How to Teach Religion Part 17

Again, the compet.i.tive impulse can often be used to motivate drill. The child is ambitious to stand at the head of his cla.s.s, or to beat his own record of performance, or to win the appreciation or praise of teacher or parents, or he has a pride in personal achievement--these are all worthy motives, and can be made of great service in conducting cla.s.sroom or individual drills. The posting of a piece of good work done by a pupil, or calling attention to the good performance of a member of the cla.s.s can often be made an incentive to the whole number.

Drill, in order to be effective, must not stop short of thorough mastery. The matter which is barely learned, or the verse which can be but doubtfully repeated is sure to escape if not fixed by further drill.

It is probable, as suggested in an earlier chapter, that we attempt to have our children memorize too much Bible material which is beyond their understanding and too difficult for them. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that we fail to teach them sufficiently well the smaller amount of beautiful sentiments, verses, poems, songs, and prayers which should be a part of the mental and spiritual possession of every child.

Our weekly lessons provide for the memorizing of Bible matter week by week, yet surprisingly few children can repeat any sensible amount of such material. Better results would follow if we should require less material, select it more wisely, and then _drill upon it until it is firmly fixed in the mind as a permanent and familiar possession_.

THE APPRECIATION LESSON

It is quite as essential that the child shall come to enjoy and admire right things as that he shall know right things. To cultivate appreciation for the beautiful, the good, the fine, and the true is one of the great aims of our teaching. One who is able to a.n.a.lyze a flower and technically describe its botanical parts, but who fails to respond to its beauty has still much to learn about flowers. One who learns the facts about the life of Paul, Elijah, or Jesus but who does not feel and admire the strength, gentleness, and goodness of their characters has missed one of the essential points in his study. One who masters the details about a poem or a picture but who misses the thrill of enjoyment and appreciation which it holds for him has gathered but the husks and misses the right kernel of meaning.

How to teach appreciation.--Appreciation can never be taught directly.

The best we can do is to bring to the child the thing of beauty or goodness which we desire him to enjoy and admire, making sure that he comprehends its meaning as fully as may be, and then leave it to exert its own appeal. We may by ill-advised comment or insistence even hinder appreciation. The teacher who constantly asks the children, "Do you not think the poem is beautiful?" or, "Is not this a lovely song?" not only fails to help toward appreciation, but is in danger of creating a false att.i.tude in the child by causing him to express admiration where none is felt.

There is also grave doubt whether it is not a mistake to urge too much on the child that he "ought" to love G.o.d, or that it is his "duty" to love the church. The fact is that love, admiration and appreciation _cannot be compelled_ by any act of the will or sense of duty. They must arise spontaneously from a realization of some lovable or beautiful quality which exerts an appeal that will not be denied.

The part of the teacher at this point, therefore, is to act as interpreter, to help the learner to grasp the meaning of the poem, the picture, the song, or the character he is studying. The admirable qualities are to be brought out, the beautiful aspects set forth, and the lovable traits placed in high light. The teacher may even express his own admiration and appreciation, though without sentimentality or effusiveness. Nor is it likely that a teacher will be able to excite admiration in his cla.s.s for any object of study which he does not himself admire. If his own soul does not rise to the beauty of the twenty-third psalm or to the inimitable grandeur and strength of the Christ-life, he is hardly the one to hold these subjects of study before children.

THE REVIEW LESSON

Reviews and tests fulfill a double purpose for the learner: they help to organize and make more usable the matter that has been learned, and they reveal success or failure in mastery. They also serve the teacher as a measure of his success in teaching. The review lesson should not be, as it often is, a mere repet.i.tion of as many facts from, previous lessons as time will permit to be covered. It should present a _new view_ of the subject. It should deal with the great essential points, and so relate and organize them that the threefold aim of _fruitful knowledge_, _right att.i.tudes_, and _practical applications_ shall be stressed and made secure.

Guiding principles.--If the section of matter under review deals with a series of events, such as the story of the migration of the Israelites from Egypt or the account of the ministry of Jesus, then the review lesson must pick out and emphasize those incidents and applications which should become a part of the permanent possession of the child's mind from the study of this material. These related points should be so linked together and so reimpressed that they will form a continuous view of the period or topic studied. There is no place for the incidental nor for minute and unrelated detail in the review.

