This is the final video in support of The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning, the free ebook available here at The Religion Teacher. In these two video tutorials I provide a framework for choosing teaching strategies and activities. The core of this framework is the acronym, PROCESS. I like to think of learning as…
Lesson Plans
Video Tutorial: Determine the Lesson Assessment – Step 3
In this third installment of the video training material for The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning, we look at assessment. Assessment is most commonly thought of as tests and quizzes, but it is much more than that. Assessment should be seen as a variety of means to check students’ understanding and mastery of learning…
Video Tutorial: Creating Lesson Objectives – Step 2
This video tutorial introduces teachers and catechists to creating lesson objectives using a simplified taxonomy of educational SWBAT objectives.
Video Tutorial: Lesson Preparation – Step 1
Here is the first installment of the video series based on The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning free e-book. In this tutorial you will learn: The sources for selecting topics How to incorporate a curriculum and a textbook into lesson plans How to select the most important information to teach How to use the…
Introducing the Free E-book: The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning
On this feast of St. Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of catechists, I am proud to bring you my first e-book: The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning. This guide provides teachers and catechists with a simple system for lesson planning success. Included in this 63 page e-book are: Unit planning and lesson planning templates…
Keep Your Lesson Plans!
You never know when they are going to come in handy. Now I am not a big fan of needlessly saved stuff. I don’t have boxes of worksheets and handouts lying around our house. I do, however, have a record of all of my planning from year to year on my computer and on CDs….
Feast of the Epiphany Lesson Plan & Activities
Background to the Feast of the Epiphany The Epiphany is celebrated on the Sunday between January 2nd and 8th while the actual feast day occurs on January 6th (twelve days after Christmas). In many European countries the Epiphany, rather than Christmas (Feast of the Nativity), is the day of gift-giving. The Epiphany is in commemoration…
Using the "New Taxonomy" to Design and Assess Educational Objectives
In September I posted a brief overview of Bloom’s Taxonomy, something I have used to develop lesson objectives since I first became a teacher. Since that post, I have spent a lot of time reading about Robert Marzano’s “New Taxonomy.” On a plane trip to New York, I found myself captivated by Marzano and John…
Catholic Thanksgiving Day Lesson Plans on the Eucharist as Thanksgiving
Eucharist means first of all “thanksgiving” (CCC, 1360). I can think of no better lesson to teach to our students this Thanksgiving week than this. There are many images that express the intense mystery that is the Eucharist, but the Eucharist as thanksgiving is the most appropriate for November. A simple connection that you can…
Teaching the Mysteries of Rosary to Elementary Students
The Challenges of Teaching the Rosary Teaching the Rosary to little ones is no easy task. It is not simply teaching the prayers, but decoding the new vocabulary in the prayers so that children are able to understand them. It is not simply exposing children to the mysteries of the Rosary but enabling children to…








