Story-Based Learning in Early Classical Education

Posted on June 25, 2020 by Society for Classical Learning

“Once upon a time…” Fewer phrases can spark such instant interest as this familiar story opening. Story-telling is a primary mode of input for our littlest learners. But how do you decide which stories are worth being told? How do you present a story so that children learn to comprehend the elements without dissecting the story into lifeless bits? How do you choose books that tell the Truth in a world full of mediocre children’s literature?

This workshop is an interactive, hands-on session. You will see demonstrations of read-aloud techniques, and come away with a grid for selecting and reading Life-giving stories with your youngest learners. “The most important part of education is right training in the early years. The soul of the child in his play should be guided to the love of…excellence.” (Plato, Laws, as quoted in Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

Kristina Pierce

Kristina Pierce joined Providence Classical School’s faculty in 2011 and has taught in both the three-day and five-day kindergarten programs. She has degrees from Louisiana State University and Dallas Theological Seminary. She is certified in early childhood, special education (birth to 21) and grammar K-5. Kristina has taught the early years and primary grades in many parts of the world including Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, Singapore, Ireland, Scotland and England. She is passionate about the younger years and the opportunities that are available both classically and spiritually for this age group. Whether she is teaching her fifth grade Sunday school class or serving as a children’s supervisor in Bible Study Fellowship, she encourages the current generation of millennial's to rethink their parenting techniques and philosophies, as they consider what it means to love truth, beauty, and goodness.

Gretchen Geverdt

Gretchen Geverdt loves stories, science, children, and teaching. She began teaching elementary students in 1989 and has taught in co-op, private, and public schools. She currently teaches kindergarten enrichment and Latin at Rockbridge Academy in Maryland. Gretchen is married to an English major who now does statistics for a living. They have two high school sons, both at Rockbridge. Gretchen's hobbies include meeting strangers, walking her family's Portuguese Waterdog-Jack, teaching foundational truths, and baking almond flour cookies.

Storytelling and The Formation of Souls

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Society for Classical Learning

Alexander the Great considered it his most prized possession; Hitler entertained it as the means to persuasion and power; and Jesus deemed it worthy of the secrets of the Kingdom of God. One of the most universal threads running through the history of humanity is our obsession with story. But why are stories so captivating? Neuroscience tells us that our memories are made for them; biology, that our bodies are stimulated by them; psychology, that our brains crave them; and theology, that our identity is found in them. What narrative is most informing our lens of reality? If the way to the heart is through story, then we, as educators, must learn to o er our students recurring glimpses of the Gospel. If we are in the business of making souls, we must also be in the business of storytelling.

Aaron Ames

Aaron teaches rhetoric, logic and speech at Trinity Christian Academy in Lexington, Kentucky, and is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary, where he earned a master’s degree in theological studies with an emphasis in philosophy, as well as a master’s degree in biblical studies, with emphases in New Testament and Greek. Aaron also has a degree in letters and classics from the University of Oklahoma. His work has been published by the CiRCE Institute and by e Imaginative Conservative.

Teaching Sentence Diagramming as Storytelling

Posted on June 18, 2016 by Society for Classical Learning

In his book Teaching as Story Telling, Kieran Egan encourages teachers to incorporate imaginative storytelling techniques into our lessons. But how can we teach grammar as a story? How can diagramming sentences spark the imagination? The aim of this workshop is to explore how to set up the task of diagramming sentences as a mystery to be explored. Students will delight in the challenges of road-mapping sentences and solidify their understanding of the structure of language when it begins in wonder.

Catherine McChristian

Ms. Catherine McChristian is the sixth-grade lead teacher at The Cambridge School in San Diego. She has taught sixth grade in classical schools for five years. She is a member of the Torrey Honors Institute, a classical Great Books program at Biola University in California. She earned a BA in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in English as well as a multiple-subject teaching credential from Biola. Ms. McChristian loves teaching in the Christian classical community, where she has the opportunity to teach and collaborate with those who share her passion for effectively training students to live purposeful, Christ-centered lives. She especially enjoys the challenges of supporting sixth-graders as they prepare to transition from the end of grammar school to the rigors of logic school.

Story-telling in Daily Lessons

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Society for Classical Learning

This workshop will introduce techniques to enliven the content of all subject areas into vivid stories that will captivate your student and nourish their souls.

Trish Gilbert

Trisha Detrick teaches fourth grade at The Geneva School in Orlando, Florida. She holds a B.A. in Elementary Education and is certified by the state of Florida. Trisha was introduced to classical education in college and was blessed to complete her student teaching in a classical school. She spent her rst six years of teaching at a small ACCS school before transferring to The Geneva School seven years ago. Trisha is a dynamic teacher who has a passion for training fellow teachers. She is an inspiring mentor and is actively involved in cultivating a vibrant and thriving culture amongst her colleagues in the grammar school. This is Trisha’s fourth year speaking at SCL conferences, and she is excited to be back again.

Jumpstart Your Jingles

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Society for Classical Learning

As “grammar school” teachers, we know that our students love the sound of language. They memorize quickly and enjoy repetition, but how do we keep the repetition efficient and energetic in our classrooms? This workshop will use a variety of creative techniques to maximize our pedagogy and add excitement to our routines.

Trish Detrick

Teaching with Stories to Cultivate the Soul

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Society for Classical Learning

In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis says that education is more than filling the mind and training behaviors. It must also cultivate the soul. He maintains that ancients – such as Plato, Aristotle, and St. Augustine – sought to train the affections of their students by teaching them to love what was good and hate what was bad. According to Lewis, education that omits exploration of truth, beauty, and goodness creates men who are ruled either by their intellect (“cerebral man”) or those who are ruled by their desires (“visceral man”). He categorizes these men as “men without chests” – beings without moral governance or a sense of humanity.

