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Learning History by Stages

Years ago, when I was a new homeschooling mom, a friend handed me a photocopied handout from a talk she had attended by a woman named Laura Berquist.  The handout explained the idea of classical education and referred to “The Lost Tools of Learning” by the English scholar, Dorothy Sayers.  Just a couple of years earlier I had gone back to college to try to complete a degree in Developmental Psychology.  I hadn’t managed to graduate because baby number four came along and my oldest being only five, I was just too busy (and tired!) to finish those last few credits for my diploma.  But what I appreciated in both of the essays by Berquist and Sayers was the recognition of the developmental stages of learning in children.   This focus on the needs and abilities of students at particular ages was something I hadn’t seen emphasized in other homeschooling books or programs. 

Now, a few undergraduate courses in child psychology do not an expert make, so please take this only as the idea of a mom of seven (ages 22-6) who has  home educated her children for the past sixteen plus years; in other words, with a grain of salt.  Taking into account the developmental stages of your children will enhance their ability to learn as well as their enjoyment and will make your task as teacher an easier one!  And since I write and sell history resources I’m going to illustrate how the classical stages of learning can color your approach to teaching history in your homeschool and why we split the Connecting with History program into these four levels: Beginners (gr. K-3); Grammar (gr. 4-6); Logic/Dialectic (gr. 7-9); Rhetoric (gr. 10-12). (Please note that the grade levels for each stage are approximate and flexible according to each child’s rate of development.)

The following chart depicts my interpretation of the  primary goals and interests of each stage:

The Beginner years are spent acquiring what Dorothy Sayers termed the “tools of learning,” the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic along with the beginning concepts of such historical ideas as time and place.  They are learning about their place in the larger world and are extremely curious about people like themselves who live in other lands or other times.  Beginners are very concrete people; they need to learn through all their senses.  This is the time for activities, games, crafts, and playing with new ideas.  In Connecting with History we have included several hands-on activity books as well as historical coloring books into the program to facilitate this kind of learning.  I am not, and never have been, a “craft mom.”  But even one fun history activity a month (a semester, a year?) will go a long way towards building lasting memories and fostering a love of learning and history.  My twenty-two year old daughter still reminisces about the time we made Egyptian pyramids out of sugar cubes.  My seventeen year old son fondly remembers the "cool" salt clay map of Greece we constructed and painted over ten years ago. 

Don’t get bogged down with worrying about how much history to teach them at this stage or how many facts they learn – the time will come for those things – learning is a cumulative process.  Year builds upon year and over time and with patience (and maybe some luck!) your children will learn what they “need” to know.  The Beginning stage is a time to foster interest, curiosity and enjoyment.  Chronology is not important at this age, formal history study is not appropriate.  Beginning the adventure of learning and having fun are highly recommended.

In addition to activities, Beginners need to be read to - a lot.  History is one long continuous story, made up of many shorter stories of people, places and events.  Read to your child from a rich array of children’s books to foster a love of good stories.  In addition to good children's pictures books and classic children's literature read fables and folk tales from your own and other nationalities. Read Bible stories and poetry.  Read about people from other lands and far away times, about children just like them who lived in tents, lodges, huts and palaces.  And let them play.  My children spent hours and hours running around with capes and swords, bows and arrows, jousting on their bikes, pretending to live in ancient Greece or Rome, or fighting Nazis.  Play allows young children to internalize new ideas.  It’s part of the learning process!

The Grammar stage of learning generally begins around 3^rd or 4^th grade.  The shift from one level of development to another is not a sudden change, but a gradual process.  Don’t start the school year with the announcement to your child that he has now graduated into a new level and the fun is over, now it’s time to learn!  Instead, begin incorporating some new experiences and activities into their school day as you sense their maturing ability.  Referring to the chart above, the Grammar stage is characterized by an interest in facts.  This is the time to gently present lists of historical events and dates to copy and memorize.  They don’t have to necessarily study each one or even know anything about it yet in order to commit these names and dates to memory.  These lists become a framework for the child to organize the information he collects as he begins to actually study history.  As he comes across new facts and events he can plug them into his list in the correct timeframe.

