Sunday School

[Vort]

1 hour ago, zil2 said:

On 08 June I attended a training session for teachers and presidencies.  Brother Milton Camargo, First Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency did most of the training.  He said some things that may help:

1. When the current SSGP was called, President Nelson told him that his focus should be:

• Help people study the gospel and scriptures in their own homes
• Improve the quality of teaching in the home and Church

2. Bro. Camargo told us that the first question we should discuss in our classes is: "What has the Holy Ghost (that being the key part of this question) taught you during your study this week?" (Or you could say over the past 2 weeks.)  My notes say: invite people to practice learning from the Holy Ghost.  (I think that was part of the discussion of how to help people do this, since seminary stats suggest that the majority of the active members are not having scripture study in their home.)

3. The teachers and presidencies should be asking themselves: What can I do to help members do those two bullet items under #1 above.  There was a good bit of discussion about that.  Related to this, invite people to consider, "What does the Lord want to teach me (as I study this material)?"

And I'll try to create a chart that was presented (hard to do without fixed-width font.  Foo, I'll just go make a graphic...

 

Personally, if I'm teaching, I only go into info/history if I think it's absolutely necessary, and then I lecture very briefly (like less than a minute, if I can) and I tell them what I'm doing - setting the background, reminding them of the characters or plot of the story.  I do my best to stay in that "best" quadrant - and have since I first was called to be a teacher - what, in my 20s?

For the record—and I know I'm in the distinct minority—I greatly enjoy a good lecture. A gospel doctrine class structured as a (good) lecture is, to me, much more useful than the usual mishmash of people reading verses in isolation and then sporadically offering personal glosses, off-the-cuff insights, and semirelevant anecdotes. I'm unhappy to see "lecture" included as the far-left-hand (bad) opposite to "inspired discussion". I don't think that's fair or accurate.

That said, I think I understand what the chart is trying to convey. I still maintain that lecturing, per se, is not the problem, and that teaching through lecture has resulted in some of the very best classroom experiences I have ever had. But the Church is trying to push something on a more fundamental level, something that transcends what we normally do. So I'll get behind that effort.

[zil2]

24 minutes ago, Vort said:

I greatly enjoy a good lecture

Yes, that's what Sacrament Meeting, Stake Conference, and General Conference are for.

25 minutes ago, Vort said:

people reading verses in isolation and then sporadically offering personal glosses, off-the-cuff insights, and semirelevant anecdotes

Well, that's not what it's supposed to be.  I hope I'm not the only one who is regularly in a Spirit-guided discussion of the doctrine and how to apply it in our lives.

26 minutes ago, Vort said:

I still maintain that lecturing, per se, is not the problem, and that teaching through lecture has resulted in some of the very best classroom experiences I have ever had. But the Church is trying to push something on a more fundamental level, something that transcends what we normally do. So I'll get behind that effort.

Perhaps the issue is that there are few in the Church who could give a good 40-minute lecture (every other week).  And perhaps it is that this (Spirit-led discussion) is more likely to encourage the home-centered, Church-supported learning and worship we're supposed to be engaging in.  So, I would agree, lecture isn't necessarily bad, but it would encourage too many people to do nothing at home and just come and spend 40 minutes basking in the glow of a gospel orator and then go home and wait for next Sunday.  It would also deny the opportunity to ask questions, or share personal experiences in learning and living the gospel - which should help us to be one, to bear one another's burdens, to minister, etc. - I think the class discussion (when done right) can encourage even those who don't verbally enter the discussion to engage in home study, and help them in living the gospel.

[Carborendum]

2 hours ago, zil2 said:

1. ... focus should be:

• Help people study the gospel and scriptures in their own homes
• Improve the quality of teaching in the home and Church

2. ... the first question we should discuss in our classes is: "What has the Holy Ghost (that being the key part of this question) taught you during your study this week?"

3. The teachers and presidencies should be asking ... "What does the Lord want to teach me (as I study this material)?"

46 minutes ago, Vort said:

...I greatly enjoy a good lecture. A gospel doctrine class structured as a (good) lecture is, to me, much more useful than the usual mishmash of people reading verses in isolation and then sporadically offering personal glosses, off-the-cuff insights, and semirelevant anecdotes. I'm unhappy to see "lecture" included as the far-left-hand (bad) opposite to "inspired discussion". I don't think that's fair or accurate.

I believe that the problem with "lectures" is that most people don't know how to give them. Public speaking is a talent.  And most people have to work pretty hard to develop that talent.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving a lecture in Sunday School as long as it is engaging, insightful, doctrinally accurate, and is filled with the Holy Ghost.  But how often is that achieved?

I'll go ahead and toot my own horn a bit to make a point.  I am a very effective public speaker, and I'm a very effective Sunday school teacher.  But I prepare my Sacrament mtg talks and my Sunday school classes differently.

When giving a talk, I purposefully choose words to engage without asking for feedback.  There is a different methodology when you 100% expect no verbal feedback throughout the talk.  And this is the rule if it is a 5 min talk or a 40 talk.  You are responsible for asking the questions that you think the audience would ask if they were to participate.  Then you provide answers based on your study and inspiration.  When you ask a question, it is not because you expect an answer.  It is because you want them to understand the mental journey you went through to get to the conclusion you arrived at.

The classroom setting is such that even if you have a 100% lecture, there will always be the chance of having a hand raised for comment/question/input, etc.  So, you have to plan accordingly.  The plan will depend on the audience's level of participation and knowledge.  I've been in some wards where I could ask the most basic question, and no one would know the answer.  Other wards, I could just ask a few questions and the entire class would go back and forth with me barely moderating the discussion.

Problems arise when there is a mismatch.

• A baby needs milk or formula.  The teacher puts the box of dry formula on the table with a pitcher of water.  Now, feed yourselves.
• A class of high school honors students who have really gotten ready for a discussion.  The teacher has a lecture covering stuff that the class learned in 3rd grade, and he won't let them speak.
• A class and teacher both prepare and are ready for a discussion.  But multiple individuals (class members as well as teacher) see things so completely differently that they have a problem communicating.
• My favorite: Class members are at different levels.  But you have to teach in a manner that teaches the newbie as well as being engaging for the gospel scholar -- in the same lesson.

[mordorbund]

7 hours ago, zil2 said:

And perhaps it is that this (Spirit-led discussion) is more likely to encourage the home-centered, Church-supported learning and worship we're supposed to be engaging in.

Release the Sunday School teachers and appoint a different teacher every week. On the spot. Oh they’ll study at home all right.

….

Attendance might drop a bit

[zil2]

25 minutes ago, mordorbund said:

Attendance might drop a bit

  Yeah, sadly, this is true.  In my current ward, over the last 3-5 years, there have been times when the teacher didn't show.  Sometimes we went to the other gospel doctrine class, but other times, we just agreed to have the class without a teacher - and we discussed what we had learned from our own study - they were some of the best classes we had (not that we didn't have a good teacher, just that this type of discussion was what usually ensued anyway).