"The math questions are too hard."
I confess that I don't get it, but that complaint has been registered about our middle grades Growing in Christ materials. It is one of the reasons cited for a possible change of curriculum. Sigh.
I could argue that the math questions cited, used as part of a puzzle that reviewed a key biblical text in the lesson, were not too hard. In checking a number of on-line math practice resources, all the skills involved are taught in most third-grade classes. I would readily admit, however, that skill development in elementary students varies widely and the problems will undoubtedly seem hard for some students. And the use of math problems in a Bible lesson is not my first preference anyway.
I could also argue, though, that mathematical intelligence is one of the many "ways kids are smart" according to the theories of Howard Gardner and, in varying instruction to engage a wide range of learning styles, using math activities with students who are mathematically inclined is not a bad strategy.
But I really don't need to go far with either of those arguments.
My big concern is with using any single activity, or the inclusion of a type of activity on an occasional basis, as rationale for rejecting an entire curriculum.
The essence of any Christian Sunday School curriculum is its ability to share the Gospel. If you can find two or more such curricula (good luck with that), then you can get fussy about other elements. I promise you, that it will be much easier to edit, adapt, and supplement the activities in a curriculum than it will be to correct bad theology and infuse Gospel.
Really! You cannot expect that any curriculum will meet your needs in every respect! You can read more about why I say that in my first post to this blog; you can read it here. But I would always make theology, Jesus Christ as Savior in every lesson, the non-negotiable starting point.
What criteria do you look for in Sunday School curricula?
God's richest blessings as you teach His children His Word.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Five Steps for Enlisting Teachers
There is no magic here, but let me share a process that worked for me in my 15 years of ministry. Perhaps you already do many or all of these things.
1. Enlist the help of one or both pastors in preparing a list of potential teachers. You want to be able to say, “Pastor X and I agree that you would make a good teacher for our Sunday School and we hope you will prayerfully consider it.” Grandparents, parents, and single young adults are all great candidates.
2. Prepare an honest estimate of how much time each week the task will require (at least an hour, perhaps two, of preparation and an hour of teaching; more if you require your teachers to follow up on absent students or attend SS teacher meetings). If the time required is be judged as too much for those you are enlisting, you may need to consider a system where teachers alternate. I resist this, but when it is necessary, I’d go for a system where a volunteer teachers serves two weeks and is off a week, working in a team of three (one teacher, one assisting, and one off each week). This provide continuity for relationships with the students and, oddly enough, it is often easier to enlist two or three teachers than it is to enlist one, since they both know they will have help. Also set a realistic term of service, such as a quarter. This is a pain for recruiting, but might be necessary. Volunteers will resist giving you a blank check on their time or accepting a “life sentence” to teach forever. You can always invite them to re-enlist.
3. Send a letter of invitation to teach and follow up in person or by phone. Don’t take a yes or no answer to this first personal contact; instead answer questions and invite the person to consider and pray about things for a week. Then follow up again. Invite the prospective teacher to sit in with one of your best teachers to see what it is like.
4. Offer training and support. Place new teachers with experienced teachers in a team. Lead the volunteer step by step through the teacher guide and material before their first class, so that they see all the resources available and know how to use them. Offer to sit in with them in their first experience. No one wants to take on a responsibility and then feel like they are failing; do everything you can to make sure each teacher feels successful.
5. In all your contacts, elevate the position of Sunday School teacher for the potential volunteer. Point out the opportunity to impact the lives of young Christians for eternity. Call this service what it is, “one of the most important volunteer tasks in the church.” Install your teachers before their service, thank them publicly and often.
What hurdles do you encounter in finding Sunday School teachers, or in being a Sunday School teacher?
What works for you as you enlist teachers?
God bless your efforts to enlist other in teaching God's children His Word.
1. Enlist the help of one or both pastors in preparing a list of potential teachers. You want to be able to say, “Pastor X and I agree that you would make a good teacher for our Sunday School and we hope you will prayerfully consider it.” Grandparents, parents, and single young adults are all great candidates.
