Elder Ronald A. Rasband (Oct. 17): "By Divine Design"

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The Activity:

Complete the first two steps prior to the beginning of class.

1.     Post four posters around the room.  Make sure there is space between each of the posters.

2.     Write on the top of each poster one of the following questions:

a.      Why does God use us to bless one another?

b.     How can we be more useful instruments in God’s hands?

c.      How does it make you feel to know you can and should be an instrument in His hands?

d.     How does it make you feel to know Father is prompting others to be in a position to serve and bless you?

3.     Divide the class into four groups.

4.     Ask each group to go stand beside one of the posters so that each poster has a different group by it.

5.     Give the group 1 minute to write brief answers to the question on that poster.

6.     Have the groups rotate to the next poster.

7.     Repeat steps 5 and 6 until each group is back at the poster they started with.

8.     Ask groups to review all that has been written on the poster and make any last additions they want to.

9.     Ask group members to report back to the whole class what is on their posters. 

10. Discuss as a class these and other questions.



Using the Activity:

A couple of cautions are in order for this activity.  First, this is an active, move around the room type of activity.  Please be aware of anyone who may have trouble moving about so freely or standing for long-ish periods of time.  You may need to adapt the movement (perhaps by moving the posters instead of the people).  Also, make sure that whatever you use to write on the posters does not bleed through the poster paper you are using.  We don’t want to literally leave our mark on the church building.  J

The idea behind this activity is to give lots of people the chance to have their voices heard by lots of other people without bias or prejudice.  While we want to say that such factors are not at work in our class discussions in the Church, they unfortunately are far more than we want. 

There is a danger in this activity (as there is in any discussion/participation type of activity) that the groups will be dominated by a single person.  If that is a significant issue for your group or class, you might consider making this a silent activity until the groups return to their original poster and putting multiple markers/pen at each poster. 

As always, I hope and pray this activity is useful in some way to your efforts to be an effective teacher.  Please let me know how you are doing and how the lessons have (or have not) been helpful. 


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