Rivendell has engaging courses and schedules for all traditional grade levels. We have a talented and caring staff of tutors instructing our students. Each class has its own list of books. Please carefully examine our Family Handbook policies on class preparation and home assignments.\u00a0
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In all its levels and teaching, Rivendell seeks to apply the language\/history-intensive classical curriculum, training the mind to analyze and draw conclusions and fostering the ability to write and speak logically and articulately. We encourage every student to develop a love for learning, and to live up to his academic potential. This desired result is made possible by utilizing the three stages of the trivium: grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric (see definitions below). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the boons of the classical method is that the stages build upon each other, and each stage is cognitively and developmentally appropriate for the student. Young children are able to freely absorb facts using more tactile means (i.e., creative, hands-on projects), without trying to make logical connections; adolescents can use their nascent critical thinking skills; and high schoolers, who are cognitively disposed to argumentation, can apply this skill to the facts that they have gathered through the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Children at this stage have an incredible capacity to absorb and retain information. Therefore, the Grammar stage emphasizes the memorization of fundamental facts and rules of each subject through various and creative means, such as songs, chants, recitations, and hands-on projects. This stage consists of the 1st-6th grade years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In this stage, students are taught to analyze facts, rather than just memorize them. During the Dialectic years, they are learning and applying the rules of logic to their coursework, so as to understand the ordered relationship of particulars in each subject. This stage occurs during the 7th and 8th grade years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In the Rhetoric years, emphasis is placed on the coherent, articulate expression–through writing and speaking–of truths learned in the grammar and dialectic stages. This stage transpires at the high school level.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n