Teacher Tips: Some Teaching/Learning Ideas
by Diana L. Hynson

Teaching plans in your lesson don't excite you? Planning the study time all by yourself without curriculum and need fresh ideas? Find that you go to the same type of activity too often and that your students are tired of it? Check out this handy list of teaching activities! Most are suitable for teens and older.

Teaching/Learning Techniques

Students learn in a variety of ways, and even the best lesson needs to be adapted for a particular group. If an activity doesn't seem to be working for you, consider substituting one of the following. Some are active; some are more passive. Many of the sit-down activities could be acted out or used as cooperative or competitive games to make them more active. Be sure to have a balance between moving and sitting; between thinking and feeling; between hearing and responding. Pay attention to various ways of learning: visual, verbal, physical, musical, logical, interpersonal, and independent.

Appreciative inquiry (may work best with older youth or adults): When assessing or analyzing or evaluating something (an event, a particular circumstance, a consequence of some conflict . . .) we tend to focus on what is wrong or what needs to be fixed or improved. Appreciate inquiry focuses on what is — or used to be — good. It can be used to discuss a current issue or a biblical one; and you can also use imagination. For example, Judas betrayed Jesus, but not at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. What do we know (or might we imagine) about Judas that we can appreciate? How can that appreciation (rather than later criticism) be formative, or at least informative, in considering disciple-making?

Balloon messages: Draw or imagine a "balloon" (such as those a comic book uses for conversation) over the head of a character in your story, in the Bible, or in some other situation. Ask students to fill in the dialogue. Then use their responses as discussion starters.

Banners: Banners can be made from shelf paper, unfolded grocery bags, wrapping paper, butcher paper, computer paper, or other types of paper. Decorate the banner using anything that gives color — markers, crayons, pencils, or stickers would work. Banners can praise, announce, question, or debate values, news, opinions, information, accomplishments, and events. Use the banner to highlight or to open discussion about whatever is on the banner.

Be ambassadors: Imagine that your students are ambassadors from a place that you describe and are going to another place that you will describe. Create a scene that allows for creative tension and various values. Then ask the ambassadors to play their roles in dialogue with others from other origins. Have them keep in mind both their origins and their destinations. (For example: an ambassador from an impoverished nation meets with the people of a more economically stable nation over the issue of equitable food distribution.) This works well when several ambassadors must negotiate.

Book report: Read something and report back. This works best for good readers and/or older youth.

Brainstorm: Collect ideas, opinions, attitudes, or information about a subject in the lesson. Do not discuss them at that time, but note them for prioritization and development later. Everyone's idea gets written down. You can also brainstorm by going around the group in an orderly, rather than random, style, preferably making the circuit more than once.

Building Blocks — Giving directions: Distribute two identical sets of children's building blocks. Distribute about ten or twelve pieces in a variety of shapes, one set to each of two volunteers. The pair sits back to back. Person One will build something from the blocks and give instructions to Person Two about how to build the same thing. Person Two remains silent. In a second round, different volunteers also sit back to back, but Person Two may ask for clarification. Examine the differences in communication and giving directions when people have experience and can be in dialogue.

Bulletin board: Use bulletin boards to display students' work, posters, art, or other projects that enhance the lesson material. Creative bulletin boards are colorful, eye-catching, informative, and reinforce the information and concepts of the lessons.

Bumper stickers: Use bumper stickers you have seen or ones you make up. What do the stickers say about the values of the possessor? Students can imagine the entire personality of someone who has a bumper sticker; then they can use that profile to discuss stereotypes, assumptions, impressions, and the consequences of those ideas. Students can make bumper stickers themselves.

Buzz session: Drop a hot topic in a small group and let the opinions fly. Debrief afterward.

Captioning pictures: Gather pictures from magazines or newspapers or anywhere else. Have students write captions for them, or have them create dialogue that is relevant to the lesson. Use this activity to bring Bible and life together.

Case study: Describe an open-ended situation that is relevant to the issues, needs, concerns, or questions of the students. Use the case to open discussion about how students would deal with or respond to the people in the case.

Challenging assumptions: During discussion time, declare a time to review information shared. Identify the assumptions that underlie the comments and ideas held or proposed. Challenge as many assumptions as you can identify or the ones that seem to have the greatest impact on the issue at hand. What new insights or opportunities become available when you are not limited by assumptions? One process for doing this assumption check is the "five levels of 'why?'" When the first-level reason for holding a particular position or assumption is mentioned, do not stop with that reason. Ask "why?" (What is the rationale for the first-level reason?) Ask that "why" question four or five times, and you are most likely to get to the root value underlying the assumption.

Charades: Using only silent signals such as gestures, facial expressions, word clues (sounds like . . . ), and so on, students have to guess a relevant phrase, expression, title, or event from the lesson.

Charts: Charts can be used or overused for just about anything, so be sure that graphs, lists, and charts are the best way to gather and visualize your information.

Choral speaking: Teens may not get too excited about speaking or reading together, but if the drama is fun and relevant to the Bible as well as to the age group, speaking in crowd scenes will work.

