Teaching Problem Solution Finder

We have done this a couple of times in my Seminary class, and it is always so fun! Use this to review material you've already covered or material that students already know very well. In our class, this ends up very silly, so it's best done at the very beginning or very end of class.

I've done this two different ways: as individuals and as a group.

INDIVIDUAL: After explaining to my class that I was going to have them summarize the story of the birth of Christ in poetry. To keep it short, I gave students just 4 minutes on a timer to write whatever they could. I then read them the poem I wrote to get them started:

Bethlehem journey
On a donkey
Stupid taxes
Tired family

Crowded city
Inns too full
Pregnant Mary
In a stable

A baby born
A star arose
Angels sang
Shepherds heard

Glory to god
In the highest
And on earth
Peace. Good will.

Joyful shepherds
Race to see
The baby
In a manger

Would I run?
Would I fear?
Would I tell everyone?

When my students did this I had a few read their poems out -- the last kid ended his with "Peace out, baby Jesus." I laughed so hard I cried.

GROUP: Another time I explained to the class that the book of Lamentations is written in acrostic form, meaning that each part of the poem begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So after the style of Lamentations, we did an acrostic poem that was Bible themed as a group. Each person chose a letter and wrote a sentence that dealt with the things we'd learned so far in our study. As a group we'd write a couplet to rhyme with it that started with the following letter of the alphabet. It was fun and served as a reminded of what we've learned so far.

I use the phrase "Today We Learned..." to help establish direction in my lessons. First, I determine a lesson objective. Most of my lesson objectives start with the phrase "Students will ..."

Here are some lesson objectives I've used this week during our study of Luke:

• Students will understand that friends and relatives of Jesus Christ had valuable characteristics that they can seek to emulate. Copying these characteristics will allow students to draw closer to Christ and become his friend.
• Students will briefly review the birth of Jesus Christ. Students will learn that Joseph and Mary were obedient to the requirements of the law.
• Students will practice using the scripture study helps to answer peers' questions.

At the end of class, I summarize what we learned by using the phrase "Today we learned ..." and I restate my lesson objective. By changing "Student will .." to "Today we learned .." I have both my lesson objective and conclusion written before I start lesson preparation in earnest. So I might conclude with "Today we learned friends and relatives of Jesus Christ had valuable characteristics that they can seek to emulate. We also learned that copying these characteristics will allow us to draw closer to Christ and become his friend."

Using this method has helped me keep my lessons focused and helps me select only things most relevant to my lesson objective. It also helps me direct my questions toward a greater understanding of the lesson objective. It also gives me an easy way to wrap up a lesson with a strong, brief conclusion even when I'm running out of time. I hope it's helpful to someone else!

Find out what things your students are interested in. Do your students love piano music? Is it rugby season? Are they great artists? Interested in motorcycles? Like to read?

Using the search tools at http://www.Mormon.org/ locate a video of someone who shares the interests of your student(s). Before you show it to the class, ask students to watch the video for ways that the person developed his or her testimony. What trials have they had? What can we learn from this person and their experiences? What does this person say that indicates they have an understanding of the Godhead? What do they know about the Godhead? What do they know about the restoration of the Priesthood, etc. Use whatever you find to tie into your lesson.

You may have students write their observations as the video is playing.

Write on the board the topic of your lesson. Write "[YOUR TOPIC] is like a ____." Give your students a scrap piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Set the timer for 15-30 seconds and let them write their answers. Give them a few minutes to share and explain their answers.

When I did this, I wrote "Prayer is like a ____." and I had the students write their answers on a Styrofoam plate. When time was up, they displayed their answers all at once, and we discussed them. You will get all sorts of responses from good to wacky. One student tried to throw me with "apple," because one a day keeps Satan away. 🙂 I used his metaphor throughout the lesson. Each student described why they chose their word. It helped us start a good discussion on prayer.

This popular technique has been misused and abused in gospel classrooms for many years. It is rare that splitting into groups can be used effectively in the gospel classroom. Read on to find out if you think you can use it in yours:

• Small groups should not be created from groups larger than 20 people. It should be used only rarely in groups over 16 persons in size. Each group should be very small, no more than 4 or 5 people. You should never have more than 4 or 5 groups. 2 to 4 groups is optimal.
• Take into account the set up of your room. Will splitting into small groups cause a lot of disruption? Can you set up the room ahead of time to make this group discussion easier?
• Splitting into small groups is a difficult technique to use well, and when used poorly or in large groups it gets old very, very quickly. Be certain when you choose this method that there aren't other, better ways to teach your material effectively.
• This technique is typically used when teachers feel they have have a lot of material to cover and want to do so efficiently. Are you using this technique because there is "just too much" in your lesson -- more material than you know how to cover and you're feeling overwhelmed? Consider whittling down the material into one or two lesson objectives instead of using small groups. It is far better to cover one or two topics well than to rush and cover four or five, no matter how awesome they seem. Remember, it is highly unlikely that this will be the first or only time that your students hear this material. You don't have to cover it all every time.
• Small group exercises should not make up the bulk of a lesson. It takes careful time management to keep groups on task and to allow enough time for presenting at the end. If time management is not your best skill as a teacher, you may want consider another teaching method besides small groups.