2. Prepare an honest estimate of how much time each week the task will require (at least an hour, perhaps two, of preparation and an hour of teaching; more if you require your teachers to follow up on absent students or attend SS teacher meetings). If the time required is be judged as too much for those you are enlisting, you may need to consider a system where teachers alternate. I resist this, but when it is necessary, I’d go for a system where a volunteer teachers serves two weeks and is off a week, working in a team of three (one teacher, one assisting, and one off each week). This provide continuity for relationships with the students and, oddly enough, it is often easier to enlist two or three teachers than it is to enlist one, since they both know they will have help. Also set a realistic term of service, such as a quarter. This is a pain for recruiting, but might be necessary. Volunteers will resist giving you a blank check on their time or accepting a “life sentence” to teach forever. You can always invite them to re-enlist.
3. Send a letter of invitation to teach and follow up in person or by phone. Don’t take a yes or no answer to this first personal contact; instead answer questions and invite the person to consider and pray about things for a week. Then follow up again. Invite the prospective teacher to sit in with one of your best teachers to see what it is like.
4. Offer training and support. Place new teachers with experienced teachers in a team. Lead the volunteer step by step through the teacher guide and material before their first class, so that they see all the resources available and know how to use them. Offer to sit in with them in their first experience. No one wants to take on a responsibility and then feel like they are failing; do everything you can to make sure each teacher feels successful.
5. In all your contacts, elevate the position of Sunday School teacher for the potential volunteer. Point out the opportunity to impact the lives of young Christians for eternity. Call this service what it is, “one of the most important volunteer tasks in the church.” Install your teachers before their service, thank them publicly and often.
What hurdles do you encounter in finding Sunday School teachers, or in being a Sunday School teacher?
What works for you as you enlist teachers?
God bless your efforts to enlist other in teaching God's children His Word.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Sunday School and Day School
I had the opportunity, while engaging a CPH customer, to express my thoughts on the challenge faced in many congregations: how to encourage Sunday School participation among day school families.
Perhaps you face a similar difficulty. Here is what I said:
The Impact of a Day School
It is wonderful that your congregation has a parochial school. It is a blessing when all subjects can be taught from a biblical perspective. And it is likely true that the day school students are getting solid education in Bible and doctrine as well. You will not win over day school families to solid Sunday School participation by emphasizing responsibility or duty, such as “leading an example.” They are setting a good example by supporting day school education. Instead I would emphasize the Sunday School as:
How do you encourage them in Sunday School participation?
Perhaps you face a similar difficulty. Here is what I said:
The Impact of a Day School
It is wonderful that your congregation has a parochial school. It is a blessing when all subjects can be taught from a biblical perspective. And it is likely true that the day school students are getting solid education in Bible and doctrine as well. You will not win over day school families to solid Sunday School participation by emphasizing responsibility or duty, such as “leading an example.” They are setting a good example by supporting day school education. Instead I would emphasize the Sunday School as:
- Another opportunity to feed on God’s Word. It is difficult to argue that anyone has “learned enough” of God’s Word. Each study opportunity, even studying the exact same passage of Scripture, will lead to new and deeper insight.
- A great opportunity for parents. Parent need to study God’s Word just as much as children. Do whatever you can to support and encourage strong adult Christian education on Sunday mornings. Ask your pastors to lead Bible study for adults and focus on topics of interest to parents. If the parents are attending Bible class, the children will be in Sunday School.
- A different style of education than day school with another positive adult role model as a lay teacher. It is different from the day school class and worthwhile in its own right.
How do you encourage them in Sunday School participation?
Monday, July 25, 2011
Biblical Literacy
Sharing the Gospel
Without a doubt, the first reason for having a solid Sunday School in your congregation is to share the Gospel. The Bible tells the good news that Jesus has earned forgiveness for our sins and that God offers that forgiveness to us as a free gift through faith in Christ. That's what we are about on Sunday mornings, teaching God's children His Word.
