It’s difficult to say whether students or teachers look forward to summer vacation more—perhaps a secret best kept from the students. Summer is a time for rest, but the distance from the classroom also offers a chance to step back from the everyday demands of teaching and look at the big picture. With a little breathing room, we can evaluate our classrooms, teaching, and students in a fresh light.
Meditating on the big picture questions, especially through prayer, fortifies us for the year ahead. Below are some of the questions I am asking myself during summer vacation, coupled with some lines from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Questions of Christian Witness
“From the beginning, the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Christ, [saying], “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (CCC, 425).
What made the early apostles burn with desire to share Christ?
What had they seen and heard?
How can I cultivate this desire in my own teaching?
“Whoever is called 'to teach Christ' must first seek “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” (CCC, 428).
How might Christ be calling me to deepen my faith life? (For example:studying a particular aspect of the faith, embracing prayer, fasting or almsgiving, participating in service work, participating in the sacramental life, offering my daily work to God.)
What gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit do I feel particularly blessed with as a teacher, and are there any that I need to pray for?
In what ways am I most thankful for my life as a Christian? How does my teaching reflect my gratitude?
Identify a successful lesson, class discussion, activity or assignment from the past year. What made it successful?
How do my lesson plans, activities and assignments illuminate the truth and beauty of the Catholic-Christian life?
How do I help my students in recognizing and cultivating their own desire for Christ?
How do I teach about more than information to be learned, but a life to be lived?
How do I incorporate spiritual, relational, moral, or vocational issues that are immediately relevant to students into the class?
“Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. … And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead” (CCC 357).
How do my interactions with students reflect that they are uniquely lovable in the eyes of God?
In Closing
Perhaps you don’t have time to consider all these questions in depth. Feel free to focus on one or two you feel are most important. Journal about them, pray about them, discuss them with colleagues, and keep them in mind in preparation for next year. Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Barbara Jane Sloan
Holy Spirit Preparatory School
Atlanta, GA
7th Grade and 11th/12th grade Theology
If you use one of the Ave Maria Press Teacher Wraparaound Editions, you'll notice that most of the time we suggest that teachers assign reading for class as homework to free up valuable class time. The problem, as most teachers know, is that it is a challenge to get the kids to actually do the reading. This list of textbook reading strategies should go a long way in helping students read and comprehend their textbooks. The strategies should give students concrete ways in which they can engage with the textbook.
1. Pre-assessment
Before you assign the reading, have students take a quick quiz or complete a writing prompt that takes a pre-assessment of their understanding of the material. Not only will it allow you to get a handle on what you will need to teach when you cover the reading, it will give students a context for the reading ahead of time. As a follow-up assignment. Give the pre-assessment to them as bell work the next class session and have them correct their mistakes.
2. Pre-reading: Skim the Reading Assignment
All to often we tend to just start reading without any idea where the text is going. Encourage students to skim the headings and sub-headings of a reading assignment before they read. This will give them a context for the reading itself.
3. Pre-reading: Examine the Pictures
Ave Maria Press textbooks have engaging and symbolic pictures that connect to the text. Have students examine the pictures in the text and form predictions about what they are going to read.
4. Pre-reading: Predictions and Questions
In addition to skimming and examining the pictures of the text, have the students go a step further and write out predictions or questions about what they think the text is about. After they complete the reading assignment, have them critique their predictions or answer their questions.
5. Outline the Reading Assignment
One of the best ways to take notes on a reading assignment is to outline it. Have the students start by copying the headings and sub-headings or paraphrasing them on a sheet of paper or word processing document. While they read, they should jot down the key points made in each section. Encourage students to have 2+ details under each sub-heading.
6. Summarize each Heading or Section
In addition to just completing the reading, have the students write a 1-2 sentence summary of each section of the reading assignment. Point out what specific headings from the textbook you want them to summarize to avoid confusion.
