Effective Lesson Planning & Curriculum Development

1. “Lesson Planning and Curriculum Development ” Session 2

2. The Bible tells us, • Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind. Proverbs 21:5 (TM)

3. As Creator of the world, it reflects His order. He is not the author of confusion. As a result, all aspects of the world should be taught in an organized and systematic fashion.

4. 19th Century Christian educator John Milton Gregory wrote, • Many teachers go to their work either partly prepared or wholly unprepared. They are like messengers without a message. They lack entirely the power and enthusiasm necessary to produce the fruits which we have a right to look for from their efforts.

5. Curriculum represents a set of teaching intentions and a set of intended student learning outcomes. Teaching is comprised of curriculum and instruction. Whether it is one lesson, or a series of many lessons, there will be curriculum.

6. The scope and sequence indicates what is taught, and the order in which it is taught.

7. Teaching can fulfill a number of needs in the life of the believer, who is a student. It may be used for: • 1. Instruction • 2. Inspiration • 3. Devotion • 4. Correction • 5. Conversion

8. Special calendar occasions: Christmas, Easter, etc. • External circumstances which are in the public mind such as an election, crisis, or other such thing. • Special needs you have discerned • Insights, burdens, or truths that have come during prayer. • An ongoing need that your group of students may have (Christian maturity, leadership, dating, witnessing, prayer, etc.)

9. Goals Obectives Lesson We take the Goals and Objectives, and turn them into individual lessons.

10. Goals determine the aim, and rationale for what you are teaching.  It’s here that you decide what you expect students to be able to do when you finish this lesson. You may develop goals that draw upon previous lessons and set the stage for future activities.  Goals are typically broad in nature.

11. B. Objectives • The objectives for the lesson plan come out of the broader aims or goals. • There may be several objectives in one lesson or sermon. This learning involves three domains.

12. Cognitive is mental skills (Knowledge), affective is growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude), while psychomotor is manual or physical skills (Skills).

13. A simpler way to think about this is to ask yourself the question. When this lesson is finished, what will these people be able to do that they could not do before? What will they know that they didn’t know before?

14. How will they take the knowledge or experiences that they had before this lesson, and merge it with what they are going to be taught? How will this impact them at an affective (attitude) or emotional level?

15. The best objectives are focused on the students and not on the teaching. They also incorporate action verbs. For example,

16. ActivityJot down between 8 and 20 things that every child should know (or be able to do) after the two years in your classroom level.

17. Activity • Divide the Goals/Objectives that you have written into 8 groups (units or quarters)

18. The finished product will start to look something like this:

19. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goals • Students will understand the ways that God expresses His presence • Students will demonstrate ways to touch God • Students will demonstrate how to hear from God • Students will know how to access the power that is in prayer

20. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will understand the ways that God expresses His presence Objectives • Students will identify God’s mighty power over the natural world

21. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will understand the ways that God expresses His presence Objectives • Students will identify God’s desire to fellowship with man

22. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will understand the ways that God expresses His presence Objectives • Students will identify God’s anger over sin

23. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will understand the ways that God expresses His presence Objectives • Students will identify God’s still small voice

24. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will understand the ways that God expresses His presence Objectives • Students will identify God’s care for His children • Students will identify God’s presence when He came as a human in Jesus Christ

25. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will understand the ways that God expresses His presence Objectives • Students will identify God’s presence in His Word, the Bible

26. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will demonstrate ways to touch God Objectives • Students will demonstrate what happens when we repent of our sins

27. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will demonstrate ways to touch God Objectives • Students will demonstrate what happens when we worship Him

28. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will demonstrate ways to touch God Objectives • Students will demonstrate different times that we can pray

29. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will demonstrate how to hear from God Objectives • Students will identify the different ways that God speaks to His children

30. Quarter One: God’s Presence Goal Students will know how to access the power that is in prayer Objectives • Students will demonstrate different ways that we can pray

31. Goals Obectives Lesson We take the Goals and Objectives, and turn them into individual lessons.

32. Lesson Plans

33. There are a variety of ways to put together a lesson plan, or outline, but all lessons should generally address the same components. A good place to start in planning a lesson is to ask some very basic questions about the ones you are going to teach.

34. Within a lesson or sermon, you will have to address a very broad range of abilities and interests. This can be challenging, but effective teachers will make an effort to plan for this.

35. We should always try to determine how much the audience does or doesn’t know, how motivated they are to learn, and what learning approaches they will likely respond to.

36. Materials • This section has several functions: it helps other teachers who may teach this lesson to quickly determine:

37. a) how much preparation time, resources, and management will be involved in carrying out this plan and

38. b) what materials, books, equipment, and resources they will need to have ready. You will want to determine:

39. What materials will be needed? What textbooks or reference books are needed? What needs to be prepared in advance?

40. This could include handouts, slides, objects for demonstration, charts, video or other equipment items or anything else that you will use in addition to your personal notes.

41. Lesson Description • This section provides an opportunity to give a general overview of the lesson in terms of topic focus, activities, and purpose.

42. Lesson Procedure • In this section you will provide a detailed, step-by-step description lesson plan for the objectives.  This is usually intended for the teacher’s use as they implement the lesson plan. 

43. As you prepare a lesson or message, timing is also a very important consideration. Many lessons have been destroyed because the teacher does not respect the value of time. More does not mean better! Slower does not mean deeper! Quality should always trump quantity when it comes to lesson and sermon preparation.

44. This section of the plan is basically divided into several components: an introduction, a main activity, and closure. 

45. Introduction

46. The lesson should have one primary message. All of the details or extensions of the lesson (or sermon) should be coordinated around that message or idea. This dominant thought should be expressed in one short, clear, vivid sentence.

47. The introduction should be enough to arouse their curiosity, wet their appetites and introduce the main thought.

48. This can be done by a variety of means: explaining the setting of the passage, a story, current event or issue, statistics, a personal experience or a question. This is also a good time to preview, or “tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em.”

49. How will you introduce the ideas and objectives of this lesson? How will you get students' attention and motivate them in order to hold their attention? How can you tie lesson objectives with student interests and past experiences? What will be expected of students?

50. According to Professor Howard Hendricks, the higher the predictability of the teacher, the lower the impact (in methods, not morals.) The lower the predictability of the teacher, the higher the impact. Give them something they don’t expect.