This age is a bridge between concrete and abstract thought and a visual tool like a timeline allows the child to “see” history.  Timeline cards, along with being useful on an actual timeline, can also be used for memory games and drills.  Another excellent project for this age is compiling a History Notebook in which the student can keep lists they are memorizing, lists of books they read, reports they write, artwork, maps, etc.  Map work is another excellent activity for this age.  My children endlessly trace, label, and color black-line maps at this age.  They are intrigued with the names of ancient countries and cities and quickly and happily learn world geography without being “taught.” 

Another tool for learning and memorizing facts is to use rapid-fire drills.  My kids love this one, too!  Go through the age-appropriate history text for facts about the particular time or place that your family is studying and compile short questions and answers.  On day one ask the first question and then give them the answer if they don’t already know it, believe me, they’ll know it soon enough!  For example, Question:  Who was the first Holy Roman Emporer?  Answer: Charlemagne!   On day two ask the same question again and encourage the kids to shout out the answer as quickly as possible (this works with one child or a group, but if you do it with a group encourage them to shout or chant the answers in unison rather than trying to beat each other).  Then ask the second question and give them the correct (short) answer.  On day three ask the first two questions and then add question three, and so on, adding one new question each day.  You’ll be amazed by how quickly the children will have a list of fifty (or more!) questions and answers memorized.  And what a great performance it makes for Dad, grandparents or friends at the end of the year to hear your kids correctly and quickly answer a long list of questions, the answers to which most adults don’t know. 

Grammar age children are learning to use the skills they have acquired and writing simple history reports, biographical sketches and imaginary journal entries is a great way to practice language arts.  Have them save their final drafts in their History Notebooks – not only does it make a great incentive to do their best work, especially if you display their Notebooks to visiting friends and relatives, they will also have a great time reading back through these reports in years to come.   

Another skill that needs lots of practice is independent reading, for enjoyment and for information-gathering.  A simple textbook or nicely illustrated non-fiction history book (Usborne books are hugely popular at this age!) for an overview of historical context is appropriate at this age to practice the skill of reading for information.  This is a very different skill from reading for pleasure, which is also a new skill as they become more fluent readers.  Reading for information can be greatly facilitated by encouraging frequent narration, at first verbal but gradually transitioning to written narrations and summaries. 

Reading for pleasure is also a part of history studies at every stage.  At the Grammar level children tend to be very interested in biographies and historical fiction.  Both of these types of literature personalize history and make it come to life beyond the dry facts to personal experiences.  Don’t stop reading aloud to children, even when they are proficient independent readers.  Family reading time is time well-spent sharing vicarious experiences and adventures through good books.  If you’re not comfortable reading aloud to older children, go to your local library and check out books-on-tape, then break out the historical coloring books or needlework and listen together.  Our family has many fond memories of winter afternoons spent knitting, cross-stitching, coloring and listening to good stories together!

Which brings us to the Dialectic stage, better understood as the Logic stage of learning (although many parents would prefer to dub it the Illogical or Argumentative stage!).  These years are a transition from childhood to young adulthood, a time when their powers of thought and understanding are being tested and matured.  Just as muscles must meet resistance in order to grow, so ideas need to be tried out, tested, argued, and debated.  The ability for abstract thought is exercised through examining others’ points of view, the reasoning behind an argument or idea and the cause and effect of decisions and events.  Logic level students need to try on ideas for size, argue the pros and cons and begin to come to conclusions that make sense to them. 

If you haven’t already been working on a chronological cycle of history, this would be a good point to begin one.  Before this stage chronology isn’t crucial, but during the Logic years studying history in time order facilitates understanding the progression, development and causes and effects of major events.  If you don’t complete a full cycle of world history don’t panic.  Our family didn’t get around to American History for the first time until my two oldest were already in high school.  Yet despite never having formally studied it, they knew enough about the presidents, our form of government, the major wars, etc. to pass standardized grade level tests, just from living in America!  And by studying chronological world history first they were able to put American history into a proper context within the larger sphere of human development.  Their first introduction to American history involved exclamations of “That’s what the Greeks did!” “The Romans made that same mistake!” “St.____ had that idea first!” and other such insights and connections that the typical teen would not be equipped to make.