That message of salvation, though, unfolds in a truly fascinating narrative about the creation and protection of a people who are called to be faithful to God, who is always faithful to them. The students you teach will benefit from studying the entire Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, and the countless ways in which they reveal God's love for us in Jesus Christ.
How Many Bible Stories Are There?
So, how many Bible lessons are there that a child should learn? The Growing in Christ Sunday School material published by Concordia Publishing House offers about 175 different Bible lessons, counting those taught in the summer quarters. About forty percent of these come from the Old Testament and sixty percent from the New: not a particularly fair treatment of the Old Testament given is larger size, but more Old Testament accounts than any previous Sunday School curriculum CPH has published. The curriculum repeats itself on a cycle of about three years (that gets a little complicated, because New Testament accounts are repeated more frequently than Old Testament ones). This deliberate repetition of lessons allows a student to study a Bible story about three times in the course of childhood, with a fresh, age-level appropriate look at that text in each repetition.
It would be possible, of course, to teach a significantly higher number of accounts from the Bible; there are certainly many to choose from that are not covered in the current scope and sequence, or that are covered with only broad strokes.
Too Many? Too Few?
On the other extreme, a model of Sunday School gaining some attention these days---Workshop Rotation---teaches just one Bible account every month or so, rotating the students through several different hour-long workshops. Just ten or twelve Bible accounts are studied each year, though one assumes that a given set of lessons might not be repeated again for many years. I am sceptical about this approach, because of the fewer number of lessons taught among other reasons (that's fodder for another post to this blog, I suppose).
So, I ask: what do you think?
What is the ideal number of lessons in a Sunday School curriculum?
How often should lessons be repeated?
What will contribute best to the biblical literacy of children?
What choices would you make, if your could, as you teach God's children His Word?
Without a doubt, the first reason for having a solid Sunday School in your congregation is to share the Gospel. The Bible tells the good news that Jesus has earned forgiveness for our sins and that God offers that forgiveness to us as a free gift through faith in Christ. That's what we are about on Sunday mornings, teaching God's children His Word.
That message of salvation, though, unfolds in a truly fascinating narrative about the creation and protection of a people who are called to be faithful to God, who is always faithful to them. The students you teach will benefit from studying the entire Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, and the countless ways in which they reveal God's love for us in Jesus Christ.
How Many Bible Stories Are There?
So, how many Bible lessons are there that a child should learn? The Growing in Christ Sunday School material published by Concordia Publishing House offers about 175 different Bible lessons, counting those taught in the summer quarters. About forty percent of these come from the Old Testament and sixty percent from the New: not a particularly fair treatment of the Old Testament given is larger size, but more Old Testament accounts than any previous Sunday School curriculum CPH has published. The curriculum repeats itself on a cycle of about three years (that gets a little complicated, because New Testament accounts are repeated more frequently than Old Testament ones). This deliberate repetition of lessons allows a student to study a Bible story about three times in the course of childhood, with a fresh, age-level appropriate look at that text in each repetition.
It would be possible, of course, to teach a significantly higher number of accounts from the Bible; there are certainly many to choose from that are not covered in the current scope and sequence, or that are covered with only broad strokes.
Too Many? Too Few?
On the other extreme, a model of Sunday School gaining some attention these days---Workshop Rotation---teaches just one Bible account every month or so, rotating the students through several different hour-long workshops. Just ten or twelve Bible accounts are studied each year, though one assumes that a given set of lessons might not be repeated again for many years. I am sceptical about this approach, because of the fewer number of lessons taught among other reasons (that's fodder for another post to this blog, I suppose).
So, I ask: what do you think?
What is the ideal number of lessons in a Sunday School curriculum?
How often should lessons be repeated?
What will contribute best to the biblical literacy of children?
What choices would you make, if your could, as you teach God's children His Word?
