Page 74 - Teaching Principles and Methods Student Textbook short

participate in the drama. Send them the script and plan to meet with them one hour before class to
practice. Make sure your drama works as a HOOK to bring them face to face with your topic. Plan for a
3-5-minute drama.

Next, you want to add another method to your lecture that will move from just HEARING the
information, but SEEING it as well (from 10% to 35% retention level). So spend an hour making up a
PowerPoint on your computer. This is a slide visual presentation which will display maps, charts,
pictures, and even the bullet points of the presentation. Typically you will need between 25 – 35 slides
for a 40 minute presentation.

After going through your notes, you decide at the end of the first point or truth, that you would like
input from the group on how they could apply that truth to their lives. So stop the lecture, and shift to
Questions and Answers. Allow a certain amount of time for this activity, then shift back to your lecture.
Remember, when you do this, you reset the attention span of your audience to zero and start the clock
again, which is what you want to do.

When you come to the end of the lesson, there is a very important step to take. You have presented
truths from God’s Word to your students. Now what do they do with them? With a lot of teachers, they
just present, then the class does what they want. Everyone is excused. NO, this is not the way to end
the class. You now have to think of ways to ENCOURAGE application of the truth into their lives. This
may require your students to make a change in life style. Or they may respond in some other tangible
way. The main point is that you move the end of your class to an application phase.

Perhaps you could have a pop quiz. Give them a paper with questions on it. The quiz asks them the
points of the lesson. Then have a final question that asks them how they are planning to apply the truth
from God’s Word in their lives this next week. Give them plenty of room to write their answer.

Close you class in prayer, dedicating the students to Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to drive the lesson home
into the lives of the students.

Now let’s evaluate what you have just prepared. You have used dramatization, lecture, audio-visual
support, question and answer, and quiz methods – all in one presentation. That’s five different
methods. Your class will be highly interesting, has a lot of variety, will keep everyone thinking, will help
everyone visualize the truths, and will get the class really thinking about application of the truth in their
own lives. You have a great plan!

4. Practice your presentation.

Your one great enemy when teaching is time. Remember, “The mind can only
receive what the seat can endure.” So the presentation has to fit within a
certain time frame. Some methods eat up large quantities of time. Your
amount of content in the lesson must be balanced with the methods and time
you have. One way to find out how much time your plan will take, especially
if you are just starting out as a new teacher, is to practice it. Remember, it will probably take longer
than you think to complete a portion of your plan. For example, if the drama at the beginning of the
lesson is planned for 3 minutes, allow extra time, perhaps a couple of extra minutes, to the plan. When
you open up the class for questions and answers, you know how much time the questions will take, but
you do not know the amount of time the responses will take. Budget some time and even some extra

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