Read the same block with different eyes looking for different things, as if you were wearing a new pair of glasses with different lenses. A parent, a bishop, a missionary, a teenager, someone tired and depressed, someone newly married, someone needing repentance, someone who doesn't get along with their parents, etc. For example, ask the […]
This exercise requires a good imagination. After reading the verses silently (perhaps a few times), invite your class to close their eyes and take a few minutes trying to visualize the scene depicted in the scriptures in your mind. Try to imagine every detail, see how people walked, talked, and acted. What is the scenery? […]
Jigsaw was first developed in the early 1970s by Elliot Aronson and his students at the University of Texas and the University of California. To teach using the Jigsaw method, “divide a topic up into, say, four sub-topics. For example childhood diseases could be divided into mumps, measles, whooping cough and German measles. Alternatively students […]
Don't be afraid to take the your students outside for a field trip to help them learn a lesson. EXAMPLE: Next I took the kids up the hill to our apple trees. With some small pruners, I pruned off a few branches while explaining to the kids that I had a plan for these trees. […]
Use a respected adult to help you teach the class. Separate into groups and have the other adult teach one group while you teach another. Give the students a few minutes at the end of class to share what they learned. EXAMPLE: When teaching Ruth, I asked my husband to take the boys while I […]
Look for ways to help students share those ideas that they have in common. For example, all of your students have had experiences with prayer, church attendance, hurt feelings, etc. EXAMPLE: I asked the students to tell me what they had learned about the benefits of scripture study. Going around the room, each student told […]
Assign students to make a movie about a gospel topic. You may want to have students plan their script so that a Primary child can understand it. My students happen to love anything dramatic, so this is very easy for us. I have a big box of dress up clothes and wigs that they use […]
The following is a report I wrote after a Seminary inservice meeting where I attended a class on Asking Better Questions: I had the good fortune of being in Brother Baraclough's class on Asking Better Questions. Watching him teach was at least as instructive as the material, if not more, and so I really enjoyed […]
When I teach, I try to apply the law of witnesses: "in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established," (See D&C 6:28, 2 Corinthians 13:1, Deuteronomy 19:15, 2 Nephi 29:8, Matthew 18:16) to my Lesson preparation. The idea is that as teachers, we're always looking for "witnesses" to the word. […]
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.