How then do we as educators seek to educate more than the segmented mind or spirit and to unite the whole being of the child? How did Jesus Christ, God incarnate, engage people? One method was telling stories. Because His stories employed relatable scenarios such as farming, money, marriage, nature, and animals, both the well- educated and the simple-minded alike could understand them. Through each story, the Messiah sought to make a personal connection to the listener. People could easily identify with the characters and place themselves inside the story. This allowed each listener to engage completely and to gain a deeper meaning and application from the parable. These narratives become timeless, allowing readers for thousands of years to experience the same stories again and again and to connect with new insights each time. These stories are carried in the soul of the learner and are continually reflected upon long after the specific context of the lesson has been forgotten. So, like Jesus, our lessons in the classroom must be purposefully crafted as well. There is a valuable place for questioning, explanation, independent work, exploration, lecture, and note taking, but we should also tell stories whenever possible.

Excellent stories are crucial for training the affections of our students. Reading and discussing imaginative literature with our students will lead them to recognize good as good and bad as bad. Teachers need to teach students that there is conflict and sin in the world. Teachers can use good children’s literature as a tool to show the power of temptation and the ability to overcome it. Students should be encouraged to cheer for righteous decisions by characters, and they should be taught that godliness will triumph in the end. As children age, parents and teachers must be aware of what children and teens are reading. Popular literature that coerces young readers to applaud infidelity, dishonesty, and disregard for God’s law should tear at the trained affections of our children and be seen as a repulsive offense against God’s order. If proper training is given early to teach children to love what is good and hate what is evil, the stories that stir their souls will be stories that proclaim God’s truth, beauty, and goodness.

Not only should we read good stories to our children, but we ought also to tell vivid stories. If we want to engage students and cultivate a love of learning, our lessons must be vibrant stories within themselves. Students should see narrative subjects such as history and the Bible as one exciting story after another, with each culminating lesson capturing the imagination and leaving the students marveling at a great and mighty God. Young eyes ought to be filled with anticipation and mouths left hanging agape as the students become fully absorbed in our lessons. As the lesson ends, the students should yearn for more and retell the stories at home. These are the outwards signs that allow teachers to see that students have been stirred to the core. These moments clearly tell teachers that they have engaged and influenced the mind, body, and spirit of their students.

The teacher should not skim a lesson in a textbook and hope to produce these kinds of dramatic moments. Storytelling requires extra effort on the part of the teacher. A response of delighted abandonment requires research, study, and practice. The teacher must internalize a story before she can expect such connection. This requires studying a lesson from multiple sources and reading from a variety of perspectives. It is helpful to include background information on people and places to give the characters depth and relevance within the story.

These details may not be recorded directly but may need to be inferred and added to the story: What were the people doing? What did they see, smell, taste, hear or feel? What were they thinking? What did they look like? How did they interact with one another?) Young students need to have these scenarios fleshed out so that the characters and events become real and personal. Gathering details takes time and effort, but the clearer the image is in the teacher’s mind, the more colorful a story she will present.

When a teacher feels that she has studied the lesson adequately, it is crucial that she rehearse the story out loud. The story can be told to a family member, colleague, or even the mirror. This kind of practice allows the teacher to identify gaps in the narrative that will require further study and to practice dramatic expression. Simple techniques such as speaking softly, suddenly getting louder, speaking slowly, using facial expressions, moving around the classroom, using props, or repeating a word or phrase can dramatically enhance a story. The more frequently a story is told in preparation, the more effective and polished the narrative will be when presented in the classroom.

With the amount of preparation required to tell vivid stories, it is unrealistic to think that all lessons should be presented in this manner. We should not, however, discount storytelling because it’s difficult. Begin with one subject at a time. Choose lessons from your curriculum—such as historical events, biographical information, Bible narratives, science explanations, and grammatical concepts—that could be developed into colorful stories. Study them, rehearse them, and polish them. Make detailed notes so that the story can be created with less effort the following year. Share the oral narrative with colleagues, and discuss its impact in the classroom. Ask one another for feedback, and encourage one another. Build anticipation in your students before and after the lesson by asking leading questions and showing excitement for the story. Finally, enjoy the story as you tell it to your students. Be vulnerable in the story before your students. Commit to it fully, and relish the response from your students.

God created man in His own image – mind, body, and spirit. It is the stirring of the soul that distinguishes man from the rest of creation and draws us to truth, beauty, and goodness; and it is this connection to the soul that brings a lesson to life. Using stories in our classrooms to train the affections of our students will allow us to cultivate students in mind, body, and spirit.

The Classical Way to Teach Narrative Composition (Story Telling)

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Society for Classical Learning

Writing has a soul and the classical tradition was nourished by and nourished that soul. The 20th century saw a decline in writing because it lost its classical soul. This practical workshop shows how to teach story telling classically and shows why it works so much better than the gimmick based approaches of many modern writing programs.

Cultivating the Moral Imagination in Daily Lessons

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Society for Classical Learning

Storytelling is not just for preschoolers. Vivid story telling should be utilized across all subjects and for all grades. Jesus was a stellar story teller, captivating thousands as he taught about the kingdom of God. He utilized stories to etch images into the hearts of his audience, giving his lessons great depth and longevity. This workshop will introduce techniques to enliven the content of all subjects into vivid stories that will captivate your students and nourish their souls.

Tag: Storytelling