7. Highlight or Underline the Key Points
One of the many reading skills that need real development is highlighting and underlining. Beginners tend to highlight everything to the point that a page is bleeding to death in yellow, pink, and green ink. Don't let your students do this. Highlight parts of the text that you want to come back to later. If something is important, you should highlight the key phrases that illustrate the whole point. The more particular you about what you highlight, the more important you will view the highlighted text when you review the textbook.
8. Complete a Directed Reading Guide
Some of the most popular classroom resources we share with Ave Maria Press textbooks are the Directed Reading Guides. These worksheets are filled with questions, fill-in-the-blank statements, True or False statements, and essay prompts that relate directly to the reading. Either use these worksheets or create your own so students can engage in the text.
9. Re-read the Textbook Reading Assignment
When they finish the reading assignment, challenge them to spend an additional 2-3 minutes (that's it!) on re-reading the most important sections of the assignment. This re-reading should be more like skimming since the text will still be very familiar and fresh in their minds. This is one of the best ways to increase comprehension and it only takes a few minutes.
Here are three simple, summer games for some added fun for your parish youth groups (and a few extra adaptations). Enjoy!
Miniature Golf
What’s Needed
money for admission for 18 holes of miniature golf
transportation to the miniature golf course
several small prizes to award to the teens (e.g., candy, ribbons, etc.)
Description
A trip to the local miniature golf course remain a popular outing for teens. Call the local miniature gold course and inquire about a group discount.
Once at the course, divide the teens into foursomes and let them begin playing. Tell them you will be offering a few special prizes at the end of eighteen holes, but don’t tell them for what. Remind them to write down their scores.
As the foursomes return, collect their scorecards. Award several prizes for things like:
low score on hole 7
most holes in one
low team (foursome) score
low individual score
high score on hole 11
high team score
high individual score
Some courses offer a discount on replays. You may want to have the group go through again just for fun!
Swim Party/Inner Tube Water Polo
What’s Needed
a recreation center or house with a pool
food for a cookout
several large rubber inner tubes or similar flotation devices
a plastic ball (basketball size)
two lounge chairs set up as goals
Description
Summer is the time for a pool party. Check with local schools or recreation centers to find out how you might go about reserving a pool for your group. Or, inquire in the parish if someone with a pool might be willing to sponsor such an event. Include a cookout as part of the festivities. Divide the cost of the event among the teens.
Mostly the teens will be able to entertain themselves with swimming, eating and playing regular pool games like “Marco Polo.” If there is a diving board, you may suggest that they toss the plastic ball to a person jumping, diving, or flipping off. They can enjoy watching for the most acrobatic catches.
Inner tube water polo is played by setting up two lounge chairs on their sides at opposite ends of the pool (on the pavement, not in the water). Divide the group into two teams, with each person sitting in the inner tube against the wall near their own goal. Say “go” and throw the plastic ball to the middle of the pool. Players from both teams paddle to the ball. The team that retrieves it begins its assault on the other goal. A point is awarded for any ball that hits on the seat part of the chair, but the player has to have thrown the ball from the inner tube. You can permit lots of rough stuff as long as the players remain in their inner tubes at all times.
If there are not enough inner tubes to go around adapt with other kinds of floating devices.
Cookout Games
What’s Needed
food for the cookout
items for the games (see below)
Description:
This event works for groups just getting acquainted. Reserve a place at a local park with cookout grills or any place with a large field.
Keep the food cooking and available throughout the event so that teens can eat whenever they want during the activities. Here are standard games that always seem to work well in groups with both boys and girls:
Softball.
This is a game for the entire group. If you don’t want to require the teens to bring gloves, play with a larger, spongier ball so that they will be able to catch it with their hands. Old towels work just fine for bases.
Capture the Flag.
This remains a popular game, especially when it is played in a large open space. Divide the area into two sides. Put flags (towels) toward the rear of each side. One goalie for each team is permitted to guard the flag. Also reserve a jail on each side. This is the area for the capture opponents. The object of the game is to retrieve the opponents’ flag without being touched. Those who are touched are sent to the opposing team’s jail. The teens can fill you in on the other details.
Frisbee Football.
