Preparation H

I posted this article earlier this month at: Preparation H » Amazing Catechists



I teach 6th graders. That's my little catechetical world: 11 and 12 year-olds. In keeping with Amazing Catechists' mission statement, this column will be about "the how-to, hands-on, here's-what-worked-for-me stuff that will help our readers to bring their faith and morality lessons profoundly to life"....for 6th graders. Don't you think that's enough introduction? I do. Time to discuss what works in my classroom. Let's start at the beginning.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be a lesson plan."

The most important part of class happens before class: Preparation. It doesn't have to be painful like the title of the article, but you must prepare. Physical preparation: you must write a lesson plan for every class. By that I mean before each class starts you have a written description of what you are going to cover. Reading the chapter a few times isn't enough. Having some key terms on a note card isn't enough. Reading from the textbook during class is a cop-out. And no fair filling time with something other than teaching! Movies are a time-filler! I know I'll get flak for this, but I believe craft projects and games are time-fillers in 6th grade as well. The kids are old enough to learn without diversions such as movies or projects. Besides the fact that they're old enough, every minute of available class time is precious and should never be lightly used. We all know how indifferently-trained in faith many of our charges are; part of fixing that is being prepared to teach nonstop for the whole class period. A lesson plan doesn't just make that possible: it makes it easy.

Now I know everyone has heard "make a lesson plan" before. And then the catechist reasonably thinks: yes, but how do I make a lesson plan? Well, let's look at one of my lesson plans and see how I do it.

First I should mention our textbook (which comes with a separate workbook). It's a good one with orthodox, substantial content. It's a textbook for a regular 180-day school year. Uh-oh. Catechism meets 30 times a year....see the problem? To try to use the textbook directly won't work timewise, yet the material must be covered. I don't know if other Religious Ed textbooks are purpose-written for 'Sunday Schoolers,' but isn't it nice to have a worst-case for an example?
The book has 31 chapters. Since not all chapters are created equal, I was able to leave one out without skipping anything important in the book's progression of concepts. I cover the remaining 30, one chapter per class period (more or less).

To begin a lesson plan, I read the chapter (this includes the workbook questions and the support material in the teacher's edition) twice in one sitting with a magic marker & a pencil. The pencil adds comments, the marker both highlights and crosses out. Then I do something else for a while, to get away from it. I won’t pick up the book again until the next day at the soonest.

For the third reading, I sit with a pencil and an 8.5 x 11 legal pad. I now have a pretty good sense of what I need to cover due to my prior notes & marks. It works out for me that one full page of a lesson plan takes me a full class period (50-55 minutes). If the chapter runs, say 4 pages, then each page in the textbook gets about 1/4 of my legal sheet. As I read the chapter, I am noting on the legal pad how I'll teach the material. I add/subtract from the textbook as I see fit. Sticking to a one-page limit forces me to budget what I expect to teach in the allotted time. I itemize the concepts, it keeps them separate: I don't want one huge paragraph. I should get to the bottom of the pad as I reach the end of the chapter.



Here's my class binder open to my plan for Chapter 17, the Last Supper. It's typical. The whole class will be run from what you see here, plus a Bible. Before we consider the notes on the right, look on the left. I've copied the chapter cheatsheet from my teacher's edition, and holepunched it on the right side so it will face my notes. I have noted the terms the chapter wants the kids to know, and pinked them. While roll is called at the start of class and kids settle in, I write these on the board. Also see the four lesson blocks at the bottom; I highlight critical ideas there, it helps me see how I'm doing time-wise. If I'm running behind, I'll usually drop something rather than go faster.

The little pink sheet is some stuff from the prior class I wanted to recap and questions I needed to answer.

Now to the right, The Lesson Plan (drumroll). I have 8 items on the page, it just worked out that way. Being a Last Supper class, Item 1 gives background for Item 2, which is the Passover. I will stick to the original document and ignore the extra notes and changes that I added over the years.

Item 1 notes read: Exodus- Prince of Egypt (Moses & Rameses) Hebrews-famine [Nile] slaves of Pharaoh (Great House), 9 plagues, last plague death of firstborn.

