The movie 300 tells the tale of the brave and elite Spartan army of 300 soldiers that went up against the Persian army of over a hundred thousand. Good movie.
Tonight, I am gathering with another brave and elite army of 300…catechists, that is!
Weather permitting, I will be in Naperville in the Joliet diocese, speaking about The Catechist’s Toolbox to 300 catechists from a number of parishes in that area. The DREs are treating their troops first to a dinner followed by my presentation. I look forward to a wonderful evening.
The only fly in the ointment: we have a winter storm warning with predictions of up to 10 inches of snow coming beginning this evening! I pray that we are able to come and go safely from the event and then, while we are sleeping, “let it snow!”
Here are some great thoughts from a contributor named Maura about how they get parents of older kids to attend a few RE events at their parish:
Our solution to getting parents of older students to attend has been to build their partcipation into an opening and closing session for the Jr. High schedule. Parents are asked to attend the first and last class of the year with their child during which we do a variety of activities that look ahead to or summarize what we did during the year. For example this year with our students focusing on the Person of Jesus and the Gospels, we began by displaying pictures of Jesus from various cultures, depicting various scripture stories. Then we asked everyone to look at all the pictures and stand by the one that was most like their image of Jesus. They then shared with the others who had made the same choice and with the whole group what that art work told them about who Jesus was. Then we did a few games that students and parents played with and against eachother that were designed to help them learn more about Jesus, followed by some reflection questions. Towards the end I gave them a brief overview of what they would be covering during the year and then finally we prayed the litany of the Holy Name of Jesus together.
Throughout the evening students sit with their parents and their friends and their friends parents which seems to take some of the pressure off of everyone. Kids and parents alike seem to need that peer support.
In the evaluations we almost always get comments like “I didn’t think I would like this but we enjoyed it.” It was cool to see one comment this year from a kid who said how awesome his mom was. ”I didn’t know she knew all that God stuff.” Across the board, parents had positive comments about the the depth of their children’s spirituality, as if it was a big discovery. We have about 75 - 80% partcipation in these gatherings which I see as a success. One parent who had avoided attending last year told me at the begining of this year that they had come because her son’s friend had told her how enjoyable it was.
Thanks, Maura!
Last night, our religious education Open House attracted a number of parents of children in the lower grades, however, for the upper grades, the parents were nowhere to be found. I asked the young people at the start of class if any of their parents would be attending and they all said no, one of them saying, “My mom says it’s the same thing every year, so why bother?”
That’s disappointing. I would have loved to have met a number of the young peoples’ parents and I would like to think that the parents would want to show their interest in their childrens’ faith formation. No such luck.
It is experiences like this that intergenerational catechesis is responding to, by bringing parents and their young people together for faith formation. A question that I have, however, is: if parents aren’t willing to attend an open house for their child’s religious education, how do parishes “convince” them to attend intergenerational faith events? I’d love to hear the wisdom of those who have experience in this area.
The other day, I announced the publication of a Leader’s Guide for The Catechist’s Toolbox and indicated that it was free with a purchase of 25 copies of The Catechist’s Toolbox.
I’m told by the folks in Customer Service and Sales at Loyola Press that, for those of you who made a previous bulk purchase of The Catechist’s Toolbox, you are welcome to call to request a free copy of the Leader’s Guide.
This coming Monday evening is our Open House for the School of Religious Education and we anticipate parents coming to sit in on their children’s sessions. Of course, we want to be sure that some very engaging things are going on that evening!
I’ve decided to do a Bible activity with my group which is based on my book God’s Library: A Catholic Introduction to the World’s Greatest Book.
In a nutshell, the activity uses bookmarks to “divide” the Bible into 8 smaller sections: Pentateuch, History, Wisdom, Prophets, Gospels, Acts, Letters, Revelation. The participants use the bookmarks to build familiarity with these sections of the Bible, thus vastly improving their ability to be able to find stories and passages in the Bible. It’s a lot of fun as well!
I have a PowerPoint presentation for this activity and the bookmarks are provided in my book, God’s Library. Please know that when you purchase a copy of my book, you are granted permission to photocopy the bookmarks for use in your classes. Likewise, I will be happy to e-mail to you a copy of the PowerPoint presentation if you already have a copy of my book or if you “pledge” to buy one (we’ll do this on the honor system!). Just send me an e-mail at joe@catechistsjourney.com
This activity is most appropriate for young people in grades 5 and up and it requires each participant to have a copy of the Bible (a Catholic edition such as the NAB).
You can purchase God’s Library by clicking here or call Loyola Press at 800-621-1008.
Here is the activity, as outlined in the book:
Conducting a God’s Library Workshop for Young People
This workshop can be accomplished in seventy-five to ninety minutes and requires one adult for every twelve to fifteen children. It may also be adapted for teens and adults. The workshop requires that all participants have the same version of the Bible on hand so that page numbers can be used to locate passages quickly.. It also requires that each participant have a set of the God’s Library Bookmarks (see following) and a pair of scissors (unless you’ve prepared the bookmarks ahead of time which I recommend).
