Those of us who sit on the Sunday School Team at Concordia Publishing House are always in a listening mode. One of the trends that we have been monitoring is the use of "Rotation Sunday School."
Understand: what we are hearing these days is merely anecdotal, not really research. If I had to characterize this trend, I would say that there is small but steady interest in "Rotation Sunday School" in our LCMS congregations.
One of the difficulties in analyzing and then meeting the needs of these congregations is the fact that "rotation" is being used to describe two very different models of Sunday School, and congregations are not very helpful in specifying which model they are most interested in.
One rotation model is Workshop Rotation. In this model, a Bible account is taught for three or four weeks in a row. The congregation prepares several workshops (drama, cooking, crafts, science, video, computers, and the like). Sunday School students are "rotated" through workshops, one each week, sometimes with an element of choice, and sometimes not. Each workshop takes the full 45 to 60 minutes of the Sunday School hour. Proponents suggest that the repetition increases the depth of learning that takes place and the variety of workshops appeal to the varied learning styles among the students. Congregations embracing this model sometimes invest huge amounts of money and effort remodeling space to accommodate each workshop (a drama room, a science room, etc.) and preparing the material for each of the workshops.
The other workshop model is Site Rotation. In this model, one Bible account is taught each week. Students rotate through a series of sites in the building, often starting and perhaps ending in a large-group setting. Sites often include a presentation of the Bible account, a related craft, a science experiment or object lesson, and others. Each site takes 12 to 20 minutes. Proponents suggest that volunteers are easy to recruit because they take only a portion of the hour and repeat it several times, the account is taught and reviewed in a number of ways, and the interest of the students stays high because the mode of instruction keeps shifting.
You are not likely to see Workshop Rotation lessons published by CPH anytime soon. There is just not enough interest yet in this model to warrant the investment required. However, starting in the fall of 2012, you will be able to purchase a Site Rotation Sunday School curriculum as a option to our traditional, and very successful, Growing in Christ Sunday School materials, which will be updated and improved for another cycle or two.
My opinion? Thanks for asking. I a big fan of biblical literacy. I am not impressed with the Workshop Rotation model's pace of 12 to 15 Bible accounts each year, compared to 48 to 50 taught through a traditional or Site Rotation model. My home congregation uses a site rotation model each summer and I know that it can work well. But I'm a traditionalist. The age-appropriate and relatively in-depth traditional Sunday School structure seems to be me to offer the best educational experience.
I think it's worth promoting and supporting.
How about you?
How is your Sunday School structured?
Have you experience one of the rotation models? What did you think?
I am revamping our Sunday School. We are a small Sunday School that averages about 15 children in pre-k to elementary. We moved to the Growing in Christ curriculum last fall to see how it would work. I've gotten mixed reviews. Part of our issue is that we have a large number of refugees who believe their English is poor, so they won't volunteer to teach. I'm looking to employ a workshop rotation model this fall in the hopes to include more of them. I'd like to use the growing in Christ curriculum and will likely take the 3-year rotation and expand it out to a 6-year rotation. We shall see as I am still studying/praying about this.
ReplyDeleteGrace and Peace,
Randy Keyes
Christ Lutheran Church, Lansing, MI
One other note: Our "age-based" approach is very culturally oriented. Our refugee population is much more "family-oriented" and they have as part of their culture more of a "one-room schoolhouse" approach. It amazes me when a toddler comes wandering into our high school Sunday School class and one of the high schoolers picks up the child and holds it (while still listening to the lesson) without chastising the child or anything else---it's like "this is normal," while separating them out by age is actually abnormal for their culture. FWIW.
ReplyDeleteRandy
Randy, it sounds like you are doing a great job of addressing Christian ed in a cuturally sensitive way.
ReplyDeleteCPH plans to release a Site Rotation Sunday School curriculum following our Growing in Christ scope and sequence in Fall 2012. It will provide for up to 5 sites each Sunday: Engage (opening for all), Explore (the Bible account), Express (in three sites: music, crafts, and drama), and Extend (a variety of ideas for other sites and activities). It might work well in a "one lesson for two weeks" format with the same strong content of Growing in Christ. Not out for another year, though.
On a side note, perhaps you know that I served as Christ's first DCE, back in the late 70s under Pastor Robert Mayer, when the Hmong imigration was just starting. Things have changed a lot since then, I'm sure.
Blessings!
How cool is it that you were at CLC! We're now almost a mission church---most of the Anglos have left and it's primarily African immigrants/refugees that remain. We are prayerfully starting a church revitalization program with a new vision/mission team next week.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading the book _Workshop Rotation_ and am now reading _Workshop Wonders_. If you would like someone to field test your new curriculum in a workshop rotation setting, please contact me, as otherwise I'll be attempting to do it on my own (Lord willing with a few others God will lead to be part of the team) and then deciding which story for the month to teach from Growing In Christ.
It's neat how God works.
Grace and Peace,
Randy Keyes
Lay Minister of Family Ministry
Christ Lutheran, Lansing
Randy, you might check out the Site Rotation Guide resources on our Growing in Christ Web site: http://sites.cph.org/sundayschool/samples/site.asp
ReplyDeleteYou might find some stuff to give you a leg up. Our site rotation stuff will come together over the summer. I'll check to see if the senior editor is interested in releasing stuff ahead for field testing, though.
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYes, I've read through the CPH guide and it's a great little intro to the Site Rotation/Workshop rotation format. It is, however, very general and very much along the lines of the two books I have on Workshop rotation---not a lot of specifics other than referring to the director's guide, but it's still good info.
Thanks again and we're open to field testings all kinds of things right now. :)
Grace and Peace,
Randy