The teacher will need most careful preparation and planning to conduct a review. He must have the entire field to be reviewed fully mastered and in his own mind as a unit, else he cannot lead the child back over it successfully. He must work out a lesson plan which will secure interest and response on the part of his pupils. Many review lessons drag, and are but endured by the cla.s.s. This may be accounted for by the fact that the review recitation often fails to do more than repeat old material.

It may also come from the fact that the children are asked details which they have forgotten or never knew, so that they are unable to take their part. It may in some cases arise from the fact that the teacher is himself not ready for the review, and does not like review days.

Whatever may be the cause, the review that fails to catch interest or call forth enthusiasm has in so far failed of its purpose. The minds of teacher and pupils should be at their best and concentration at its keenest for the review lesson.

a.s.sIGNMENT OF LESSON

No small part of the success of instruction depends on faithfulness and skill in a.s.signing lessons. Too often this is left for the very last moment of the cla.s.s hour, when there is no time left for proper a.s.signment and the teacher can give only the most hurried and incomplete directions. Or, it may be that the only direction that is given is the exhortation to "be sure to prepare the lesson for next week." But this will not suffice. We must not forget that children, especially the younger children, may not know just how to go to work upon the lesson, nor what to do in getting it. It is hard for any young child to gather thought from the printed page, even after he has attained fair skill in reading; and it is doubly hard if the matter is difficult or unfamiliar, as is much of the material found in the church-school lessons.

How to make the a.s.signment.--In order to a.s.sign the lesson properly the teacher must, of course, be perfectly familiar with the coming lesson. This means that he must keep a week ahead in his preparation, which is in the end no loss, but even a gain. The teacher must also have the plan of the lesson sufficiently in mind that he knows just what points are to be stressed, what will present the most difficulty to the cla.s.s, what will most appeal to their interest, and what will need to be especially a.s.signed for study or investigation. In lessons which children are to prepare at home it is usually well to go over the material briefly with the cla.s.s in making the a.s.signment, giving hints for study, calling attention to interesting points, and stating very definitely just what the cla.s.s is expected to do.

If there is to be written work, this should be fully understood: if handwork or drawing or coloring, it should be made perfectly clear what is required; if memory material is asked for, it should be gone over, the meaning made clear to every child, and directions given as to how best to commit the matter. If outside references are a.s.signed in books or magazines, the reference should be written down in the notebook or given the child on a slip of paper so that no mistake may be made. The purpose and requirement in all these matters is to be as definite and clear as would be required in any business concern, leaving no chance for failure or mistake because of lack of understanding. Less than this is an evidence of carelessness or incompetence in the teacher.

1. In order better to understand and to review the several types of lessons listed in the chapter it will be well for you to look through the lessons for the current quarter or year and determine to which type each separate lesson belongs. How many do you find of each type? Are there many lessons that will involve several of the types?

2. Which type of these lessons do you best like to teach? Is there any particular type that you have been neglecting? Any in which you feel that you are not very successful? What will you need to do to increase your efficiency on this type of lesson?

3. Do you feel that you are reasonably skillful in leading children to discover truths for themselves through the use of questions? If you find when questioning that the children lack the information necessary to arriving at the truth desired, what must you then do?

What do you consider your greatest weakness in conducting the developmental lesson?

4. Does your cla.s.s like review lessons? If not, can you discover the reason? Have your reviews been largely repet.i.tions of matter already covered, or have they used such devices as to bring the matter up in new guise? Do you believe that review day can be made the most interesting of the lessons? Some teachers say it can, How will you go at it to make it so?

5. What application, or deductive, lesson have you taught your cla.s.s recently? Was it a success? Have you ever discovered a tendency in your teaching to have your cla.s.s commit to memory some great truth, but fail in its application to real problems in their own lives? What applications of religious truths have you recently made successfully in your cla.s.s?

