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¿Qué es la Biblia? ¿cómo se formó? y, ¿cuál es su propósito?

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As I explored in a previous blog post, it can be useful to condense the complexity of teaching down to just a few key ideas. Here's what I came up with:

Obviously there's a lot to unpack in each area but since I produced this I've found it incredibly useful a reference point when I'm observing lessons and talking to teachers:

When I go into lessons, and sit at the back, I scan the room and check in with the students around me to experience the lesson from their small corner. I find I'm basically checking whether each of these five elements are present as far as is possible. In discussions with the teacher I'm also exploring how far they are checking themselves:

Thinking about theses general principles allows significant variation in the specific form they take so it's a case of exploring how they manifest themselves in that context:

1. Responsive Teaching ?

In general, is the teaching constructed to allow feedback loops such that the teacher can and does adjust and adapt in response to how well students' demonstrate their understanding. Are they anticipating the likelihood that some students will find thing harder or might not fully grasp the concepts or master the skills, so they ask questions and set tasks explicitly with a view to find out who might need additional support or instruction.

2. ALL students....?

The ALL is key. Scanning the room, and watching the teacher engage with students, does it seem like every single individual student is being spoken to, involved in questioning, supported to succeed, supervised, checked in on? It's very very common for this not to be the case because it's actually just really hard - so I"m not ever looking for perfection. I"m looking for the intention and trying to identify where the gaps are. If the teaching isn't explicitly geared to involve all students, it probably isn't going to be.

3. Thinking: ?

Are the tasks and questions set up so that every student has to think or is very likely to be thinking? How could the teacher know? Have they introduced the accountability associated with cold calling, or used whiteboards? Or are they busily circulating to check each individual student is producing the outcomes that demonstrate their thinking? Are they doing a pair-share with a good structured question that requires both students to think? Or is it possible to sit out a patch of lesson while others do most of the thinking?

4. Making Meaning: ?

This is crucial but tricky. Has the lesson allowed all students the opportunity to make explicit connections to their prior knowledge? Have they all made sense of the ideas? How would the teacher know this? There are two elements here:

a) a task or process that gives students a chance to process ideas and generate a response that shows them how well they've understood the information. This could be a pair task where students talk through the narrative or story or explanation to see if it makes sense to them as they explain it.

b) a mechanism that allows the teacher to check the ideas that students have formed. This could be a 'show call' or whiteboards or pair-share; it could be an appropriate from of retrieval practice. The teacher needs to hear from students what they've understood. Multiple responses from a think-pair-share can reveal this as a sample as part of the checking for understanding process, but it's normally a combination of methods that allow the teacher to get a good read of meaning-making across a class. For sure, unless the teacher is checking, they can't move the lesson forward responsively.

5. Practising: ?

Finally, I'm checking to see whether, even if students have been involved in all the previous elements, they have a chance to consolidate the learning with some practice. It's so often a bit of the learning process where corners are cut because of time pressure. Do they all get to use all the new words a few times? Is there any explicit rehearsal and repetition? Do all students get the chance to practise explaining or using the equipment or to re-do their work to respond to feedback?

For me, these lines of enquiry have helped sharpen my focus and my feedback, It covers a lot of bases, keeping all students' learning in the frame, rather than teacher performance as the main focus. It also allows teachers room to explore multiple alternative ways to achieve the goal in all five areas. Rather than 'are you always using cold calling'?- the discussion is 'how are you routinely checking that everyone is thinking?' Emphasising the general principle over the specific method can help open up the conversation - even if cold calling would be a great solution, it's not mandatory!

I think this approach might also help to build a teacher's situation assessment - carrying through asking themselves those five questions in all the many hundreds of lessons they are alone with their class unobserved, thinking for themselves.

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Three Checks: For teachers and observers.

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As I explored in a previous blog post, it can be useful to condense the complexity of teaching down to just a few key ideas. Here's what I came up with: Obviously there's a lot to unpack in each area but since I produced this I've found it incredibly useful a reference point when I'm...

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Traditional The traditional lecture setup typically consists of rows of fixed seating. Students face the instructor with their backs to one another. This classroom seating arrangement is historically common in colleges and universities, minimizing student-student communication and largely supporting…

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Mujeres Profetas_ Miriam, Deborah y Huldah

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Scripture Reflctions: Becoming God's Instruments

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Scripture Reflctions: Becoming God's Instruments

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A neglected aspect of Ignatian spirituality_ Becoming God’s instruments

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NY Archdiocese Resource

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Plan de Lección para una Sesión Catequética

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A Simple Tool to Help With Lesson Planning and Post-Lesson Reflection

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The practice picker checklist provides a framework that teachers can use to help make sure their lesson plans are effective.

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Catechist Magazine - Resources for catechists and catechetical leaders

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Catechist magazine serves catechists and catechetical leaders in parish religious education and formation programs, and religion teachers.

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As catechists, we work with the Holy Spirit to form disciples of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, let's devote some attention to the concept of discipleship. I can think of no one better to turn to than Fr. Brice Higginbotham, author of Remaining with Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of John.

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The Religion Teacher | Catholic Religious Education

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So, you are teaching virtually this year. Things are going to be different. It certainly won't be religious education as normal. It might not be the year we expected. But it could be an amazing year. In response to the pandemic, many schools and parishes have chosen between: In-person classes with social distancing and masks...

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The Religion Teacher | Catholic Religious Education

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So, you are teaching virtually this year. Things are going to be different. It certainly won't be religious education as normal. It might not be the year we expected. But it could be an amazing year. In response to the pandemic, many schools and parishes have chosen between: In-person classes with social distancing and masks...

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Great ideas for religious education class.

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Religious education ideas for Catholic teachers, homeschoolers, and catechists- crafts, lessons, and printables on Sacraments, Scripture and Prayer.

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For new and seasoned catechists.

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The current issue and years worth of back issues of Cathechist magazine are in the Library. Filled with practical ideas and spiritual nourishment, the magazine is a great kick-starter to get your ideas flowing.
CLICK HERE to find articles online.

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This video from the Archdiocese of Chicago will inspire you no matter where you're called to be a catechist. It's worth your 8 minutes to get the overview and inspiration of this challenging and...

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III. The Aim and Intended Readership of the Catechism

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Daily Bible Readings, Podcast Audio and Videos and Prayers brought to you by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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As you set forth to call people to the vocation of serving as a catechist, it's a good idea to have a role description in place to describe what you are calling them to. Be careful not to make your role description so demanding and lofty that not even Jesus would qualify! Keep it simple and basic so as not to scare anyone away but specific enough to narrow the field so that you're not just looking for "a warm body."

I recommend that your role description consist of three simple parts. First, include a few basic qualities that show you are looking for a well-rounded person with a healthy faith. Second, list a few basic skills, showing you are looking for people capable of handling or growing into the task. Third, include some specifics about what will be required at your local level: how many sessions, how many catechist meetings, required formation, safe-environment training, etc. Again, don't overwhelm, but by the same token, show that there are expectations. Here's a sample role description you can feel free to use or adapt.

Qualities

a desire to grow in and share the Catholic faith

an awareness of God's grace and the desire to respond to that grace

a commitment to the Church's liturgical and sacramental life and moral teachings

a strength of character built on patience, responsibility, confidence, and creativity

a generosity of spirit, respect for diversity, and a habit of hospitality and inclusion

Knowledge and Skills

a basic understanding of Catholic teaching, Scripture, and Catholic Tradition

honest and caring relationships with the age group being served

effective teaching techniques and strategies

Responsibilities

Complete initial training or formation.

Complete Virtus training.

Commit to teaching 24 sessions.

Attend quarterly catechist meetings.

Commit to ongoing formation.

Most of all, catechists need to make a commitment to grow. They don't have to be flawless in all of these areas; however, they need to recognize where they might be deficient and strive to enrich themselves, with your help as the catechetical leader. For more ideas, see Jayne Ragasa-Mondoy's book on Cultivating Your Catechists (part of the Effective Catechetical Leader series).
Read other posts in the Calling Forth Catechists series here.

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Calling Forth Catechists: A Catechist Role Description - Catechist's Journey

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As you set forth to call people to the vocation of serving as a catechist, have a role description in place to describe what you are calling them to.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Calling for formal recognition of "those lay men and women who feel called by virtue of their baptism to cooperate in the work of catechesis," Pope Francis has instituted the "ministry of catechist."

"The Spirit is calling men and women to set out and encounter all those who are waiting to discover the beauty, goodness and truth of the Christian faith," the pope wrote in "Antiquum Ministerium" (Ancient Ministry), his document released at the Vatican May 11.

In addition to releasing texts of the document in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish, the Vatican distributed a video of the text translated into Italian sign language.

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Pastors must support laypeople in answering the Spirit's call and "enrich the life of the Christian community through the recognition of lay ministries capable of contributing to the transformation of society through the 'penetration of Christian values into the social, political and economic sectors,'" the pope said, quoting what he had written about the vocation of laypeople in his 2013 document, "The Joy of the Gospel."

Bishops' conferences will need to determine the "process of formation and the normative criteria for admission to this ministry" and devise "the most appropriate forms for the service which these men and women will be called to exercise," the pope said.

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, he said, "will soon publish the Rite of Institution of the lay ministry of catechist." The congregation already is working on revised rites for the ministries of lector and acolyte, which Pope Francis opened to women in January.

While millions of lay men and women around the world already serve as catechists, readers and altar servers, formal institution into the ministries signifies that the service is stable, delegated by the bishop and publicly recognized by the church.

In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 4,178 persons serve as catechists, according to 2019 figures. Of the total, 78 are clergy, 94 are religious women and men, and 4,006 are lay persons.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, noted how St. Paul VI wrote in 1975 about the importance of laypeople using their gifts for the growth of the entire church.

"It has taken almost 50 years for the church to come to recognize that the service rendered by so many men and women through their catechetical commitment truly constitutes a distinctive ministry for the growth of the Christian community," the archbishop told reporters at a news conference to present the pope's document.

In his document, Pope Francis noted how teachers of the faith were present from the earliest days of the Christian community and were recognized as having a special gift of the Holy Spirit for carrying out their role within the community.

"At times," he wrote, "the charisms that the Spirit constantly pours out on the baptized took on a visible and tangible form of immediate service to the Christian community, one recognized as an indispensable 'diakonia' for the community."

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In looking at the history of evangelization, the pope said, Catholics cannot overlook "the countless lay men and women who directly took part in the spread of the Gospel through catechetical instruction. Men and women of deep faith, authentic witnesses of holiness, who in some cases were also founders of churches and eventually died as martyrs."

Still today, he said, "many competent and dedicated catechists are community leaders in various parts of the world and carry out a mission invaluable for the transmission and growth of the faith."

Especially in communities without a resident priest, catechists are the leaders of the local Catholic community, evangelizing, convoking and guiding their fellow Catholics in prayer and works of charity. And, in missionary territories under the guidance of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, they already serve with a specific mandate from their bishop.

"The long line of blesseds, saints and martyrs who were catechists has significantly advanced the church's mission and deserves to be recognized, for it represents a rich resource not only for catechesis but also for the entire history of Christian spirituality," Pope Francis wrote.

The formal institution of catechists, he said, should be a sign and encouragement for all lay Catholics to recognize "even more the missionary commitment proper to every baptized person, a commitment that must however be carried out in a fully 'secular' manner, avoiding any form of clericalization."

Archbishop Fisichella said Pope Francis was insisting that lay "men and women are called to express their baptismal vocation in the best possible way, not as substitutes for priests or consecrated persons, but as authentic laymen and laywomen who, in the distinctive nature of their ministry, are able to experience the full of extent of their baptismal vocation of witness and effective service in the community and the world."

Laypeople who feel called to the ministry of catechists should be actively involved in the life of their Catholic communities and faithful to the Gospel and the teaching of the church, he said. But they also must receive "suitable biblical, theological, pastoral and pedagogical formation to be competent communicators of the truth of the faith."

"Catechists are called first to be expert in the pastoral service of transmitting the faith as it develops through its different stages from the initial proclamation" of the Gospel, preparation for receiving the sacraments and support in living a Christian life, the pope said.

Presenting the document to reporters, Archbishop Fisichella said catechesis "cannot be improvised."

"Those who will be catechists must know that they speak in the name of the church and transmit the faith of the church," he said.

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Being a catechist is a vocation, pope says in establishing formal ministry

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Calling for formal recognition of lay men and women who by their baptism work to teach the faith, Pope Francis has instituted the

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Pope Francis Address to Catechists - 2022

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Pope Francis Address to Catechists - 2022

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Paul VI Audience Hall
Saturday, 10 September 2022 [Multimedia]
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Dear catechists, good morning!

It is a source of joy to meet you because I am well aware of your commitment to the transmission of faith. As Archbishop Fisichella - whom I thank for this appointment - said, you come from many different countries and are the sign of the Church's responsibility towards many people: children, young people and adults who ask to carry out a journey of faith.

I greeted you all as catechists. I did so intentionally. I see among you a number of bishops, many priests and consecrated persons: they too are catechists. Indeed, I would say, they are first and foremost catechists, because the Lord calls on us all to make the Gospel resonate in the heart of every person. I confess to you that I greatly enjoy the Wednesday morning appointment, when every week I meet many people who come to participate in the catechesis. This is a privileged moment because, reflecting on the Word of God and the tradition of the Church, we walk as the People of God, and we are also required to find the necessary forms for bearing witness to the Gospel in daily life.

I beg you: never tire of being catechists. Not of "giving a lesson" of catechesis. Catechesis cannot be like an hour at school, but rather a living experience of the faith that each one of us feels the desire to transmit to the new generations. Certainly, we must find the best ways to ensure that the communication of faith is adequate to the age and preparation of the people who are listening to us; yet the personal encounter we have with each one of them is decisive. Only the interpersonal encounter opens the heart to receive the first proclamation and to desire to grow in the Christian life with the proper dynamism that catechesis allows. The new Directory for Catechesis, which was delivered to you in recent months, will be very useful to you to understand how to follow this itinerary and how to renew catechesis in the dioceses and parishes.

Never forget the purpose of catechesis, which is a privileged stage in evangelization, that of meeting Jesus Christ and allowing him to grow in us. And here we enter directly into the specifics of your third International Meeting, which has taken into consideration the third part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. There is a passage in the Catechism that I think is important to offer to you regarding your being "Witnesses of the new life". It says: "When we believe in Jesus Christ, partake of his mysteries, and keep his commandments, the Saviour himself comes to love, in us, his Father and his brethren, our Father and our brethren. His person becomes, through the Spirit, the living and interior rule of our activity" (2074).

We understand why Jesus told us that his commandment is this: That you love one another as I have loved. True love is that which comes from God and which Jesus revealed by the mystery of his presence among us, by his preaching, his miracles and above all by his death and resurrection. The love of Christ remains as the true and only commandment of the new life, which the Christian, with the help of the Holy Spirit, makes his own day by day in a journey that knows no rest.

Dear catechists, you are required to make visible and tangible the person of Jesus Christ, who loves each one of you, and therefore becomes the rule of our life and the criterion of judgement for our moral action. Never stray from this source of love, because it is the condition for being happy and full of joy, always and despite everything. This is the new life that sprung forth in us on the day of our Baptism, and which we have the responsibility to share with everyone, so that it may grow in everyone and bear fruit.