Collage: Many media can be used to make a collage. The most typical are newspaper headlines, pictures cut from various publications, slides, and advertisements. The collage can present concepts that are similar or dissimilar. In either case, use the composite artwork to discuss values, opinions, and experiences. Whenever possible, let students make their own collages.

Come and see: Take abstractions and bring them to life. Use a parable or other situation, look at the story, establish the dynamic equivalent of that situation in today's culture, and have a first-hand experience yourself. Then debrief.

Compare/contrast: Set up opposites, using any means — print, art, drama, case study, or other — to look at more than one side of an issue or event. The more personally involved the students are, the better.

Cultural relativity: Each culture or social system values certain attitudes, beliefs, processes, and hierarchies. The differences provide for fruitful discussion. One way to challenge assumptions is to ask, "Do you have to . . . to . . .?" (For example, "Do you have to be smart to go to college [or vice versa]?" or "Do you have to be a certain race or ethnic group to get a good job?")

Dance: Dance stimulates personal creativity, uses physical energy, and allows for a means of artistic expression that does not always translate verbally.

Danger or opportunity: Look for alternative views and possibilities in different situations by playing "That's Good; No, That's Bad" with at least two players. The second one is the "straight man" [person?] for the first player, giving a positive, "Oh, that's good" to the affirmative statements or the reverse, "Oh, that's bad" to the negative comments of the first player. Be creative — even outrageous — so you can push your thinking to more critical levels and issues. Note the example below.
Player 1: "I finally got those concert tickets I've been hoping for."
Player 2: "Oh, that's good."
Player 1: "No, that's bad because I already spent the money I had saved for the tickets, and I'll have to borrow the money."
Player 2: "Oh, that's bad."
Player 1: "No, that's good, because now I'll be motivated to look for that part-time job."
Player 2: "Oh, that's good."
Player 1: "No, that's bad because I'll probably have to give up my weekends."
Player 2: "Oh, that's bad . . ."

This is a starting place for discernment and understanding how one arrives at a decision.

Debate: Allow two teams some time to prepare the pro and con sides of a controversial issue. Then have them square off. Give time for debaters and observers to debrief. An alternate activity is mediation. Instead of focusing on the polarity (pro or con has to win), assign one or two others as mediators who work to identify agreements, points of commonality, places at which agreement can be reached. This can be used to assess how a "both-and" approach or a win-win can be achieved.

Decision games: Forced-choice exercises are a beginning level of decision making. A next level involves cases or situations that are open-ended and that require a decision. When decisions are made, examine the possible consequences of one decision over another and the impact those consequences can make.

Decorating the room: Decorations can set the tone for certain festive times, and they can enliven a season or event (such as birthdays or graduation) in the lives of the students or of the church. Decorations also reveal some of the inner self of those who decorate. Try dressing up the room occasionally to see what the students reveal about themselves.

Demonstrations: Ask a guest to visit and to demonstrate how to do something relative to the lesson. Be sure to have an opportunity for hands-on involvement by the students if at all possible. We learn better when we can get our own hands in the mix.

Discussion: Discussion should be focused on the relevant issues of the lesson. Take time to allow for necessary digressions, and do not have the entire route planned; but have a goal in mind and aim for it. Be sure everyone who wants to contribute can and that no one (especially the leader) monopolizes the conversation. It is neither necessary nor desirable that the leader comment on every contribution.

Evaluation of an event or experience: Also called debriefing, evaluating allows students time to think about their feelings, reflect on what happened, consider the consequences, review the meaning from other points of view, and explore learnings and "unlearnings."

Experience and change session: Provide an opportunity to experience — not just read or hear about — something that can change behavior, attitudes, impressions, assumptions, or information about anything. The experience might be on a trip, with a visitor, or in a new social situation. The key is that the experience provides a new, firsthand way to think, behave, or feel.

Field trip: Go somewhere that brings added insight to the lesson material. Visits to other places of worship make popular Sunday school or confirmation trips. Debrief afterward.

Fish bowl: Have a few students sit or stand in the center of the other students, who observe silently the action or discussion of the center group. At the conclusion of the fish-bowl activity, participants and observers debrief what they did and saw.

Forum discussion: Everyone's contributions get equal hearing. You might even bring the soap box for students to stand on. You could assign various issues or attitudes in the lesson to make up a forum discussion.

Greatest single event: Choose your own parameters — your lifetime, a series of events, a historical era, a given story. What is of primary importance and why? What implications does that event have for you, your community, nation, world, your faith, others' faith?

Group discussion: A group discussion can be done in several ways.

1. General council: Each person has the floor and can speak or pass in turn. Others listen without interruption.
2. Random council: Order of speaking is random, but everyone gets a chance before people can speak a second time.
3. By recognition: The group leader recognizes who will speak, but there is no mandated order or balance for who speaks when.
4. Free for all: like most church meetings!

Group work: Small-group work promotes more intimacy and sharing and often makes a task less intimidating and more inviting, especially when the assignment is difficult. Junior highs may feel better, for example, about a Bible study exercise if they know they have partners.