This doesn't tell me what to say, and it's not something I can read aloud. It's simply notes to guide my teaching. Part of this will be storytelling, some acting out, some questions the kids will answer, and no reading. It may vary in detail each year, that's fine. But look, how hard was that? (You answer, "Maybe not too hard.")

Item 2 covers the Passover itself and is a little different: Exodus 11 read, then 12, discuss each part in turn. Conclude unblemished Lamb sacrifice/ eat Lamb/ sprinkle blood/ perpetual institution/ free from slavery/ covenant sign blood
I read from my cheap Bible, but not the whole of the chapters, just parts I've highlighted. (the Bible is cheap so I don't feel bad marking it up.) And I don't read more than a verse or two without asking the kids a question, such as, "suppose pigs were on sale at the market...could the Hebrews just kill a pig instead of a lamb? No? Well, why not? Could they just put red paint on the doorposts? No? Why not?"

Item 4 notes treat the Bread of Life discourse: Jesus- John 6 discuss each part, whole chapter. Count times 'eat flesh.' Recall yesterday's miracle. Note Passover. Peter doesn't understand yet, either. Again, some reading, some storytelling, some acting out, some questions & answers.

Now let's jump ahead to Item 7, which is different.

Item 7 is a diagram that will go on the board, comparing the Passover meals of the Old and New Testaments. It's part textbook notes, and part my thinking. As each bit is added to the board, I ask the kids what goes next, or why two things such as the Lamb and Jesus are alike.

The other lesson plan items are similar enough to these in execution to not need examination. The point is that this and every other lesson plan gets me through the class period without using the textbook, without dead time, and with enough variety and some flexibility to keep things stimulating. It can be tough to write the first one, but it gets easy real fast. Yours may be nothing like mine, that's ok, right? (You answer, "Yes, it's ok!")

What matters is that you write one, and that it works for you and your children.

[Jesus said] "you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." 9 And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? Get started on your lesson plans!"

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BTW, once you can compose a lesson plan in your head as well as on paper, you may do something much simpler, such as this; or this.

I Remember It Well

I was born in 1957, which makes me, ummm, ehhh.... you do the math. I well remember the Mass in Latin, and also the first Mass in English. Growing up with the Tridentine Mass meant that like all Catholic kids of the day, I learned a lot of Latin. We didn't just know the sounds of the words, but the meanings of many. The missals had the English & Latin on facing pages, parents knew the Latin, no big deal.

One of my favorite lines of that Mass was, "Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo et sanabitur puer meus/ Lord, I am not worthy that thou should enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant (literally, my boy) shall be healed." Of course in English we say soul, not servant. I like servant better: it sticks to the story....you know the story, right?

So when I read recently that the latest changes to the English Mass were approved, I eagerly checked here USCCB - Roman Missal Examples to see if the language of my childhood had been restored.

The only problem is, I remembered wrong. This is the actual Tridentine Mass line:

Dómine non sum dignus ut íntres sub tectum meum: sed tantum dic verbo, et sanábitur ánima mea/ Lord, I am not worthy that thou should enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed."

Oh. But I had been taught the story of Jesus and the Centurion. I remember the story and the original verse, which is stronger than the Mass version. So at every Mass, even though the Missal said in both Latin and English, "my soul shall be healed," I was thinking, I heard, "my servant shall be healed," while I imagined the scene at the top of the page.

I was truly surprised to learn that the Tridentine didn't say servant. In fact I didn't really believe it until I went home for lunch, where I could check in my father's old Missal: yep, ánima mea/ my soul it is, right there in print. I woulda swore it said servant. But even thinking servant didn't prevent me as a child from knowing that in the Mass the line referred to me, my soul, and not the soldier's servant. I'd been taught the story, how it applied in Mass, and recalled the whole thing each time I spoke/ read that single line.

This little episode makes a catechetical point: one of the best ways to teach is to tell a Bible story. Often the kids will already know all or part of a particular story, but have not learned how it can inform their faith. When a memorable story is connected to the specifics of Catholic faith, faith is strengthened.