Goal: To build participants’ familiarity and comfort with the structure of the Bible and to increase the ease with which participants locate books, chapters, verses, and famous stories/figures in the Bible.
Learning Outcomes: Participants will learn to quickly locate biblical books, chapters, and verses using the table of contents. Likewise, participants will learn to quickly identify the location of famous stories and figures by using the God’s Library Bookmarks.
Action Plan:
1. Be sure all participants have the same version of the Bible, preferably the New American Bible.
2. Begin by introducing the notion of how important the Bible is to us as Catholics and how we are going to learn more about the Bible in this session. Ask how many have heard of the following stories (raise hands):
David and Goliath
Noah’s Ark
Jonah and the Large Fish
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
3. Next, tell participants that you will offer a prize ($1 or $5, etc.) to the first person who can find one of these stories in the Bible in 60 seconds or less. Use a stopwatch (and a whistle) and give 60 seconds for each of the four stories listed above, one at a time (without adult assistance). Most likely, no one will be able to do so. (If you believe your audience is more astute than this, be sure to allow only 30–45 seconds lest you go broke!)
Point out how unfortunate it is that we know about these stories but we don’t know how to find them in the Bible. Explain that we will be working on that in this workshop. Next, tell participants to have their Bible ready. Write the following biblical citations on the board (be sure to use abbreviations):
Ez 12:6–8
Jb 2:3–11
1 Thes 5:2–4
Again, allow participants 30–60 seconds to locate these passages (again, without adult assistance). Most will be unable to do so in the time allotted. Point out once again how unfortunate it is that we seem to be unable to identify Bible passages by their abbreviations. Ask if anyone can say out loud what the above abbreviations stand for.
4. Explain that if the Bible is so important to us, then we are going to need to learn how to find things in it more quickly and with more confidence. Explain that the Bible is not really a book but God’s Library.
5. Explain that when you go to a library, you need to use the catalogue and the book numbering system to locate the book you want to read. Point out how God’s Library, the Bible, has a “catalogue,” too, namely, the table of contents. Have all participants open their Bible to the table of contents section at the beginning. Adult supervisors should assist children here. Point out the alphabetical index, the abbreviation page, and other highlights of the table of contents in your version of the Bible.
6. Using the table of contents, invite participants to tell you what page the following books begin on:
Deuteronomy
Judges
Esther
Luke
Next, using the abbreviation table, ask participants to identify which book you are referring to when you write on the board:
Hb
Na
Ti
7. Using the board, point out how book, chapter, and verse are used in biblical citation:
Title of Book (abbreviated) Chapter: Verse(s)
Invite several participants to go to the board with their Bible open to the abbreviation table and write out in biblical citation the following passages as you say them:
Ecclesiastes, chapter nine, verses one to eight (Answer: Eccl 9:1–8)
Second Letter of Paul to Timothy, chapter two, verses four to six (2 Tim 2:4–6)
(Select more, if you wish, depending on the size of your crowd, how quickly they are catching on, and how much time you have left.)
Once again, Scripture citation may be handled differently than what I’ve shown above, depending on which Bible you are using. While most Bibles use the system I’ve described, don’t be surprised to find that some Bibles use a period or a comma instead of a colon to indicate the difference between chapter and verse. For example, the Scripture citation for the Gospel of John, chapter three, verse sixteen may appear in any of the following ways, depending upon which Bible you are using: Jn 3:16; Jn 3, 16; or Jn 3.16. Be sure everyone is “on the same page” with your approach to Scripture citation before you move on.
8. Now, explain how to find famous stories and passages when we don’t know what book, chapter, and verse they are in. Use the concept of God’s Library again and draw a diagram on a chalkboard. Imagine a building divided into two parts: Old Testament and New Testament. Ask how we differentiate between these two. (Answer: The Old Testament has stories about the people of Israel before Jesus, the New Testament has stories about Jesus and the Christian church.)
Invite all participants to locate the place in the Bible where the Old Testament ends and the New Testament begins. Show how much larger the Old Testament is than the New. Ask participants what section they should be in if they are going to look for a story about Jesus.
9. Explain that in addition to breaking down the Bible into two large sections, we are now going to break it down into eight smaller sections, four in each testament. Distribute to each participant a set of God’s Library bookmarks and a pair of scissors. (You may wish to have the bookmarks cut out ahead of time to avoid use of scissors and to reduce the time spent cutting)
10. Beginning with the Old Testament, identify the four sections: Pentateuch, History, Wisdom, Prophets. Have participants cut out and place one bookmark at a time, beginning with Pentateuch. Explain what can be found in this section by using the information provided on the bookmark. Have participants find the first and last page of each section, list the books included in this section, and insert the bookmark at the end of the section. For example, the Pentateuch bookmark goes on the last page of Deuteronomy. Invite the participants to hold up the Pentateuch section alone (take the section between the thumb and index finger) to observe its length. Using the bookmark, point out what stories/people can be found in this section. Invite participants to locate a few. Do the same for each of the four sections of the Old Testament.
