by Lindsey Ralls – Summit Christian Academy
| My plan, was to sit in 9th grade history for about five minutes and then move on to other things. What happened, was that I stayed for nearly thirty minutes because I couldn’t pull myself away. Mr. Christian does such a great job at Socratic discussion that I didn’t want to leave before the discussion was over. The lesson objective was to define the three stages of ancient Egyptian history and recognize the focus of each one. Rather than simply telling the class what the three stages are, Chris put the three stages up on the board along with a variety of words under each stage. Below is a summary of a section of the conversation that followed: Mr. Christian – Are there any words that are different between the stages? Student 1 – One stage has the word pyramid and one has the word tomb. Mr. Christian – So what is the difference between a pyramid and a tomb? Student 2 – One takes a lot more effort to build than the other, and a lot more manpower. Student 3 – So I guess work looked a lot different depending on what stage you were living in. Mr. Christian – What else can we learn about a society that shifts from pyramids to tombs? Student 4 – I have a question. Did they care less about the afterlife since they weren’t putting as much effort into the tombs as they did the pyramids? Was there a shift in how much they valued the afterlife? …… I loved watching the students seeking out answers for themselves and making connections (dialectic!!). Gregory’s fifth law is the Law of the Teaching Process. Chris didn’t do for the class what they could do for themselves. They were inspired towards discovery because it was necessary that they think critically and discern for themselves. Thanks Chris for providing a great example of what the Law of the Teaching Process looks like in the classroom. |
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Practical Paideia 
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