When my class learns about the Mass, among other stories we discuss Jesus and the Centurion. Here's how we do it:

Y'all tell me, what's a centurion? A soldier. Yes, what flavor....Chinese? Ha, no a Roman soldier! Yes. Who knows the story of Jesus and the Centurion? Yes, honorary son, tell it. He came to Jesus because his daughter was sick and needed to be made better. Good, half right. It wasn't his daughter....who was sick? His servant! Right. By the way, how many soldiers does a centurion command? No guesses? How many years in a century? 100.... 100 men! Yes. How many cents in a dollar? 100! What language did Romans speak? Latin! So c-e-n-t is Latin for...100! Yes, geniuses!

So let's see: Was the centurion a Christian? No! Well, was he a Jew? No! Oh that's right, he was Russian. No he wasn't, he was Roman! We just said so! Oh yeah, I forgot. Russian, Roman.... aren't they about the same? No! Oh. Well, if he wasn't Christian or Jew or Russian, what did he believe in? He was a pagan. Yes, he believed in a bunch of made-up gods. So if he was a pagan, why was he bugging Jesus? Well, he believed Jesus could cure his servant. Yes. Even if he didn't have faith in Jesus the way the Apostles did, he still had faith, a kind of practical faith. Having faith that Jesus could heal his servant, did the soldier stay home with his servant and pray to Jesus? No, he went to see Jesus and talk to him in person. Yes, because the centurion was made of a...? Body'n'soul! Yes, so if he believed in his soul that Jesus could cure, his body would have to....? Do something! Yes, in this case his body....went to Jesus to ask in person. Yes. He acted on his faith. And this way he could see his faith, Jesus could, and everyone else saw it, too. Did people see his soul? No, but they saw what he did. Yes. Can you see anybody's soul? No, it's invisible. Right, but you can see what people do, including yourself.

So when he told Jesus about his servant, what did Jesus do? Yes, daughter? Jesus started to go to his house, but the soldier said Jesus didn't have to. Yes, what exactly did the soldier say? Nobody remembers? That's ok, y'all are doing fine so far, let me read from Matthew what he said:

"Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed." Oh that's like at Mass! You are right, we'll get to that in a minute, don't give it away yet! What's the first part mean: "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof"? Well, he doesn't think he's good enough for Jesus to come to his house. Yes, is any of us that good? No.....Right, why not? No takers? It's because we all have something in common, we're all...? Sinners? Yes, so the Roman isn't just speaking about himself, he's speaking about us all. Now the last bit, "only say the word, and my servant shall be healed," what's that mean? He still trusts Jesus to fix the servant if Jesus says he will. Yes. Jesus will heal his servant even if both of them are sinners. And though he trusts Jesus, he still needs to hear Jesus say it out loud, because the soldier has a....body'n'soul! Yes, it helps him if his ears hear the words. His body'n'soul believe together. Just like ours do.

Now at Mass, as you noticed, right before communion we hear this: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you; but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed." Where's that come from? The story! Yes. At Mass what's this mean: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you"? It means we're not real good all the time. Yes, we sin like the centurion. And this: "only say the word, and my soul shall be healed"? Well, that Jesus can heal our souls? Yes, it's pretty clear. We hear this right before communion to remind us that we as Catholics should have at least as much faith as the pagan Roman, and that Jesus gives us not the body healing the servant received, but...? Ummm, soul healing? Yes, put it another way, please. Ummm, our sins are forgiven?

Yes, genuises, good work! Don't just remember the story; remember what it means.

PS

For those too young to have seen "Gigi," I offer this dab of a song by Honore (Maurice Chevalier) & Mamita (Hermione Gingold). No man ever smiled with such radiance as Maurice Chevalier.

H: We met at nine....
M: We met at eight!
H: I was on time....
M: No, you were late!
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well! We dined with friends,
M: We dined alone!
H: A tenor sang,
M: A baritone!
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sISWPzEqHLQ

A Puritan's Grace

My Wife the Energizer Bunny has graciously consented to feed nineteen people tomorrow. As Lord of the Manor, I'll say something about Thanksgiving as a prelude to grace. This year I wondered what sort of reflections the Puritans would have offered at the first Thanksgiving. I Googled around for a while, but didn't find anything that struck me. So I've decided to confect something that I think a Puritan would appreciate, should any Puritans be among tomorrow's cloud of witnesses:
"Sailing to the the New World in 1620, in a New Ark, the Puritans believed they were establishing a New Israel in a New Canaan. They were a new tribe of Chosen People headed for a new Promised Land. Given how they understood themselves through the Old Testament, I wondered what a Puritan might have said at the first Thanksgiving: something that would be particularly appropriate on that occasion, but would also have meaning in a modern context. And I thought of Psalm 128, which I now paraphrase:
"You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands & all shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. May you live to see your children's children in a happy Jerusalem. How blessed are those who walk in the ways of the Lord!"
And then we'll say grace and eat.
* Mayflower by Mike Haywood

A Christmas Carol

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

I know, it's from 2009...but it's evergreen.