This is played like regular football as teams move toward their opposing team’s end zone. In this game, a Frisbee is used instead of a football. One team starts with the “ball” at its own twenty yard line. Teammates pass from one teammate to another all the way down the field. There is no running after a catch and opponent have to back at least three feet off the passer. A dropped Frisbee gives the ball to the other team.
Steal the Bacon.
This game is similar to the old playground game of the same name except a water balloon is placed in the middle of the circle of participants. Give each person a number. When you call two numbers, those players race to the center of the circle for a balloon. The person who gets their first is allowed to douse the opponent before he or she gets back to the circle. Toward the end of the afternoon, a plain old water balloon fight would be great.
I recently came across a great, free online tool at memorize.com. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but I asked around on Twitter and got some great feedback. I tested it out and hope teachers will find some great uses for it in the religion classroom.
Memorize.com allows you to create study materials for quizzes and tests. Just enter in a term/definition or question/answer. One of the coolest tools is the ability to create a diagram quiz. This is great for visual learners and maps.
I created to short samples, one from Jesus Christ: His Mission and Ministry, the book designed for the second course in the USCCB Curriculum Framework, and a map quiz from our Old Testament textbook.
Here is a quick look around at memorize.com and these two quizzes:
Sunday, June 11 is Pentecost Sunday. In honor of the "birthday of the Church" read the following text to the students. Then ask then to write down as many answers as they can to the questions that follow. Tell them that besides the person's name they should write on other pieces of information they know about the person. Lead a discussion about the people they wrote about who make up the Church. Then highlight these meanings of Church:
The Church is a community of Catholics who assemble to worship.
The Church is a local gathering of Catholics, a fellowship of believers in Christ.
The Church is the universal community of those who believe in Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Have you ever received a gift that came labeled “Assembly Required”? Before you could really appreciate and enjoy the gift, you had to put it together.
The Church is a gift, a gift that requires assembly. The word church means assembly—a convocation of people who believe in Jesus, his Father, and the Spirit. To appreciate and enjoy who we are, we join together. We assemble. When it comes to being Church, assembly is always required.
From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus assembled people. After Jesus died, was raised from the dead, and returned to God, Jesus’ friends assembled. In their assemblies they prayed, remembered Jesus, and broke bread as he taught them.
At every Eucharist the Church assembles. We come together from every walk of life, every culture, and every race. Rich and poor, young and old, healthy and sick, we all come together as one family to give glory to God, to make present God’s saving deeds fulfilled in Jesus, and to promise to treat all others like family.
At Eucharist we assemble to express, renew, and deepen our faith in Jesus and in one another. In our assembly, we see ourselves as people who continue Jesus’ mission of bringing God’s love to others, the Church gets re-created, and we become what we celebrate. We become the Body of Christ, called to draw others to our assembly.
Assignment: The Church Assembly
Answer these questions about your Church assembly.
Where did you assemble for worship on Sunday? (place and time)
Who led the assembly in prayer?
Who led the assembly in song?
Who sat behind you?
Who read from the Old Testament?
Who proclaimed the Gospel?
Who brought the bread and wine to the altar table?
Besides your family, whom did you greet during the Sign of Peace at Mass?
SMARTBoards are not glorified LCD projectors. If you are able to use the SMARTBoard Notebook software properly, you will find yourself ditching PowerPoint for a new kind of direct instruction. One of the many features offered in SMART Notebook, is the ability to create tabs with answers hidden behind an image or outside of the screen. This is a great way to add some interactivity to your presentations. It also provides students with the opportunity to come up to the board and move things (and we all know how much they love to play with the SMART Boards).
(Click to watch SMART Board Tutorial: Using Tabs with Interactive Questions and Answers.)
Creating Tabs with Interactive Questions and Answers
Add an image to hide the answer.
Add a tab or create one yourself.
Replace the label of the tab (i.e. Pull) for a question or word.
Type the answer to the question or the definition of the word.
Arrange the question tab and the answer and group them.
Lock the image that will hide the answer and bring it to the front if necessary.
