The Changing Face of Education: Part III, Classical Recitations

Classrooms are changing.

I mentioned in my first post that the great divide between “traditional schools” (5-day, brick-and-mortar schools), and homeschooling is changing. The first of the three ways schools have changed is the Classical Recitation mode.

Through the Classical Recitation Model (or “flipped-classroom”)

A traditional school has as specific format. In spite of plenty of variety by class and subject, it is generally composed of a teacher lecturing on a subject, and students taking notes and learning the lesson. Homework is checked in some way, and new homework assigned.

A classical recitation model “flips” the classroom. What is traditionally thought of as “homework” becomes classwork, and what is traditionally thought of as classwork becomes homework.

For subjects like literature that have a video course (such as Old Western Culture), that means the only homework is the video lesson. If textbook-based, it might mean reading the lesson.

So what do you do in class?

The “homework.” If literature, that means a portion of class time (especially in a 5-day model school) is spent reading the literature itself, and then discussion. For math or science, it means working through problems in class.

This model gives teachers a huge gift. They get to focus on the interactive, personalized part of teaching in class, instead of repeating the same lecture each year. They get to enjoy reading the literature, or working through the problems, in class.

There is nothing more impactful to students than to read a work like Homer’s Iliad out loud in class. And possibly nothing more daunting than being given that work as homework to do alone at home.