Monday, July 18, 2011
What Do You Hear? Part 2
As promised, I want to return to the topic of the TT/ST Ratio: the Teacher Talk to Student Talk Ratio. You might want to browse last week's post, part 1, to catch up to where we are.
It is my premise that, withing the bounds of reason, more student talk is better than some or none. Here's why:
The students are engaged! If the students are quiet, they are often passive. Maybe they are listening, but maybe they are not. If they are making noise---answering or asking questions, talking with each other (in teacher directed activity), or even the chaotic murmur that characterizes craft activity---they are at least on task.
Sometimes, teacher talk in the form of lecture is necessary. (Don't kid yourself, you could be lecturing to preschoolers and preteens, as well as college students and adults, if the teacher is doing all the talking.) But lecture has a huge drawback from an educational standpoint. You don't know what the students are really picking up. They may be confused, but afraid or not permitted to ask questions. They may have mentally checked out and "gone home," even though 30 minutes of class time remain. They may be distracted by a classmate, a poster on the wall, or a bird in the bush outside the window. If they are silent, you don't know where they are in the learning process. Well, okay, you could give quizzes or require that they fill in blanks on a hand-out as you lecture, but really, I know we can do better. Lecture shows how much the teacher knows, but it shows nothing about what the student knows.
Catechesis is a great tool! Asking questions and drawing the students into giving answers or asking questions of their own is a much more effective way of hearing what the students are learning in class. The more great questions you ask the lower your TT/ST Ratio. That's a good thing.
Student reports are good. This can be a two-edged sword. The time students invest in preparing reports, unless they are given as homework, will show on your class sound audit as silence or, if you have asked for teamwork in the reports, discussion or chaos. So, keep the report assignments narrow in scope and easy to accomplish in just a few minutes. Then couple the student talk/reporting time with discussion/asking questions. You will still lower that TT/ST Ratio.
How do YOU know whether your students are engaged in your lesson?
What are other ways to reduce the Teacher Talk to Student Talk Ratio?
Thanks for teaching God's children His Word!
It is my premise that, withing the bounds of reason, more student talk is better than some or none. Here's why:
The students are engaged! If the students are quiet, they are often passive. Maybe they are listening, but maybe they are not. If they are making noise---answering or asking questions, talking with each other (in teacher directed activity), or even the chaotic murmur that characterizes craft activity---they are at least on task.
Sometimes, teacher talk in the form of lecture is necessary. (Don't kid yourself, you could be lecturing to preschoolers and preteens, as well as college students and adults, if the teacher is doing all the talking.) But lecture has a huge drawback from an educational standpoint. You don't know what the students are really picking up. They may be confused, but afraid or not permitted to ask questions. They may have mentally checked out and "gone home," even though 30 minutes of class time remain. They may be distracted by a classmate, a poster on the wall, or a bird in the bush outside the window. If they are silent, you don't know where they are in the learning process. Well, okay, you could give quizzes or require that they fill in blanks on a hand-out as you lecture, but really, I know we can do better. Lecture shows how much the teacher knows, but it shows nothing about what the student knows.
Catechesis is a great tool! Asking questions and drawing the students into giving answers or asking questions of their own is a much more effective way of hearing what the students are learning in class. The more great questions you ask the lower your TT/ST Ratio. That's a good thing.
Student reports are good. This can be a two-edged sword. The time students invest in preparing reports, unless they are given as homework, will show on your class sound audit as silence or, if you have asked for teamwork in the reports, discussion or chaos. So, keep the report assignments narrow in scope and easy to accomplish in just a few minutes. Then couple the student talk/reporting time with discussion/asking questions. You will still lower that TT/ST Ratio.
How do YOU know whether your students are engaged in your lesson?
What are other ways to reduce the Teacher Talk to Student Talk Ratio?
Thanks for teaching God's children His Word!