Move the tab so that the answer is hidden behind the image.
Click on the image below to download the sample SMART Notebook file with the tabs in the video:
For more edtech tips like this, visit Ave Maria Press tech tips.
Introductory note.
While the quoted passages on the handout have long been attributed to Chief Seattle as his letter to the President of the United States in 1854, it is now thought to be something written in the 1970s. Whatever its origin, it is widely quoted as a clear expression of the attitudes of Native Americans toward the earth.
Litany.
Distribute the student handout “Litany of Repentance” and read it prayerfully, with a different student reading each of the passages from the Letter of Chief Seattle and the whole group responding each time.
Prelude.
“The Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. . . . We will consider your offer. For we know that if we do not sell, the white man may come with guns and take our land. . . .”
For the fear and intimidation we inflicted and continue to inflict on others,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man. . . . We are part of this earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices of the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and humans—all belong to the same family.”
For the times we have not recognized our unity with the rest of creation,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“We will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us. . . . This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred. . . .”
For our lack of appreciation for the holiness and sacredness of creation,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember and teach your children that the rivers are our brothers, and yours; and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother. . . .”
For the times we have polluted the waters of our land and not treated them with kindness,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. . . . He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert. . . .”
For the times we have been greedy and consumed much more than our fair share,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in the spring or the rustle of insects’ wings. But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a person cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond, and the smell of the wind itself, cleansed by a midday rain or scented with the pinon pine.”
For the noise we have created and imposed on nature,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“So we will consider your offer to buy the land. If we decide to accept, I will make one condition: the white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. . . . What are humans without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, humans would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to humans. All things are connected. . . .”
For our reckless killing of animals,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandparents. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. . . .”
For our failure to teach children reverence for the earth,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. If we spit upon the ground, we spit upon ourselves. This we know. The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth. . . . This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. Humans did not weave the web of life; we are merely strands in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. . . .”
For all the times we have been careless about the earth, as if we owned the earth,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all, we shall see. One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover—our God is the same God. You may think now that you own God as you wish to own our land, but you cannot. God is the God of all, and God’s compassion is equal for all. This earth is precious to God, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. . . .”
For our failure to thank you often for the wonders of creation,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
“So if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you take it. And with all your strength, with all your mind, with all your heart, preserve it for your children, and love it as God loves us all. . . .”
For the times we have not loved and cared for the land,
we ask forgiveness, Creator God.
You may also wish to explore with your students information from the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change website.
As an icebreaker or a way to introduce lessons on a variety of theology topics, allow the chance for your students to share some of their ideas about Jesus. Each person will give a one sentence answer to some questions like those listed below. Begin by calling on a student sitting near you. Say: “You will answer the first question. Everyone will add something to the answer till I call ‘stop.’ Here is the first question: ‘When you think of Jesus, what does your mental image of him look like?’”
After about a minute say, “stop.” The person who was speaking responds first to the next question: “When you think about Jesus, what do you imagine him doing? Is he preaching? Healing? Sitting on a cloud? Hanging on a cross?
Again allow for another minute; then call “stop.” Continue in this way using questions like those below. The person who is speaking each time you stop begins to answer the next question.
Sample Questions about Jesus:
Which of Jesus’ miracles is your favorite?
What is your favorite among the teachings of Jesus?
What do you find in the Gospels that is troubling to you?
When Jesus was a teenager, how do you think he treated Mary and Joseph?
Suppose God had waited another 2000 years to send his Son to earth. And suppose he was born in the United States, in your hometown, and went to your school. Which peer group do you think he would hang around with?
When Jesus lived on earth he always paid special attention to the outcasts—prostitutes, lepers, tax collectors, Samaritans. If he were going to your school, to whom what he pay attention?
Now let’s imagine that Jesus is an adult in your town. What local problems do you think he’d be concerned about?
If Jesus lived in our world and kept track of the news each day, what world problems do you think he would be concerned about?
If Jesus lived today and had two Internet sites bookmarked, what would those sites be?
If Jesus lived in our world today, how would he die?
