Rhetoric, Only-Child, and Classical Conversations!

[Guest BadgerMum]

Help!

 

I have a bright, talented young teenager who NEEDS to be in a group setting. We've been using Sonlight and she's absorbed a ton of info, but she is stuck in the grammar stage and doesn't want to come up with independent ideas about academic subjects. In fact, she's actually passed on answering discussion questions because she didn't want to say anything negative about a historical figure... Doh!

 

I'm new to the idea of classical education, but it seems to sum up our need for a change-- I'm just not sure how to accomplish this. There's a Classical Conversations CoOp starting 30 minutes away and I'm considering joining. Money and tutor-quality wouldn't be the deciding factors because I'd be her tutor : ) My bigger concerns would be the time investment (I haven't taken Latin in 20+ years) and tendency toward exclusivity.

 

My big questions:

* If you have ONE child, or an older-than-the-rest child, how do you encourage that logical and rhetorical growth?

* Is there another "packaged" CoOp or Class plan that I could use and just find a few other students to join in?

* Have you found that logical, rhetorical growth can be achieved with non-weekly groups?

 

We live in New Hampshire and our friends are 30-60 minutes away, not counting snow and ice...

 

Thanks in advance for you help!

Bethany

[Candid]

Look carefully at what she is reading and the questions it asks. When I reached the Eastern Hemisphere Core I was dismayed because none of the questions from the readers were asking the child to think about what was happening in the books read. Instead they just called for a bare recitation of facts. That is when I bailed and that's been five years now, maybe things have changed or got better at higher levels.

 

But what I looked at was Bloom's Taxonomy of Thinking. I suggest you start there and with the WTM which will also help you think about how to integrate a student's thinking. Also, read carefully about the Dialectic level as you'll want to cover that stage first before moving to Rhetoric.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy

 

Here's a simple verb chart that might get you coming up with questions as you move up levels:

http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/time_savers/bloom/

 

And a more complex version with more to do:

http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm

Edited April 23, 2012 by Candid

[Kim in SouthGa]

Hi Bethany,

I will be tutoring Challenge next year as well-I'll have two of my own kids in there. If Latin is truly a concern, you can always hire someone else to teach it. For your first year as a tutor, you can hire someone else to teach Latin and/or Math. I am probably going to do this just to give me a year to adjust.

We are really excited! The more I learn about it, the more I love it!

[G5052]

There are plenty of other Classical Conversations threads that you can read, but just a few considerations in your situation:

 

Will your student be willing to discuss in class the way you want with you are the leader? When I've had my own in class, they tend to clam up and feel self-conscious about having their mother leading. It also can get a little awkward if you know they know the answer, but they don't want to respond. Or if they have "inside" information from living with you that the rest of the class doesn't have. I made a note that if I ever become a Challenge Director (not likely) that I would have to deal with this better than I have. My kids have had me multiple times over the years for various classes, and it hasn't always gone as well as I've liked although we've made it work.

 

Also will you get students that want to discuss? Our experience in Challenge has been mixed. Because of different combinations of adults and students, there hasn't always been the amount of discussion there that I had hoped for. Because I am an involved Challenge parent and read all of the books they do, we discuss them at home in addition to whatever happens in class. And sometimes the discussion at home was much better than the discussion at class, or so my children have reported. In some cases, my kid was the only one that had read the book in depth.

 

It is also possible, depending on registration, that you might get a very small Challenge class. In the top level of our campus it is common to have only 3 students in a particular seminar, and you might have only 1 or 2 of those that are ready to discuss a book. Will that accomplish what you want?

 

Don't get me wrong, I've been happy with the years we've done Challenge, but it doesn't always pan out the way you think it will. We decided to move one of mine to mostly online classes for group interaction, and the other will do Challenge.

[SonshineLearner]

You asked if there are other choices. There are. My Father's World, Highschool. Our co-op has used it this last year, and it seems to work well. You can use it like it's scheduled... work M-TH and then do class on Fridays :)

:)

[G5052]

You asked if there are other choices. There are. My Father's World, Highschool. Our co-op has used it this last year, and it seems to work well. You can use it like it's scheduled... work M-TH and then do class on Fridays :)

:)

 

If I had a core group of like-minded friends that I could start with, using MFW for a high school co-op would be a great alternative. I heard of one 2-3 years ago, but it was full and we had our plans already in place. I heard later that it had broken up, and I don't have the energy to start something like that, especially because I live in an area with many, many opportunites for those who homeschool through high school. If I was in the mood to do a lot of driving, there are multiple campuses of CC, three groups that offer paid classes, and two community colleges that are friendly to homeschooled kids. Too many choices almost!