Elder Ulisses Soares (Oct. '19): "Take Up Our Cross"
The Activity:
- Make sure everyone has access to a copy of the talk.
- Ask the class members to skim over the talk and to consider the counsel Elder Soares gives about taking up our cross.
- Have each class member identify a word or phrase that they consider to be the most important counsel relative to taking up our cross.
- Divide the class into small groups (3-4 people)
- Explain that the group will share and discuss their chosen words/phrases as follows:
- The first person will share their word/phrase and take 60 seconds (yes, you should time it) to explain why they chose that word/phrase
- Then, each person in the group will have 60 seconds (timed again) to discuss what was shared. Encourage the group members to make connections between the sentiments shared and their own experiences and/or other stories and scriptures.
- Rotate and the next person shares their word/phrase.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 until everyone in the group has had the chance to share their chosen word/phrase.
- Come back together as a class and discuss the highlights of what was talked about in the small groups.
Using the Activity:
This activity is a way to encourage and support home-centered, church-supported gospel learning as we have been counseled. Also, this activity paves the way for individual revelation and inspiration. By asking people to choose what is most important in their minds (and there are no right/wrong answers), this activity centers on these class members personalizing the counsel and considering how it works in their own lives.
This activity could be used at almost any point in the lesson. It might work best, though, towards the close of the lesson after much of the talk has been discussed. This would also allow this activity to serve as a closure activities. In education, closure activities are activities that ask class members to review the content of a lesson and spend a couple of moments trying to tie it all together in their own minds. Closure shown to dramatically increase learning and retention. In church teaching terms, we want these talks to become part of the class members lives. So, if we can put in place an activity that will help them to do that (especially in a setting where the Holy Spirit is guiding the class members), we are positioning the class members to come unto Christ.
As always, thank you for coming to visit my blog. I hope that the ideas here are useful, whether as they are or simply as a catalyst for your own idea. Please let me know how the activities work and if I can improve what I share in any way. Thank you.
This looks like a lesson plan you would use if you weren't prepared. There is no teaching involved.
ReplyDeleteSorry that does not read very well. What I should have said was that this lesson plan could be applied to any lesson as a starter.
DeleteI agree. We should probably start every lesson with an activity or question like this. Also, we need to remember that I think teaching in a gospel context differs fundamentally from teaching in a traditional school context. In schools, we want to teach a particular concept that our students are not familiar with/skilled at. In church, however, we need to make sure that we are getting out of the way so that the Spirit can teach. Learning from the Spirit will differ for each person and will lead to increased testimony and, hopefully, conversion.
DeleteAlso, btw, the purpose of the activities in this blog is not to provide an entire lesson idea. The purpose is to provide an activity that could form part of an entire lesson. I hope that these activities will be a catalyst for increased inspiration for those who read, ponder, and pray about using these activities. They could well be used as is but most often I imagine they will be altered to fit the specific context of the teacher using them. I hope that clarifies a little bit. Have a great day.
DeleteInspired by this general conference talk, I envisioned the following. Picture our spiritual state before we came to this world. The angels in heaven, including you and I, met with Heavenly Father to learn more about His plan and our journey to the mortal world. He expressed his deep love for us and our hearts swelled with joy. He paused and then He told us that there would be a price to pay to earn this eternal happiness, that not all will qualify. He sorrowfully described some of the tribulations we would have to bear - debilitating diseases, immorality, addictions, wayward and self-destructive children, loss of loved ones. Our countenances fell, we groaned inwardly and He sensed our fear. Heavenly Father then asked, "Who among you will take up the crosses of those who cannot bear their own?" A silence fell on the congregation. "I will," said One.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. It is moving.
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