Archive for the 'Assessing Progress' Category
Last night I attended my end-of-the-year meeting with Arlene, my DRE. She schedules grade level meetings to informally evaluate the year and to look at the schedule for next year. So I was with several of my fellow 8th grade catechists last night as we chatted about what worked and what we’d like to tweak for the coming year. It was a good opportunity to compare notes with colleagues and to hear how they dealt with similar experiences. Our conclusion was that we made some great strides this past year in implementing some innovative ideas, especially the confirmation intensives. We committed to doing those once again and decided to schedule a couple of opportunities for our groups to come together for some large-group presentations, particularly for the Church history PowerPoint and the viewing of the segment from the Jesus of Nazareth DVD. It was a productive meeting and I appreciate the attention and affirmation that Arlene gives to all of us catechists!
With the end of most religious education program years occurring, this is a good time for catechists to do a little bit of self assessment. Feel free to use the following by yourself, with a peer or group of peers, or with your DRE.
1 = poor/I disagree
2 = fair/I somewhat disagree
3 = good/I somewhat agree
4 = excellent/I agree
I became more aware of my vocation as a catechist
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I took time to deepen my own understanding of the teachings of the Church
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I faithfully practiced my faith, participating in the life of the Church
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I paid attention to my own spiritual life and sought to grow spiritually
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I dedicated adequate time to planning my lessons
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I was welcoming to my students
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I got to know my student’s names quickly
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I became very familiar with the textbook/resources I was using
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I covered the material that I was responsible to cover
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I was prepared for my classes (materials, equipment, etc.)
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I used a variety of activities to keep the students engaged
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I made adjustments for various learning styles/special needs in my classroom
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I prepared my learning environment
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I kept my students engaged in the learning process
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I included opportunities for prayer in each session
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I became a more effective prayer leader
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I effectively handled discipline challenges
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I tried new things to stretch myself and widen my “repertoire”
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I kept a good sense of humor
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I included Scripture in my sessions
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I integrated technology in my sessions (CD, DVD, VCR, computer, PowerPoint, etc.)
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I facilitated effective class discussions when appropriate
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I effectively assessed the progress of my students
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Last night was our last class for the year and it was a very nice send-off. The closing Mass was very good and the young people seemed genuinely touched by the little token that I offered them. A number of the 8th grade students also went out for pizza afterwards accompanied by 3 of us catechists.
As it turns out, last week, when I missed class because of my daughter’s illness, my aide, Kris, had the young people make thank you cards for me! What a nice gesture! Here are some of the comments that they wrote in their cards:
- Thank you very much for taking the time to teach me about Jesus.
- Thank you for dealing with us all year. Thank you for volunteering your time to teach us about God. Iliked the way we meditated. I don’t like reading in the book so it was cool that you made PowerPoints.
- Thank you very much for your class this year. I really learned a lot and enjoyed it very much. I liked how we meditated in class. You always came to class knowledgeable and prepared and we really appreciated that. Since you came wanting to be there, most of the class ended up wanted to come. This year we made our confirmation, and I think I was really ready for it. Your class was a lot of fun and it was the best year of CCD I’ve ever had!
- Thank you for the time you spent with us talking about Jesus Christ.
- Thanks for the meditation time.
- Thank you for all the things you have taught me. You taught me things outside the book that no other teacher has done. The meditation helped me pray and spend time with Jesus and God. Thanks for everything.
- Thanks for teaching our class. U really made it fun this year! It went by so fast! So thanx.
- Thank you so much for making my last year of CCD awesome! When I first came in and heard you were one of the authors of the book, I was thinking to myself, “Oh, great, we are going to do nothing but read from the book.” But I was wrong. Even though we used the book at times, this class was really fun. Learning about the history of the church and watching Jesus of Nazareth was very interesting. The meditations were also really cool. Thank you!!
I think I’ll keep doing the meditations, eh?
I had the pleasure of listening to Bishop Blase Cupich (pronounced soopich) of Rapid City, South Dakota, speak at the NCEA convention in Indianapolis the other day. He spoke about exploring “proven pathways” for facing the challenges that we face in the catechetical ministry in our culture and times. In particular, he presented an Augustinian model of passing on the faith, grounded in St. Augustine’s communications to Deogratias (A.D. 403) titled “On the Catechizing of the Unistructed.”
Deogratias, a deacon, was having a hard time teaching the faith. He felt that his teaching was being perceived as “boring.” Sound familiar? Augustine responded with his advice for catechetical instruction. Bishop Cupich mined this tradition to speak to today’s catechists. He emphasized the following:
- the need for the catechist to know his or her subject which means that we each need to strive to know Jesus more deeply
- the need to know (really know) one’s students and to adapt catechetical methodology as needed
- the need to recognize prayer as the first duty of teaching the faith and for that prayer to be rich in sign and symbol
- the need to connect the present to the story of salvation history
- the need to teach with cheerfulness which he (Augustine) called hilaritas - an enthusiasm for teaching and a love for what we teach and who we teach.
Here is a good article written by Paul Turner about Augustine’s catechetical advice.
Thanks, Bishop Cupich, for offering these “proven pathways” for meeting today’s challenges!