Socratic discussion is a wonderful tool for allowing students to talk their way through concepts they encounter in their studies.  If possible, a history or literature discussion group with other young people and an adult leader is a valuable experience at this age.  If that is not practical, consider scheduling an evening out with your child once a week to discuss what they’ve been reading in history.  Go to a coffee shop, order a fun drink, relax and keep it low-key. Try to ask open-ended questions that allow the child to answer more than a yes or no and really have to think.  It can help to have a list of question-starters to get you started.  You can find several good resources on-line at the following sites: 

Using Socratic Questioning:  http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/socratic/

Using Questions to Teach Better:  http://www.garlikov.com/teaching/usingquestions.html

Taxonomy of Socratic Questioning:  http://www-ed.fnal.gov/trc/tutorial/taxonomy.html

Reading for this stage can still include biographies and historical fiction, but begin introducing some primary sources: historical documents, speeches, and some simple literature written during the time period you are studying.  Students can memorize speeches and recite them for the family or a group.  Re-writing famous speeches into their own words is also a good exercise.  Writing should include persuasive essays as well as longer reports on topics of interest to the student.  These should examine causes and effects in history, reasons behind a decision and pros and cons of an idea or proposal.  Have them write a paper that allows them to imagine what might have happened if a different choice had been made in a crucial moment of history and defend their views.

The Rhetoric level is also called by some the Poetic stage.  The older high school student by now has a grasp of the facts and debates of history and a new love of the good, the true and the beautiful appears.  These young adults, having ideally gone through at least one complete cycle through world history, may begin to develop an interest in a particular place or time in history.  One of my daughters at this age was consumed by an interest in England, which lead her eventually to spending a spring break during college in England.  One son had become an expert in world mythologies and had developed a special interest in Greece and Rome, which began with reading D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths in childhood.  He is now double-majoring in History and Classics in college.  Not all children will have such strong inclinations, but if they do this is the time to allow them some freedom to explore their special interests and have a part in the planning of their studies.  Some children will have developed a love of history and will continue in more depth.  Others will not be interested as much, or at all.  If this is so, just completing the basic history requirements necessary for high school graduation may be all they will need.  At least they have had the opportunity to study world history and be exposed to more than their peers – and most adults. 

The maturing intellectual abilities of the Rhetoric stage student can enable them to read more complex writings.  They can begin to branch out into some of the classic works of literature, history, science, and the arts.  Joining in the “Great Conversation” stimulates the romantic/poetic imagination of these young adults as they begin to understand the origins of modern ideas.  This reading will need to be guided by you or another adult who can assist in choosing and discussing the selections to be read.  Most of us don’t have degrees in history or literature, but there are many resources available to homeschooling parents through the internet, curricula and homeschool programs that you can choose from.  Study guides such as Cliff’s Notes or Spark Notes (www.sparknotes.com) are invaluable for both student and teacher, not as a replacement for reading the actual work, but for facilitating understanding, context and discussion.  Teaching the Classics: A Socratic Method for Literary Education (available from http://www.centerforlit.com) is an excellent new resource for studying literature in a homeschool environment.   

Writing during the Rhetoric stage should include at least one big research project before graduation.  The National History Day competition is one option for a history buff to put his or her skills and interests to use.  For more information on your state competition rules and deadlines go to http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/.  Other options could be writing a long paper, building a website, writing original stories or poetry, authoring or acting in a dramatic presentation of a historical person or event, or creating a display.  Each child’s skills and interests will lead them, and you, on a unique set of adventures and experiences.  No two of my children have developed the exact interests of another, but all of them have an interest, if not love, for history.

Another skill to develop during this stage is note-taking, both from reading and from lectures.  If you have a homeschool co-op for high school students, nearby community college classes, or lectures at a local college available in your area these can be opportunities for practicing note-taking skills that will be needed if you child plans to go on to college.  If these are not available, have them listen to audios or videos and take notes.  We’ve used DVD’s from The Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com/)  and audios from Knowledge Products (http://shop.store.yahoo.com/know-products/)  Neither are Catholic companies so select materials with care. 

As I stated at the beginning of this article, I am not an expert in child development, history or education; I’m just a mom who’s been trying, more or less successfully, for sixteen years or so, to help my children learn and to enjoy the process of learning.  Some years have been much more successful than others; some years have been abject failures.  But each day, week, semester, school year is a new God-given opportunity to try a new idea or two, to start fresh or pick up where we left off. 

By way of review, here is an overview of the ideas I’ve mentioned for each stage:

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Last modified: 05/21/08