I am sure that this journey will lead many of you to discover fully the vocation of being a catechist, and therefore to ask to enter the ministry of catechist. I instituted this ministry knowing the great role it can play in the Christian community. Do not be afraid: if the Lord calls you to this ministry, follow him! You will be participants in the same mission of Jesus of proclaiming his Gospel and introducing others to the filial relationship with God the Father.

And I would not like to end - I consider it good and right - without remembering my catechists. There is a religious sister who leads a group of catechists; sometimes she taught, sometimes two good women, both called Alicia, I always remember. And this religious sister laid down the foundation of my Christian life, preparing me for First Communion, in the years 1943 to 1944. I don't think any of you were born at that time. The Lord also gave me a very great grace. She was very elderly, I was a student, I was studying abroad, in Germany, and after I finished my studies I returned to Argentina, and the day after she died. I was able to accompany her that day. And when I was there, praying before her coffin, I thanked the Lord for the witness of that sister who passed her life almost entirely in giving catechesis, preparing children and youngsters for the First Communion. She was called Dolores. I let myself say this to bear witness that a good catechist leaves a trace; not only the trace of what he or she sows, but the trace of the person who has sown. I hope that your young people, your children, your adults, those you accompany in catechesis, will always remember you before the Lord as a person who sowed good and beautiful things in their heart.

I accompany you all with my blessing. I entrust you to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the martyr catechists - there are many of them, it is important - even in our times, there are many of them! And I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me. Thank you!

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Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 10 September 2022

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third international congress of catechists

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To Participants in the Third International Congress of Catechists (10 September 2022) | Francis

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To Participants in the Third International Congress of Catechists, 10 September 2022

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Pope Francis Address to Catechists - 2021

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Pope Francis Address to Catechists - 2021

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ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE MEETING PROMOTED BY THE
NATIONAL CATECHETICAL OFFICE
OF THE ITALIAN EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE

Sala Clementina
Saturday, 30 January 2021

Dear brothers and sisters,

I welcome you, and I thank Cardinal Bassetti for his kind words. He has regained his strength, thank you! I greet the secretary general, Bishop Russo, and all of you who support the commitment of the Italian Church in the field of catechesis. I am happy to share with you the memory of the 60th anniversary of the birth of the National Catechetical Office. Established even before the Episcopal Conference took shape, it was an indispensable instrument for catechetical renewal after the Second Vatican Council. This anniversary is a valuable occasion for remembering, giving thanks for the gifts received and renewing the spirit of proclamation. To this end, I would like to share three points that I hope will help you in your work over the next few years.

The first: catechesis and kerygma. Catechesis is the echo of the Word of God. In the transmission of the faith, Scripture - as the Basic Document recalls - is "the Book; not a subsidy, even if it were the first" (CEI, Il rinnovamento della catechesi, n. 107). Catechesis is therefore the "long wave" of the Word of God, to transmit the joy of the Gospel in life. Thanks to the narration of catechesis, Sacred Scripture becomes the "environment" in which we feel part of the same salvation history, encountering the first witnesses of faith. Catechesis is taking others by the hand and accompanying them in this history. It inspires up a journey, in which each person finds his or her own rhythm, because Christian life does not even out or standardise, but rather enhances the uniqueness of each child of God. Catechesis is also a mystagogical journey, which advances in constant dialogue with the liturgy, an environment in which symbols shine forth that, without imposing themselves, speak to life and mark it with the imprint of grace.

The heart of the mystery is the kerygma, and the kerygma is a person: Jesus Christ. Catechesis is a special space for fostering a personal encounter with Him. Therefore it must be interwoven with personal relationships. There is no true catechesis without the testimony of men and women in flesh and blood. Who among us does not remember at least one of his catechists? I do: I remember the nun who prepared me for my First Communion and was so good to me. They are the first protagonists of catechesis, messengers of the Gospel, often lay people, who commit themselves with generosity to share the beauty of having met Jesus. "Who are catechists? They are people who keep the memory of God alive; they keep it alive in themselves" - they are "memorialists" of salvation history - "and they are able to revive it in others. .... A catechist is a Christian who puts this remembrance at the service of proclamation, not to seem important, not to talk about himself or herself, but to talk about God, about His love and fidelity" (Homily for the "Day for Catechists" during the Year of Faith, 29 September 2013).

In order to do this, it is good to remember that "the kerygma calls for stressing those elements which are most needed today: it has to express God's saving love which precedes any moral and religious obligation on our part; it should not impose the truth but appeal to freedom, as Jesus did; it should be marked by joy, encouragement, liveliness and a harmonious balance which will not reduce preaching to a few doctrines which are at times more philosophical than evangelical. All this demands on the part of the evangeliser certain attitudes which foster openness to the message: approachability, readiness for dialogue, patience, a warmth and welcome which is non-judgmental" (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 165). Jesus had this. It is the entire geography of humanity that the kerygma, the infallible compass of faith, helps to explore.

And on this point - the catechist - I return to something that should also be said to parents, to grandparents: the faith should be transmitted "in dialect". A catechist who does not know how to explain in the "dialect" of young people, of children, of those who... But by dialect I am not referring to linguistic ones, in which Italy is so rich, no; I refer to the dialect of closeness, to the dialect that can be understood, to the dialect of intimacy. I am so touched by that passage from Maccabees, of the seven brothers (2 Mac 7). On two or three occasions it says that the mother supported them by speaking to them in dialect ["in the language of the fathers"]. It is important: the true faith must be transmitted in dialect. Catechists must learn to transmit it in dialect, that is, that language that comes from the heart, that is inherent, that is the most familiar, the closest to everyone. If there is no dialect, the faith is not passed on fully or well.

The second point: catechesis and the future. Last year was the 50th anniversary of the document Il rinnovamento della catechesi ("The renewal of catechesis"), with which the Italian Episcopal Conference acknowledged the indications of the Council. In this regard, I reiterate the words of Saint Paul VI, addressed to the first General Assembly of the CEI after Vatican II: "We must look to the Council with gratitude to God and with confidence for the future of the Church; it will be the great catechism of the new times" (23 June 1966). Returning to the theme, on the occasion of the first International Catechetical Congress, he added: "It is a task that is constantly being reborn and constantly renewed for catechesis to understand these problems that arise from the heart of man, in order to lead them back to their hidden source: the gift of love that creates and saves" (25 September 1971). Therefore, catechesis inspired by the Council is continually listening to the heart of man, always with an attentive ear, always seeking to renew itself.

This is magisterium: the Council is the magisterium of the Church. Either you are with the Church and therefore you follow the Council, and if you do not follow the Council or you interpret it in your own way, as you wish, you are not with the Church. We must be demanding and strict on this point. The Council should not be negotiated in order to have more of these... No, the Council is as it is. And this problem that we are experiencing, of selectivity with respect to the Council, has been repeated throughout history with other Councils. It makes me think of a group of bishops who, after Vatican I, left, a group of lay people, groups, to continue the "true doctrine" that was not that of Vatican I: "We are the true Catholics". Today they ordain women. The strictest attitude, to guard the faith without the Magisterium of the Church, leads you to ruin. Please, no concessions to those who try to present a catechesis that does not agree with the Magisterium of the Church.

Just as in the post-Council period the Italian Church was ready and able to embrace the signs and sensibilities of the times, so too today she is called to offer a renewed catechesis that inspires every area of pastoral care: charity, liturgy, family, culture, social life, economics... From the root of the Word of God, through the trunk of pastoral wisdom, fruitful approaches to the various aspects of life flourish. Catechesis is thus an extraordinary adventure: as the "vanguard of the Church" it has the task of reading the signs of the times and accepting present and future challenges. We must not be afraid to speak the language of the women and men of today. To speak a language that is outside the Church, yes, we must be afraid of that. [But] we must not be afraid to speak the language of the people. We must not be afraid to listen to their questions, whatever they may be, to their unresolved issues, to listen to their frailties, their uncertainties: let us not be afraid of that. We must not be afraid to develop new tools: in the seventies the Catechism of the Italian Church was original and appreciated; today's times also require intelligence and courage to develop updated tools, which transmit to people today the richness and joy of the kerygma, and the richness and joy of belonging to the Church.

Third point: catechesis and community. In this year marked by the isolation and sense of loneliness caused by the pandemic, we have often reflected on the sense of belonging that underlies a community. The virus has burrowed into the living fabric of our territories, especially our existential ones, feeding fears, suspicions, mistrust and uncertainty. It has undermined established practices and habits and thus provokes us to rethink our community. We have realised, in fact, that we cannot get by alone, and that the only way to come out of crises better is to come out of them together - no one is saved alone, we come out of it together - re-embracing with more conviction the community in which we live. Because the community is not an agglomeration of individuals, but the family into which we integrate, the place where we take care of each other, the young of the elderly and the elderly of the young, we of today of those who will come tomorrow. It is only by rediscovering a sense of community that each person will be able to find his or her dignity to the full.

Catechesis and proclamation cannot but place this community dimension at the centre. This is not the time for elitist strategies. The great community: what is the great community? The holy faithful people of God. It is not possible to advance outside the holy faithful people of God, who - as the Council says - are infallible in credendo. Always with the holy people of God. Instead, seeking elitist affiliations distances you from the people of God, perhaps with sophisticated formulas, but you lose that belonging to the Church, which is the holy faithful people of God.

This is the time to be the artisans of open communities that know how to value the talents of each person. It is a time for free and disinterested missionary communities, which do not seek prominence and advantage, but rather walk the paths of the people of our time, stooping to tend to those on the margins. It is a time for communities that look disappointed young people in the eye, that welcome strangers and give hope to the disheartened. It is a time for communities that fearlessly engage in dialogue with those with different ideas. It is a time for communities that, like the Good Samaritan, know how to approach those wounded by life, to bind their wounds with compassion. Do not forget this word: compassion. How many times in the Gospel does it say of Jesus: "And he had compassion", "he had compassion"? As I said at the ecclesial conference in Florence, I want a Church "ever closer to the abandoned, the forgotten, the imperfect. I would like a glad Church with a mother's face, that understands, accompanies, caresses". What I referred to then as Christian humanism also applies to catechesis: it "radically affirms the dignity of every person as a Child of God, it establishes among all human beings a fundamental fraternity, teaches one to understand work, to inhabit creation as a common home, to furnish reasons for optimism and humour, even in the middle of a life many times more difficult" (Address at the Fifth National Conference of the Italian Church, Florence, 10 November 2015).

I mentioned the Florence Convention. Five years on, the Italian Church must return to the Florence Convention, and must begin a national Synod process, community by community, diocese by diocese: this process too will be a form of catechesis. In the Florence Convention there is precisely the intuition of the road to be taken in this Synod. Now, set out on it again: it is time. And start walking.

Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for what you are doing. I invite you to continue to pray and to think creatively about a catechesis centred on the kerygma, which looks to the future of our communities, so that they may be ever more rooted in the Gospel, as fraternal and inclusive communities. I bless you, I accompany you. And you, please, pray for me, I need it. Thank you!

Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 30 January 2021

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to participants in the meeting promoted by the national catechetical office of the italian episcopal conference

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To Participants in the meeting promoted by the national Catechetical Office of the Italian Episcopal Conference (30 January 2021) | Francis

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Pope Francis received in audience the participants in the meeting promoted by the national Catechetical Office of the Italian Episcopal Conference, 30 January 2021

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Start the new school year on the right foot with these research-backed tips.

The first day of school often arrives with a mixture of anticipation, excitement, and dread. It's natural to worry a bit and take a mental inventory of every possible scenario that can transpire over the course of a year in your classroom. While planning for that pivotal first day, consider setting aside the lesson plan, forgoing homework, and dropping the lecture on rules and policies. Your time and energy is better spent making a strong first impression, laying the groundwork for positive relationships with your students, and designing your classroom to be welcoming and inclusive.

"Creating a 'just right' classroom environment where all students feel they belong is key to a successful school year," writes former elementary school teacher Cheryl Abla. "The first five days can set you and your students up for a joyful and successful year or semester."

Here are six tips to help get the school year off to a fantastic start.

1. Start With a Clean Slate

Teacher expectations exert a powerful force on how students behave in the future, a recent study indicates, and starting the school year labeling some as "troublemakers" can undermine relationships from the get-go and become a "self-fulfilling prophecy."

On the first day of school, give every student a chance to start with a clean slate. It's a crucial step in establishing-and repairing-relationships, researchers explain in a 2020 study, and ignoring it can cause relationships to quickly deteriorate, the researchers warn.

"No matter what, give that student a clean slate, a chance to start fresh," suggests 5th grade teacher Lisa Mims. She recalls getting a note from one student who thanked her for sticking by him despite getting on her nerves. "If I had treated this child according to the behavior he had exhibited in previous years, he would have never have had the amazing year he ended up having."

2. Tackle the First-Day Jitters Head-On

If you skip the emotional work at the start of the year, you'll pay for it down the line, especially if your students are in the midst of crucial transitions. In a 2019 study, researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford asked incoming middle school students-who face circumstances marked by "decreased social belonging, waning academic performance, and increased risk of dropping out"-to read stories from older students describing their own struggles to fit in during middle school.

In one example, a former student wrote that they were "scared of taking big tests," but then discovered that it's a normal-even common-feeling. In another example, a 6th grader described how they didn't feel like they fit in at first, but then made an effort to talk to other students. "It took time, but I ended up making some close friends."

The incoming middle schoolers then participated in short writing exercises, reflecting on what they read and thinking about how they could manage and even overcome their own challenges. By the end of the school year, these students were absent 12 percent less of the time, had 34 percent fewer behavioral referrals, and received 18 percent fewer Ds or Fs, compared to their peers.

Consider setting aside time early in the year to allow students to journal or talk about the stresses inherent to the start of a year: How will they handle busy schedules? Do they have good study habits-and if not, how might they improve them? What plans do they have for making friends?

3. Mind Your Visuals

Are your classroom walls warm and inviting? Do they reflect your students' backgrounds and interests? A strong first impression often starts with the visual elements of your classroom-the posters, decorations, and learning aids that make students feel welcome while sparking their curiosity.

Putting up images, short stories, and quotes that feature heroes and leaders from all walks of life can signal to students that they're "valued learners and belong within the classroom, with far-reaching consequences for students' educational choices and achievement," researchers explain in a 2014 study. Curricular material should also reflect the student body. For example, researchers discovered that adjusting images and examples to mirror students' own cultures boosted course grades by nine percentage points, according to a 2019 study.

Meanwhile, make an effort in the first few weeks of school to showcase student work-doing so can "create a sense of ownership" that's "significantly correlated with learning progress," according to a 2015 study.

4. Bank Relationship Time

Students will go the extra mile academically if you invest time into building trust and establishing a supportive environment, suggests a comprehensive 2022 study. The most effective teachers, the researchers concluded, strike a balance between relationships and rigor, resulting in productive classrooms filled with students who "engage in more challenging academic activities, behave more appropriately for the school environment, are genuinely happy to see their teacher, and meet or exceed their teacher's expectations."

On the first day of school, start with classic relationship-building strategies: positive greetings at the door, playing the name game, and planning get-to-know-you activities. After breaking the ice, invest in activities that promote a sense of belonging for all students. You can start by asking students to share a rose and thorn about their summer vacation, set aside a few minutes every day to check in on students or conduct surveys to learn more about their interests, or have them create identity portraits, which can be displayed on the walls and can significantly improve a sense of belonging and acceptance in your classroom.