6. What is your method or plan of a.s.signing lessons? Do you think that any part of the children's failure to prepare their lessons may be due to imperfect a.s.signments? Will you make the a.s.signment of the lessons that lie ahead one of your chief problems?

FOR FURTHER READING

Earhart, Types of Teaching.

Strayer, A Brief Course in the Teaching Process.

Hayward, The Lesson in Appreciation.

Knight, Some Principles of Teaching as Applied to the Sunday School.

Maxwell, The Observation of Teaching.

CHAPTER XII

METHODS USED IN THE RECITATION

The particular mode of procedure used in recitation will depend on the nature of the material, the age of the pupils, and the aim of the lesson. For the church-school recitation period four different methods are chiefly used. These are:

1. The _topical_ method, in which the teacher suggests a topic of the lesson or asks a question and requires the pupil to go on in his own way and tell what he can about the point under discussion.

2. The _lecture_ method, in which the teacher himself discusses the topic of the lesson, presenting the facts, offering explanations or making applications as he judges the case may require.

3. The _question-and-answer_, or discussion, method, in which the teacher leads in a half-formal conversation, asking questions and receiving answers either to test the pupil's preparation or to develop the facts and meanings of the lesson.

4. The _story_ method, in which the teacher uses a story, told either in the words of the writer or in his own words, to convey the lesson. The story method differs from the lecture method in that the story recounts some real or fancied situation or occurrence to convey the lesson, while the lecture depends more on explanation and a.n.a.lysis.

It may sometimes happen that an entire recitation will employ but one of these methods, the whole time being given either to reciting upon topics, to a lecture or discussion by the teacher, or to a series of questions and answers. More commonly, however, the three methods are best when combined to supplement each other or to give variety to the instruction.

THE TOPICAL METHOD

There is really no absolute line of demarkation between the topical and the question-and-answer method. The chief difference lies in the fact that the _question_ deals with some one specific fact or point, while the _topic_ requires the pupil to decide on what facts or points should come into the discussion, and, so make his own plan for the discussion.

The plan of the topical method.--It is evident that the topical method of reciting will require more independence of thought than the question-and-answer method. To ask the child to "give the account of Noah's building of the Ark," or to "tell about Joseph being sold by his brothers" is to demand more of him than to answer a series of questions on, these events. The topical method will, therefore, find its greatest usefulness in the higher grades rather than with the younger children.

This does not mean, however, that children in the earlier grades are to be given no opportunity to formulate their thought for themselves and to express their thought without the help of direct questions.

This power, like all others, is developed through its use, and is not acquired at a certain age without practice. Even young children may be encouraged to retell stories in their own words, or to tell what they think about any problem that interests them; and all such exercises are the best of preliminary training in the use of the topical method.

Narrative topics.--The easiest form of the topical method is that dealing with _narration_. Children are much more adept at telling _what happened_--recounting a series of events in a game, a trip, an incident, or an accident--than in giving a _description_ of persons, places, or objects. The Bible narratives will therefore afford good starting places for topical recitations in the younger grades. Older pupils may be called upon to discuss problems of conduct, or to make applications of lessons to concrete conditions, or carry on any other form of a.n.a.lysis that calls for individual thought and ability in expression.

Report topics.--A modified form of the topical method is sometimes called the _report_ method, or the _research_ method. In this use of the topical method some special and definite topic or problem is a.s.signed a pupil to be prepared by special study, and reported upon before the cla.s.s. This plan, at least above the elementary grades, has great possibilities if wisely used. The topics, if interesting, and if adapted to the children, will usually receive careful preparation. Especially is this true if well-prepared pupils are allowed in the recitation to make a brief report to an interested audience of cla.s.smates.

Care must be taken in the use of this method not to permit the time of the cla.s.s to be taken with uninteresting and poorly prepared reports by pupils, for this will kill the interest of the cla.s.s, set a low standard of preparation and mastery, and render the method useless. When a topic of special study is a.s.signed to a pupil, care must be taken to see that the exact references for study are known and that the necessary material is available. The devoted teacher will also try to find time and opportunity to help his pupil organize the material of his report to insure its interest and value to the cla.s.s.