Do your best to stay aware of the things your students are doing as service projects or at school. Find out about the things they are doing right, and ask them to share their experiences during class. Be specific with your instructions, and be prepared to ask the students questions to help them with their […]

Students pretend to be newscasters who tell a familiar gospel story. EXAMPLE: I told my students that we were going to pretend to be newscasters describing the events of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Each zone received a section of Matthew 21 to give a news cast on. The parables were difficult, but the kids […]

Try to identify patterns in the scriptures that can help your students overcome challenges. Look for words that repeat, phrases that describe a behavior or character trait, or doctrine, principle. EXAMPLE During our discussion of Matthew 4, I had my students explain Jesus' three temptations to the class. I listed them on the board. Then […]

Students open their notebooks and write two things: one question they had about the reading and one thing they learned anew or that they had forgotten. We spent probably 40 minutes covering the things they wrote. Great discussion and opportunity for sharing.

This is another form of student-directed randomized scripture reading. Students stand to read a verse and then call the name of someone else to stand and read the following verse. The kids are "popping" up to read. This is also a good technique when you're doing Everybody Writes (each student writes a a brief response […]

I used these questions on a worksheet to help students evaluate and understand personalities in the scriptures: :: Character Study :: Name: Scripture: Spouse/Children: Age: Hometown: Occupation: Describe this person using only three words. Circle the word you feel is this person's core quality: ________________ , ________________ , ________________ Briefly describe the person's attitude toward: […]

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 […]

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 […]

My students love group drawing. It's good for covering material that is easy to imagine visually. I have also used it to cover distressing topics -- like the events preceding the second coming -- because these events seem less frightening when sketched for some reason. I have done group drawing a couple of ways. One […]

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. […]