5. Co-Create a 'Social Contract'

You may be tempted to start the school year by taking the reins of the classroom and setting firm rules and policies-but a heavy-handed approach can backfire, leading to constant power struggles for the rest of the year. Be careful that you don't "unwittingly engage in a negative reinforcement pattern," researchers caution in a 2016 study, since frequently reprimanding students in front of their peers can cause them to withdraw, creating a cold or even combative environment.

Instead, share the space: Invite students to take responsibility for how the classroom is run. It's often more effective when "classroom rules are negotiated instead of imposed," researchers explain in a 2016 meta-analysis of effective classroom management strategies, arguing for an approach that invites students to co-create classroom rules.

It doesn't have to be a free-for-all. At the beginning of the year, Bobby Shaddox, a seventh grade social studies teacher in Portland, Maine, invites students to identify 10 adjectives that describe a smooth-running classroom. Students offer words like "focused," "considerate," and "resourceful," which Shaddox then displays on the board to refer to throughout the school year. "It helps us own the behavior in the classroom," Shaddox says. "Instead of a top-down list of rules that a teacher gives a class, these are words that we generated together. These are words that we believe in."

6. Be the Calmness They Need

There will be a few students whose mission is to get under your skin. But escalating tense situations and reacting to every provocation is more often than not a mistake, according to a 2021 study. That's because "emotions are contagious," say researchers, and negative emotions displayed by the teacher can have long-lasting, pass-along effects.

When students push your buttons, try your best to tap into your reservoir of compassion and empathy, suggests Amanda Morin, an educator and director of thought leadership at Understood.org. Take a moment to catch your breath, regroup, and then try to look for the reason behind the student's behavior by asking questions like "Is something bothering you?" and "Are you OK?" Doing so shows that you care about them personally and can look past the choices they make.

It's not easy, of course, and it helps to come mentally prepared for conflict avoidance on the first day of school. "Think through scenarios that might happen in your classroom and how you want to respond before the start of the year," suggests high school teacher and instructional coach Emily Terwilliger. The internal role-playing will pay dividends, providing you with a script to rely on when the going gets tough-and giving you a chance to "make those first redirects and interventions less intimidating."

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Powerful, Evidence-Backed Ways to Connect with Students in the First Week of School

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Start the new school year on the right foot with these research-backed tips for creating a welcoming environment.

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by Terry Heick

How do you measure what a student understands?

Not give them an assessment, score it, then use that score to imply understanding. Rather, how do you truly 'uncover' what they 'know'-and how 'well' they know it?
The Challenge Of Outcomes & Standards-Based Assessment
First a preface: itemizing ways to measure understanding is functionally different than students choosing a way to demonstrate what they know-mainly because in a backward-design approach where the learning target is identified first, that learning target dictates everything else downstream.

If, for example, a student was given a topic and an audience and was allowed to 'do' something and then asked to create something that demonstrated what they learned, the result would be wildly different across students. Put another way, students would learn different things in different ways.

By dictating exactly what every student will 'understand' ahead of time, certain assessment forms become ideal. It also becomes much more likely that students will fail. If students can learn anything, then they only fail if they fail to learn anything at all or fail to demonstrate learning anything at all. By deciding exactly what a student will learn and exactly how they will show you they learned it, three outcomes, among others, are possible:

1. The student learned a lot but not what you wanted them to learn

2. The student learned exactly what you wanted them to learn but failed to demonstrate it in the assessment

3. The student failed to learn

But what if you, as a teacher, have been misled?

For an analogy, consider a car. If we want the car running at its best-to be safe to operate, to start when we want to go somewhere, to attain the fuel efficiency that we want, to look and smell the way we want, etc., we need data about those conditions. The look and smell are easy enough, and the fuel efficiency is a matter of math. The reliability is a little more abstract-cut and dry but the product of many other maintenance factors and so requires more abstraction to predict. And the safety bit? Equally abstract-and subjective, to boot.

Imagine being concerned about the reliability of the car (as anyone would be), so you developed tests that could be used to predict the future likelihood that the car would start. (It's at this point that I'm realizing I could've chosen a much better analogy, but I'm sticking with the car/starting thing. Sorry.) So imagine giving a bunch of tests to predict today whether the car would start tomorrow. It makes sense on paper because we want to monitor that idea, but it seems a little wasteful, right?

And it gets wasteful fast when you consider the possibility that the car may fail test after test after test and still continue to start. This means that the tests we developed to predict whether or not the car would start likely measured something but not what we wanted them to measure. The tests were bad and the data misleading and any conclusions drawn accordingly invalid.

In an outcomes-based and data-driven circumstance, the data and the decisions made using that data are everything. If that data is misleading, it's not hard to realize that we will be misled-as teachers and learners-too.
First, Determine The Purpose Of The Assessment
If all students are all going to have their height and weight measured, a common standard makes sense; If students are all going to have their attractiveness measured, any kind of 'standard' is creepy.

Measuring knowledge and mastery of competencies and skills isn't quite as subjective as 'beauty,' but isn't anywhere close to as cut and dry as height and weight. We can give the same test that measures the same thing in the same way for all students and do no damage really-provided we are all on the same page that we're not measuring understanding but rather measuring performance on a test.

In a perfect world, we'd have countless ways to measure that understanding-all valid, universally understood, engaging to students, etc. In pursuit, I thought it'd make sense to brainstorm different ways to measure understanding. Some will be more or less useful depending on content areas, grade levels, student motivation, etc., not to mention what the purpose of the assessment is.

Do you need a snapshot?

Do you need to measure mastery or growth?

Do you want it to be flexible for a variety of learners or more binary-you either pass or you fail?

Do you want students to be able to return to the assessment periodically or is this a one-shot kind of deal?

Is the assessment for the teacher or the student?

If you're not clear about why you're assessing (and what you're going to do with the data the assessment provides) you're wasting a lot of time, energy, and resources-your own and that of the students.

With that mind, see below for 50 ways to measure understanding. Some are assessment forms (e.g., exit slips), some are models (e.g., Bloom's Taxonomy) and some are more frequently thought of as teaching strategies (e.g., Socratic Discussion).

50 Ways To Measure Understanding

Assessment Forms For Measuring Understanding

These can be thought of as reasons to test

In 6 Types Of Assessment, we offered up exactly that-six 'kinds' of tests that imply the purpose of and standard for the assessment.
1. Norm-Referenced Assessments
Norm-referenced assessments are assessments used to compare students to one another rather.
2. Criterion-Based Assessments
A criterion-based assessment assesses a student's performance against a clear and published goal or objective. This is in contrast, for example, to a test that students hope to 'do well on' but without a clear and concise objective and/or without clear performance standards for that objective.
3. Standardized Assessments
A standardized assessment is any assessment containing elements that are the same for all students universally. The perceived benefit is that standardization ensures all students are being weighed equally and that there is a common 'bar' for students to be measured with.
4. Standards-Based Assessment
A form of standardized assessment, a standards- based assessment is one that is based on an academic content standard (e.g., ' Determining an author's purpose...').
5. Personalized assessments
While these aren't necessarily 'different' kinds of assessments, they do reflect different reasons to assess.
6. Pre-Assessment
Pre-assessment is any kind of evaluation, analysis, or measurement of student understanding that occurs before the teaching/learning process begins.

The purpose of pre-assessment varies-it can be to help plan lessons and activities, revise curriculum maps, create personalized learning pathways for individual students, help inform grouping strategies, plan future assessments, etc.
7. Formative Assessment
Formative assessment generally occurs during the teaching and learning, though it's not that simple and a better way to think about formative assessment is to consider that it provides data to form and inform the teaching and learning on an ongoing basis. A common example of a formative assessment is a quiz. Types of quizzes? Pop quizzes, planned/scheduled quizzes, timed quizzes, and so on.

This can also be thought of as 'diagnostic assessment,' and is ideally the most common form of assessment in K-12 learning environments (because the purpose is to measure understanding to better create future learning experiences).
8. Summative Assessment
A summative assessment is any assessment done when the 'teaching is done.' This makes the process of 'summative assessment' a curious thing unless there are no more opportunities to teach and learn (like the end of a school year).
9. Timed Assessment
This one is self-explanatory-any assessment that is time-bound is a timed assessment (though technically that timing can be minutes or even years depending on the nature and purpose and scale of the assessment.

Timed Assessments can also be combined with other forms-a timed project or timed essay, for example. The idea is the constraint of time somehow shapes the scope of the test and the performance of the student.
11. Untimed Assessment
Untimed assessments are less common than timed assessments if for no other reason than the scheduled-nature of modern education necessitates it.
12. Open-Ended Assessment
In contrast to a timed, standards-based and standardized assessment, an open-ended assessment is generally designed to provide a proving ground for the students to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and competencies. Through open-ended assessment, student autonomy, creativity, and self-efficacy play a larger role in their performance.

Due to the nature of this approach, the mindset of the learner is crucial. Without confidence, ownership, and a clear sense of how and what they might demonstrate what they know, learners can feel uncertain-and worse, may fail to 'show what they know' and misinform future planning of learning experiences because of this 'failure.

A learning blend is an example of an open-ended assessment.
13. Game-Based Assessment
A game-based assessment is often technology-based (e.g., video games), but an athletic contest can be considered game-based assessments as it's the performance within a given set of rules that determines what the learner knows and can 'do.'
14. Benchmark Assessment
Benchmark assessments evaluate student performance at periodic intervals, frequently at the end of a grading period. Can predict student performance on end-of-the-year summative assessments.
15. Group Assessment
Group assessment is what it sounds like it might be-assessment done in a group with (at times) varying roles and responsibilities.

Obviously, a design challenge is Group Assessment is to know exactly what you're assessing as social dynamics and individual roles and responsibilities can obscure the analysis of student learning.

Different Assessment Forms For Measuring Understanding
These can be thought of as 'types of tests' 16. Short Responses Tests
Example: Short, written or verbal responses to questions or prompts

17. Extended Responses (On-Demand, Essays, etc.)

Example: Like the above but longer-anywhere from a few paragraphs to entire research essays
18. Multiple-Choice Tests
Not sure this needs explaining-multiple-choice assessments are great for providing data but are highly dependent on the quality of the questions and responses-and even then favor highly-literate and motivated students over others.
19. True-False Tests
If you're good at creating very nuanced True/False assessment items, they can challenge students with a strong grasp of content by forcing them to closely consider whether something is 'true' or not. True/False assessments can also be useful for struggling or 'hesitant' students because the barrier to answering is so low (like a multiple-choice assessment) but there are only two 'answers' to choose between.

Tip: You can allow students to revise the true or false statement until it seems true to them based on what they know. The changes they make can go a long way in helping to diagnose what they're misunderstanding.
20. Matching Items
The strength of matching items is that they're simple to create, complete, and score-and well-designed, can be surprisingly effective in uncovering what students know. The challenge with these kinds of assessments is that they do very little to demonstrate depth of understanding and are only useful with certain kinds of content.

21. Performance & Demonstration (i.e., watching the student attempt to demonstrate understanding/competency/skill in real-time)

Example: Watching a student try to hit a free throw in basketball or make a specific pass in soccer, etc. It doesn't have to be athletic-based, however. Students can also demonstrate the effect of gravity on planetary orbits or how propaganda works, etc.
22. A Visual Representation
Example: Students can create a visual representation of the water cycle-how it works, all the forms it takes, its benefits, the physics of the process, etc. What is visualized is obviously part of the assessment.

They could also create one for the use of transitional phrases in writing-what they do, when they're used, what their effects are, etc.
23. Analogies
Analogies are underrated assessment tools; students can 'answer' analogies you create, modify them to create new meanings, explain why an analogy you create is wrong, or create their own analogies to demonstrate understanding.

Example: If you wanted to assess a student's understanding of thesis statements, you could have students 'answer' an analogy you create by completing the analogy.
Thesis Statement: Essay:: Company:________ (mission or slogan) 24. Concept Maps
25. Graphic Organizers (like analogies, these are also very underrated ways to measure understanding)
26. A Physical Artifact
27. A Question (i.e., a student asking/revising a question as a form of assessment)
28. A Debate 29. A Conversation/Group Discussion/Socratic Discussion 30. Question Stems
See here for examples of question stems for critical thinking. You can also let students create their own stems and quiz/test one another.

31. Role-Playing (e.g., role-playing historical figures to assess biographical knowledge-this is similar to #21)

32. QFT Session
33. Observable Metacognition
This non-traditional assessment form is asking to (somehow 'watching' the student think about their own thinking an using it to 'measure' understanding

34. Self-Assessment (where the student evaluates their own understanding with or without the help of the teacher)
35. Peer-Assessment 36. Expert Assessment
This one is obviously better suited to more skilled and knowledgeable learners (in high school and college, for example.) An example of Expert Assessment is a talent show like American Idol

Any kind panel evaluation (where a third party chooses one or more of the above forms) that seeks to evaluate and measure understanding where the assessment and feedback depend on the specific and often narrow expertise of the panel itself is an 'expert assessment.'
37. RAFT Assignments
RAFT is a common ELA activity that stands for Role Audience Format Topic (or Theme/Thesis/Tone). I hesitated to put this on the list because it's best-suited to English-Language Arts/Literature/Writing/Literacy and is hard to explain it's utility as an assessment tool even in that narrow domain.

The idea here is to alter elements of an activity or assignment to force students to think critically to complete it, and it doesn't have to be 'RAFT'-you can frame anything in any number of ways. (If you've never used RAFT before, you're probably best off skipping this one until you're more familiar with it. Email me if you have any questions.)

Example: Students studying the Declaration of Independence can revise it for a specific audience or communicate the same ideas in a different format or tone (rather than the letter/political tone of the original).
38. A Challenge
Creating a challenge for students to complete in order to demonstrate understanding is another non-traditional form of assessment but can be useful to engage hesitant learners or bring out the best in gifted students. Gamification is useful in challenge-based assessment.
39. Teacher-Designed Projects
Create a project that produces a 'thing' whose quality will or will not demonstrate student understanding.
40. Student-Designed Projects
The same as above but the student designs the project (likely with the teacher). This will confuse a lot of students-you'll know fast if this is going to be useful for your purpose for assessment or not.
41. Self-Directed Learning
By supporting the student to reflect on, prioritize, plan, and complete their own learning experiences on their own, students will inherently have their understanding measured.

Self-Directed Learning is a form of open-ended assessment-you can see one of the self-directed learning models I created here.

Frameworks & Assessment Models For Measuring Understanding

These can be thought of as ways to frame the thinking about the content being assessed in the test
42. Bloom's Taxonomy 43. The TeachThought Learning Taxonomy 44. UbD's 6 Facets Of Understanding 45. Marzano's New Taxonomy 46. Assessing 'Transferability'
It is common for assessments to be standardized, universal, and practiced in those standardized and universal forms (for example, a multiple-choice assessment with a set number of items and a standardized amount of time to complete).

This is great for norm-referencing, but a terrible way to truly measure what a student understands-and the strength and depth of that understanding. That's where transfer of understanding comes in. You can read more about different kinds of learning transfer.
47. A Graded Assessment
This is the most common form of formal assessment-one that is scored, feedback is given, and data is shared (even if only via a letter grade).
48. An Ungraded Assessment
This is less common than graded assessments-which is strange because the most useful purpose of assessment is to provide data to revise planned instruction. Feedback is also useful, but the scoring, grading, and communication of a grade can take time, distract learners emotionally, and most critically obscure data about that understanding.

