Words of Praise

I found this from the Catholic Heritage Curricula website and thought I’d post it.  Praise a great skill to bring into the classroom.  ~ William

Words of praise, indeed, are almost as necessary to warm a child into congenial life as acts of kindness and affection.  Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.   – Christian Bovee, 19th century English author

Can you guess which teaching tool is age-appropriate for all grades, takes no prep time, warms the heart, and doesn’t cost a nickel?  Good for you!  You guessed it!  It’s praise.

To be effective, praise should not be vague, but must be directed at a specific action or work.

‘What a good boy!’ is vague and ineffective praise.  ‘See what a good job you did, staying between the lines on your handwriting page!’ is specific.  The former is a ‘warm fuzzy’ alone; the latter is a ‘warm fuzzy’ with directions embedded: praise as a teaching tool.

For example, you might say, ‘See how you made this letter ‘o’ stay right between the lines?  This is your best one.  Do you see any others that are really well done, like this one?’  Rather than pointing out only the o’s that are too small or go above or below guidelines, this method of ‘teaching praise’ demonstrates to the child what the goal is, and also points out that he can do it.  Pointing out the positives is a way to point out the negatives without mentioning them specifically. [If the letters that touch the top and bottom line are best, then it follows that dinky or wandering letters aren’t the best.]

Ineffective praise lets the child know that you are happy with him, but without knowing exactly what he has done to please you.  Specific, effective praise not only lifts a dear little heart and brings a beaming smile to his face, but encourages him to continue his efforts, now that he understands what is expected.  ‘Oh, so that’s what it’s supposed to look like!  Hey, I really can do this.’

St. Philip Neri said, ‘If we wish to keep peace with our neighbor, we should never remind him of his natural defects.’  This advice works for children as well.  However, there are times when pointing out errors is unavoidable.  In these instances, offer the child a ‘praise sandwich’:   ‘Look at all these good letters, here and here and here.  Now, see how this one keeps wandering below the line?  I’ll bet you could bring this one up, just like the others.  See?  Here’s another one that is exactly right!  Way to go!’

‘Praise phrases’ are sincere and specific; they point out the positive rather than the negative.  ‘Beautiful work on your spelling test; you got 16 out of 20 right.  You are improving.’ is much better than the deflating, ‘You missed four this week.  I guess that’s better than missing six like you did last week.’

Some useful ‘praise phrases’ are:  ‘Good job on the———-‘  ‘Look at the nice work you did on—‘  ‘Wow!  Your—–just keeps getting better and better.’  ‘I like the way you are——–‘

Good use of teaching tools, Mom!

In Their Hearts,

Theresa Johnson
www.chcweb.com

 

A Good Slide Presentation

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Scripture Tradition

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Helping Students Memorize: Part I

Memorization is key to helping kids learn the faith and know their faith.  In a world filled with information, facts and proof’s for everything we need to help students retain the material covered in the religious education classes. 

I am not recommending a strickly Baltimore Catechism style of learning but memorization has a very important place.  Today’s classroom needs to form, inform and transform students.  Each component is essential to the learning and conversion process. 

Diane Fitzpatrick has a good article on helping kids memorize at http://catholicism.suite101.com/article.cfm/memorization_helps.

 

Do you like the textbook you are using?

In my experience of over 10 years in parish ministry, I find that catechetical textbooks are not helping the average catechists pass on the essentials of the faith. Since most religious education classes meet for an hour and a half or less it is difficult to cover what the catechist manual recommends. In addition, the ideas in the chapter are often too scattered trying to cover too much.

What has your religious education program done in order to help better equip catechists to not only teach the lessons but to help them have clarity and focus in each lesson?

Something I’ve done in in the last two parishes I’ve worked at is to help give catechists a clear focus to their lessons. I use a version of the ecclesial method (you can find it in Msgr. Francis Kelly’s book “The Mystery We Proclaim” to help replicate God’s pedagogy – trying to give the students an understanding of what God has revealed and how to respond to it). I help outline the chapters bringing a more focused understanding of what should be covered (noting the most important points). I also provide ideas and additional activities that support the content that is being covered.

I would love to hear from anyone that is seeking ways to help catechists better use their textbook.

 

Teaching the Old Testament

Last week I was invited to a nearby parish to present on the Old Testament to those going through RCIA. This was their first introduction to the Bible so I also helped them understanding some basics. I was pleased with the feedback that it was clear and helped those present understand how we got the Bible and how to understand the “big picture” of the Old Testament.

