| Lower School Curriculum Overview |
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Lower School » Curriculum » Curriculum Overview |
 
The Grammar School, grades one through four, provides the primary level of learning in the classical framework. The Grammar School programs emphasize student acquisition of core knowledge in a classical studies format. Students are shown in the early weeks how to maximize their learning by rehearsing all the classroom transit and learning procedures that they will use in the grammar years. The purpose of this emphasis is to reduce the possibility of lost instructional time because students are uncertain about classroom learning procedures. As far as possible, the students' experience of classroom learning should be self-propelling at the Grammar stage.
Students are placed in classroom groups that support their learning style and the strengths of the whole class. Grammar school pedagogy typically involves the gathering time at the beginning of the day where students build a sense of peace and classroom harmony. The teacher uses a Socratic dialogue designed to draw students into the lesson. Students are motivated to examine the information and to memorize the rules and narrate the principles that govern a specific lesson. After some time of practice, students turn in a "perfect" copy of the day's lesson. A major dimension of classical pedagogy is this focus on the students' ability to narrate the main elements of each lesson using their own creative originality. |
