During Your Lesson

My teacher friends gave me zillions of great ideas for use during individual lessons. I will go through my notes and try to list them here. This will follow the rough order that a class might take.

Sign Ins

DeAnn puts a table by the door of her classroom where students sign in each day. The table has a sign in sheet, pen, and clock on it. The sign in sheet is a narrow lined sheet with a box for the student's name, time of arrival, and a check box for if they read their scriptures. When it's time for class to begin, DeAnn marks the sheet with a wavy line to indicate that students who arrive after class begins are tardy. She says this method holds students accountable for their attendance, reading, and tardiness.

I like the sign-in idea and made a similar sheet, with one exception. I didn't put a check box for whether they read their scriptures or not -- I used a Yes / No. I would like students to actually respond "no" when they haven't read, for further accountability. You can download my roll sheet here.

UPDATE:
I have changed my roll page a little. Now, at the top I list a few things that the students might need to get from their cubbies before class starts. There's a place to check ___ scriptures, ___ marking pencil, ___binder, ___ bin (markers, etc), and ___ other. It isn't perfect, but it helps the kids get their materials together before class.

Choosing the Prayer

To avoid the problem of one or two students always volunteering to give the prayer, Rob used this method to give everyone a chance. He painted Popsicle sticks, one half red, the other half green. Then he wrote every student's name on a painted stick. These sticks go into a jar or cup with the green side up. During opening and closing exercises the class president picked a green name out of the jar to give an opening or closing prayer. Then the Popsicle stick was returned to the cup, red side up, so that that person wasn't chosen again until every one had a chance to pray.

UPDATE:
Checkout the article on the Prayer Bucket here:
http://www.mormonshare.com/lds-activity/the-prayer-bucket

Music

Rob chose a song from the hymnbook and had members of the class play and conduct the music. If students weren't all singing, he had the class re-sing with ALL the verses. When this happened with A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, the class quickly fell into line.

Some teachers have the students describe their favorite hymn or Primary song as part of a get-to-know you exercise. The class then sings that song.

I'm going to try asking the kids to teach us their favorite song for 2-3 days. They will explain to us why it's their favorite hymn, and then they will conduct the song any way they wish. I hope it will encourage them to support each other with the music...

UPDATE: As it turned out, the solution for our music issues was much easier than I supposed. A user commented in the blog and suggested that we have the kids stand to sing. It totally worked! The kids sing louder and participate more! We also use the Church Music Player at http://www.lds.org/churchmusic to provide our music. It highlights the words as it moves, you can transpose to a more singable key, and you can adjust the tempo. It has been a God-send for us.

Devotionals

Brent assigned kids in his class to give devotional each day for an entire week. He gave them suggestions on what they could present on, like stories from Church magazines, Scripture Mastery passages, etc.

Rob gave the first few devotionals in his class to demonstrate the kind of material he wanted covered, length, and caliber he expected during devotionals. He would give a devotional himself every how and again throughout the year as well.

DeAnn teaches her students that a devotional must include three things: (1) a personal experience that includes FITs, or Feelings, Impressions, & Thoughts., (2) a scripture, and (3) a power phrase. First, the student writes the scripture reference they will be discussing up on the board, and everyone in class turns to it. The student then delivers their devotional, ending with a power phrase. (A power phrase is one that includes the words "I believe this because...", "This is true because ...", "I know this because ...", "This is important because ...", etc.)

You can support the Duty to God program by integrating those topics into your devotionals. Find out to integrate the new Duty to God into Seminary here.

UPDATE:
I don't use an assigned devotional talk in my class. I use Everybody Writes or other group activities at the beginning of class to get everyone sharing their experiences about the gospel because I don't think that devotional is the best thing I can do for my students' time. I plan to spend a lesson on how to prepare and deliver talks so they don't miss out on that skill, but I don't personally do the talk thing. It's not required, fyi.

Daily Scripture Mastery

Rob and DeAnn like to use scripture mastery every day during their lessons. DeAnn uses the popular Magic Squares method to review SM scriptures. Magic Squares includes actions, rhymes, and keywords to help students learn all 25 references for the year.

Every day, DeAnn has the class president read a scripture mastery verse. The students chase to see who is the first person to find it. The first person says, "One", second: "two" and so on until everyone finds the reference. Then the person who got the scripture first -- "one" -- gets to come up and choose a treat. He or she rolls a pair of dice, and they can choose to use the number from either dice or the sum of the dice to allow another student to pick a treat. Say a student rolls a two and a three. They can pick student who said "two", "three", or "five" to pick a treat.

From Jayna's games:

Supplies I buy: 3X5 index cards, a spiral notebook per student, markers, at least 25 poster boards, dice (one per student), several dry erase poster boards/black electrical tape. (other things might be needed for individual games).

Before school starts, I make several sets of laminated cards. There are 50 cards per set: 25, each with one of the SM references; and 25, each with key words (or “magic square” rhymes). I make each set a different color.