That's not to say that assessments should never be graded, but scoring, documenting a score, then communicating that score to students, parents, colleges, etc., significantly alters the tone, scale, and reach of that assessment. It becomes more like a public performance than a way to measure understanding.
49. Feedback-Only Assessment
Learning Feedback-only Assessment is similar to ungraded but focused intently on providing detailed feedback to individual learners to help them mastery the standard, competency, or skill.
50. Pass/Fail Assessment
While feedback can be given, time limits can be imposed, and various taxonomies can be used, the primary characteristic of pass-fail assessment is that letter grades and points are generally not given and the standard for performance is binary-that is, the standard either was or was not met.

An athlete trying to vault over a 6-meter bar is participating in a kind of 'pass/fail' assessment in that they either will or will not clear the bar.
51. Ongoing 'Climate of Assessment'
A 'Climate of Assessment' is a personal favorite of mine.

In this approach, critical and complex ideas and skills are constantly revisited and iterated upon in various ways, forms, and contexts while supplemented by less complex/quicker-to-master content. Assessment is frequent, playful, clear, compelling, and always formative.
52. Snapshot of Assessment
This is an assessment of what the student seems to know at that moment based on that given assessment form. These can be misleading but useful if they're preceded and proceeded by additional snapshots in the aforementioned 'climate of assessment.'
53. A Measurement Of Growth Over Time
In this kind of assessment, mastery isn't measured-nor are students compared to one another (as they are in norm-referenced assessments).

Instead, the focus is on far the student has (or has not) 'come.' One strategy here is grading backward. This approach, while complex, is naturally differentiated for each student, has a positive tone, and makes it much more difficult to 'fail' unless the student actually literally atrophies in terms of skills and understanding.
54. Concept Mastery
This kind of assessment is mainly distinguished by what's being assessed-the focus here is a grasp of concepts and ideas rather than skills and competencies (like the item below).
55. Competency & Skill Mastery
Many academic standards combine concepts and skills-which is fine because that's often what the 'real world' is like.

But when you're trying to troubleshoot student achievement and evaluate what they actually, truly understand (versus how they did on the test), being able to separate what they 'know' and what they can 'do' can make remediation more efficient-and make the student feel better about their own 'lack of mastery' because they are able to see what they do and don't know, what they can and cannot do, etc., which is more precise and comforting than 'I missed the question' or 'I failed the test.')

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by Terry Heick How do you measure what a student understands? Not give them an assessment, score it, then use that score to imply understanding. Rather, how do you truly 'uncover' what they 'know'-and how 'well' they know it?

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"Do nows" are brief starters or warm-up activities that occur at the beginning of a lesson. As a teaching strategy, "do now" activities are rooted in constructivist theory (Dewey 1916, 1938) and student-centered learning (Hinton, Fischer, & Glennon, 2012), both active learning theories.

Today, "do now" activities are widely used across elementary, secondary, and higher education classrooms. The activities usually last between three to ten minutes (Morris, 2007), ranging from responding to prompts to asking questions, and exist in formats such as writing, discussion, quizzes, or games.

Examples from research and practice prove "do now" activities to be effective across educational settings, although mostly in primary and secondary classrooms. An example from higher education is a roundtable review, where, at the beginning of the class, students write down one important idea from the previous lecture on his or her paper, pass the list to the next person, and ultimately return to the original owner with a list of key takeaways for future review and study (Kohler-Evans, 2009).

Researchers found "do now" an excellent technique for classroom management. It helps to "set the tone for the day" (Perez, n.d.) with a purposeful start. As students are kept on task from the moment they enter the classroom, instructors will save the efforts of getting students back on task when the lecture starts. Also, with a small, non-threatening starter activity that most of the students can work on individually, instructors are allowed to focus on students who are disengaged or have special difficulties, making sure the entire class will be ready to embark on new content.

"Do now" activities are also facilitators of student motivation and engagement. Brief and engaging activities help to create a risk-free environment at the beginning of the lesson (Bonwell, n.d; Bonwell, 1995), and encourage group learning (Michael, 2006). They help prepare students to participate in more traditional class activities. This ultimately leads to improved learning outcomes.

To implement "do now" activities most effectively, practitioners have suggested supporting the assigned activities with proper assessment and feedback to "encourage would-be 'Do Later' or 'Do Never' students" (Ginsburg, 2011). For example, instructors can create a Do Now sheet for each student and collect the week's work to rate using a point system (Walton MS Teacher Tools, n.d.).

It is also important to link the activity with what the students have learned previously and what they will learn in the new class. Instructors are recommended to write the activity instructions on board or project them, to save the time spent repeating what to do and to attract students' attention when they come in. Finally, the most frequently used strategy involves using Do Nows as a routine, so that students form the habit of immediate focusing on learning when they step into the class.
Written by Danxi Shen, Ed. M., Harvard Graduate School of Education
and Heather Frances, Ed.M., Harvard Graduate School of Education
References:

Beck, D. & Eno, J. (2012). Signature Pedagogy: A Literature Review of Social Studies and Technology Research. Computers in the Schools: Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, and Applied Research, 29(1-2), 70-94.

Bonwell, C. Active Learning: Creating excitement in the classroom.

Bonwell, C. (1995). Building a supportive climate for active learning. The National Teaching and Learning Forum, 6(1), 4-7.

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: Macmillan.

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillan.

Ginsburg, David. (2011). The "Do Now" or "Do Never". Coach G's Teaching Tips, Education Week teacher blogs. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/2011/03/the_do_now_or_do_never_1.html

Hinton, C., Fischer, K., & Glennon, C. (2012) Mind, Brain, and Education. In N.

Hoffman, A. Steinberg, & R. Wolfe (Eds.) Student at the Center Series.

Kohler-Evans, P. (2009). How to Get Wet without Plunging In: Creative Ways to Start Class. The Teaching Professor, 2006(1).

Morris, Harriet. (2007). Starter and Do-Now Activities. Perspectives On Education. Retrieved from https://suite.io/harriet-morris/8qa2g8.

Perez, Sandra. Classroom Management Inventing Your Own "Do NOW" Activities. ESL Teachers Board. Retrieved from http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?read=3467.

Walton MS Teacher Tools. BBC2 - Do Now. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/waltonmsteachertools/home/sss---student-success-strategies/sss1---blackboard-configuration-bbc/bbc2---do-now.

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"Do nows" are brief starters or warm-up activities that occur at the beginning of a lesson. As a teaching strategy, "do now" activities are rooted in constructivist theory (Dewey 1916, 1938) and student-centered learning (Hinton, Fischer, & Glennon, 2012), both active learning theories.

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Dipsticking - Effective Ways to Check for Understanding

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Dipsticking - Effective Ways to Check for Understanding

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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3 Ways to Ask Questions That Engage the Whole Class

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These techniques guide all students to process course content and then actively demonstrate their learning.

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by Terry Heick

Something we've become known for is our focus on thought, inquiry, and understanding, and questions are a big part of that. We've done questions that students should ask, parents should ask, students should and shouldn't answer, questions that promote and stifle inquiry, questions that reveal self-knowledge and wisdom, and more.

If the ultimate goal of education is for students to be able to effectively answer questions, then focusing on content and response strategies makes sense. If the ultimate goal of education is to teach students to think, then focusing on how we can help students ask better questions themselves might make sense, no?

Why Questions Are More Important Than Answers

The ability to ask the right question at the right time is a powerful indicator of authentic understanding. Asking a question that pierces the veil in any given situation is itself an artifact of the critical thinking teachers so desperately seek in students, if for no other reason than it shows what the student knows, and then implies the desire to know more.

Asking a question (using strategies to help students ask better questions, for example) is a sign of understanding, not ignorance; it requires both knowledge and then-critically-the ability to see what else you're missing.

Questions are more important than answers because they reflect both understanding and curiosity in equal portions. To ask a question is to see both backward and forward-to make sense of a thing and what you know about it, and then extend outward in space and time to imagine what else can be known, or what others might know. To ask a great question is to see the conceptual ecology of the thing.

In a classroom, a student can see a drop of water, a literary device, a historical figure, or a math theorem, but these are just fragments that are worthless in and of themselves. A student in biology studying a drop of water must see the water as infinitely plural-as something that holds life and something that gives life.

As a marker of life, and an icon of health.

It is a tool, a miracle, a symbol, and a matter of science.

They must know what's potentially inside of a drop of water, and then how to find out what's actually inside that drop of water.

They must know what others have found studying water, as well as what that drop of water means within the field of science, and beyond it.

They must know that water is never really just water.

Teacher Questions vs Student Questions

When teachers try to untangle this cognitive mess, they sacrifice personalization for efficiency. There are simply too many students, and too much content to cover, so they cut to the chase.

Which means then tend towards the universal over the individual-broad, sweeping questions intermingling with sharper, more concise questions that hopefully shed some light and cause some curiosity. In a class of 30 with an aggressively-paced curriculum map and the expectation that every student master the content regardless of background knowledge, literacy level, or interest in the material, this is the best most teachers can do.

This only a bottleneck, though, when the teacher asks the questions. When the student asks the question, the pattern is reversed. The individual student has little regard for the welfare of the class, especially when they're forming questions. They're on the clock to say something, anything. Which is great, because questions-when they're authentic-are automatically personal because they came up with them. They're not tricks or guess-what-the-teacher's-thinking.

A student couldn't possibly capture the scale of confusion or curiosity of 30 other people; instead, they survey their own thinking, spot both gaps and fascinations, and form a question. This is the spring-loading of a Venus flytrap. The topic crawls around in the mind of the student innocently enough, and when the time is right-and the student is confident-the flower snaps shut. Once a student starts asking questions, that magic of learning can begin.

And the best part for a teacher? Questions reveal far more than answers ever might.

The Purpose of Questions

Thought of roughly as a kind of spectrum, four purposes of questions might stand out, from more "traditional" to more "progressive."

In What Is The Purpose Of A Question? Terry Heick said:

"To be a little more abstract, a good question causes thinking-more questions. Better questions. It clarifies and reveals. It causes hope.

A bad question stops thinking. It confuses and obscures. It causes doubt."

(More Traditional) Academic View

In a traditional academic setting, the purpose of a question is to elicit a response that can be assessed (i.e., answer this question so I can see what you know).

(Less Traditional) Curriculum-Centered View

Here, a 'good question' matters more than a good answer, as it demonstrates the complexity of student understanding of a given curriculum.

(More Progressive) Inquiry View

As confusion or curiosity markers that suggest a path forward for inquiry, and then are iterated and improved based on learning. (Also known as question-based learning.)

(More Progressive Still) Self-Directed View

In a student-centered circumstance, a question illuminates possible learning pathways forward irrespective of curriculum demands. The student's own knowledge demands-and their uncovering-center and catalyze the learning experience.

To be a little more abstract, a good question causes thinking-more questions. Better questions. It clarifies and reveals. It causes hope. A bad question stops thinking. It confuses and obscures. It causes doubt.

The Relative Strengths of Questions

Good questions can reveal subtle shades of understanding-what this student knows about this topic in this context

Questions promote inquiry and learning how to learn over proving what you know

Questions fit in well with the modern "Google" mindset

Used well, questions can promote personalized learning as teachers can change questions on the fly to meet student needs

The Relative Weaknesses of Questions

Questions depend on language, which means literacy, jargon, confusing syntax, academic diction, and more can all obscure the learning process

Questions can imply answers, which imply stopping points and 'finishing' over inquiry and wisdom (See questions that promote inquiry-based learning.)

Accuracy of answers can be overvalued, which makes the confidence of the answerer impact the quality of the response significantly

"Bad questions" are easy to write and deeply confusing, which can accumulate to harm a student's sense of self-efficacy, as well as their own tendency to ask them on their own

7 Common Written Assessment Question Forms

Questions as written assessment (as opposed to questions as inquiry, questions to guide self-directed learning, or questions to demonstrate understanding) most commonly take the following forms in writing:

Matching

True/False

Multiple Choice

Short Answer

Diagramming

Essay

Open-Ended

Questioning In The Classroom & Self-Directed Learning

For years in classrooms, questions have guided teachers in the design of units and lessons, often through the development of essential questions that all students should be able to reasonably respond to, and that can guide their learning of existing and pre-mapped content.

In the TeachThought Self-Directed Learning Model, learners are required to create their own curriculum through a series of questions that emphasize self-knowledge, citizenship, and communal and human interdependence. In this model, existing questions act as a template to uncover potential learning pathways.

Also, the Question Formation Technique is a powerful strategy for asking questions in the classroom, which you can read about here along with other strategies for helping students ask great questions in the classroom.

What Is Cognitive Dissonance?

Cognitive Dissonance is the cognitively-uncomfortable act of holding two seemingly competing beliefs at the same time. If you believe that Freedom of Speech is the foundation of democracy, but then are presented with a perspective (through Socratic-style questioning in the classroom from the teacher, for example), you arrive (or the student does) at a crossroads where they have to adjust something-either their belief or their judgment about the validity of the question itself.

In this way, questions can promote Cognitive Dissonance-which means a good question can change a student's mind, beliefs, or tendency to examine their own beliefs. Questions, cognitive, and self-reflection go hand-in-hand.

The Role of 'Lower-Level' Questions in the Classroom

Lower-level questions are questions that inquire at 'lower levels' of various learning taxonomies.

These are often 'recall' questions that are based in fact-definitions, dates, names, biographical details, etc. Education is thought to have focused (without having been there, who knows for sure?) on these lower levels, and 'low' is bad in academics, right? 'Lower-level' thinking implies a lack of 'higher-level' thinking, so instead of analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and creating, students are defining, recalling, and memorizing, the former of which make for artists and designers and innovators, and the latter of which make for factory workers.

And that part, at least, is (mostly) true. Recall and memorization aren't the stuff of understanding, much less creativity and wisdom, except that they are. Bloom's Taxonomy was not created to segregate 'good thinking' from 'bad thinking.' In their words, "Our attempt to arrange educational behaviors from simple to complex was based on the idea that a particular simple behavior may become integrated with other equally simple behaviors to form a more complex behavior." In this way, the taxonomy is simply one way of separating the strands of thinking like different colored yarn-a kind of visual scheme to see the pattern, contrasts, and even sequence of cognitive actions.

Nowhere does it say that definitions and names and labels and categories are bad-and if it did, we'd have to wonder about the taxonomy rather than assuming that they were. It doesn't take much imagination to see that if a student doesn't know there was a war, and that it was fought in the United States in the 1800s, and that it was purportedly over states' rights, and that both culture, industry, and agriculture all impacted the hows, whens, and whys of the war, that 'higher-level thinking strategies' aren't going to be very useful.

In short, lower-level questions can both illuminate and establish foundational knowledge on which to build a more complex and nuanced understanding of content. They provide a foothold for thinking. To further the point, in 5 Common Misconceptions About Bloom's Taxonomy, Grant Wiggins explains that the phrases 'higher-order' and 'lower-order' don't appear anywhere in the taxonomy.

Essential Questions in the Classroom

Grant Wiggins defined an essential question as those that are "broad in scope and timeless by nature. They are perpetually arguable."

Examples of Essential Questions

What is justice?

Is art a matter of taste or principles?

How far should we tamper with our own biology and chemistry?

Is science compatible with religion?

Is an author's view privileged in determining the meaning of a text?

A question is essential when it:

causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content;

provokes deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions;

requires students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers;

stimulates vital, ongoing rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons;

sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences;

naturally recurs, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects.

