The lesson below, taken from The Religion Teacher’s New Roman Missal Student Activity Pack, addresses one of the most striking changes to the new Roman Missal: And with your spirit. The Church community responds to the bishop, priest, or deacon with these words at multiple times during the Mass. What does it mean? How is…
The Religion Teacher Blog
Teachers: Pope Benedict XVI’s Prayer Intention for September 2011
Each month the pope sets forth a set of prayer intentions that are used in prayers around the world. This month, Pope Benedict XVI has selected teachers as one of his intentions: Teachers. That all teachers may know how to communicate love of the truth and instill authentic moral and spiritual values. His prayer is…
Hocus Pocus!: A New Roman Missal Lesson Plan
With all of the changes happening in the Church related to the new translation of the Roman Missal, it is important to make a crucial point about the prayers of the Mass: they are not magic words. We use a translation of the original Latin to make a fitting offering to God in the liturgy….
Exit Cards as Formative Assessment
Last week I shared a very important teaching strategy I use at the beginning of class: advance organizers. Today I’d like to share a teachings strategy that I use very often at the end of class: exit cards. One of the quickest and easiest ways to check a student’s progress toward a learning objective is…
Why Advance Organizers Are A Crucial Learning Strategy (and 5 Examples)
Many teachers use advance organizers without realizing the power of what they are doing. Many just call them agendas. In The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning, I defined advance organizers as “agendas that give students an idea of what they will be learning that day or during a lecture.” It sounds simple enough, but…
4 Lessons All Catechists Can Learn from Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
Last week on of the founders of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Dr. Sofia Cavalletti, died peacefully in her home. She and her colleague Gianna Gobbi developed their unique approach to catechesis in the 1950s. In honor of their achievements, I would like to share a few thoughts on this model of catechesis and how…
Genesis Creation Stories Lesson Plan
The first three chapters of the book of Genesis relate important truths about ourselves, our humanity, and our relationship with God. A common pitfall we can run into when teaching about these chapters is the differences between the first chapter and chapters two and three. In this lesson plan, students will compare the first two…
Catechetical Link Round-up (Summer 2011)
There have been so many great catechetical links of resources posted on blogs and websites this summer, that I had to share a few. If you haven’t checked out or subscribed to some of these sites, you should definitely do so! Back to School Prayers (Catholic Faith Education) What Web Browsers Can Teach Us About…
6 Classroom Management Strategies for the First Weeks of School
The first weeks of school is the most critical time for establishing effective classroom management for the rest of the year. I’m a big believer in holding off on all significant teaching of course content until some effective classroom management procedures and classroom rules are established and practiced thoroughly. Consider using the following classroom management…
3 Passive Learning Objectives That I Never Use
I’ve written often on this site and in my eBook about the importance of writing out learning objectives for your students. These learning objectives, or lesson objectives, set a goal for your students to reach during the course of the lesson. It allows you as a teacher to focus only on the teaching strategies and…