In two weeks (we have no class this coming Monday), the 8th graders will be given their Confirmation Test/Assessment. As I’ve been explaining to them, this is not a pass or fail proposition, but rather, an assessment of each student’s grasp of the basic content of the Catholic faith. For those who do not do well on the assessment, my aide and I will design some steps to take to assist them in grasping the concepts. The goal is for every student to be able to love the Lord God with their whole heart, soul, MIND, and strength!
I’m thinking about presenting the assessment within a prayerful context to further remove the idea that this is a “final exam.” I haven’t figured this out yet, but I thought I would begin the session with a further explanation of just what we are doing and then lead them in a brief meditation that sets a prayerful mood and allows them to encounter Jesus for the purpose of talking with him about knowing their faith. I would then, without too much disruption of the prayerful mood, quietly distribute the assessment and have the students work on it while I continue to play some instrumental music very quietly in the background. When they are done, I will encourage them to put their head down and once again spend time with Jesus, talking with him about where they are at in their commitment to follow him.
I need to further develop the idea. If anyone has done something like this before, I’d love to hear about it.
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?
Last night’s Confirmation Intensive, a 2-hour session with the 8th graders, was a resounding success!
The kids were not surprisingly curious and anxious about what they were going to do for “2 WHOLE HOURS!!!”
We had them on the move for the whole 2 hours and they were delightfully engaged in their mini-sessions (20 minutes with each of the 4 eighth grade catechists. For my sessions, we met in my room in the school and then moved from the school building to the convent chapel. To do so, we formed a procession: I asked for volunteers to carry a cross, a candle, and my CD player that was blaring “Lord, send out you Spirit!” I got a kick out of how the kids got into this. No, they were not solemn and in fact they were somewhat giddy but I would have to say that they processed in a spirited manner and it set the tone for my sessions with them.
The 2 hours went by in a flash and the DRE tells me that she surveyed a number of kids on their way out and they said they enjoyed it. This was an engaging and effective method for covering a great deal of information about Confirmation in a significant block of time without “boring” the young people.
I’m greatly appreciative to my DRE, Arlene, who is so supportive and open to new ideas. I am also greatful to my fellow 8th grade catechists…they are such a great team to work with and I was so impressed with the kids from their classes…they are obviously doing wonderful work with them.
We’re off now until after Christmas and then we have a few more Confirmation intensives.
I’ll post the rest of this week and then will take Christmas week off. Talk to you tomorrow.
Oops…I almost titled today’s post Making Reading More Fun but then I realized that I had previously ranted about the obsession we catechists often have with making sure everything is fun!!! The key is to make learning more engaging (which makes it more fun anyway!)
All that to say that last night’s activity made the reading of the textbook much more engaging. We sat around a long table with the Church history timeline spread out (about 8 feet long) in our midst. Each young person had 3 small cards, each representing an event in Church history (all of them from the Powerpoint we used the previous few weeks).
As we read through several chapters of the Church history unit in our Finding God textbook, the young people called “TIME OUT!” whenever the text mentioned an event that was on one of their cards. We then placed the card along the timeline, described the event, and continued on with reading the text.
Several times, the young people missed an event mentioned by the text at which point I called “TIME OUT!” When we found out who had the card but missed its reference in the text, that young person had to stand until the next time out. They got a kick out of this little “punishment” and focused even closer attention to the reading to avoid further ignominy!
In all, we read from the text for almost 45 minutes (including all the pauses for the above) covering about 800 years of the timeline. However, the time went by very quickly because it was more engaging than just a straight reading of the text. Normally, the idea of reading from the text for that length of time would sound dreadfully boring. However, given the level of engagement, the reading of the text was transformed into an active learning experience.
And, yes, we had fun!
Next week, we’ll finish the remaining 1200 years of Church history, wrapping up this unit and then we’ll get the kids ready for the Sacrament of Reconciliation which takes place Dec. 10 as part of their Advent experience.
Here’s my plan for this evening’s session:
- We will complete the church history Powerpoint that we began last week (we have 2 more time periods to go through).
- Throughout the Powerpoint, the young people have been filling in a note-taking sheet with pertinent names and dates.
- When we are finished, we’ll review the info on the note-taking sheets and then I’ll arrange them into 5 small groups (2 or 3 in each group) and assign each group one of the 5 periods in church history that we’ve covered in the Powerpoint.
- They’ll have 5 minutes to prepare a brief presentation on their time period, telling us what years they are covering and what events took place and their significance.
- To prepare, they may use their note-taking sheets.
- For their presentations, however, they will not be able to use their sheets, so that they will need to speak in their own words.
This activity will be my form of assessment to see how well they have comprehended the material covered in the timeline presentation over the past 2 weeks. It is also another way of ensuring that the young people are actively engaged in their learning and not just passive.
Our reflective prayer this evening is a meditation on images of Jesus (another Powerpoint!) that I’ve collected over time and set to music. The focus will be on how Jesus has been experienced over the 2000+ years of church history and how we experience the same living Christ today!
P.S. For a good site of Jesus Images, visit http://www.passionist.org/prc/gallery/
