Most of us talk too much when we answer a question. It is our natural reaction to share all the information we have on a subject before finding out what the student already knows or how anxious he or she is to know it. In order to answer briefly, you should first ensure you understand […]

Our Class "Scripture Scrolls"This idea comes from Jenny Smith at Mormon ShareIt was easier to make than antcipated.I got the rolling pins from  Wmt and I have seen them on AmazonEach day, a student acts as class scribe and writes or draws somethin...

By Adriene Olsen Murray I used this idea from our Seminary Coordinator. It works best with a short section or block of scriptures. It was really fun. The kids found things that I had not thought of and explained what it meant to them. Divide the board into four columns: Zinger -- find verses in […]

By Scott Knecht It is satisfying at the end of a class to sit back and think how well I covered the material for the students. Teachers love to cover things and to say things like "we covered that really well in class today and the students are all ready for the test." I think […]

Last week we were doing housekeeping things during class and did not get to cover the stories that students were reading in as much depth as I would prefer.  I used this method to quickly cover 4 chapters students had read before class, as an introduction to the next chapters in Acts. RULES: Each zone […]

If you've got a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time, you can cover the material more efficiently when you know what students already know about the topic.  One way to quickly assess student understanding of series of events is to give them strips of paper with the main events summarized […]

Ah, the dreaded Pop Quiz. There's a reason that this old-style teaching method hasn't been thrown out: it's super effective. This evil-sounding tool can be used by the wise teacher to help cover a lot of material very quickly, review previously studied material, or to determine how well students are understanding material.  Plus, it takes […]

Students are invited to write a quiz. It can be in the style of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, Jeopardy, or even just plain old question and answer style. Students will stand in front of the class and be the game show host. Sometimes my students write questions to ask the teacher, or other […]

I learned this extremely versatile teaching technique from Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov. Basically, you assign a writing prompt. Everyone writes the answer. Then, as many people as you choose are invited to share. Sometimes I have each person share their written response. Other times, when there's a big group, I assign a […]

Each student has a Styrofoam plate, a wet wipe, and a regular water cleanup (not permanent) marker. Ask students questions that can be answered in a few short phrases. They write their answers and flip over their plates. After a few moments, ask everybody to display their plates. I have used this as a lesson […]