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Recommended Books

Submitted by Jenny Smith on Fri, 07/29/2011 - 11:27am

I'm too new at this to recommend many books, but I have to say that so far, Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov has been the most helpful for me. I don't have any formal training as a teacher, and this book helped me understand why the techniques I've accidentally discovered while teaching before work, and it gave me practical tips that I can actually use. I don't need philosophies, I need tools. And this book provides tools. It comes with a DVD so that you can see some of the techniques in use in a classroom. This is a book intended for public school teachers, and not every word is applicable to Seminary, but the vast majority of ideas will help you. I bought mine at Amazon, but you may find it cheaper at http://www.half.com/.

Friends' suggestions

My friends who teach Seminary suggested the following books to me, and I am passing along those titles to you:

The Made Easier series

DeAnn recommends that The "Made Easier" series by David J Ridges. She says she uses these books alongside her manual and scriptures when reading the scripture block to help her understand passages better. There are several of these books out there:

The Doctrine and Covenants Made Easier Part 1
The Doctrine and Covenants Made Easier Part 2
The Doctrine and Covenants Made Easier Part 3

The Old Testament Made Easier Part 1
The Old Testament Made Easier Part 2
The Old Testament Made Easier Part 3

The Book of Mormon Made Easier Part 1
The Book of Mormon Made Easier Part 2
The Book of Mormon Made Easier Part 3

The New Testament Made Easier Part 1
The New Testament Made Easier Part 2

Isaiah Made Easier in the Bible and Book of Mormon

The Apostles

Brent suggested New Testament Apostles Testify of Christ: A Guide for Acts Through Revelation by Kelly Ogden and Andrew Skinner. At this writing, this book seems to be out of print, but it is available very inexpensively used.

Teaching

Becoming a Great Gospel Teacher: Bringing the Gospel Classroom to Life was recommended by DeAnn and sounds like a book much like Teach Like a Champion in that it is full of practical gospel teaching advice in a Q&A format.

Share Yours

Do you use a great book to help with your teaching? Please tell me about it below!

About the Author

Jenny Smith's picture
Hi, I'm Jenny Smith, and I shared this content!

Jenny Smith is a geek-wife and SAHM of 2 adorable kids. She likes tomatoes, peanut M&Ms, and Star Trek. But not necessarily at the same time.
My Stake: Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA
My Website: http://www.JennySmith.net/

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#1 Now that I've read Becoming a

Jenny Smith's picture

Now that I've read Becoming a Great Gospel Teacher, I can say that I'm not very impressed. Like the reviews said, the Q&A format starts off cool and then gets annoying about halfway through the book. Becoming a Great Gospel Teacher reads like an argument for the "new" teaching method instead of the teaching techniques guide I was expecting. I didn't find it terribly useful.

On the other hand, the Made Easier series was surprisingly good. I am skeptical about commentaries, but this one was really, really good. I would recommend it. There's good reason that these are best sellers by Cedar Fort -- they're fantastic.

Submitted by Jenny Smith on Tue, 09/06/2011 - 6:39pm.

Clipart, Object Lessons, Young Women, Primary, RS

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