Be sure that the things you're covering in small groups are truly, truly important -- more important than the free form gospel discussion, questions, and possible interactive media use you're displacing to use small groups. If you're certain you want to use small groups, read on......

Instructions are essential, or someone will get left out

Give your groups very clear directions on what they will present and what to look for in the passage. Don't just give groups a cool quote and ask them to share what they learned about it. Groups must be small enough that each person can actively participate. If you choose one presenter, remember that if your group size is over about 4 people, some members of the group will be left out of participation because larger groups have difficulty discussing topics effectively in this format. Your passage and the question should be able to be read quickly and responded to fairly quickly.

METHOD 1 - traditional

Divide the content you wish to cover in a few very short chunks. Either on the board or on a handout, list a few questions that you'd like the group to use the passage to answer. Your questions should be very carefully written so as to encourage group members to share personal experiences and thoughts about the passage, or your question should help students learn how to apply the message to change something in their behavior. Don't ask questions that can be answered in one or two words or that have only one correct answer. Your questions may begin with words like "Why do you think..." or "Have you had an experience that ..." or "Explain to the group what we might change in our lives as a result of this teaching."

METHOD 2 - Assign tasks

Have everyone read the same passage together. Then break into groups. Assign 3-4 questions from the material to each of your 3-4 small groups. Each person in the group has an assignment: presenter, scribe, cross-referencer, dictionary, artist/poster designer, etc. Groups work together to answer their questions for a short period of time (use a timer). Leave time to present answers to questions at the end of class.

METHOD 3 - Breaking up cliques

As people enter class, hand them a pre-cut shape, like square, circle, diamond, etc. After reading a text or watching a movie together as a group, have each of the shapes group themselves together by shape for discussion. You could make additional assignments, like presenter, artist, etc, by color or word written on the back of each shape.

Another tip

I have found small groups work best when each group is doing a DIFFERENT type of presentation. For example, last week I had students split into three groups of varying sizes to do a presentation using light/fire, drama, and a third using photography.

Invite a guest to come share an experience with a gospel topic with the class. Listen during sacrament meeting, Sunday School, and other times to find people who have experiences or testimony that is valuable to share with your students.

I've had great success doing this, especially when I take the time to explain the purpose of my lesson to the guest. "We're having a lesson on missionary work; would you speak?" isn't clear enough. "We are studying the scripture Jeremiah 16:16. Would you come to my class next Sunday during the third hour and share a mission experience about hunting people out of the holes in the rocks with our class? Is 15 minutes enough time?" is much better.

Have a short (I mean it -- SHORT), great quote written on the board when students come into class. They will read it and begin to focus on the topic of your lesson before you even say a word. I've done this with gospel quotes and other saying, like "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility" from Spiderman. It helps students get their minds on topic even before the prayer. If they already know your lesson material, they will try to guess how you will use the topic in your lesson, which helps you get great comments and discussion.

EXAMPLE: On the board I wrote, "What are you worth to Heavenly Father?" (1 Corinthians 7:23)

EXAMPLE: During a class on temptation, I wrote this quote from the Art of War by Sun Tzu :

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

This technique is found in the Come Follow Me manual. It's difficult to have several people teaching a class, and it's also not beneficial for other students to watch just one student teach. Here's how I would do it:

Help each student prepare a brief lesson on a gospel principle, while working in pairs. The lesson will probably include thoughtful questions, scripture references or quotes from the prophets, personal experiences or ways to apply the passage, and opportunity for each of the student teachers to explain the things they know are true about the topic (bear testimony). This could be done at mutual or during a Seminary lesson.

Working with another teacher, have your pairs of students teach small groups of students in another class. This will give all students equal opportunity to both prepare and teach the lesson.

This technique does not make a lot of sense in the adult classroom, unless you're teaching mission prep or gospel principles.

This technique is great for scriptures that have multiple great phrases of advice or wisdom, but that don't require a whole lot of discussion to understand.

Either have students go in order through a passage, or write scripture references on the board and use Hey There Delilah or Cold-calling to have random students read verses. When called on, each student should state the "one-liner," or the words or phrases that are the most significant in the verse.

I am using this in Luke chapter 6:28-49 tomorrow in class.

You may want to have students write their one-liners on the board, too.

You think I'm kidding, but rearranging the seating has a HUGE effect on classroom management in my experience.

Changing up the classroom causes the students to try to figure out what is going on, and they get excited about the lesson. If you normally use tables in Seminary, set up without them. If you normally don't use tables -- set up one Sunday with them and do a drawing or note taking exercise. The break from routine really helps students get excited about lessons.

I gave a detailed lecture on this topic during the Teaching Saints Virtual Summit over at Leading Saints. The summit was free when it first broadcast, but it is well worth your money to pay for and watch the entire summit. I didn't/don't get paid for promoting Leading Saints and did the podcast for free. Running a podcast is expensive, and Kurt is doing amazing work over there. Check it out!