11. Do the same with each of the four sections of the New Testament: Gospels, Acts, Letters, Revelation. Point out that while Acts and Revelation are individual books and not really a “section,” it is easier to separate them this way. Continue cutting out and inserting bookmarks one section at a time as you give a brief overview of what can be found in each section. Encourage participants to locate some stories as you talk about them. Spend extra time pointing out the Gospel section. Ask participants to hold up the section from Matthew through John: emphasize that if you want to find a Jesus story, this is where to look. Remember that all of the information you need is on the bookmarks.
12. Once all the bookmarks have been inserted, continue drilling participants as time allows, locating famous stories and figures in the Bible from the information provided on the bookmarks. Award prizes (candy, etc.) for just being in the right section (i.e., Pentateuch, Letters, etc.)
13. Encourage participants to continue quizzing themselves at home until they can remove the bookmarks as they would training wheels—when they are able to locate famous stories and figures within just a few minutes by knowing which section to look for. Encourage participants to show their parents, friends, pastor, etc. how they have learned to find their way around the Bible with such ease and familiarity
I am proud to announce that Loyola Press has published A Leader’s Guide for The Catechist’s Toolbox!
I wrote this guide to assist catechetical leaders in using The Catechist’s Toolbox with their catechists.
The guide consists of 18 brief inservices - one for each chapter of The Catechist’s Toolbox. Each inservice is designed to be 30-45 minutes in length.
The Catechist’s Toolbox has sold nearly 40,000 copies already and this Leader’s Guide will now assist DREs in working with their catechists to build their skills and learn effective techniques to become more effective. The Leader’s Guide is free with a purchase of 25 copies of The Catechist’s Toolbox (which itself is only $5 each for orders of 10 or more!).
Such a deal! Follow the link above or call 1-800-621-1008
I finished and turned in my report cards last night for religious education. Parents are invited this coming Monday evening to an Open House to visit their child’s class and they can pick up report cards on that night. I look forward to meeting those who will attend.
Completing the report cards was not too difficult and it was made especially easy because I have such a good class of kids. Very few of my comments were corrective. I only needed in a few cases to point out that the young person needs to behave better or participate more actively. I’ll be interested to see what if any response I get from parents.
The program I serve in issues report cards at the middle and end of the program. Tonight, I’ll work on these for the “1st semester.” They are very basic…I indicate their attendance record, provide a “rating” on some basic criteria and then write a comment. A grade (A, B, C, etc.) is not involved.
These are to be ready by Wednesday so that they can be organized in time for next Monday when we will host an Open House. Parents are encouraged to come and see their child’s class in action and to pick up their report cards.
Personally, I would prefer to call these Assessments instead of report cards. The phrase report cards just sounds so academic. What we are doing here is offering an assessment of each child’s progress in their faith formation. It may be semantics but I think it would make a difference in how we perceive what it is that we are doing.
I’d love to hear from others who fill out report cards/assessments. What’s your experience?
Victor from California sends along the results of an activity he did with his 8th graders. I’ll let him describe it in his own words:
The lesson was on Anointing with Chrism. Following some content and context, I had them divide into groups and do an acrostic with the word “anointing” on poster paper. They got more exposure with oil as I had each of them dip their finger into some fragrant oil and anoint their work. Just as I hoped the oil permeated through the paper as evidenced by flipping it over. What I didn’t expect was the light to shine though the anointing spots with the group closest to the window. Every one thought that was cool adding more meaning to the exercise.
Click here to see the results of the acrostic. Thanks for sharing, Victor!
I had the pleasure of sharing lunch with Connie Rakitan, the coordinator of a program called Faith and Fellowship - a ministry of faith formation for people who suffer from mental illness.
Statistics reveal that one in four American families are affected by mental illness. As catechists, we need to realize that 25% of those we teach are affected my mental illness, meaning that they or someone they know suffers from a mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, phobias, or major clinical depression, just to name a few.
Many people with mental illness can function and make great contributions to society. Unfortunately, people with mental illness are often socially isolated and even feel isolated from God. Connie’s Faith and Fellowship program seeks to help those with mental illness experience the love of God and of their sisters and brothers in faith. Faith and Fellowship strives to provide faith formation in a way suited to the needs of the mentally ill within the context of a small faith community as well as to offer opportunities for integration into the life and activities of the church or parish community. Connie provides training for her catechists to meet the unique needs of the faith community they are serving.
We as a Church are deeply appreciative to Connie and people who work with her in Faith and Fellowship for their dedication to our brothers and sisters who are often marginalized in our society. Their participation in the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy (ministering to the sick and “imprisoned”; offering counsel and comfort) is an inspiration to all of us.
Faith and Fellowship can be contacted at 38 N. Austin Blvd., Oak Park, IL 60302 / 708-383-9276.
