From Kathy K. Clayton and
From a previous post . . . . Use of variety can offer a fresh perspective to the essential lesson on the plan of salvation. One seminary teacher taught this lesson by hanging a string across the classroom. When the students arrived they were each given clothes pins and cards labeled with words identifying significant steps along the path of eternity. To review the plan of salvation in a fresh, interactive way, the students were invited to work together to clip their cards onto the string in the appropriate places and then share with the class the significance of what they had posted. They offered comments about what they needed to do to navigate successfully each step along that journey to heaven. ~ Kathy K. Clayton, (“Teaching to Build Faith and Faithfulness” Salt Lake City, Deseret Book 2012), 32-33 (continuing. . . .
Teach People, Not Lessons
When we know our audience well, we can customize instruction and select information that is responsive to their needs. Too often teachers and parents work so hard to prepare lessons that they become emotionally attached to the material they have prepared. A digression from the prepared text caused by a question or comment is seen as an interruption. In reality, questions should guide the lessons; lessons should not stifle the questions. If we are fortunate enough to have a class member or child who will brave an authentic question or comment, we should embrace that change of direction with gratitude and flexibility. Our teaching should be driven by class member or family needs.
Preparing a wonderful lesson plan that is abandoned because of an important, unforeseen need that arises during a class period can almost always be expected in a good class. Teachers need not feel that their preparation was in vain. Just as lots of pressure up stream causes a rich steady flow at the spigot, so lots of pressure in advance enables a rich steady flow of the Spirit in the class. No worthy preparation is wasted. Every teacher should hope that he/she will not be able to deliver all the material prepared because the class will be so fully engaged in learning that they will be spilling over with questions and comments that promote personalization of the concepts being taught. The objective should be to learn together in the communal way described in the Doctrine and Covenants 88:122, “Let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken all may be edified of all and that everyone may have an equal privilege.” The goal has everything to do with the edification of the people in the class, not the delivery of the required material. The prepared material is the vehicle for accessing the Spirit and framing the discussion.
For a teacher in any capacity to be willing to set aside a prepared script to address the needs of a class is far more important than covering predetermined material. No matter how clever the lesson that a parent has prepared for family home evening may be, if the parent unexpectedly becomes aware of a need in a child as a result of something he has noticed or a prompting from the Spirit, they will be more likely to truly teach if they promptly sets aside the clever prepared lesson and trust the prompting. While it is nice to consult friends and the Internet for lesson ideas, there may be risks in chaining ourselves to the ideas we find there, however appealing they may be. If those lesson ideas are not truly responsive to the needs of our learners, they are not the right lessons to deliver, no matter how creative they are. ~Kathy K. Clayton, Teaching to Build Faith and Faithfulness, (Deseret Book, Salt Lake City) 33-35