You can see more examples of essential questions here.

On Tuesday, we'll help you take this background information and channel into specific question strategies that you can use to help students learn to create their own questions.
A Guide To Questioning In The Classroom; image attribution flickr user flickeringbrad

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An Updated Guide To Questioning In The Classroom

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This guide to questioning in the classroom views questions as signs of understanding, not ignorance--the ability to see what you're missing.

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Testing? Activities Catechists Can Do to Measure Learning Besides Testing

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Testing? Activities Catechists Can Do to Measure Learning Besides Testing

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Lego Easter Story (Jesus' Death & Resurrection)

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Halloween and All Saints' Day explained with LEGO

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The Meaning of Christmas - Charlie Brown

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The Meaning of Christmas - Charlie Brown

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Christmas Advent 2013 : December 1 - Charlie Brown Meaning Of Christmas

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New teachers-and experienced ones too-can find ideas here on how to stop disruptive behavior before it begins.

In the 1950s, psychologists Jacob Kounin and Paul Gump discovered a curious side effect of discipline: If a student was being disruptive and the teacher responded with strict disciplinary measures, the student might stop-but other students would start exhibiting the same misbehavior. Kounin and Gump called this the " ripple effect," and it demonstrated that efforts to control a classroom can backfire.

"The teacher who is interested in controlling ripple effects can generally do so best by giving clear instructions to the child rather than by exerting pressure on him," Kounin and Gump wrote.

Decades later, classroom management is still a thorny issue for teachers. Nearly half of new teachers report that they feel "not at all prepared" or "only somewhat prepared" to handle disruptive students, in part because the average teacher training program devotes just eight hours to the topic, according to a 2014 report from the National Council on Teacher Quality. This lack of training comes with a cost, as teachers report losing 144 minutes of instructional time on average to behavioral disruptions every week, which comes out to roughly three weeks over the course of a year.

Recent research confirms what Kounin and Gump discovered decades ago. A 2016 study found that while negative attention-reprimands like "Stop chitchatting!"-may temporarily stop misbehavior, students eventually became more likely to engage in disruptive behavior. Students in the study felt disengaged, had difficulty concentrating, and weren't able to effectively regulate their thoughts and emotions-a vicious cycle that "actually amplifies students' inappropriate behavior," the study authors explain.

8 Proactive Classroom Management Strategies

Instead of handling disruptions after they've happened, it can be more effective to set up conditions in which they are less likely to occur. Here are eight classroom strategies that teachers have shared with Edutopia, all backed by research.

1. Greet students at the door: At Van Ness Elementary School in Washington, DC, Falon Turner starts the day by giving each of her students a high-five, handshake, or hug. "During that time, I'm just trying to connect with them.... It's kind of like a pulse check to see where they are," she says.

In a study published last year, greeting students at the door helped teachers set a positive tone for the rest of the day, boosting academic engagement by 20 percentage points while reducing disruptive behavior by 9 percentage points-adding roughly an hour of engagement over the course of the school day.

For older students, give plenty of warning if you need them to follow instructions. Reminders and cues are helpful ways to encourage students to follow instructions without being overtly controlling or forceful. For example, if you can anticipate a disruption-such as students getting out of their seats if they finish an assignment early-give a short reminder of what they should do instead.

Reminders are commonly verbal, but can also be visual (flicking the lights to signal that it's time to be quiet), auditory (ringing a small bell to let students know they should pay attention to the teacher), or physical (using a hand signal to let students know to get back in their seats).
Courtesy of Emily Polak
But that doesn't mean choice is always bad. Giving students a sense of ownership in the room, paired with clear expectations for behavior, can have surprisingly positive effects. A welcoming space can reduce anxiety and boost academic performance. Emily Polak, a ninth-grade teacher in Madison, Alabama, gave her room a cozier feel by adding a couch, a loveseat, rugs, a coffee table, and posters. Her students decide where to sit-but if they can't get their work done, they get moved back to a desk. "Discipline issues have significantly decreased. My students seem to feel more relaxed and more motivated in a setting that honors their choices," Polak says.

It's also helpful to avoid using the word don't, suggests Alyssa Nucaro, a sixth-grade English teacher in Memphis. Students are more likely to listen to instructions that include clear reasons.

6. Set clear expectations: Instead of just displaying rules for behavior, have a discussion with your students about why those rules matter. Bobby Shaddox, a seventh-grade social studies teacher in Portland, Maine, works with his students to create a list of norms-words such as inclusive, focused, and considerate -to build a sense of community. "It helps us own the behavior in the classroom," Shaddox says. "Instead of a top-down list of rules that a teacher gives a class, these are words that we generated together. These are words that we believe in."

A 2017 study found that a teacher's nonverbal cues-such as smiling and making eye contact-can "reduce physical and/or psychological distance" with their students, boosting students' positive feelings toward the teacher and the course material while improving behavior.

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New teachers-and experienced ones too-can find ideas here on how to stop disruptive behavior before it begins.

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34 Ways to Calm a Rambunctious Classroom

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34 Ways to Calm a Rambunctious Classroom

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From “Silent 20” to imaginary marshmallows, these teacher-tested strategies for all grade levels can help you snap an unruly classroom back to attention.

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Top 10 Teen Issues Teen Face in Digital World

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Top 10 Teen Issues Teen Face in Digital World

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Social issues are problems that affect large groups of people and can affect how well a society functions. Teens can face social problems just like adults can. They may even be more susceptible to these challenges because their brains are still developing and their bodies are changing quickly. Social issues and what we might think of as "teenage problems" can affect emotional and physical health.

Advances in technology also mean that today's teens are facing new and different social issues. Electronic media has changed or amplified some teenage troubles: Digital communication has changed the way teens interact with their peers and romantic interests, for example.

Digital life also means that many teens lack essential interpersonal communication skills like knowing how to pick up on social cues. Much of this dysfunction can be linked to the use of technology (but on the flip side, virtual socializing and learning were essential during the COVID-19 pandemic).

Teens' social media and texting habits are changing the way they communicate, date, learn, sleep, exercise, and more. The average teen spends over eight hours each day using electronic devices.

While not all social issues are linked to technology, many have complicated relationships with tech and media use. These are the top 10 social issues teens struggle with every day.

Depression

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an estimated 4.1 million adolescents in the United States had at least one major depressive episode in 2020. That means 17% of American teenagers may experience depression before reaching adulthood. Data from NIMH also shows that depression is much more prevalent in female teens (25.2%) than male teens (9.2%) and among teens who reported two or more races (29.9%).

Spending too much time on electronic devices may be preventing young people from in-person activities with their peers, such as sports, which can help ward off depression. They also experience new conditions like "fear of missing out" or FOMO, which further leads to feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Depressive disorders are treatable, but it's important to seek professional help. If your teen seems withdrawn, experiences a change in sleep patterns, or starts to perform badly in school, schedule an appointment with your teen's physician or contact a mental health professional. Do not delay getting help for your teen if you notice these symptoms.

About 22% of teens in the U.S. experienced bullying in 2019, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Research suggests that social media has made bullying much more public and more pervasive. Cyberbullying has replaced bullying as the most common type of harassment that teens experience.

To help guard against these kinds of teenage troubles, talk to your teen about bullying regularly. Discuss what they can do when they witness bullying and talk about options if they become a target themselves. Being proactive is key to helping your child deal with a bully.

It's also important to talk to your child about when and how to get help from an adult. Talking about how someone has humiliated them is never an easy topic. But asking for help is not a sign of weakness; it's a show of courage.

Sexual Activity

In the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) survey, 38% of high school students reported that they had ever had sex; 27.4% said they were currently sexually active. That represents a decline over the past decade (46% had ever had sex in 2009; 34% were currently sexually active).

The teen birth rate has declined over the past decade as well. In 2020, the teen birth rate was 15.4 (births for every 1,000 females ages 15-19), a decline of 8% from 2019 and 75% from the 1991 peak of 61.8. These teen births accounted for less than 5% of total births.

The decline in pregnancy doesn't necessarily mean teens are using contraceptives, however. Just over half of sexually active teens reported using a condom in their last sexual encounter, according to YRBSS data, while about 31% used hormonal birth control and 9% used both.

Parents may not be aware that their children are sexually active. Talk to your teen about sex and the importance of safe sex practices, even if you don't think your child is engaging in sexual activity.

In 2021, about 3% of teens surveyed (in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades) reported using marijuana daily. Marijuana use exceeds cigarette use in teens now, and is at its . In fact, many teens believe marijuana is less harmful now than in years past. This new perception may be due to the changing laws surrounding marijuana.

Teen use of other substances is declining, according to the Monitoring the Future Survey published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. While this decline has been noted since the survey began in 1975, decreases in 2021 were "steep and atypical."

Still, it's important to have regular conversations with your teen about the dangers of drugs. And don't forget to mention the dangers of prescription drugs, too. Many teens do not recognize the dangers of taking a friend's prescription or popping a few pills that are not prescribed to them.

Teens often underestimate how easy it is to develop an addiction. And they don't understand the risks associated with overdosing. Be sure you are talking about these risks on a consistent basis.

Alcohol Use

As of 2021, alcohol use and binge drinking continued to show a significant decline among teenagers. Still, 26% of high school seniors surveyed still report drinking alcohol within the past month.

Talk to teens about the risks of underage drinking. Educate them about the dangers, including the fact that alcohol can take a serious toll on a teenager's developing brain. Also, do not shy away from expressing your disapproval of underage drinking. Saying you don't approve can make a big difference in whether your teen decides to drink.

About 22% of 12- to 19-year-olds in the U.S. are obese, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. Hispanic and Black children are more likely to be overweight or obese than White or Asian children.

Overweight children and teens are often targeted by bullies. Obese kids also are at a much greater risk of lifelong health problems, such as diabetes, arthritis, cancer, and heart disease. They also may struggle with body image issues or develop eating disorders as an unhealthy way of changing their appearance.

Talk to your child's pediatrician about the weight and body mass appropriate for your teen's height and age and inquire about the steps you can take to ensure your teen is healthy. Then, if your doctor does recommend a healthier eating plan or exercise, find ways to support and empower your teen.

Academic Problems

About 5% of high school students drop out of high school each year in the United States, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. A high school dropout is likely to earn $200,000 less over his lifetime when compared to a high school graduate, which can have a significant impact on a young person's future.

But it's no longer just "troubled teens" who are dropping out of school. Some teens feel so much pressure to get into a good college that they burning themselves out before they graduate from high school. Stay involved in your teen's education. Provide support and guidance and be ready to assist your teen if they encounter problems.

Peer Pressure

While peer pressure has affected teens for generations, social media brings it to a whole new level. Sexting, for example, is a major cause for concern; many teens do not understand the lifelong consequences that sharing explicit photos can have on their lives.

But sharing inappropriate photos is not the only thing kids are being pressured into doing. Teens face pressure to have sex, use drugs or alcohol, and even bully others. To keep your kids from falling victim to peer pressure, give them skills to make healthy choices, and to resist peer pressure.

Also, talk to teens about what to do if they make a mistake. Sometimes, kids may be afraid to seek help when they make poor choices. It's important that your teen feels safe coming to you when they have a problem. Demonstrate that you can listen without judging or overreacting and instead find healthy ways for them to make amends and move on.

Social Media

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be great ways for teens to connect with one another, but social media can be problematic for several reasons. Social media can expose your teen to cyberbullying, slut-shaming, and so much more. And, while there are some benefits to social media, there are a lot of risks as well.

Social media can have a negative impact on friendships and is changing the way teens date. It can even impact their mental health. And no matter what precautions you take, teens are likely to be exposed to unsavory people, unhealthy images, and sexual content online.

Help your teen learn how to navigate social media in a healthy way. Talk about ways to stay safe online. And most importantly, know what your teen is doing online. Educate yourself about the latest apps, websites, and social media pages teens are using and take steps to keep your teen safe. You may also want to take steps to limit your teen's screen time.

On-Screen Violence

Teenagers are going to witness some violent media at one time or another. And it's not just TV, music, and movies that depict violence. Many of today's violent video games portray gory scenes and disturbing acts of aggression. Over the past couple of decades, studies have linked these violent images to a lack of empathy and even aggressive behavior.

Other studies have shown the number one factor in determining how kids relate to media is how their parents think and act. That means the more violence parents watch, the more likely they are to think it's OK for their kids to view.

Pay attention to your teen's media use. Don't allow teens to watch R-rated movies or to play M-rated video games. It's not healthy for them to consume that material in excess and unsupervised.

Also, talk to your teen about the dangers of being exposed to violent images and monitor your teen's mental state. It's also important to talk about sexual situations and racial stereotypes that your teen might see.

Teens need to learn how to identify what is good and what is bad about the media. It helps them become a healthier consumer when they can think objectively about what they are seeing online, in the movie theater, or in a video game.

How to Talk to Your Teen

Bringing up any difficult subjects with your teen can feel uncomfortable. And your teen isn't likely to respond well to a lengthy lecture or too many direct questions. But having a conversation with your teen about social issues and other teenage troubles is not something you should shy away from.

Even when it seems like they are not listening, you are the most influential person in your teen's life. It is important to lay a strong foundation before the window of opportunity closes.

A good way to strike up a conversation about drugs, sex, vaping, or other uncomfortable situations is to ask a question like, "Do you think this is a big issue at your school?"

Listen to what your teen has to say. Try not to be judgmental, but make your expectations and opinions clear. It is important that your teen understands that you don't condone certain behaviors and that they know the consequences of breaking your rules.

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The Top 10 Social Issues Teens Face in the Digital World

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Teens face a lot of problems, from cyberbullying to sex to academic and peer pressure. Here are some of the biggest social issues teens experience today, and how you can help with teenage troubles.

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There are critical considerations to reflect on before implementing differentiation strategies - to aspects of content, process and product - in direct response to a student's readiness, interests and learning profile.

Bringing it all together

Critical considerations

Before introducing strategies for differentiation, it is important to note 3 interrelated considerations for teachers who wish to differentiate instruction.

(Tomlinson & Allan 2000)

What and how to differentiate

Effective differentiation takes place when teachers adjust aspects of content, process and product in direct response to a student's readiness, interests and learning profile. Teachers may also modify the learning environment in direct response to a student's learning profile.

'What' and 'how' teachers differentiate depends on the needs of the students in the class at any one time.

The following diagram illustrates the connections between classroom elements and student characteristics and the multiple opportunities teachers have for differentiation. It shows that teachers can adjust classroom elements - content, process and product - in direct response to a student's readiness, interests and learning profile. Teachers can also modify the learning environment in direct response to a student's learning profile.

Tiered instruction

Tiered instruction is when teachers make slight adjustments within the same lesson to meet the needs of students.

All students learn the same fundamental skills and concepts but through varying modes and activities.

The tiers need to challenge students appropriately at their ability levels. The teacher's challenge is to make sure all tasks, regardless of tier level, are interesting, engaging, and challenging.

Activities and assignments can be adjusted by:

level of complexity

amount of structure

materials provided

time allowed

pacing of the assignment

number of steps required for completion

form of expression, for example letter, essay, report, research paper, short story, speech

level of independence required.

The 6 ways to tier a lesson

Use Bloom's taxonomy as a useful guide to develop tasks at various challenge levels.

An example is activities for book talk presentations:

the lower levels of Blooms:

list story elements (knowledge)

book summary (comprehension)

support a conclusion about a character with evidence from the book (application).

