Assessment is not typically a highly visible concern in Sunday School. Teachers do not give the students tests or quizzes. They do not give grades. No one fails or is retained. Most Sunday School teachers do not keep portfolios or assign homework.
That could give the impression that the Sunday School is not concerned about acheivement, that we don't care whether the students actually learn and retain the concepts we teach. Certainly that is not the case.
So the question arises: "How do we know that the students know the points we have been teaching?"
I have written elsewhere on this blog about the importance of student talk (check the second part of this post as well). The essence is this: we can verify what the student is taking away from the instructional session only if we are hearing from them or seeing their learnings displayed in some way. Call this lesson feedback. Here are a few ways you can solicit such feedback from your students:
* Invite the students to retell the story.
* Ask lots of good questions.
* Assign free art, where the student draws a picture and then displays and tells about it.
* Invite students to act out the Bible account.
* Play Bible review games. (The Growing in Christ curriculum, especially in the middle and upper grades has several great resources of this nature.)
The bottom line is, we don't know what they know until they tell us: in words, or drawings, or writing, or actions.
How do you figure out, from week to week, what they know? Share your ideas.
God bless you as you teach God's children His Word.
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