Studying a Passage for Lesson Planning
From 2Timothy2.org
Contents
Objectives
- Teachers will learn to observe what a passage says.
- Teachers will learn to see how a passage fits in a wider context
- Teachers will leave with a set of ideas about a passage that they can use as they look through other teachers resources.
Introduction
- Consider the following image. How many squares do you see?
To see the answer select the text between these two There are 30 squares words.
Most of us are probably not all that good at being observative. In order to be effective in studying the Bible and teaching the Bible we must learn to observe.
Main Body
What Does the Passage Say?
Observation
- Take a moment, compartmentalize away everything you have previously learned and read Acts 10:1-3 with fresh eyes. Write down as many observations about the passage as you can. These observations should be just plain facts about the passage. Try not to get caught up in previous knowledge or anything like that, just make observations about what the passage says. See if you can come up with 28 observations.
| *Cornelius was a man | *Cornelius was in Caesarea | *Cornelius was a centurion |
| *Cornelius was part of the Italian Regiment | *Cornelius is identified as "a certain man" | *Cornelius was devout |
| *Cornelius fared God | *Cornelius had a household | *Cornelius' household feared God |
| *Cornelius gave alms | *Cornelius was generous | *Cornelius gave to people |
| *Cornelius prayed to God not a lesser idol | *The story takes place during the ninth hour | *Cornelius saw clearly |
| *Cornelius had a vision | *Cornelius interacts with an angel | *The angel was from God |
| *The angel had to come, he wasn't already there | *The angel spoke to Cornelius | *The angel knew Cornelius' name |
As you can see, these approximately 60 words of txt contain a whole lot of information. For most of us, when we read, we miss a lot of information. This is not always a bad thing, after all, we need to get to the main point of the text. However, when we are teaching a text it can be helpful to carefully look at the text to see what all is in the text.
Important Questions
Anytime you are looking at a passage of scripture it is important to ask yourself a few key questions, who? what? when? where? how? and why?
- Still try not to think about anything other than the passage and answer the following questions:
- Who? Cornlius
- What? Spent time praying
- When? At the ninth hour
- Why?Probably because he feared God and spent a significant amount of time in prayer
- How?He saw an angel of God clearly in a vision
- Now try the same activity on one of the following passages:
| **Acts 10:4-6 | **Acts 10:9-13 | **Acts 10:14 |
| **Acts 10:15-16 | **Acts 10:17-18 | **Acts 10:19-20 |
| **Acts 10:21 | **Acts 10:22-23 | **Acts 10:24-29 |
| **Acts 10:30-33 | **Acts 10:34-43 | **Acts 44-48 |
