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 […]

Have students come up with a single word that best describes a verse(s) or principle/doctrine. (Adapted from Panning for Gold: Various Methods to Understand and Apply the Scriptures to Ourselves by Eric Bacon, Northwest Area Seminaries)  

Using the chalkboard or an easel to show a brief lesson outline can help you cover material efficiently and effectively. You'll find that writing verses on the board will help students follow and anticipate the direction of your lesson, resulting in better discussion. It will also help you stay on task and more easily cover […]

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 […]