According to the National Directory for Catechesis, there are two approaches to teaching ritual: the inductive method and the deductive method (NDC, 29). I wrote about these two approaches in a general way in a recent article published in the National Catholic Educational Association’s journal, Momemtum (February/March 2011, pp. 22-23). In the lesson plan below,…
Lesson Plans
Are you making these lesson planning mistakes?
Are you making the following mistakes? I have and sometimes I still do. They are bad habits that all of us need to avoid at all costs.
Video Tutorial: Selecting Teaching Strategies and Activities – Step 4
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…
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…
