In week four, we briefly reviewed what we we went over in week three. We discussed the need to acquire knowledge, understand it, and then internalize it so that we can use what we have learned. The knowledge that we are seeking to internalize is how to be a good Catholic Christian. We had a new student, who helped illuminate the obvious when he said, "So all we're going to do in this class is read this book?" I was constrained to respond that, for the most part, he was correct. As the text is the primary stimulus for the class, and I haven't yet figured out any way to get information from a book other than reading it, we'll need to read the book for it to be of any value to us. That said, our plan, as I mentioned is for the students to read a passage aloud and for us to discuss it.*
We continued Unit 1 and read about the Gospel of John. We got to the second page, which explained that the gospel of John can essentially be broken into two sections: the book of signs, whch recounts the wonderous deeds of Jesus; and the boook of glory, which recounts the Last Supper and Jesus's Passion. We discussed that because of God's love for us, he gave us his son Jesus to teach us how to live. And that when Jesus died, he gave us the Holy Spirit to be with us always.
We then discussed that the old testament talks about the covenant between Abraham and God and that the new testament reveals that Jesus established a new covenant; and, that, through Jesus, God has now told us everything that we need to know about how to achieve salvation.
We will continue onward next week. We advanced five pages, so at this new rate, we might finish 90 of the 300 pages in the text.
* In regular school settings, some time in the classroom may be saved by having the students read the material at home and come to class ready to discuss it. howeever, I don't see us as having that option, so we'll just read the book in class and discuss it. The disadvantage of reading in class is that it takes time, and there is a lack of time for students to reflect upon what they've read. However, if the book were read at home, and it wasn't read in close proximity to class, there's a very good chance that the students would not recall the material; thus, we'd need to read it in class anyway. Plus, who's to say that if the students were to read it at home they'd understand it. In the ideal world, the students could read the book at home with their partents, review it, and be ready to talk about it in class. But recognizing that it's not always an ideal wold, we'll stick with our reading in class plan for the moment. We do try to promote independent thinking and analysis by discussing what we read. |