From: curmudgeon <briticanlankey@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>I need your help, I (try to) teach a small Sunday School class about half
a
>dozen children at best.
>Ages from 11 to 14 years of age, or Middle School age,
>grade level 6 through 9.
I teach 10 - 12 7th and 8th graders. We have two adults and a high
school student teaching. The other adult doesn't have the background
to prepare content, but works really well with kids.
>I have a great need for teaching ideas and or materials for such a small
>group of students or pupils.
>Most of the Sunday School teaching aids or either geared for the very
young,
>or the older high school age students and or pupils.
>Either of which is geared to much larger class sizes.
>The middle grade students and or pupils do not seem to have any kind of
>teaching materials that is best suited to either their age level or
> maturity level.
I'm a bit surprised. Most major Sunday School curricula have material
for middle school age kids. I've used mostly Cokesbury's material,
particularly their digital curriculum. It's organized so you can buy
individual modules (2 - 3 weeks) online and download them in PDF form.
They're full of relevant activities. Youth Specialties also has a lot
of material for this age.
In addition to normal Sunday School material, Cokesbury has a series
of topical material, LinC. They publish it early in the week before it
is going to be used, so they can tie it to current events. They have
two sections to each module, one more activity oriented, for middle
school, and one more discussion oriented, for high school. You can
see this and their other stuff at ileadyouth.com
The only problem is that I can't stand using most of this. This is
mostly a personal thing. The experts say that the difference between
middle school and high school is that with high school you can do
discussions, but middle school needs primarily activities. It's
probably even true. But when I was that age I hated Sunday School
activities. I was interested in theology and wanted something more
academic. I have one kid (who for all practical purposes is me at age
14) who feels the same way. In fact I got a complaint from him that
we didn't have enough theoretical content. But I have reason to think
that both he and I are unusual.
I will say that it's pretty hard to get this age to carry a
discussion. The closest I can come has me supplying most of the
content, and with great effort getting some interaction out of them.
With high school and adult you can often start a discussion and
they'll keep it going.
I have ended up doing my own material. I've adopted a two-year cycle
(since I have two grades) with New Testament one year and Old
Testament the other. I try to concentrate on things they probably
haven't gotten in the younger grades. In the OT they've gotten Bible
stories, but they don't have clue about prophets. So the OT year tend
to emphasize the 10 commandments (as a way into ethics) and prophets.
I do a mix of discussions -- which I plan myself -- and other things.
And I encourage critical thinking: does all of this make sense? Can we
really believe it? The discussions are much like you'd use for high
school, but briefer. The other things include videos (episodes from TV
shows or movie clips that raise issues worth talking about), skits,
and games like Bible Scrabble and various quiz games.
But most people will probably prefer the published material, and I
think Cokesbury is pretty good for that. One advantage is that they
supply an enormous variety of activities. They assume a variety
of class sizes and possibly a large age range. The junior high
material is written so you can use it with a class covering 6th - 12th
grade. 6th through 9th isn't a bad range.
But a lot depends upon the nature of your church and what your kids
expect. Conservative churches with strongly committed kids can use
very different material than a more liberal church like ours where
most of the kids aren't willing to put any effort into Sunday School.
It also depends upon their preferences. What mix of activities and
discussions do they want? What do they care about? How much do they
already know? If you can say more about that I might be able to make
more specific recommendations.
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