Monday, July 11, 2011
What Do You Hear? Part 1
Imagine that you recorded one of the recent Bible lessons you taught. You pressed "Record" when the first student arrived and "Stop" when the last one went out the door. Now, play that tape back in your mind. What do you hear?
Do you hear mostly your own voice? Giving instructions. Reading from the Bible. Asking questions. Leading the students in prayer. Do you hear mostly voices of the students? Answering questions or asking questions of their own. Reading. Singing. Praying. Talking to each other. Do you hear silence? Do you hear chaos?
What should you hear? How would an excellent lesson sound? Many years ago, Rev. Locke E. Bowman, Jr., a gifted Christian educator and president of the National Teacher Education Project, taught me to be aware of the Teacher Talk to Student Talk Ratio.
It's a simple calculation. Divide the amount of time during which the teacher talks by the amount of time students are talking. If the teacher talks for 45 minutes and the students talk for 15 minutes the TT/ST ratio is 3. If the amounts are equal, the ratio is 1.
What does the TT/ST ratio in your lessons tell you? Would you rather it be high, more teacher than student? Low? Why?
I invite you to ponder this one for a few days! I promise to return to this topic next week with some further thoughts of my own.
Do you hear mostly your own voice? Giving instructions. Reading from the Bible. Asking questions. Leading the students in prayer. Do you hear mostly voices of the students? Answering questions or asking questions of their own. Reading. Singing. Praying. Talking to each other. Do you hear silence? Do you hear chaos?
What should you hear? How would an excellent lesson sound? Many years ago, Rev. Locke E. Bowman, Jr., a gifted Christian educator and president of the National Teacher Education Project, taught me to be aware of the Teacher Talk to Student Talk Ratio.
It's a simple calculation. Divide the amount of time during which the teacher talks by the amount of time students are talking. If the teacher talks for 45 minutes and the students talk for 15 minutes the TT/ST ratio is 3. If the amounts are equal, the ratio is 1.
What does the TT/ST ratio in your lessons tell you? Would you rather it be high, more teacher than student? Low? Why?
I invite you to ponder this one for a few days! I promise to return to this topic next week with some further thoughts of my own.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Summer Sunday School
Summer brings new challenges for Sunday School. Sometimes teachers become scarce. Those who have taught faithfully for nine months take a break. Replacing them is often a struggle. Attendance may sag; families go away on vacation, or just take a vacation from church.
Some congregations pack it in; keeping Sunday School functioning is just too much work, they say. But then they have to start all over again in the fall. Some congregations go the summer entertainment route: puppet shows, magicians, and videos featuring talking vegetables and graceless moralism. But I also know that many congregations press on, continuing to offer their standard Sunday School classes come what may. And I know of many that take the summer as a chance to do something new, site rotation, intergenerational classes, and the like---but with a continued emphasis on Law and Gospel, such theological and pedagogical content.
CPH's Growing in Christ summer material can be taught in a traditional classroom setting, but adapts wonderfully to a site rotation format. The first week of June, my wife and I (well, mostly my wife) taught over 30 first through fifth graders by ourselves and it went fine. (Thankfully, more volunteers have stepped up as summer has progressed.)
How is it going where you serve?
What is your biggest summer challenge?
Some congregations pack it in; keeping Sunday School functioning is just too much work, they say. But then they have to start all over again in the fall. Some congregations go the summer entertainment route: puppet shows, magicians, and videos featuring talking vegetables and graceless moralism. But I also know that many congregations press on, continuing to offer their standard Sunday School classes come what may. And I know of many that take the summer as a chance to do something new, site rotation, intergenerational classes, and the like---but with a continued emphasis on Law and Gospel, such theological and pedagogical content.
CPH's Growing in Christ summer material can be taught in a traditional classroom setting, but adapts wonderfully to a site rotation format. The first week of June, my wife and I (well, mostly my wife) taught over 30 first through fifth graders by ourselves and it went fine. (Thankfully, more volunteers have stepped up as summer has progressed.)
How is it going where you serve?
What is your biggest summer challenge?
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