The Three Period Lesson

The Three Period Lesson is to be given after the child has had much experience with the material itself. The reason behind the Three Period Lesson is to give the language of the material the child has been using. It is meant to teach the names of objects and the names of the qualities of theses materials. The Three Period Lesson is divided into three steps, so the language will be more easily absorbed. There is the Three Period Lesson for naming an object, and for grading an object positively, comparatively, and superlatively.

The Three Period Lesson for Naming

Step 1: Naming Period

The  teacher or directress presents the child with three objects of contrast and isolates them on a mat. The directress then experiences the objects one at a time by feeling the object thoroughly. Then the directress will encourage the child to experience all three of the objects. The directress will look the child in the eyes and clearly give the name of one of the objects. For example, “This is an ovoid.”  Then the directress will repeat the naming for the other two objects. Then the directress will repeat the names of each of the objects.

Step 2: Recognition and Association Period

Once the child has clearly heard the names of each of the objects more than once, the directress will now challenge the child to recognize the objects by their names. To do so, the directress will ask the child to do something with the object she names. For example, “Please place the ovoid in my hand.”  Or another example could be, “Please place the ovoid here…”
The child should then move to the correct object the directress has just asked for. By doing this step, the child will be putting the names of the objects into his long-term memory.

Step 3: Recall Period

Once the child has successfully placed the names of the objects into his long-term momory, the directress will challenge the child to name the objects himself. This will ask for the child to associate the name of the object to the object itself. For example the directress might point to one of the objects and ask: “What is this?”  The child should then respond, for example, “This is an ovoid.”