Archives for 2017

The Prodigal Son

By Catechist's Aide on March 7, 2017 0

As we now find ourselves in the penitential season of Lent, it is the perfect time to review the Sacrament of Reconciliation and discuss God’s infinite mercy. A few weeks ago, in preparing my class of 7th and 8th graders to go to Confession, we did just that. I think this age group is ready to move past viewing sin as merely behaving badly, and toward a view of sin as a rejection of God and his love. I am pleased to report that after Confessions, the priest addressed the students and thanked them for taking the Sacrament so seriously. He told them that he could tell that they had prepared well, and he encouraged them to come back to Confession often.

In the course of our preparation, I couldn’t pass up the chance to look in-depth at the parable of the Prodigal Son. I prepared a Lectio Divina on the parable and we broke into small groups to read and discuss. I was happy to see the kids engaged and able to relate to all of the characters in the parable, the young son, the older brother and the father.

Below is a link to the Lectio Divina. Feel free to download a copy and please let me know how this works in your class.

Lectio Divina – The Prodigal Son

Be Prepared … to Change

By Catechist's Aide on February 9, 2017 0

Lesson planning is essential to success in the classroom, but sometimes plans need to change if you’re not getting the desired result or if things outside your control change. Always have a backup plan. Many times I’ve been told minutes before class is about to begin that there will be a 15 minute presentation to all students about the Giving Tree, Rice Bowls or Youth Camp, etc. This means I now have to fit a 60 minute lesson plan into just 45 minutes. There could also be technical difficulties, even traffic and weather issues that impact your class, so flexibility can be key. Be prepared in advance to know where you can shorten your presentation without losing any of the fundamental learning objectives.

Also, be prepared with activities to fill time if need be. I like to carry a packet of jeopardy style questions that I can pull out if we have extra time at the end of the lesson. Other things you can do to stretch time:

Quiz the students on who can recall Sunday’s gospel reading, and then discuss its meaning in more detail.
Ask students if they would like to share their community service experiences with the class.
Have prepared filler segments like, “Why do Catholics Do That?” to explain to the class why Catholics genuflect, bless themselves with holy water, say the rosary, use incense, etc.
If the Church or the Pope is in the news, you may want to spend a few minutes discussing current events within the Church.
Introduce a new prayer to your class, share its background and history, and then pray it together.
Teach the students about a saint.

3 Tips for Engaging Your Students From the Start

By Catechist's Aide on February 4, 2017 0

You may be familiar with the quote from motivational author, Louise Hay:

“How you start your day is how you’re going to live your day. And how you live your day is the way you live your life.”

I’m a firm believer that how you start your class can make all the difference in how that class goes. Mindset does matter, and establishing a positive mindset that is open to learning at the beginning of class, can help set the tone for the rest of class. So, here are 3 tips for engaging your students from the start.

1. Open with Prayer – As catechists, we should never pass up any opportunity to bring prayer and periods of reflection into the classroom. Opening class with a prayer helps to set the mood and tone for the next hour. If the class is large, I generally lead the prayer myself, rather than have everyone join in. One of my favorite prayers to use at the beginning of class is:
  Lord Jesus, we invite you into our classroom today.
  Bless our minds and fill them with knowledge and wonder about your world.
  Open our eyes to all our education offers us each day, and help us learn your ways.
  Fill our mouths with kind words that show appreciation to our teachers, classmates, and friends.
  Forgive us when we forget that you are our guest.
  Thank you for dwelling in our hearts, our classroom, and our school with your spirit, grace, and love.
  We ask all of this through you, our greatest teacher of all.
  Amen.
  
  Adapted from: Manion, Betty (2012-04-26). Prayers Before the Bell: Inviting Christ Into the Classroom (Kindle Locations 142-156). Liguori Publications. Kindle Edition.
  
  There are many options for prayers for the classroom. You can use the Sunday Gospel reading, or tailor a prayer or verse from Scripture that relates to that day’s lesson. Feel free to be creative and enhance the prayer by having individual students lead the prayer, light a candle, or read an accompanying verse from scripture.
2. Introduce the Topic – Get Their Attention – After you’ve set the mood with an opening prayer – dive straight into your Introduction. This is where you get your students’ attention. This can be through a short video clip, a song, an anecdote, a Bible verse, asking a thought provoking question of the class, a quote, or even a joke. The idea here is to use something impactful to get their attention, and motivate them to want to listen and hear more.
3. Tell Students What You Expect Them to Learn – Now that you have your students’ attention, preview the lesson for them. Tell them what they will learn today, and how they will demonstrate that they’ve learned it. This can be as simple as saying, “Today we will begin our study of the Apostle’s Creed. We will discuss many things, but your objective today is to be able to identify the four pillars of the Catholic faith, distinguish between Theological, scientific and philosophical truths, explain what it means that our faith is both monotheistic and Trinitarian, and explain in your own words why God, who is almighty and all powerful, gives us free will.” The idea here is to let the class know they have a responsibility and lets them know what they need to focus on.

