapped out the year's monthly topics. Since I did not want to interrupt our community's precious time with family and friends over Winter Break with the newsletter, I have adjusted the schedule to reflect the change:

February: What Is the Logic Stage?

March: What Is the Rhetoric Stage?

April: Why Latin?

May: What Is Classical Education Not?

June: What Is the Great Conversation?

May we continue to keep the light of classical education burning bright,

Dr. Missy Johnson

mjohnson@novaclassical.org

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