Simple Steps to Combining Classes

Occasionally, low attendance or absent teachers make it necessary to teach a broad range of children in a single group.

 

Since Growing in Christ and Cross Explorations are unified curricula, you can successfully teach a broadly-graded group of children when attendance is low. Here's what I would suggest to accomplish this.

 

Give each student the lesson leaflet appropriate for his or her grade/age.

• Teach from the teacher guide that matches the leaflet used by the majority of the students, or the guide that hits the middle of your age-range.
• Prepare your lesson ahead of time using this guide, but have the guides for the other levels handy to switch out or adapt activities to best suit your students' needs.
• Accommodate varying reading ability by assigning reading only to volunteers; be alert for words that need to be defined for younger children.
• When the guide directs students to do activities in the leaflet, have the students work in groups that share a common leaflet, or adapt the activity so that it can be done without the leaflet.
• If you have extra time in class, allow the students to complete any leaflet activities that they did not get to do during the lesson. Or, encourage them to do these at home.

God bless you as you teach His children is Word.

What Do You Assume about the Students You Will Teach This Week?

A customer comment this week makes me wonder. The customer challenges our apparent assumption that every student starts from ground zero in every lesson. "Students are capable of so much more!"

I certainly agree. It is not because we who publish Sunday School material think all students are below average that we make very few assumptions about where students will begin regarding the next lesson. It is because we know that some students will be starting at or near zero.

Some students will not have been present last week, or the last time this Bible account was taught in Sunday School, or many of the lessons in between. Some students may have never opened the Bible before. Some will have only a vague recollection of the account, but be fuzzy on the details. Some students may confuse this event with another from Scripture. Some students may have even learned it all wrong for one reason or another.

Even more challenging, any of these conditions might exist for the person who has been enlisted to teach the lesson.

As a result, the Sunday School lesson you get from Concordia Publishing House will, to the best of our ability, reflect the general developmental characteristics that are expected of children within a year or two of the grade for which it is prepared, But we will assume very little Bible background.

That, of course, is where you, the teachers, come in. God willing, you will know your students, or at least know that you don't know them. You can judge whether some of the material in your lesson can be skipped, reviewed lightly, or expanded in order to meet your students where they are in terms of biblical literacy. You create the final edition of the lesson!

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

How Much Time Will It Take?

That might be the first question you had when asked to teach Sunday School. How much of the precious little personal and family time I have will the task of teaching require? For the average volunteer, until they know, the answer's "no."

Some publishers actually advertise that no preparation is required to teach their material. Concordia Publishing House material is complete, well organized, and easy to use, but I would never recommend walking into a classroom of active children without preparation. As I told a couple of groups of Sunday School teachers in South Dakota this weekend, solid preparation will prevent almost all of your discipline problems. A great start, carefully chosen activities, excellent questions, smooth transitions, and the ability to change direction when an activity tanks . . . these all require a level of preparation.

I usually plan on about a hour of preparation for a one-hour Sunday School class. It pays to start that preparation a week in advance by reading the "Preparing the Lesson" page so the gist of the lesson is in your mind through the week.

The amount of preparation time you require to feel comfortable in class will vary, but it is best not left until too late on Saturday, or worse yet early Sunday, or even worse, in the car on the way to church.

Thanks for taking time to prepare and teach God's children His Word!

Are You Ready for Spring?

Imagine a beautiful spring day! There are lots of them coming! Why will parents and children spend their time with you each Sunday in the weeks ahead in Sunday School? What will you provide that soccer, tee-ball, weekends at the lake, or sleeping in cannot provide? The opportunity to see Jesus, to hear more about forgiveness of sins and new life in His name!

The lessons you’ll teach from Concordia’s two Sunday School options---Growing in Christ and Cross Explorations---will reveal the power, authority, mercy, and love of our Savior. Your students will watch Him defend the sanctity of the temple, commend the generosity of a widow, die and rise again, be preached throughout the known world, and take His rightful place again on the throne of heaven. These are faith experiences that the world cannot provide. You have an exciting season ahead!