I also make 2 grids on dry erase poster boards using electrical tape. I can reuse the grids for all kinds of games (even permanent marker eventually erases off, so the electrical tape solves that problem). Each grid is 5X5 (4 inch squares) (takes about 20 feet of tape).

The first few weeks:
I concentrate on teaching the “Magic Square” and rhymes. (Use the grid you made!)
To locate the “Magic Square” login on ldsces.org, click on teacher resources, click on additional resources, click on CES conferences (past), click on teaching helps, click on Janice Lee Griffith Tate—Magic Square. [These instructions don't seem to be working any more. I will post Magic Squares when I can get the info ~Jenny]

Assign each student a SM to “own”. (I’ll do Exodus 20, since it’s so long).
Each student makes a large poster with their SM written out.
Each student draws a picture to help us remember their scripture—try to incorporate reference.
Have the students mark each SM in their own scriptures.

After the 3rd week, I concentrate on one scripture mastery per week. I spend 5-10 min. per day on a short activity to help the students understand and memorize this SM.

Once a week or so, I play a longer SM game (20-40 min.). It’s a good idea to do these longer games on different week days (not just Fridays). During this time I concentrate on learning the key words and references for all 25 scriptures or concentrate on several SM that we have learned thus far.

Activity short cuts:
1. Have the students do as much of the preparation as possible. They might make game cards or write up “quizzes” for the activity.
2. Have a master answer sheet for yourself. (I wrote the key words or rhymes under each scripture verse). Laminate this so you can mark it up with dry erase markers and then reuse it for a different game. Use this master list for clues to the games (i.e. for jeopardy, don’t take time to write each clue out on the board, just assign point values on the big grid and then mark the corresponding questions on your master answer sheet.)

Current Event Moment

Brent likes to read stories from the newspaper to his students and apply them to gospel teaching messages. He doesn't do this every day, just when a story strikes him. Sometimes these current event moments related directly to the lesson, and sometimes they did not. Here are some examples of articles or sources he used:

http://newsroom.lds.org/ - updated frequently and has articles about church members around the world.

http://mormon.org/people/find/ - I'm a Mormon videos or stories

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2004/11/24/dolphin_newzealand041124.html - this story is about dolphins that surrounded a group of swimmers and protected them from a great white shark attack. Who are the "dolphins" in your life? What are they trying to protect you from?

http://unofficialnetworks.com/hikers-fall-yosemites-vernon-falls-31851/ - hikers ignored signs and fell off Vernon Falls at Yosemite. What warning signs are in your life? Are you heeding them?

Tardies and Early departures

The Seminary handbook says tardies are not supposed to be equated with absences. In our stake flagrant tardiness (more than 12 tardies a term) can result in loss of Seminary credit. Our teachers treat early departures like tardies.

When one girl kept leaving her class early, DeAnn spoke to her to find out what the trouble was. The girl said she was having trouble getting to school on time every day, so DeAnn quickly volunteered to move Seminary's beginning time back 10 minutes to 6:00 AM to accommodate her. :) Miraculously, the girl was able to start getting to school on time.

Help Students learn to Apply the Scriptures to Their Lives

All of the teachers I spoke with said this was essential to having a good lesson where students were engaged. I like what Paula said: "The Spirit soared when I was studying and trying to find application in their lives for the lessons we were studying. God will bless you!"

Point out the Spirit

When you're about to teach something that touched you, say so: "I felt the spirit very strongly when I read this" or "Pay attention to this phrase -- it struck me as I was preparing".

Here's something on this from Becoming a Great Gospel Teacher by Eaton and Beecher:

[What keys have you found] to be particularly effective in inviting the spirit into the classroom?

Make a direct invitation. ... [P]rompt students with a simple invitation, such as, "As you read the next few verses on your own, pay attention to your thoughts and feelings. Note words or phrases that the Spirit seems to highlight for you." Other teachers give an invitation like this:" As we study the scriptures today, be sure to have a red pencil handy. Underline those things that the Spirit is bringing to light for you..."

I have use the phrase "listen with your spiritual ears" (while making an earmuff type gesture with my hands) for years. I really can't tell you why it helps the kids focus, but it does. And it doesn't seem to take any explanation; they seem to get what "spiritual ears" means without me explaining it.

If I think I'm losing the group during a parable type story, I'll interrupt myself and say, "Are you listening with your spiritual ears?" -- not in a scolding way, but in a remember-this-is-a-parable, be-a-gospel-detective kind of way.

Plan Breaks

My seminary teacher friends say plan to take breaks every now and again from teaching to go visit another teacher's class. You'll get lots of ideas about what you can do to improve as a teacher, and the break will help keep you sane.

Expect Lesson Flops

They'll come. Pick yourself up, or if it was especially terrible, contact a seminary teacher friend to talk to about it. It will get better!