There are three challenges Bible teachers face today:
• Planning effective lesson
• Teaching multiple ages in one class
• Helping each student grow spiritually
Finding ways to address each challenge can keep us from being discouraged and ineffective in our teaching. Let’s look at each of these three things and see what you can do to overcome these three challenges.
How to plan an effective Bible lesson
- Pray: The first thing we do as teachers when preparing a lesson is pray to the Master teacher. He is so good to give us ideas and guidance each time we ask.
- Topic: When looking at topics, pick one of interest to your students or a topic they might have some knowledge of, but are ready to learn more.
- Attitude: The effectiveness of a lesson is often dependent on the attitude of the teacher. If a Bible teacher comes into class excited about the lesson, the students will become excited too. The opposite is also the case, so let’s not let that happen in our class.
Tips for teaching a multiple age class
- Teach to the oldest: As teachers we want everyone to learn all the information, but in a multi-age class that can be challenging. Teach to the oldest level and allow the younger students to learn as much as they can. It is always better to shoot over their heads a little than at their feet.
- Help the youngest: Make sure your youngest students understand the main point of the lesson and how to apply it.
- Interaction: Give opportunity for older students to help younger students. This is a lifelong skill we can teach our students, to help those younger than yourself to grow in their faith. This can be done by assigning an older student to help a younger student with reading or activities, or have older students retell the story to younger students.
How to help each student grow spiritually
- Prayer: Practice praying during each class. This helps students learn to make requests of the Lord and see answers to prayer.
- Curriculum: Choose a curriculum that has a way to review and measure what students are learning and comprehending.
- Your Growth: Keep your spiritual life active and growing. As teachers, we need to set a good example of what it means to be an active believer.
As you look over all of these, you might even know that these things work, yet you find yourself falling back into the same teaching pattern. It is easy to do! As a Bible teacher, you don’t have to continue down this path. This is the perfect time of the year try something different.
When you teach a Grapevine lesson you’ll get:
• Engaging lessons help students recall the information they learned. At Grapevine we use Lesson Reviews and Timeline Reviews to test knowledge and understanding of the lesson.
• Plenty of lesson content to cover with your children. Most teachers tell us they can’t get through the lesson because students ask so many questions.
• Time, as a teacher, to pray over how to apply the lesson to your family because you are not gathering craft supplies.
This is why the Grapevine method is so effective for teaching the Bible. We enable and encourage teachers to do all these things in preparing to teach and in their classes. With the holidays coming, I recommend the Birth of Jesus as your first lesson. It is a great place to start!
• 5 Weekly lessons or 24 daily lessons
• Easy lesson prep
• Fun to teach lessons
Teaching the Bible is both a challenge and a blessing. When they challenges are removed, Bible teachers can more easily teach the lesson and watch the Lord change lives in their students. What a privilege it is to see the Lord bless our work as teachers.
May the Lord bless you are you prepare your next lesson,
Dianna