It is not always easy for families to see it that way, though. As you teach in the weeks ahead . . .

• persistently invite every eligible student to join you in Sunday School.
• diligently prepare each lesson to be an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
• warmly welcome each student each week by name and thank them for coming.
• earnestly pray that God will bless each student.  

Thanks for teaching God’s children His Word!

Who Is Your Sunday School For?

Don't just blow past the title of this post. It is a serious question! For whom do you conduct your Sunday School on a week by week basis?

The student, right? Sunday School is all about delivering the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ to the students in each class. That's not as easy as it might sound. It gets complicated because we must balance delivering the best content with making sure that the students and, in the case of most of our students under the age of 16, their parents desire to have this Sunday School experience of themselves or their children.

Then, assuming that you buy into the "it's for the students" mindset . . .

Sunday School is not for volunteer teacher. ("What is the easiest material to prepare and teach? I want something I can pick up and teach without spending my time studying the lesson and getting ready for class.")

Sunday School is not for the church finance board or treasurer. ("What is the cheapest alternative out there? Can we find something with reproducible student material? What about this stuff that is available free online?")

Sunday School is for the spiritual health of the student. ("Well, yeah, the theology is a little off, but the activities are really fun. And the material is cheap. And the teachers don't have to prepare.")

Forgive me if I sound harsh, but it seems to me that some congregations get off track on this at times.

Teaching Sunday School is a high calling with a vitally important goal. It truly is worth giving it our best!

God bless you as you teach God's children His Word!

WOW! CPH Has All That?

I've heard that some congregations are looking for new Sunday School material, something that is family-friendly, recognizes the Church Year, is experiential and relational, is easy to prepar, and contributes significantly to biblical literacy.

I have good news: Sunday School material from Concordia Publishing House does all that and more!

Family Friendly: For thirty years, CPH has produced Sunday School material that is unified across all age levels. Everyone in the congregation, from the youngest to the oldest can study the same biblical text each week, each using materials and techniques that are age-appropriate. The materials incorporate take-home materials that promote family discussion and further study about the lesson. Especially, check out the "Explore More Cards," published with our Cross Explorations material but useful with either curriculum. Our materials assume that families will worship together each Sunday and we incorporate elements of the Church's worship in the lessons.

Recognizes the Church Year: CPH Sunday School material is rooted in the Church Year; major festivals are recognized and often the focus of lessons (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, the Baptism of our Lord, Transfiguration, Holy Week, and Easter lessons are taught on appropriate Sundays; Reformation Day, All Saints' Day, and other festivals are noted and often incorporated into the lesson. About half of the Sunday School lessons each year teach the Bible account that is read as the Gospel in the Divine Service in congregations using the three-year-lectionary.

Experiential and Relational: CPH recognizes that children learn best by applying Scriptures to life experience. The youngest children spend time each week in activities that provide a real-life experience to which the Scriptures can be applied; lessons for older children use role play and discussion to help student apply what they learn from the Bible to their lives between Sundays.

Easy to Prepare: Each lesson has a one-page study of the theological and bibical content of the lesson, handy materials lists, scripted teacher talk (so you know what to say, even if you put it in your own words), and a simple four-part outline. In addition, a 30-minute podcast about the lesson is available each week.

Biblical Literacy: the sequence of lessons in Growing in Christ and Cross Explorations materials has been carefully designed to teach the entire narrative of salvation history over a three-year-plus period, with the most significant parts of that history (Advent, Christmas, and Easter) taught every year. Lessons repeat every third or fourth year, so that as student grow they encounter God's Word again and again in age-appropriate learning.

In addition, CPH offers consistent instruction using both Law and Gospel, lessons that are truly centered in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin, two choices of material (check them out at our new Web site: cph.org/sundayschool), realistic full-color Bible art, varied modes of instruction and story presentation, and a wealth of supplementary material.

What are you looking for in Sunday School material?

What do you think we are missing?

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Is This Material Age Appropriate?

