Teaching No Greater Call Part B: Lesson 17

Helping Learners Be Attentive

I was super nervous to teach this lesson.  Who knows why?  The spirit helped me as I taught and really inspired the class members and we had a wonderful discussion on how to help our learners stay more attentive.  I encouraged the class to give themselves a grade in their head a few times throughout the lesson on how engaged and attentive they were as I tried to model some of the ideas from the lesson.  Lesson link on lds.org HERE.

Since conference is coming up next week, we spent the first 10-15 minutes of the lesson discussing the following questions:

• Why is it sometimes hard to pay attention in conference?
• How have you been able to help your children be more attentive during conference?
• What are some ways that you can help yourself be more attentive at conference?
• The summary of the discussions was really motivation for our kids as well as motivation for us and planning ahead = success.

I then told a personal story, similar to the one in the manual about how the teacher lost certain students along the way but related it to something that had happened to me a few weeks ago.  I thought this would help engage the class (it did) and I encouraged the class to score themselves in their head on their level of attentiveness.  I also brought a prop from this to give them something to look at.  

I then asked the class the question from the manual "How can teachers help learners to remain attentive?" and then as the class answered I wrote the answers on the board and talked about the ones that the manual featured.  I tried to model the ones that I could. Here are some follow up questions you can ask with each of these answers:

• Relevancy - What are some ways that you could help your students see how the lesson material applies to them in their lives?
• Vary your voice - How can you use your voice to influence the attention of those that you teach?
• Eye Contact - Why would making eye contact with your students help them become more attentive? 
• Movement - how can movement help learners become more attentive? 
• Pace of the Lesson - Does anyone have an example of where the pace of the lesson influenced the people they were teaching - for the better or maybe not so good?
• Variety of Teaching Methods - many ways to serve potatoes. What are some teaching methods that you remember from a particular lesson? Why was it effective for you?

To wrap up the discussion I asked these questions:

•  How did Jesus help his learners to remain attentive?
• Anything else? How can you help make the lesson principles memorable, so that students retain the information after the class in their day to day lives? For me, sometimes it’s less about what they teach and more about the fact that I know the teacher loves me, cares about me and has a testimony.  That’s what I remember years later.  

Individual’s Responsibility to Participate

• In the end, we can't always get everyone to engage or participate.  What does this scripture teach us about how to help those that choose sometimes not to participate? D&C 121:41

Teaching No Greater Call Videos

As I was working on preparing my lesson for this upcoming Sunday, I stumbled upon the Mormon Channel on youtube with a playlist of a series of videos put together by Brother Osguthorpe and Elder Bednar of the first presidency.  The videos are a series of discussion questions from the Teaching No Greater Call manual and I think they would be great to include in future lessons!  Topics include: inviting learners to act, honoring people's agency, motivating learners, helping learners understand, inviting diligent learning, the holy ghost is the true teacher and more!  Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD13183059E0F4E80

Teaching No Greater Call Part B: Lesson 15

Listening

This lesson I thought was hard to prepare.  I kept sitting down all week to work on it and would get stressed and not be able to.  Saturday as I sat down (during nap time for my toddler) and prayed to feel the spirit as I prepared I was able to put together a lesson that I thought went very well.  Because I had the spirit with me as I taught this lesson, I was able to teach by the spirit and feel the spirit testify to me of the truthfulness of what I was teaching about.  HERE is the link to the lesson on lds.org.

Intro

• What matters most in our efforts to teach the gospel? (list on board) Think about these things today as we learn about how to become better listeners.  
• How does listening to another person show love and respect for him? (It lets him know that we want to know what he thinks—that we value his opinion.) (FHE Resource Manual)

How listening can help those you teach - 2 ideas

• Read manual paragraph - how does applying these things allow us to meet what matters most in our efforts to teach the gospel? 
• “Look for” and “Listen for” Approaches (TNGC teaching from the scriptures) Help those you teach become better listeners.  (put up list and share)

How listening can help you as a teacher

•  Read manual - Listen for things will help you improve as a teacher!
•  How? How can we become more effective listeners? How can we increase our ability and willingness to hear the voice of the Lord?

Becoming a more effective listener

• Russell M. Nelson “Learning to Listen” clip 10:35 - 12:05 
• As we watch this clip, listen for statements, commandments, and counsel in regards to listening.  What stood out to you from this clip? (put up quote)
• This also makes me think of listening to the prophet.  “Come, Listen to a Prophet’s Voice” Virginia U. Jensen RS General Presidency Oct 1998
• What are some things teachers AND learners can do to help everyone be attentive and listen to one another?
• D&C 88:122-23, 25 - The revelation was given after high priests at a conference prayed “separately and vocally to the Lord to reveal his will unto us concerning the upbuilding of Zion.”
• Does anyone have any personal insights or experiences where their testimony was strengthened because they listened? To a teacher, to the spirit, to the prophet? 

LDS Youth Teaching Videos

As I was preparing my lesson for this week, I stumbled upon an excellent resource for teachers and for this class!  The new LDS youth curriculum is very discussion-oriented and the church has produced a lot of videos to help train teachers to use different teaching methods and learning activities.

Check it out! There are 23 different videos demonstrating different teaching concepts, like discussing questions, teaching with a conference talk, using visual aids, etc.

https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/learning-teaching-ideas/method-videos?lang=eng