When teaching the Old Testament it is important to help children and adults know that it is not merely something with lots of stories and lots of laws. The Old Testament is the story of God’s relationship with His chosen people, the Israelites. It is about God’s love, His plan for His people and His plans to unite mankind back to himself through the coming of the Messiah.

There are 4 main parts that reveal all of this:1. The Pentateuch (the book of God’s Law), 2. The Historical books (telling the history of God’s revelation to his people 3. The Wisdom books (sharing God’s ways and holiness with his people and their love for him) and 4. The Prophetic books (God’s warnings, encouragement and telling of the coming of the Messiah).

It is also important to help your audience understand that God communicated His plan of salvation through covenants. Covenants are agreements God made with His chosen people, the Israelites. Covenants are the way God entered into a relationship with His people. How great is that!

The Old Testament is wonderful and full of God’s love for us. He shows us his love and plan for us in the Old Testament and fulfills it in the New Testament through Christ.

 

What is Needed in Catechesis in the Third Millennium

After listening to a presentation given by Fr. Alfred McBride about the General Directory of Catechesis I derived a few key points regarding important components that are needed in the work of catechesis today. See the following 6 points.

1. Catechesis needs a greater appreciation of the Catechumenal Process. The GDC encourages the catechumenal model as the ideal model for catechesis.

2. Catechesis must connect Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium. These three categories go together when teaching the Catholic Faith.

3. Catechesis on Jesus Christ must emphasize both the humanity and divinity of Christ. One aspect cannot be taught at the expense of the other.

4. Catechesis needs to bring forth the realities of grace and sin. Over the last 40 years the reality of sin is too often brushed over and only grace is emphasized.

5. The link between catechesis and liturgy is vital to drawing others into communion with Christ and the Christian life.

6. Catechetical methods need to focus on God’s pedagogy. Too often experience is used at the cost of authentic content. Using experience to draw people into the faith is at the service of what is true. Not truth at the service of experience.

 

Assessments

This year we are giving our students from 1st grade – 8th grade an end of the year assessment. Yes, I said assessment (a test). I’ve just finished creating the assessments based on the textbooks our students are using. The purpose of this is to see how they are understanding the faith as it is being passed onto them in the classroom and through home study.

Some are not keen on the idea of giving a sort of test in a religious education program, becuase it may turn kids off to the faith or because it is a way of assessing knowledge through a written test and not all students are good at test taking. Finally, some think that it should not come down to an assessment at the end of the year.

On the positive side, it is a solid meas of helping a religious education or school of religion program know how well or poorly they are passing on the faith. In addition, it helps inform parents what their children know or do not know. Another positive for giving an assessment is that it will not prevent a student from moving forward to the next grade or prevent the reception of a sacrament. Our Religious Education programs, however, needs to strive to pass on the faith whole and entire. How are we to know how well we are doing if we have no instrument to help measure (as imperfect as it is) our progress or lack of it? It is very difficult to judge the success of a program merely on how many students like coming to class verses how many do not. Finally, an assessment in each grade helps attain goals. A program that does not have goals and seek to fulfill them lacks the focus it needs to move forward toward growth.

May Christ, the divine teacher, lead and guide us always to transmit the Gospel to the students in our Religious Education Programs.

 

4 themes vital for solid classroom catechesis

Here are four themes essential to solid classroom catechesis:

1. The Importance of Prayer
Consider focusing on the following:
a. The example of prayer (how is prayer modeled by the catechists)
b. learning common prayer (yes, by memorization)
c. Experiences of prayer (praying the Scriptures, prayer services,
intercessory prayer)

2. Always including Scripture
A. Scripture is the foundation for all catechesis. Use it as the foundation to each lesson.
B. Sacred Scripture nourishes, inspires, strengthens and sustains us as followers of Christ.

3. The Church

• The Tradition of the Church is vital to hand on. This is the Deposit of Faith being handed on from one generation to the next. It is not “my faith” or “my vision of Church” its is from God and it is guarded by the Magisterium who seek to pass the faith whole and entire to others. Don’t be afraid of being old fashion or behind the times because you faithfully share the truths of the Catholic Faith and the teachings of the Church.

4. Connection to the Liturgy
A. The liturgy itself teaches
B. The Eucharistic celebration brings the community of believers together to pray and receive
grace.
C. Without catechesis making the connection to the source and summit of our Faith we miss
one of the most important aspects of our Faith…at the heart of our catechesis has to be the
pasqual banquet where we encounter Christ in the most profound of ways.