Mormon Share > Teaching Techniques
Teaching Techniques
Jennifer Smith
December 31, 2012
The purpose of this activity is to help students learn that they have the skills and tools to answer other’s questions. They also learn they can turn their friends for help with gospel questions. After giving students something to read together, ask every one to write down a question about the passage. Instruct students that the question should be a question that was triggered by reading the passage. They should…
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Jennifer Smith
December 31, 2012
You already know how to play Scriptionary — one student draws a picture of a gospel story or item and the other students try to guess it. But in Seminary Scriptionary, I tell my students that they are going to draw a list of items that have to do with a certain gospel topic, like patriarchal blessings. Then I provide students a list of words, like – Liahona – scriptures…
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Jennifer Smith
December 31, 2012
Students are invited to write a quiz. It can be in the style of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, Jeopardy, or even just plain old question and answer style. Students will stand in front of the class and be the game show host. Sometimes my students write questions to ask the teacher, or other times they ask questions to ask each other. You can use this method to determine…
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Jennifer Smith
February 28, 2012
Since this is my first year, I’m still learning and looking for ideas on how to teach students to use the Gospel Study Aids like the Bible dictionary, index, gazeteer, maps, footnotes, and other supplements during their scripture study. Here are a few of the things I’ve used with success, and I’ll add more as I find them. Please share your ideas, too, in the comments section. We’re all learning…
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Jennifer Smith
February 10, 2012
One of the most boring things we do in class is go around the circle or down the row — in order — with every person reading a single verse of scripture aloud. Here are some very simple ideas you can use to keep students engaged while reading scripture passages aloud. Randomized Scripture Reading The following methods are ways to engage students by making assigned passages randomized. Hey there, Delilah!…
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Jennifer Smith
July 27, 2011
Many teachers use a Scripture Journal to help students retain information they are being taught or to help themselves with personal study. Here are some ideas for using a scripture journal that will give you lots of ideas. Occasional Use During Class My friend DeAnn purchase a composition notebook for each student for use as a scripture journal. Into this book they paste quotes and are assigned to write FITs…
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Jennifer Smith
March 13, 2011
Seminary Mom likes to split her classes into groups for gospel learning. Here’s how she taught 3 Nephi 11 over the course of two days, while splitting into groups for researching the scripture topic: Today was a special day as we began our study of 3 Nephi 11, the crowning moment in the Book of Mormon. I know that the suggested teaching schedule recommends teaching 3 Nephi 11 in one…
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Teaching Techniques
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Jennifer Smith
March 13, 2011
Seminary Mom used lunch sacks to emphasize the importance of the material in 3 Nephi — truly a spiritual feast. Kids in her class added notecards to their lunch sacks each day during the lesson to add to their feast. It’s a great example of how to carry a theme over multiple days for lesson continuity. Below is her description of how it worked. This theme could be adapted to…
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Jennifer Smith
March 13, 2011
Seminary Mom is big on hands-on activities, something I think is very important. Here are a couple of her ideas for using art to teach different messages in the scriptures: Principles to Live by (Helaman 15-16) Malachi 3 Principles to Live By Today our scripture block was Helaman 15-16. Using the manual I introduced several of the important discussion points for the lesson today. To start off, we read the…
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Jennifer Smith
March 13, 2011
Here’s a great example of using drama to help gospel students learn from Seminary Mom: One of my number one desires as a seminary teacher is to have my students fall in love with the scriptures. I want them to know these individuals we read about who really lived a long time ago. I want the students to feel the truthfulness of what they are reading and to care so…
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