 

Tonight as I came into the gym where everyone collects before going to individual classes, I saw the Boss (DRE) speaking to one of the little kids' teachers about having her group do some handmade Christmas cards for soldiers. Since every millisecond in our class is to be spent on my fastidiously-prepared lesson plan, there's no time for such trifles....although it's fine for the kiddies. But as I approached, the Boss looked my way. I put my "no" face on instantly, but to no avail. My kids should make some cards, too. All right, I guess. Five minutes should be enough time, I can put stuff on the board while they play.

Once in the classroom, I opened our storage bin of class supplies, and there's nothing to color with, only pencils and pens. I said, uh-oh, no colors, guess we won't do cards; we'll have regular class! O routine! O lesson plan! But my able assistant Madame Bouncer unearthed a fine box of color markers from the bowels of a closet, and I was beaten. Paper and markers were passed out along with some instruction. My kids are between 11 and 15 or so; the older ones, especially the boys, weren't diving into this little project with the energy of the 11-year-old girls. I wanted them to get it done.

I said, "Look, don't be tentative or shy about drawing something. I'm an architect, I get paid good money to draw and color pictures all day long. You can do it, but you have to start drawing now. I used to teach college students in architecture school. If I had 10 students in my studio and they started a new project, say a dentist's office, after an hour only 2 people would have drawn anything at all. I'd ask the other 8, what are you waiting for? Draw! They'd say, "I don't have a good idea yet." I'd say, "Then draw a bad idea." So I want you to do the same thing. Draw. Draw Santy, or a Christmas tree, or baby Jesus, but draw. If it's bad throw it away, there's plenty of paper. A bad drawing gets you closer to a good one. And think of the soldiers in the freezing cold in Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, how happy they'll be to get a Christmas picture from you. It'd make their Christmas. When I was your age I did the same thing for soldiers in Vietnam, we heard back from some of them. I've even made cards for my wife. Remember, love creates; love doesn't go shopping. Make something good."

So even the self-conscious boys got busy, and soon you could hear a pin drop. The only sound was the clicking of the color marker caps on and off. Click click click click click....A few bad ideas were wadded up as preludes to better ones. After 10 minutes, there was no letup in focus or energy. Mme. Bouncer quietly walked around, indicated I should have a look. I did. Good God in Heaven, they were doing the beautiful, serious work that only children can do. Unique, substantial, careful, thoughtful, imaginative. What soldier wouldn't be thrilled to receive one of these? Then 20 minutes: click click click click, still intense. I accepted that the time was being better spent on making cards than covering class material. By 30 minutes, the first cards were being turned in, and full bladders fled to the bathrooms. By 35 minutes, we started on a shortened lesson plan. It was fine. When class was over I told them they'd done good work, and that if they were my children (which I think they are most of the time) I'd give them all a hug and a kiss.

Thank goodness for my DRE, my bouncer, and my dear students. Thank goodness I stayed out of the way.

I love A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Every Christmas I reflect on Ezekiel 36:25: A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. How well it applies to Scrooge's change of heart. How much I'd like it to apply to me. And I ponder this last line by Dickens: "...it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!"
The best class is when the teacher learns from the student; I've already received my Christmas present for this year. So I wish an early 'Merry Christmas' to all our soldiers.

And to all a Good Night.

(at top is a scan of one of my students' cards)

Timespace Liturgy

One of the key concepts in 6th grade Wednesday Sunday School is that our worship at Mass connects directly, physically to the unceasing worship that goes on in Heaven. I use the term 'Holy Tornado' along with some blackboard sketching to show a temporary timespace continuum between Heaven and Earth. (see Trou de Ver) Our prayers go up, zhhhhhpp! Jesus comes down, shhhhhhp! Then after a few minutes, bzhht! the connection is broken until the next Mass. The kids dig the science-fiction-movie sounds.