Higher levels of Blooms:

discuss the theme or author's purpose for writing the book (analysis)

create a new ending for the story (synthesis)

critique the author's writing and support your opinion (evaluation).

When you tier by complexity, you provide varied tasks that address a student's level of readiness, from introductory levels to more abstract, less concrete, advanced work.

Be careful to provide advanced work to the higher level student, rather than just more work. An example is after whole group class reading of a current events issue in a magazine such as global warming, students complete a related activity differentiated by complexity.

Students all use the same materials but what they do with the materials is different. An example is pattern block maths:

Students work on the same outcomes but use a different process to get there. An example is: What are the characteristics of a hero?

Groups are formed based on learning preference using Gardner's multiple intelligences. For example: For a unit on the solar system - the study of rotation and revolution of the earth.

How to create a 3-level tier

As you construct the tiers make sure that in order for students to accomplish a higher level, they must also have an understanding of the lower levels.

Compacting

Compacting is the process of eliminating teaching or student practice if students have already mastered a concept or skill. For example, a year 3 class is learning to identify the parts of fractions, and diagnostics indicate that 2 students already know the parts of fractions. These students are excused from completing the identifying activities and are taught to add and subtract fractions.

Steps for compacting

1. identifying the learning objectives or standards that all students must learn

2. offering a pre-test opportunity or planning an alternate path through the content for those students who can learn the required material in less time than their age peers

3. planning and offering meaningful curriculum extensions for students who qualify

4. eliminating all drill, practice, review or preparation for students who have already mastered such things

5. keeping accurate records of students' compacting activities.

A layered curriculum

The layered curriculum approach features a 3 layer model (like a pyramid) where students start with basic learning and skills (layer C) and move to use higher-level thinking skills (layer B and then layer A) as they work through the layers. Developed by educator and author Kathie Nunley (2006) the approach came as a response to her classroom experiences with high school students.

The base level of competency, layer C, is basic learning and skills. This layer reflects what every student must be able to know, understand, and do. At this level, students gather information and add it to their bank of knowledge.

Layer C reflects what all students must do and the activities ask students to collect factual information.

The middle level of competency, layer B, is application. This is where students apply and manipulate the information.

Layer B provides students with the opportunity to apply, manipulate and play with the information they gathered while completing C layer activities. Typically, this layer requires students to apply, manipulate, discover, hypothesise and prove, demonstrate or problem solve.

The top-level of competency, layer A is critical thinking. This is where students evaluate and think critically about an issue. Nunley says the purpose of layer A is to teach students critical thinking skills and to apply their classroom learning into their daily lives. Layer A consists of questions that ask students to analyse a topic. Frequently, no right or wrong answer exists.

Nunley emphasizes that all layers should provide students with some control over their learning. She suggests a menu-like approach to the tasks in each layer. The approach allows students to pick and choose from the available options provided by the teacher.

A menu offers students a way to make decisions about what they will do in order to meet class requirements. A menu could be for a single lesson, a week-long lesson or even a month-long period of study. Once the teacher has decided on what the essential understandings and/or skills are, they can begin to create a menu.

Steps for creating menus

1. Identify the most important elements of a lesson or unit.

2. Create an imperative or required assignment or project that reflects the minimum understanding you expect all students to achieve.

3. Create negotiables which expand upon the 'main dish' or imperative assignment or project. These negotiables often require students to go beyond the basic levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. For example, they often include activities that require synthesis, analysis or evaluation.

4. Create a final optional section that offers students the opportunity for enrichment. The optional section often reflects activities that students can use for extra credit.

Wormeli (2006) suggests placing the menu options in a restaurant menu style (see below) that could include an 'appetisers', a 'main dish', 'side dishes', and even 'desserts'. He suggests the following format.

Appetisers (negotiables)

a list of assignments or projects

students select one item to complete.

The Main Dish (imperatives)
an assignment or project that everyone must complete.

Side Dishes (negotiables)

a list of assignments or projects

students select two items to complete.

Desserts (options)

optional but irresistible assignments or projects

options should be high interest and challenging

students choose one of these enrichment options

level of complexity.

Cubing

Cubing requires students to look at a topic from 6 different angles. Teachers often create a visual cube that serves as a starting point when they want students to analyse or consider various aspects of a topic. Cubes can be used as an after-reading strategy that requires students to think critically about a topic. When students work with cubes they apply information in new ways. Cubes can be differentiated by interest and readiness.

Introducing the strategy to students

One of the best ways to introduce cubing is to apply the activity to a common or familiar object. Select an object appropriate to the age and interests of the students, distribute the object to students and then assign groups to look (or study) the object from several angles.

Students work in assigned pairs or groups. If desired, the groups can be created by readiness levels since the cubing perspectives below begin at the least complex level and become increasingly complex. Using the object as the topic, ask students to:

Give students about 10 minutes to build a mini-presentation, then one student in each group presents to the class.

Steps for cubing

Step 1.

Select a topic, for example, World War 1 (WW1). Decide in advance how much time you want to devote to the cubing process. Informal cubing activities can easily be accomplished within a class period. However, activities can be extended if research is required.

Step 2.

Create groups based on readiness or interest.

Step 3.

Assign each group a perspective from which to explore the topic:

Step 4.

After the designated amount of time, ask representatives from each group to present their perspectives.

Adaptations

Cubing, looking at a topic from 6 different angles, can be adapted. Adaptations can include:

Design cubes based on interest or learning profiles.

Use the cubes for independent work. Require students to complete each element on the cube but allow them to pick and choose the order in which they complete the activities.

Use the cubes as dice which students roll.

In maths, create problems for students to solve. One problem is printed on each side of the cube.

Rick Wormeli (2006) suggests incorporating Bloom's Taxonomy:

Knowledge - students recall and cite content

Comprehension - students demonstrate their understanding of the content

Application - students use their knowledge and skills in a different way or situation

Analysis - students break down topics into pieces and analyse them

Synthesis - students consider aspects that seem to contradict each other and form something new

Evaluation - students use their previous learning to judge the value or success of something guided by specific criteria.

Tic-Tac-Toe choice boards

Tic-Tac-Toe choice boards give students the opportunity to participate in multiple tasks that allow them to practice skills they've learned in class or to demonstrate and extend their understanding of concepts. From the board students either choose or are assigned 3 adjacent or diagonal tasks to complete.

Choice boards address student readiness, interest or learning preferences - and are easily adapted to a subject area.

Steps for tic-tac-toe

The 3 tasks should complete a Tic-Tac-Toe row.

Adaptations

Tic-Tac-Toe choice boards can be adapted. Adaptations include:

Allow students to complete any three tasks - even if the completed tasks don't make a Tic-Tac-Toe.

Assign students tasks based on readiness.

Create different choice boards based on readiness (struggling students work with the options on one choice board while more advanced students have different options).

Create choice board options based on learning styles or learning preferences. for example, a choice board could include 3 kinaesthetic tasks, 3 auditory tasks and 3 visual tasks.

Sternberg's intelligence preference

You can assess students according to Sternberg's intelligences:

Analytical - linear - schoolhouse smart - sequential

Practical - street-smart - contextual - focus on use

Creative - innovator - outside the box - what if

An idea to assess students in this way is possible through the following scenario:

'Imagine you are driving with your parents and they are listening to the radio. An interesting discussion starts about something you do not know. As you listen, you get more and more interested - and what do you most want to know?

Do you want to know all the little details that go into it?

Do you want to know how it is being used?

Do you want to know only enough information to think of other things to do?'

Students who choose the first question fall into the analytic intelligence, the second corresponds to the practical and those who choose the final question are the creative learners.

Analytical:

Choose 3 items from our classroom that are all in different states of matter. Show how each item is in a different state of matter in comparison to the other two items. Use terms like mass and volume to explain your answer.

Use the idea of water, ice and vapour to create a chart to show how these 3 things change from one state to another. Include condensation, evaporation, melting point, freezing point, expanding and contracting in your chart.

Creative:

Create 3 imaginative items to demonstrate different states of matter. Make an illustration of each item and explain why each one fits into the state it is in. Use mass and volume in your explanation.

Make a visually appealing poster to teach primary students how each state changes into the other states. Be sure the way you teach is original. Show condensation, evaporation, melting point, freezing point, expanding and contracting in your poster.

Practical:

There are 3 mysterious objects in a box on a museum shelf. Their states of matter are not yet identified. Your task is to figure out the state of matter for each one. Design a museum exhibit for these. Use the terms mass and volume in your exhibit signs.

There is a close friend of yours who does not understand how one state of matter changes into another. You want to help your friend out. Write out how you would explain to your friend using all these terms: condensation, evaporation, melting point, freezing point, expanding and contracting. Make your explanation as clear as you can.

Analyse how landforms produce economic advantages that establish settlements. After students have read and taken notes on the chapter, the teacher reviews, with the whole class, the basic information on landforms. Then, students are given a choice of 3 assignments to be done individually or in groups of 2 or 3.

Analytical:

Create clues or a set of directions to help us identify and locate at least 8 landforms on the map (given in the textbook or on a map provided by the teacher). Clues/directions should also be based on population and economic growth and changes.

Creative:

Develop a map of a new world that has at least 8 different types of landforms and/or bodies of water. For example, using labels determine how these sites would grow due to the economic possibilities of these geographical features and predict population growth over a period of time.

Practical:

Using these 8 given cities (or you may choose other cities after approval by the teacher) demonstrate how landforms and bodies of water contributed to the development and movement of people to this site over a period of time. You may use overlay transparencies or models to show the areas and growth.

Heacox D. (2002) Differentiation Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All Learners, Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit.

Heacox, D. (2005). Promoting Student Independence and Responsibility in Academically Diverse Classrooms. 2005 ASCD Annual Conference. Orlando, FL.

Nunley, K. E. (2006). Differentiating the High School Classroom: Solution Strategies for 18 Common Obstacles. Thousand Oaks: CA: Corwin.

Tomlinson, C. A., & Allan, S. D. (2000). Leadership for Differentiating Schools and Classrooms.

Wormeli, R. (2006). Fair Isn't Always Equal: Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

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When making differentiation a staple characteristic of the classroom, look at the following strategies to embed into your teaching practice

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Recursos para catequistas, líderes y familias | Sadlier Religion

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Descargue recursos temáticos y de temporada para apoyar el desarrollo profesional y la formación de la fe en la clase y en el hogar.

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La vocación del catequista tiene su origen en la feliz llamada que Jesús hizo a quienes Él quiso tener cerca para después enviarlos a la misión: 'Vengan'... ¿Quién te llama a ser catequista hoy?... ¿Por qué dijiste sí, quiero?

Ser catequista es haber respondido al llamado del Señor. ¡Es un don!

Desde el bautismo somos sacerdotes, profetas y reyes con Cristo, para trasmitir el mensaje de salvación. Dios nos da la gracia para vivir esta vocación día a día, en y con la comunidad siendo 'CATEQUISTAS'.

A la llamada de Dios hemos respondido con fe, con alegría y con mucha esperanza, sabiendo que Él es actúa en mí, en ti, en todos los que felizmente 'somos catequistas'.

Hablar del perfil del catequista es una invitación a pensar concretamente cómo se vive esta vocación, para qué y con quiénes. Desde el Concilio Vaticano II a nuestros días tenemos grandes luces; un rico magisterio que alimenta y fortalece la identidad del Catequista del tercer milenio. El Directorio para la Catequesis (2020) propone quién es y qué puede hacer el catequista y ahora, el Motu Proprio, Antiquum Ministerium, abre la posibilidad para que se instituya en las diócesis el Ministerio Laical de Catequistas (AM 19 / V / 2021).

Muchos hombres y mujeres han vivido su fe en y con su comunidad; se han entregado en cuerpo y alma al servicio del Reino, sirviéndose de su riqueza temperamental, con sus cualidades y sus limitaciones, para ser memoria viva de las maravillas que Dios ha hecho a favor de sus hijos, porque Él nos ama y nos quiere a todos, 'salvos' (1 Tm 2,1-8).

a) El catequista es persona

Ser persona y actuar como persona es esencial en el perfil del catequista. Quiero recordar a Pedro, a Pablo, a Juan, a María Magdalena y a las mujeres que iban y venían con el Maestro: 'Fueron personas capaces de pensar, de sentir, de decidir, con sus luces y sus sombras, y de colaborar con el Señor'. La persona es muy importante y significativa para ejercer el Ministerio de la Catequesis. Tan ha sido así, que Dios mismo se hizo persona en la plenitud de los tiempos, naciendo de una mujer (Cfr. Gal 4, 4 ), maravilloso momento histórico.

El Verbo se hizo carne, y habitó entre nosotros (Jn 1, 14). Dios hecho persona en su Hijo, Jesús de Nazareth, es el paradigma de lo que es y puede ser el catequista. Él ha sido el más grande evangelizador (Evangelii Nuntiandi 7), el buen pastor (Jn 10, 11 -16), la luz del mundo (Jn 8, 13), el camino, la verdad y la vida (Jn 14, 6), el agua viva que quiere y puede calmar nuestra sed (Jn 4, 13 -14).

b) El catequista es de Dios y para lo suyo

'Por la gracia de Dios soy lo que soy' (1 Cor 15, 10). La espiritualidad es esencial en el perfil del catequista. El Espíritu de Dios es el agente principal de nuestro Ministerio (EN 75), es el verdadero protagonista de lo que el catequista es y hace; lo acompaña y lo guía, para que se comprometa cada día más en su misión. Lo hace ser su casa y una carta escrita por Él (2 Cor 3, 2-4).

El Papa Francisco precisa que el evangelizador tiene que dejar actuar al Espíritu Santo, viviendo una experiencia kerigmática, que va mucho más allá de tener un retiro, un curso, o una etapa determinada, para estar en apertura a sus inspiraciones (Cfr. EG 163-168).

Si el Espíritu está en el catequista, lo hace ser una persona que vive el amor de Dios y el amor al hermano; lo hace ser cercano, paciente, capaz de escuchar, de acompañar y de servir a quienes más lo necesiten.

El perfil del catequista tiene que llegar al compromiso para con la realidad y su problemática. La fe tiene que traducirse en obras (St 2, 26), para pensar, sentir y decidir qué hacer a favor de una vida más humana, más justa, más de todos y especialmente de los más vulnerables de la sociedad. Desde hace ya casi dos años, el Papa Francisco pidió a todos una actitud de fraternidad, sabiendo vivir la solidaridad para ir contra los abusos y mala distribución de los bienes. El catequista, Palabra de Dios, con lo que dice y con lo que hace, no puede ignorar o ser indiferente ante la pobreza que vive nuestro ambiente (FT 3 / X / 2020).

El catequista, lleno del Espíritu, está con quienes no tienen o no pueden vivir dignamente (Cfr. Dimensión social de la evangelización): "Hoy más que nunca necesitamos hombres y mujeres que acompañen los procesos donde campea la prudencia, la capacidad de comprensión, el arte de esperar, la docilidad al Espíritu, y de cuidar al rebaño del lobo que lo amenaza y persigue" (EG 171).

c) La vivencia de la fe se da en y con la comunidad

En ella, el catequista, ha recibido la fe, ha crecido y madurado, comprendiendo cada vez más el llamado que Dios le hace hoy: 'Ve a todas las naciones y haz discípulos... (Mt 28,19-20). Este aspecto moldea lo dicho en cuanto a la persona y a la presencia del Espíritu.

