If I Could Only Get Them to Think

Posted by Belinda | 6 comments

Not long ago, we completed a study of Charles Dickens. As a teen, I was not a fan of Dickens; I found his work far too long and even more boring than it was lengthy. Consequently, I wanted to introduce him to the kids differently than I met him while in high school. We took the time to learn Dickens’ writing style courtesy of Invitation to the Classics. After reading Tale of Two Cities, (which the kids said had nothing to do with all those Disney-like spinoffs they have seen), we actually looked forward to delving into more of his work. Besides, I have not yet seen the day when the kids turned down the chance to watch television for school (smile). First, we watched “Great Expectations,” then “David Copperfield.” What I loved most was hearing all of their conversation, first with one another, then with me, regarding their thoughts on the stories, and on Dickens. It was the rare Socratic dialogue that is a homeschool parent’s dream.

Often as homeschooling parents, we play hit-and-miss with our older children and having transformational discussions about what they are learning. Schools focus on exams as a test of comprehension, and for many of us, we transfer this same approach into our homeschools. As a college instructor, I spend numerous hours helping adult learners move past the memorization required for most exams, and instead engage in Socratic dialogue. Over the years, I have helped my high schoolers get a jump on this same dialogue using exercises that deepen their understanding and help them think more critically about their history and literature studies. Most of these ideas require little planning to implement, and the educational bang for the buck, so to speak, is well worth the effort.

Probing for Prior Knowledge
Believe it or not, what sometimes stymies a child from learning about a subject might be what he thinks he already knows. As an example, following the classical cycle of study, a student will see the same periods of history on three different occasions. By the rhetoric stage, a brief moment spent learning what the child knows can help in at least two ways:

1) Any misconceptions can be clarified.
2) As an educator, you use your time wisely.

Discuss with your child that you are going to study _______, and that before you jump off into an extended lesson plan, you want to see what he already knows. His response does not have to be a paragraph or a report; a simple listing of facts will suffice. As an example, if you ask “What were the major accomplishments of Leonardo da Vinci?” and your child can list most major achievements of his life, your time might be better spent elsewhere. You might even be delighted to find that your child loved a particular area of history enough to dig out new information without your lesson plans. There is a caveat here: be sure that you understand what answer you are looking for before evaluating whether your student is competent. Note that there is a distinction between what your child knows and what you taught; the child will repeat the former, not the latter.

Learning Matrix
A learning matrix is a simple grid that can be modified to gather a number of facts regarding any study. It takes light preparation to think about how a layout for the grid, in a fairly objective snapshot, what a student understands.

To help your student with higher order thinking skills, this table can be modified such that a student lists pros and cons or a categorization of facts. Also, remember when you shopped for that appliance and used a comparative list to help you make a decision? Do not discount this same type of listing to allow your child to fill in the blanks. This is not geared toward a Socratic dialogue, but as a methodology to seal in facts from which your child can build deeper insights.

Major Civil War Battles

One-Minute Paper
The one-minute paper can be a dream for a reluctant writer, but it also gets a student to think about what he/she has read, and to summarize it in a matter of a few words what was the primary idea. From the parent’s perspective, only one question sparks the written discussion: what was the most important thing you learned about ____________? A related, or possibly an alternative question, might be what important question remains unanswered? An expansion on the one-minute paper, if you are considering it for more regular use, might be the commonplace book, in which the student collects these same types of insights on a more regular basis. We use commonplace books extensively in our home as an extension of our notebooking, and I can see very quickly where the kids are in their command of a given topic.

Word Journal
The Word Journal has two products that can be used for further analysis:

1) a single word, from the student’s perspective, that summarizes the text
2) a paragraph or two explaining the choice of that particular word

The student is, in essence, giving an abstract of the text. This is obviously best used on shorter excerpts or texts. Also, if the book generates an apathetic response, you can always help your student along by offering a choice of words rather than letting the student belittle the assignment. One of our children, as an example, loves the adjective ‘interesting.’ In reading through an analysis, why a book is “interesting” is well-defined, but I am also looking for expanded vocabulary, so I constantly steer our child away from this description. Also, consider a picture—worth one thousand words—to replace the one word approach. Then, an artistic child can explain the choice of the picture.

Bear in mind that, even after incorporating one or more of these exercises into your lesson plans, a student’s response to the question, “What’d you think of that book?” might be, “Eh, it was alright.” [Groan]. However, seeds are planted, and whether it is immediately obvious or not, you are facilitating thinking skills, which will serve your child in the long run much more than passing a test of memorization.

Belinda Bullard is a wife and homeschooling mother of three, Belinda is an author and the owner of A Blessed Heritage Educational Resources, a literature-based historycurriculum featuring African-American presence in history, as well as the contributions of other races to American history. A chemical engineer by formal education, she also serves as adjunct faculty for college distance learning programs. Belinda blogs at Simply Belinda and Chronicles of a Blessed Heritage.