I use this line from Eucharistic Prayer I to reinforce the point:

“Almighty God, we pray that your angel may take this sacrifice to your altar in Heaven.” Until now I've always drawn this concept on the board. From now on I also have some art to show.

Look at that great image I stumbled upon recently at Tiber Jumper's blog. It differs from similar Mass pictures I've seen since my pre-Vatican 2 childhood. In addition to the crucified Christ made present, it shows an angel ascending to heaven in the midst of the Mass. I imagine the painting is directly inspired by that line from the Eucharistic Prayer, which itself must be partially inspired by Judges 13, and descriptions in Revelations of activities around the altar in heaven, e.g., 8:3-4 which is covered in class:

"And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand."

And check out the upper half of the image....the angel is being caught up (raptured!) by the swirling timespace winds of the Holy Tornado! Who knew?!

If anything beats catechizing 6th grade I want to know what it is.

Tempus Fugit

Yesterday I spent a few hours hanging wallpaper: up & down the stepladder, kneeling to cut & measure, crouching to trim. By the evening my legs were achy & stiff. Later my wife & I were preparing to watch a dvd. I was sitting on the sofa, had to get up and walk across the room to flip a light. I got up slowly, walked over to the switch and announced "I'm over here now." I flipped the switch, walked back to the sofa, slowly sat down, and said "I'm back here now."

My Wife the Energizer Bunny said, "You say it like it's an activity."

I said, "For me, simply being is an activity."

We're either sleeping or laughing.

Baby Night

During the year there are assorted topics (e.g., Christmas, Immaculate Conception, Mother of God, Visitation, Adam & Eve, marriage, Original Sin) that involve having children. On these occasions, I use my 3" plastic fetus to emphasize the baby in the womb is a baby, a person, and to get the kids accustomed to the idea that a weird-looking fetus is no less a person..."hey, were y'all persons when y'all looked like this plastic fetus? Oh yes indeed we were!"

Each year I try to line up a pregnant couple for class. Before the baby is born, I bring in an ultrasound and introduce the baby (by name when possible). We briefly discuss the person-ness of the baby and compare the ultrasound to the plastic baby. I tell the kids they'll have the chance to hold this baby in a couple of months (many 6th graders have never held a baby) and ask the parents (mostly the mother) questions (typical: did it hurt?). The kids should develop an intuitive understanding of the personhood of the baby from conception through birth.

Yesterday was Baby Night, and as is usual for Baby Night, it was a great class. To start things off, everyone cleaned hands with sanitizer. All but one student who was under the weather held baby Avery, the second daughter of my brother Knight (of Columbus) Michael. Avery is about 2 months old, so she was able to make eye-contact with each child who held her; we've always had a baby who can do this, it matters. Baby-holding takes place in the back of the classroom so everyone else can pay attention to the evening's subject matter, which in this case was the 4th Commandment. Because it was also Baby Night, the parent-honoring was was briefly preluded with this:

God is Love. In the beginning God was alone, so what did he do? He made everything. Yes, he created everything. Love always wants to create, because love comes from God, who is Love, and thus Love.... creates? Yes. My daughter Alexandra has a boyfriend who loves her. Her birthday was on Saturday, what did he do? Well, what does love do? Umm....create? Yeah, so?...he made something? Yes, what do we make on someone's birthday? A birthday cake? Yes, he made her a cake. Loves wants to create, to make. A drawing, a poem, music, a cake. That's why a gift we make is usually more meaningful than something we buy. So if love creates, and husbands & wives love each other, what does their love create? Babies? Yes, so remember: baby Avery, who you'll get to hold tonight, is a creation of her parents' love for each other.

(This all is elaborated on in our Adam & Eve class, Dirt & Ribs, and elsewhere, but it's good to get a bit of it in front of them now, while the baby reinforces it physically.)

After everyone had held (and even re-held) the baby, Michael said his family was going be celebrating Avery's spiritual birthday soon, and invited the class to her Baptism. We'll spend next week's class on Baptism, using this as a guide: Blood & Water. Having an upcoming baptism gives some urgency & seriousness to the information.