That's an important question, both for the curriculum writer/publisher and for those who teach the material.

Several things deserve to be considered.

• Age-appropriateness is a sliding scale; material that is too simple for some kids among its target group may be too advanced for others.
• This scale will slide even within a class of 4 students.
• Age-appropriateness can be physical (reading level, eye-hand coordination), social, or even cultural. (At what age, for example might a teacher feel comfortable teaching students about David's sin with Bathsheba? For some teachers and classes, the answer might be "never.")
• It can create as many problems for the teacher for material to be to simple as may arise when material is too difficult for the students. Discipline problems increase when students are bored rather than challenged.
• The publisher, by necessity, is shooting for a hypothetical average class; that class quite simply does not exist. Each teacher has a very specific set of students (as well as a specific room, and access to other specific resources) about the publisher has no knowledge.

What does this mean?
The teacher is in the driver's seat. He or she is going to be the final editor of the lesson. That will mean decisions about necessary adaptation of every aspect of the lesson.

Sure, you can shop around for a curriculum in which the theology is exactly what your denomination teaches, the material always bright and cheery (or thoughtfully somber) as you desire, the activities always doable in your classroom and building, the supplies required always just what you have on hand, and the level of difficulty always spot on for all of your students. And, you should know, that we editors here at Concordia Publishing House do our best to make this happen for you each week; we really do! But, in my heart, I know that you will have to make some choices and revisions.

So what can you do?

• Be thoughtful in your lesson planning. Note the alternatives offered by the publisher. Think back to what has worked for your students in the past. Be alert for the ways you can revise your lesson.
• If your class is consistently frustrated by "too hard" or bored with "too simple," consider moving down or up a level in the curriculum.
• Don't sacrifice theology, the very reason you are teaching Sunday School classes in the first place, in a chase for the "perfect lesson."

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

Simple Truth, the Gospel Is Not Simple

Preparing lessons with clear proclamation of the Gospel heart and core is not an easy task. There are many ways in which things can fall short.

If a lesson has been written without clear proclamation of the Gospel, teaching it in a way that adds God's grace back in is even harder.

The Gospel needs to be the starting place not the optional accessory to the lesson.

Just saying.

God bless you as you teach God's Word of Gospel to His children.

Would You Rather Have . . . ?

Would you rather have . . .

. . . full color printing for student material or reproducible pages?

. . . material on a CD that you can print or everything accessible on a well-organized Web site?

. . . too much material in the lesson plan the publisher gives you or enough for the average Sunday School class?

Would you pay more for . . .

. . . a teacher guide that included thumbnail images of the student materials?

. . . a teacher guide with half-size student pages with the answer typed in where applicable?

. . . a teacher guide PDF file on a CD or Web site with hyperlinks to student page and teacher tool images, song recordings, relevant Web sites, and other resources.

Your publisher frequently seeks data on questions like these through surveys. We sometimes makes assumptions about how customers would answer these questions. The "answers will vary" to these questions, but in reality the only answers that probably matter very much to you are your own.

So I'm curious!

What kinds of resources would really make sense in your Sunday School?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

God bless you as you teach His children His Word.

You Are in the Customer Service Business

It struck me this morning, as I pondered a superintendent's comment that her teachers preferred "grab-and-go" lessons over ones that took "preparation." Our Sunday Schools---and their directors and teachers---are in the customer service business.

Each child who attends, and by extension their parents and families, are customers who come with definite expectations about the quality of the service they will receive.

That raises some questions.

• What are you doing to make sure that these customers are "repeat customers," loyal, and engaged?
• Are you taking the time to prepare lessons that are adapted for the educational needs and interest of your students?
• Are you ensuring that the Gospel is presented front and center rather than the moralistic junk that so many publishers provide?
• Are you treating your students as customers, being polite, pleasant, and engaging?

Make no mistake, customers notice quality and make choices about where and how often they "shop."

How do you make each Sunday School customer's visit "first class"?

God bless you as you teach your customers His Word!