A classical education requires more than “specific” or “classical” content. The methods used to deliver the rich content to the students are as important as the content itself that is being taught. Instruction methods build upon the Socratic approach of guided questions to help students learn to reason and develop conclusions. Students in 1L through 4L are expected to demonstrate the ability to move beyond facts to integration and analysis.

Because the goal of the Logic period is to begin to make logical distinctions, instructional methods used in this stage of the Trivium are those that most effectively accomplish that goal. These instructional methods include:

• Guided writing: teacher leads students in a writing assignment
• Guided problem solving: teacher leads students in solving problems in math, logic, science
• Guided oral presentations: teacher provides directions to lead students through sharing information
• Guided reading and response: teacher leads students through a text using text parsing, questioning, predictions and inferences
• Supervised independent practice: teacher monitors student work in class