El aspecto comunitario es parte esencial en el perfil del catequista, llamado por Dios para ser memoria viva de la fe (Cfr. DC 112).

El catequista es el maestro, mistagogo y el acompañante y el testigo de Dios, nace y se hace en la comunidad cristiana. Una vez que toma conciencia de su vocación y misión encuentra en la comunidad el espacio vivo en el que puede compartir su experiencia de fe, y conducir a sus hermanos a la vivencia del Misterio, celebrándolo en la liturgia.

Es en la comunidad y desde la comunidad que el catequista podemos crecer en la mentalidad procesual; en el respeto y compromiso con la Casa Común (Cfr. Querida Amazonía ); es en la comunidad, donde podemos favorecer la solidaridad que tanto necesita nuestro mundo.

Es en y con la comunidad que irá valorando y purificando nuestra cultura, para que haya una verdadera inculturación del evangelio. Si el catequista conoce sus valores, podrá luchar para que se conserven y se enriquezcan con los grandes avances, a fin de fortalecer nuestra identidad.

Es en y con la comunidad como podremos comprender qué es y cómo se vive la sinodalidad. 'Todos hacemos todo, cuando cada quien hace su parte'.

María, la Madre del Dios por quién se vive, la Estrella de la Nueva Evangelización, camine con los catequistas y nos lleva a vivir la alegría de estar con su Hijo y con quienes Él ama y prefiere.

Le puede interesar: "Adiós al profeta de la Amazonía": Revista Misión Celam dedica número al cardenal Cláudio Hummes a un mes de su partida

Recibe gratis por WhatsApp y Telegram las noticias de la Iglesia latinoamericana y caribeña https://bit.ly/3s8H18n

Sigue toda la información sobre la "Fase continental" del Sínodo aquí https://bit.ly/3RguCLO

Estos son los 41 desafíos que deja la Asamblea Eclesial de América Latina y el Caribe https://bit.ly/3ye5lcK

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¿Quiénes somos y qué hacemos?: El perfil del catequista - ADN Celam

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La vocación del catequista tiene su origen en la feliz llamada que Jesús hizo a quienes Él quiso tener cerca para después enviarlos a la misión: 'Vengan'... ¿Quién te llama a ser catequista hoy?... ¿Por qué dijiste sí, quiero?

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¿Qué te implusa a tí a ser catequista? * Debe quedar claro que me impulsa a ser catequista:
- La experiencia de mi fe y

- Razones pastorales o coyunturales.

1º La experiencia de mi fe

- Mi fe no la puedo callar. Tengo que compartirla y proclamarla. Lo que yo creo me hace feliz y creo que es bueno para el Hombre.

- Por eso yo transmito mi fe por necesidad propia, y no sólo por ayudar a la parroquia.

- Es una vocación. Los catequistas sienten que Dios les llama porque les necesita para cumplir una parte del proceso evangelizador, que es la misión de la Iglesia: hacer llegar a todos el plan de salvación que Jesús nos enseña.
2º Razones pastorales
- La Iglesia y tu Parroquia te necesitan. Hay muchos bautizados y pocos creyentes, de los llamados practicantes; esto quiere decir que algo falla.

- Porque hacemos Iglesia, que es obligación de los cristianos, cuando comunicamos la Fe. Hay que tener en cuenta que nosotros conocemos y creemos en Jesús porque, en generaciones pasadas, otros han hecho la tarea que ahora nos compete a nosotros.

- Para ayudar a que la gente opte o no por vivir como cristiano. Para transformar el mundo según los esquemas de Jesús, que creemos son los que más pueden ayudar al hombre a desarrollarse como tal.
¿Por qué es importante la catequesis? ¿Para qué sirven los catequistas?
- Sirven como instrumentos que tiene la Iglesia para cumplir con su razón de ser, es decir, evangelizar; ya que sin catequesis no hay evangelización. (Ver tema 2).

- Para formar una comunidad cristiana más fuerte, ya que los catequistas son evangelizados cuando están evangelizando.

- Para que los seglares, principalmente, participemos de una de las tareas más importante de la Iglesia universal.

- Para poner las bases de la Iglesia del futuro, que está en nuestras manos. Y debemos hacerlo bien porque...
Tema 2: ¿Qué es la catequesis? Objetivos:
- Aclarar el concepto de evangelización y sus etapas.

- Aproximarnos al concepto de catequesis
Introducción:
La catequesis no se puede definir de una forma concreta, puntual y aislada, sino dentro de la globalidad de la misión de la Iglesia. Y por supuesto teniendo en cuenta que abarca desde técnicas a sentimientos. Lo primero es saber qué es la evangelización.
Desarrollo: * ¿Qué es evangelizar?
Charlar brevemente sobre las siguientes cuestiones:

- ¿Te sientes evangelizado?

- ¿Quién te ha evangelizado?

- ¿Qué significa la palabra evangelizar? (Hacer que las cosas sean según el Evangelio).

Anotar las respuestas en la pizarra y afirmarlas o negarlas en el siguiente desarrollo:

Evangelizar es lo último que Jesús mandó a sus discípulos: "Id por todo el mundo y predicad la Buena Nueva a todos los hombres". Mucha gente lo ha hecho durante la historia y por ellos nosotros creemos en Jesucristo.

Lo anterior implica que Dios ha querido que los hombres seamos los instrumentos que contribuyan eficazmente a la salvación de otros hombres. Dios nos necesita (porque el quiere, no le gusta la magia) para la salvación de TODOS los hombres.

Esta es la razón de ser de la Iglesia, la única razón de ser de la Iglesia: SER SACRAMENTO DE SALVACIÓN PARA TODOS LOS HOMBRES. Esa misión que encomienda Jesús implica el derecho de todo hombre a ser evangelizado." La evangelización es la razón de ser de la Iglesia" (Evangelii Nuntiandi). Sin evangelización la Iglesia no puede existir, ni hubiera existido. Nadie conocería el menaje de Jesús de Nazaret.

Podemos decir que evangelizar es hacer llegar a todos los hombres la salvación. La incorporación al Reino de Dios.

En el documento "La catequesis de la comunidad" de la Conferencia Episcopal Española, se define la evangelización de la siguiente manera:

La evangelización es "el proceso total mediante el cual la Iglesia, y el pueblo de Dios, movida por el Espíritu, anuncia al mundo el Evangelio (Buena Noticia) del Reino de Dios, da testimonio entre los hombres de la nueva forma de ser y de vivir que se instaura con ese Reino. Educa, en una comunidad, a los que se convierten, celebra (mediante los sacramentos) la presencia de Jesús y el don del Espíritu, impregna y transforma con su fuerza todo el orden temporal" (es decir, la globalidad del mundo).

Reflexionar sobre los puntos más destacados de la definición anterior y resolver dudas.

De la anterior definición partimos para decir que la evangelización tiene los siguientes elementos:

1º Renovación y transformación de la humanidad como objetivo general: Hay que cambiar lo que vaya contra el Reino de Dios.

2º Testimonio de los valores del Reino: Todos los que formamos la Iglesia tenemos que mostrar con nuestra vida lo que el Reino es.

3º Anuncia explícitamente el Evangelio, lo más fielmente a Jesús.

4º La adhesión de corazón: Convertirse a ese Mundo Nuevo.

5º Crea comunidades cristianas, porque la fe crece en grupo y se alimenta compartiendola.

6º Celebra los sacramentos. Celebra la presencia de un Dios vivo en esa comunidad.

7º Desarrolla un apostolado (compromiso) activo. Compromiso cristiano en todo el mundo, todos los días.

La Iglesia cumpliendo estos requisitos es signo de Reino de Dios en la tierra; por ello son útiles para revisar nuestra comunidad cristiana.
* Proceso de evangelización:
Hemos dicho en la definición que la evangelización es un proceso. Y es lógico, porque una persona no se evangeliza en un día:

- Para asimilar y creer el plan salvador que Dios tiene para los hombres no hay que aprender una teoría, unos dogmas o una ideología; hay que experimentar en la vida de cada uno como ese plan de Dios me salva. Esa experimentación lleva su tiempo, a unos más y a otros menos.

- Por esto mismo también decimos que la evangelización es un proceso, porque la fe cristiana es dinámica: Va madurando hasta que "lleguemos al estado de hombres perfecto, a la madurez de la plenitud de Cristo".("Ad gentes" nº 6 Concilio Vaticano II).

Debido a esta dinámica y experimentación progresiva de la fe, podemos dividir el proceso evangelizador en tres etapas:

1ª ACCIÓN MISIONERA: Para los no creyentes. (Despertador).

2ª ACCIÓN CATEQUÉTICA: Para los recién convertidos que quieren madurar se fe. (Árbol con raíces profundas).

3ª ACCIÓN PASTORAL: Para los cristianos fieles de la comunidad cristiana , para madurar su fe y evangelizar a su vez. (Los frutos del árbol).

Tema 3: ¿Cómo hacer catequesis hoy? Objetivos:
- Recopilar lo más importante de los temas 1 y 2. Afianzar ideas.

- Destacar la importancia de la experiencia en la catequesis: humana, religiosa y cristiana.

- Tomar contacto con la pedagogía catequética de Jesús. (Texto de Emaús).
Introducción:
Se leen los apuntes de los dos temas anteriores y nos aseguramos de que todo está claro.
Desarrollo:
Hasta ahora hemos vistos conceptos teóricos importantes. A partir de ahora vamos a ver cómo tenemos que hacer catequesis para ser fieles a lo que la Iglesia hoy nos pide.
* Cuenta una experiencia:
Algún miembro del grupo cuenta cualquier experiencia que haya tenido. Intentaremos que se profundice en ella. Luego se plantea la siguiente pregunta:

- ¿Qué es experiencia ?

Que definan entre todos la palabra. El monitor no dirá nada.

- La experiencia es...

Para empezar tenemos que saber que la experiencia no es el tiempo vivido de cada uno, ni el conjunto de situaciones vividas o vistas. Es decir, no por ser más viejo se tiene, necesariamente, más experiencia. Aunque si hay alguna relación con todo esto.

La experiencia es la realidad inmediata que hemos vivido, que sometemos a reflexión para ir profundizando en ella, para valorarla y sacar nuestras propias conclusiones. Éstas afectarán de una manera u otra a nuestra forma de actuar y vivir , es decir, nos llevarán a unos cambios, a ser de una forma determinada. Las experiencias que vamos teniendo son las que nos van cambiando.

- La experiencia religiosa es...

Cuando se profundiza mucho sobre toda la realidad, el hombre la llegando a las preguntas claves de su vida: ¿ quién soy ? ¿ Qué sentido tiene mi vida ? y el por qué de tantas cosas y situaciones.

llegados a este punto el hombre se abre a lo trascendental, a lo que va más allá de sus posibilidades cognoscitivas. Por esto se dice que el hombre es un ser religioso por naturaleza, porque llega a preguntarse por el significado de todo, porque se abre a lo trascendental. Así llega al nivel de profundización que denominamos religioso.

Conforme el hombre va encontrando respuestas en este nivel, las objetiviza y la intenta hacer comprensibles. Pero lo experimentado es tan profundo que para expresarlo recurre a símbolos que sean capaces de reflejar esa profundidad y no se queden tan corto como los lenguajes convencionales. Debido a esto de la experiencia religiosa de cualquier persona o grupo de personas sólo podemos apreciar, en la superficie, una parte: son las objetivaciones religiosas.

- La experiencia de fe cristiana es...

La experiencia de la escucha de la Palabra de Dios y como se vive es la experiencia cristiana. Dios se nos revela en la Palabra y, plenamente, en Jesucristo; si cambia esto nuestras vidas es porque estamos teniendo experiencias de fe cristiana.

Es la experiencia religiosa que se abre a lo trascendente y que encuentra la respuesta en Dios; que se hace presente en la historia del hombre ( Hª de Israel ), en Jesús ( que nos muestra a Dios tal cual es) y en los que van actuando según éstas experiencias ( la Iglesia ).

Toda la experiencia anterior la encontramos condensada en la Biblia, de ahí su importancia. " La experiencia bíblica desempeña un papel de fundamentación respecto a cualquier otra experiencia que quiera llamarse cristiana". ("La catequesis en la Iglesia" de Emilio Alberich).

La catequesis es auténtica cuando respeta la estructura anterior de la comunicación de la fe.

Se da catequesis cuando se lleva a cabo la profundización de la propia experiencia y su confrontación con las experiencias básicas de la realidad cristiana: Hª de Israel, Jesucristo y la Iglesia.
* Pasos del proceso catequético:
Para iniciar a los catecúmenos en la fe, es necesario que la experimenten. Por ello tendremos que dar los siguientes pasos:

1º Profundizar en sus experiencias. Tenemos que partir de nuestra propia realidad. Si no profundizamos en nuestras propias vidas no tendremos, ni siquiera, experiencias.

En esa profundización hay que llegar a la apertura a lo trascendente.

2º Confrontamos esas experiencias con las experiencias bíblicas (Hª Israel, Jesús y la primera Iglesia) y con las experiencias cristianas actuales. Esto nos ayudará en la lectura e interpretación de la vida, de nuestra realidad experimentada. La catequesis es así un intercambio de experiencias.

3º Actuar y vivir según lo que hemos ido experimentando durante todo el proceso. La experiencia de la fe cristiana te lleva, como toda experiencia, a ser y vivir de una manera; en este caso al estilo de vida cristiano.
* La catequesis: profundización - identificación de la propia experiencia con las experiencias fundamentales de Cristo y la Iglesia
Ya hemos dicho que la catequesis es auténtica cuando se lleva a cabo la profundización de la propia experiencia y su confrontación con las experiencias básicas de la realidad cristiana. (Israel, Cristo y la Iglesia).
Puesta en común:
- ¿Cómo es la catequesis que hacemos?

- ¿Cuál de estos se olvida con más frecuencia cuando hacemos catequesis?
Catequesis es...
- Tomar conciencia de lo que nos pasa

- Iluminados por el Evangelio

- para seguir juntos a Jesucristo

- transformandolo todo.
Práctica:
Pasos de una catequista Jesús con un grupo reducido de la comunidad cristiana.

" Aquel mismo día hubo dos discípulos que iban camino de una aldea llamada Emaús, distante unas dos leguas de Jerusalén, y comentaban lo sucedido.

Mientras conversaban y discutían, Jesús en persona se acercó y se puso a caminar con ellos. Pero estaban cegados y no podían reconocerlo.

Jesús les dijo:

- ¿Qué conversación es esa que os traéis por el camino?

Se detuvieron cariacontecidos y uno de ellos, que se llamaba Cleofás, le replicó:

- ¡Eres tú el único de paso en Jerusalén que no se ha enterado de lo ocurrido estos días en la ciudad !

El les preguntó:

- ¿De qué?

Contestaron:

- De lo de Jesús Nazareno, que resultó ser un profeta poderoso en obras y palabras ante Dios y ante todo el pueblo; de como lo entregaron los sumos sacerdotes y nuestros jefes para que lo condenaran a muerte, y lo crucificaron.

Cuando nosotros esperábamos que él fuera el liberador de Israel. Pero, además de todo eso, con hoy son ya tres días que ocurrió. Es verdad que algunas mujeres de nuestro grupo nos han dado un susto: fueron muy de mañana al sepulcro y, no encontraron su cuerpo, volvieron contando incluso que habían visto una aparición de ángeles, que les habían dicho que estaba vivo. Algunos de los nuestros fueron también al sepulcro, y lo encontraron tal y como había dicho las mujeres; pero a él no lo vieron.

