Introduction to Lesson Planning

Preparing a Lesson Using RBP VBS Guides

Course materials are an excellent starting place. However, they are only a starting place. In order to effectively teach students, you will need to take the materials and use those materials to inform your lesson design.

The first step in designing a good lesson is identifying your lesson objectives.

Learning Objectives

Learning/outcome objectives are the critical starting point from which you can build your activities and lesson plan. Well-formed objectives will help you develop activities that are focused and relevant. A good objective is important regardless of what level you are teaching. Unfortunately, our curricular materials do not always use good learning objectives and sometimes fail to give any learning objectives. Regardless, you as the teacher, should develop learning objectives for your lessons. When forming learning objectives it is good to keep the following three principles in mind.

• A good learning objective should be:
  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable

• In addition to the above three items, a good learning objective should involve action words.

Some curriculums include a desired student response. This is a nice inclusion, but it is not a learning objective but rather a purpose statement. In a well-planned lesson a teacher will develop several learning objectives that connect back to the purpose statement.

It is often tempting to skip over creating learning objectives or to spend too little time developing the learning objective. This is a mistake, the learning objectives are central to all the components of a lesson. Time spent on learning objectives is time well-spent.

Example

The first lesson in the 2018 RBP VBS Material covers Peter's decision to follow Jesus. The curriculum focusses on Luke 5:1-11 and provides the following "Desired Student Response:"

• Desired Student Response:
  • Students will respond to Jesus' invitation to come to Him for salvation and then tell others about him.

This is an excellent purpose statement but it is not a learning objective. The statement is not specific enough and is not measurable in an objective sense.

• Some possible learning objectives:
  • Students will identify a specific area of life where trusting Jesus seems hard.
  • Students will determine to trust Jesus in the above identified area of life.
  • Students will acknowledge that Jesus calls them to follow him.
  • Students will determine to follow Jesus.
  • Students will identify individuals who they should be telling about Jesus.
  • Students will make a specific commitment (time/place/degree) to tell the above identified individuals about Jesus.

Introduction

Overview

The purpose of the introduction is to capture the attention of the class while also preparing the class to hear, understand, and act upon your learning objectives. Your introduction will probably not cover all of your learning objectives, but it should help you move into the main body of your lesson. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the introduction then you are thinking about it correctly, the introduction is hard and generally preparation of the introduction should be saved for after the main body of the lesson.

Example

The following example introduction attempts to follow the recommendations of this section

Materials

• Fishing pole with oversized hook attached to the end.
• Pieces of candy with string loops that allow the hooks to catch the loops.

Main Idea

• Ask students what people go fishing. Answers may include:
  • To catch dinner
  • As part of their job
  • For entertainment
• Choose a few students to try fishing for candy.
• Ask students what it takes to be a good fisherman. Answers may include:
  • Good bait
  • Patience
  • Good fishing location
• How many of you know someone who fishes for people?

Transition

• Today we are going to learn about four fisherman.
• Peter and his friends caught fish for a living, but as we are about to see, one day a man approached them and told them about a way of fishing that would change their life forever.

Main Body

In the main body of your lesson you will be planning the main parts of your lesson. You should regularly be asking yourself how this connects with the lesson objectives. There are several ways to develop the main body of the lesson. Some individuals prefer to write out every detail, other individuals will write out main points. The key to a good lesson is not choosing to write everything out or just write out the main points. The key to developing a good lesson is to figure out how to make your lesson speak to your audience. The state-of-the-art way of speaking to your audience is through active-learning.

Many curriculum developers have realized that learning is an active process instead of passive, and thankfully, many curriculum writers have begun incorporating active learning into the materials for children. Unfortunately, the active component of many lesson plans does not occur as often as it probably should. Some lessons include hands-on activities for the very young while using questions for the older children. Don't let this common trend fool you, even young children can be involved in a newer questions and older children, even adults, can benefit from hands on activities. The key here is getting your students involved in the lesson. Standing in front of a group of students and talking at them is tantamount to medical malpractice and should not be our way of handling the most important message in the world.

Developing Active Learning Lessons

• Take a look at your learning objectives and see if any of them can be formed into questions or activities.
• A key aspect of asking questions is being prepared to deal with the many answers students may provide. This is where Theological Knowledge for Teaching comes into play.

Example

As you go through these questions fill in details, use the questions as a guide.

• Read Luke 5:1-3
  • Jesus came up to the shore of a lake and saw two boats sitting on the shore, but the fisherman were not on the boats. What were the fisherman doing? Why were they doing that?
    • The fisherman were washing their nets, this means they were probably done with work for the day. Being on a boat on the water is hard work, surely the men were tired.
  • Jesus asked to use the boat for a special purpose. What was that purpose?
    • Jesus used the boat to preach.

• Read Luke 5:4-7
  • What did Jesus ask the disciples to do?
    • Go out further and fish.
  • What was so odd about this request?
    • They had been fishing all night and caught nothing.
  • What was the result?
    • They caught a bunch of fish.

Trusting Jesus paid off in some serious ways. Are there areas of your life that you should be trusting Jesus? What is an example of such an area? Why is it hard to trust Jesus sometimes?

• You need to be ready to deal with and respond to many answers to this questions. This is a personal application questions and so is by nature hard to answer. Don't let students wander too far astray but also be careful not to stifle their own thinking and reflection.

Conclusion

The keys to a good conclusion are good learning objectives.

Sample Lesson Planning Worksheet

Bible Passage

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Purpose Statement

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Introduction

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Main Body

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Conclusion

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