Setting the Tone for Class

By Catechist's Aide on January 26, 2017 0

Establish Rules for Classroom Behavior Up-Front

Let your students know, from the first day of class, what your expectations are in terms of their behavior in the classroom. It may be helpful to either make them sign a “Classroom Contract” indicating they understand the rules of the classroom, or keep a poster with the rules visible in the room. Sure, you’ll have to remind them throughout the year, but be clear, be consistent, and keep reminding them until it becomes a habit. It’s like teaching your children to put on a seatbelt in the car. You don’t just say it once, you say “Okay everyone buckle up” every time you get in the car until they do it without even thinking about it.

Some rules that I find helpful for middle school students:

- No Distractions. All schoolbooks, homework, cell phones and tablets, and any other type of distraction (including snacks) should be put away when class begins – items that are not put away WILL be taken away until class is over.
- LISTEN = SILENT. The word “listen” contains the exact same letters as the word “silent” and when I’m talking, you should be listening – in other words be silent. There will be many opportunities for you to speak out; when I am talking is not one of them.
- Visitors to the classroom. From time to time we may have visitors to our class. When any visitor, whether it is Father, a guest speaker, or one of your parents, enters our classroom, everyone needs to immediately quiet down and give our guest your full attention and respect.
- Respectful use of the classroom. Other students, or parish groups, use our classroom for various activities. Do not touch or move anything that does not belong to you. At the end of class, all students should return chairs to their original location, and tidy up their area. Any trash should be placed in trash receptacles.
- Behavior in Church/Chapel – Students’ behavior during visits to Church should reflect that they are in a sacred and holy place. Silence should be observed, and students should display proper reverence by genuflecting before the Tabernacle and bowing before the altar. Remember that as middle school students you serve as an example for the younger children.

Learning Stations Follow-Up

By Catechist's Aide on January 25, 2017 0

Last week I was very excited about my upcoming class with learning stations on the Sacraments of Initiation. I’d like to use this blog post to give a brief “post-mortem” on the class and discuss how the activity was received by my middle school students. The prep for this class was no small undertaking, but fortunately the lesson plan is clearly detailed and laid out at Joe Paprocki’s Catchist’s Journey.

I thought the stations were age appropriate for middle school students, but would have worked for younger students as well. I have a large class with 32 students (a mix of 7^th and 8^th graders). The students were very receptive to a more interactive approach to learning. We started by breaking the class into 4 groups and starting them at different stations. This seemed to work well at first, but because we only had three adults/catechists, one group was always without an adult leader, and this proved problematic as we progressed through the stations. This was the result of poor planning on my part. I should have asked for a few parent volunteers, and that would have helped to ensure that all groups progress through the stations in a timely and orderly fashion.

I made a few changes to some of the stations, but for the most part stuck to the script. As I mentioned before, the kids really embraced the various forms of interactive learning. We meet for 1 hour and 15 minutes, but taking into account opening/closing prayers, attendance, announcements and other class business, we really only have an hour for instruction. We could have benefitted from having a little more time. Some of the activities took a little longer than others, which caused bottlenecks at times. Now that I’ve established where those log jams occur, I can route the students differently in future classes.

Bottom line, the class was a great experience, and I will definitely do it again. If you are considering using this lesson plan, I would encourage you to do so. Don’t worry if things don’t go perfectly. Based on my personal experience, I can offer two pieces of advice. First, consider your class size and make sure you have an adequate number of adults to lead students through the stations. Second, consider the actual amount of class time you have available to you. It may be worthwhile to split the stations into 2 classes.

Sacraments of Initiation

By Catechist's Aide on January 16, 2017 0

No class today, but I am busy preparing for next week’s lesson which will feature a free lesson plan created by Joe Paprocki and featured at Catechist’s Journey. It’s an interactive session featuring Learning Stations for the Sacraments of Initiation. The stations focus on the visible and invisible realities of the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. There are four stations for each of the sacraments, each representing one of the signs which are visible in the rite of the sacraments. Through various activities the students learn about what is really happening that we cannot see – the invisible reality of the sacrament.

I have followed Joe Paprocki for many years and read several of his books. He has been an invaluable asset to me as a catechist. The lesson plan is a re-working of one that originally appeared on his blog site several years ago. I used that original lesson plan in 2014. It was a success, but to be completely honest, I didn’t fully commit to the process. This year, I am “all in.” I’m looking forward to reporting back next week on how everything went.