Guided imagery: A scene is created and students are helped by a guide to imagine themselves in it. The guide presents a word picture aloud, pausing often to give students the chance to see in their mind's eye where and how they are being involved in the imaginary setting. Participants should be comfortable and free from distraction. Often soft music helps create a meditative mood. Do not be surprised if someone dozes off if the meditation takes a few minutes or more. Be careful about the subject matter, since you can never completely know how students' conscious or unconscious thoughts will involve them. Be sure to debrief afterward.

Hero, victim, fool: Present a list of names that students will know, especially past and present people of note (or notoriety). Ask students to identify each person as a hero, a victim, or a fool and to explain why they have designated the people as such. Have the students vote on each person's status, and discuss the reactions. If votes are unanimous, there is fertile ground for discussing and examining common ideas, which may be stereotypes or myths that need exploration. Naturally, you do not name anyone who could be hurt by the process.

How many of you: This is a good icebreaker, but it also helps introduce people, new information about people, new insights gained about the perspectives, values, habits, perceptions, and abilities of different people. This can be used as an opinion poll on two levels. First, to explore an overt issue, such as: "How many of you favor capital punishment?" The second level asks about the values, assumptions, and so on that have an impact on that issue; for example, "How many of you value human life above all else?" "How many believe the punishment should fit the crime?" "How many think prison should rehabilitate?"

How much of what you know? Much of what we "know" is not true, or it goes out of date before we update our mental files. Use this activity to challenge commonly held knowledge and to examine other data.

I care, but I can't help: Develop realistic and rational goals where none seem possible. Use this activity to present the big issues, such as hunger or peace, that concern your students but in which they feel helpless to operate. Many issues are too big for an individual to comprehend, much less tackle; but there is always something that can be done. Brainstorm all the barriers and reachable steps; then analyze them. Look for smaller or more local goals that would support the larger ones. Then develop an action plan to accomplish the goals.

Ideal endings: Use an open-ended story such as a parable or a case study. Ask students to write, dramatize, or tell about what they think the ideal ending would be, given the principles in the lesson. Then compare their ideal endings to probable or possible endings. Analyze and discuss the differences and similarities.

Identify with characters: Students can often see themselves in Bible stories or other stories. Give them the opportunity to verbalize or to act out how they think they would feel or act in the situation that a story character faced. Students may have a hard time imagining themselves in the position of someone much older or younger. Even if there is not a person in a biblical story the same age as the student, the student can imagine how the situation would affect someone of his or her age. For example, a teenager might relate to Miriam in the story of the infant Moses in the Nile. There is no obviously older adult in the story, but an older adult might imagine how the situation would affect someone whose grandchildren and adult daughter were in potential danger.

Illustrating: Students can use their imagination to draw, paint, finger paint, or depict in another medium the events in a story or situation. Students may think they are too old for crayons, but even adults can have a good time once they get into it. Provide protection for clothing if the art project is messy.

Improvisational drama: Have students act out a story or situation with little or no preparation. Let them "go with the flow" of their immediate experience of and reaction to the story. Improvisation can allow for spontaneity and the expression of feelings. Actors and audience debrief afterward.

Inspirational stories: Share stories of heroes or of "ordinary" people who have been able to accomplish extraordinary things. People who model the Christian faith provide great stories. People who have immediate connection to the experience or history of the students are usually the best source. Do not assume that youth know about prominent people who lived before the 1970's.

Interpreting pictures: Mount pictures on construction paper or in a collage. Ask students to choose pictures that they think express a particular attitude or situation. (For example: choose a picture of someone who looks upset and imagine what caused him or her to be upset; or choose a picture of something that suggests wealth and analyze why the picture would make that suggestion.) The pictures should support the possible interpretations in the lesson.

Interviewing: Students can interview a guest who brings a particular expertise relevant to the lesson, other students who have experiences to share, or people who assume the part of someone in the lesson, such as Jesus and the woman at the well. Be sure you have a list of focused interview questions, which could be formulated by the students or prepared beforehand.

Lecture: Lecture is the least interactive of all teaching techniques, but it is the quickest way to relate information. Be sure to use colorful word pictures, anecdotes, and examples. Keep good eye contact, posture, diction, and vocal inflection. Avoid reading an entire lecture, long statistics, and long verbal paragraphs. Stop often and ask for feedback and questions.

Make a mock budget: Ask students to work with real or imaginary situations with imaginary money. Have them assign percentages of a total budget (even if you have no dollar amount) and set priorities for spending. Use this activity to reveal and discuss priorities and values. For example, students could imagine that they are state comptrollers who recommend percentages of the state budget to state employees, schools, service agencies, public utilities, trash removal, and protection personnel, such as police. How was the money divided and why? Be sure to relate those values to the ones in the lesson.

Make an action plan: Identify a common goal, outline the barriers and the possibilities, analyze how to overcome weaknesses and to maximize strengths, plot a course of action, and develop a means of evaluation. Then do it! Be sure to evaluate later.

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