Entonces Jesús les dijo:

- ¿Que torpes sois y que lentos para creer lo que anunciaron los Profetas! ¿No tenía el Mesías que padecer eso para entrar en la gloria?

Y comenzando por Moisés y siguiendo por los Profetas, les explicó lo que se refería a él en toda la escritura. Cerca ya de la aldea adonde iban hizo ademán de seguir adelante; pero ellos les insistieron diciendo:

- Quédate con nosotros, que está atardeciendo y el día va ya de caída.

El entró para quedarse. Recostado a la mesa con ellos, tomó el pan, pronuncio la bendición, lo partió y se lo ofreció. Se les abrieron los ojos y lo reconocieron, pero él desapareció. Entonces comentaron:

- ¿No estábamos en ascuas mientras nos hablaba por el camino explicandonos las Escrituras?

Y, levantándose al momento, se volvieron a Jerusalén, donde encontraron reunidos a los once con sus compañeros, que decían:

- Era verdad: ha resucitado el Señor y se ha aparecido a Simón.

Ellos contaron los que les había pasado por el camino y cómo lo habían reconocido al partir el pan.

Lucas 24,13-35.
Trabajo:
- Localizar en el texto los distintos pasos del proceso catequético.

- ¿Hace catequesis del la experiencia o no? ¿Por qué?
Bibliografía:
- "Catequistas en marcha" Cursillo de iniciación de Amador menudo Sivianes Ed. Verbo Divino.

- "Curso básico para la formación del catequista" Secretariado de Catequesis de la Diócesis de Sevilla.

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¿Qué te implusa a tí a ser catequista? * Debe quedar claro que me impulsa a ser catequista: - La experiencia de mi fe y - Razones pastorales o coyunturales. 1º La experiencia de mi fe - Mi fe no la puedo callar. Tengo que compartirla y proclamarla.

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Tapping Into the 5 Senses to Support Students With Disabilities

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Activities that draw upon the five senses—such as spending time outdoors—can be centering for students in special education.

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Lo que cada catequista necesita saber para dirigir a los demás en la oración

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Lo que cada catequista necesita saber para dirigir a los demás en la oración

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Lo que cada catequista necesita saber para dirigir a los demás en la oraciónpor Joann Roa, M.A.Hoy en día uno de los anuncios más comunes al empezar la S...

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¡Les damos la bienvenida a la página de encuentro de catequistas de la Diócesis de Caguas, Puerto Rico!

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Los catequistas – El Video del Papa 12 – Diciembre 2021

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Los catequistas – El Video del Papa 12 – Diciembre 2021

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Los catequistas – El Video del Papa 12 – Diciembre 2021

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​“Amado, ahora es el tiempo aceptable del que habla el Espíritu, el día de la salvación, paz y reconciliación: la gran temporada de Adviento. Este es el momento con entusiasmo esperado por los…

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Recursos Católicos Bíblicos y Litúrgicos

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Recursos Católicos Bíblicos y Litúrgicos

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Recursos Católicos Bíblicos y Litúrgicos

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Regresar al sítio de web en ingles de Félix Just, S.J.

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¿Pruebas? ¿Qué otras opciones existen? ¿Qué más puede hacer un catequista además de dar un examen?

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¿Pruebas? ¿Qué otras opciones existen? ¿Qué más puede hacer un catequista además de dar un examen?

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¿Pruebas_ ¿Qué otras opciones existen_ ¿Qué más puede hacer un catequista además de dar un examen_

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8 Closing Activities to Wrap Up a Lesson

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8 Closing Activities to Wrap Up a Lesson

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8 Closing Activities to Wrap Up a Lesson

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Conociendo la Santa Biblia - Biblia Católica en Línea

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¿Pruebas_ ¿Qué otras opciones existen_ ¿Qué más puede hacer un catequista además de dar un examen_

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Teaching Students How to Have an Academic Discussion

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Teaching Students How to Have an Academic Discussion

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This teacher-created scaffolding tool can elevate classroom dialogue, empowering students to express themselves while learning from the ideas of others.

Ever been in the midst of a classroom discussion where students are bubbling over with ideas, eager to share? It can look and sound like lots of voices calling out and talking over each other while quieter students try to find a place to enter the fray. You don't want to squash anyone's enthusiasm, but how do you ensure that every student has the opportunity to truly express themselves and hear the ideas of their classmates?

Students' ability to clearly communicate with others in conversation is a critical literacy skill. While goals for speaking are a part of elementary school standards, beginning in kindergarten, teaching talk can feel tricky; it's often hard for students to know where to begin or the next best place to go when responding to someone. A "Progression of Talk" chart can be very helpful in this work-defining starting and ending points for students, as well as all the points in between, when engaging in conversation.

The "Progression of Talk," by Cynthia Satterlee, begins with a student saying anything at all and grows to a student saying something relevant, adding on to what was previously said or disagreeing, clarifying, improving, revising their thinking, provoking more thought, or extending and elaborating-all necessary skills for any form of discourse.

When Cynthia shared this progression during a workshop, I nodded and thought, "Yes, just what I've been looking for!" She helped me see how talk could grow across a range of grade levels and subject areas. As I studied the progression, I thought it could become an even more powerful tool for students and teachers by adding a series of sample talk prompts at each level.
Gwen Blumberg
Observation

The first step of teaching kids how to lift the level of their talk begins with observation: simply paying attention to what students are saying to each other. Is it connected to the original speaker's sentiments or wildly off-topic? Are they putting thoughts into words and able to keep a conversation going or inadvertently shutting it down? Match your observations to steps on the progression and then lean into instruction.

What this looks like inside the classroom:

Providing students with talking prompts like "I agree..." or "I feel differently..." can help them make a connection between what the speaker is saying and what they are adding to grow the conversation.

Similarly, empowering kids to use the phrase "I'd like to add..." helps build a bridge from someone else's idea to their own.

Many elementary-aged children love to share their opinions when they disagree with others. I have heard children do this with short phrases-"That's not right!"-or by sharing how they see things differently without acknowledging the original speaker's ideas.

Introducing Talk Prompts

Displaying talk prompts once you have introduced them to your class can be a powerful scaffold. It's best to write them with students while explicitly explaining the thought process behind the prompts:

"One way we are adding on to what other kids in class have to share is to start by saying, 'Something you just said...' Let's write that on a big sticky note and place it here on the board where we can all see it. We can work on growing our talk by using this language whenever we want to share something connected to the conversation."

This note can then be referred to prior to conversations, with a reminder: "Remember, we are trying to grow our talking skills by saying something that connects to what the person before you said."

Next, point to and provide the talk prompts to help scaffold this work. Slowly building a progression tool with students is much more powerful than displaying it in its entirety at the onset of digging into these skills.

The Evolution of Talk

This process takes time. Support conversations with the talk prompts until students make them their own. If a child begins speaking without them, you can gently say the prompt and encourage them to try again, scooping up this language as their running start. When I am doing this, it reminds me of helping someone learn how to float. At first, my hands are firmly under the person, but soon my words become gentle fingertips just beneath the surface-providing reassurance, stability, and support.

I take my figurative hands completely away when I hear kids incorporating the language of this progression in natural back-and-forths. This might sound like a child adding on to something they've said to clarify a point-"Let me try to say that in a clearer way" or "I'd like to add on to what I said before." And another child sharing how their thinking has changed as a result of considering the thoughts and perspectives of others-"I used to think... but now I think..."

Not only does this exchange sound good, but it honors the thoughts of all speakers and helps kids see how their words are interconnected.

It's important to remember that this progression chart isn't a set of discrete steps or tied to particular grade levels; it can be more fluid depending on what students are saying, how they are interacting, or the focus of your curriculum. For example, with fifth graders in a debate unit, lean into talk prompts that allow students not only to press for more information but to respectfully express differing viewpoints.

As kids grow in this work and try on other successful ways to lift their talk, notice, name, and celebrate what they are saying, then add it to your shared chart. Empower students to use this cocreated visual to gauge their own progress, connect their language to the progression, and set goals to grow. Elevating talk skills in a dynamic way enables students to truly express themselves both in and out of the classroom, shifting responses like "What?!" to "I'd love to hear you say more..."

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Teaching Students How to Have an Academic Discussion

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This teacher-created scaffolding tool can elevate classroom dialogue, empowering students to express themselves while learning from the ideas of others.

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Small Shifts to Limit ‘Teacher Talk’ and Increase Engagement

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Small Shifts to Limit ‘Teacher Talk’ and Increase Engagement

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Guiding students to regularly direct their own discussions brings academic rewards as they gain confidence working independently on challenging tasks.

Teachers want students to reach high goals in the classroom, but Tori Filler, an elementary school literacy teacher in Brooklyn, believes that teachers often undermine themselves by taking the reins of the most important "doing" in the classroom. They might walk students through challenging parts of a lesson, or over-explain concepts that students should, ideally, grapple with on their own.

"As we all do our best to help students meet the high bars we set," Filler writes in Achieve the Core, "could it be that we're missing out on opportunities for kids to do the very work that will help get them there?" Putting the work in students' hands, Filler writes, "flexes the muscle" they'll need to tackle more challenging work on their own in the future and reap academic rewards.

While teachers cannot cede all control to students in a classroom, Filler advocates for a mindset shift that strikes a balance between teacher-led and student-led learning by reducing the amount of "teacher talk."

According to Filler, when teachers first try to integrate more student talk into the classroom, the discourse often resembles a Ping-Pong game between the teacher and one student at a time: "Teacher initiates question, student responds, teacher evaluates the response." Instead, she writes, teachers should integrate activities into their daily routines that create more of a "volleyball discussion" by "asking students to listen to one another and respond to each other's ideas before tapping the ball back to your side of the court."

Teaching What Good Discussions Look Like
Before implementing these activities, it's important for teachers to lay some groundwork for students by helping them better grasp what conversations among themselves should look like.

Discussion mapping is a useful tool that can help students ensure that everyone contributes-as Stephanie Toro explains,"In order to get students to respond to each other, it's not enough for individual students to feel empowered in their own voice; they must see other students as valuable contributors and listen to their voices as much as they would the teacher." A map of who speaks during a discussion should look like a spiderweb by the end, one that touches every student's name on a diagram of the room.

Tools to help students understand and practice productive classroom conversations are also useful. A " Progression of Talk " chart, for example, provides students with a series of steps they can take during a conversation to ensure that comments are relevant, build on what was previously said, and provide room for clarifying arguments, disagreements, and elaboration.

Once you have this scaffolding in place, you'll be ready to implement strategies to ensure that students are doing more of the talking-and heavy lifting-in your classroom.

Let Students Come Up With Ideas First
If you're asking students for their interpretations of a challenging text, or an answer to a thorny question, ditch the hand-raising, writes Filler.

Think-Pair-Share is a simple alternative that gets students dwelling on a particular topic or question and independently coming up with as many ideas or insights as they can. When working with a read-aloud text, for example, try posing specific questions related to the reading for students to think through.

Once they have an answer, or answers, have them pair up with a partner to compare notes and help each other identify gaps in understanding. "This gives all students the time they need to process their thoughts before opening it up to the whole group," Filler writes.

If you're short on time, Turn and Talk is a condensed version of this strategy that can accomplish many of the same goals. Write-Pair-Share is another useful adaptation.

Focus on Getting All Students to ParticipateRosie Reid, a former California State Teacher of the Year and English teacher at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, California, writes for Edutopia that without careful planning, even activities that give students more opportunities to speak can result in just a few students taking advantage of it.

A simple adjustment to try during activities like Think-Pair-Share is to decide who speaks first. The deciding fact can be something as arbitrary as "the student whose birthday is coming soonest." Without this direction, Reid writes, some students will dominate partner talk time.

When it's time for students to share out to the classroom, Reid recommends using a "talking piece" to ensure the discussions aren't being dominated by certain students. In her classroom, she uses a ball that students pass around. Only the person holding the ball can speak, and every student gets the ball once before anyone gets it a second time. Mapping can also help, as it allows students to see who has and has not shared an idea or question yet.

Don't Rush to Clarify the Hard Parts
When students are working through tasks for themselves, particularly hard tasks, Filler writes, a big shift teachers should make is not jumping in to preemptively evaluate how difficult the work is. "How many times have I told students, "Watch out, this part is going to be tricky!" and modeled or prompted them to use a specific strategy?" Filler asks.

Instead, she advises that if students report that a task is tough, ask them to evaluate what is tough about it and how they might sort it out on their own before stepping in to help.

If most of the class is struggling, ask more questions and turn the struggle into a productive discussion for everyone. Ask questions like "What makes this hard?" or "What have we tried?" or ask them to reread a passage and circle specific places tripping them up, which gets students to push through challenging work.

When students are sharing out responses to the rest of the classroom, Filler writes, teachers should challenge themselves not to rephrase or validate what they say with phrases like, "Good, but maybe what you mean to say is..." or "What I think you're saying is..." Instead, try responses like, "Can anyone build on that?" or "Do we agree? Disagree?"

Use Video To Ensure Your Strategy Is Working
An easy way to know if your efforts to reduce teacher talk are working is to periodically record your instruction. Watching a playback of a lesson allows teachers to review their delivery and improve their use of class time.

For example, you might identify key areas of material where you feel that you tend to spend too much time talking and seek to incorporate more student-led activities and discussions. You can also track the effectiveness of activities and make tweaks as necessary.

It's important that before you review your recorded lessons, you have established clear goals for what you're looking for and even a list of specific elements in the video-such as moments when you take the reins from students prematurely-that you can track and improve on over time.

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Small Shifts to Limit 'Teacher Talk' and Increase Engagement

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Guiding students to regularly direct their own discussions brings academic rewards as they gain confidence working independently on challenging tasks.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Sit, Stand, Kneel: The Symbolic Meaning of All that Moving at Mass!

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Kneel. Up. Down. Up. Down. Kneel. Up. Down. Up. Whew! Non-Catholics attending a Catholic Mass think a lot of things about the different postures Catholics take. Things like “Oh, up we go again.” And “Why are we kneeling?” And “Is it wrong if I kneel with my butt still on

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Ver: videos de la serie Cómo leer la Biblia

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Aprende sobre la Biblia y cómo leerla correctamente: iniciaremos con una introducción y proseguiremos analizando las importantes diferencias existentes entre los diversos estilos literarios recopilados en la misma.

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"Las mujeres han liderado desde los tiempos bíblicos y pueden liderar nuevamente hoy." - Artículo

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"Las mujeres han liderado desde los tiempos bíblicos y pueden liderar nuevamente hoy." - Artículo

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Las mujeres han liderado desde los tiempos bíblicos; pueden liderar nuevamente hoy. - Revista América

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History of the Bible - Who Wrote the Bible - Why It's Reliable ?  History Documentary

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Por qúe los cristianos necesitan estudiar la Biblia por Dr. Giovanna Czander

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Por qúe los cristianos necesitan estudiar la Biblia por Dr. Giovanna Czander

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Por qué los cristianos necesitan estudiar la ley bíblica

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El Testamento Original: Una aproximación católica a la Biblia hebrea

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El Testamento Original: Una aproximación católica a la Biblia hebrea

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El Testamento Original_ Una aproximación católica a la Biblia hebrea - Revista América