Hook, Book, Look and Took are the four elements of a great lesson as shared in the book, Creative Bible Teaching by Lawrence O. Richards. In the last article we looked at the “Hook” portion of the lesson. In this article we examine the “Book” portion of your lesson.

The “Book” refers to the communication of the key content. The purpose of the book part of a group class lesson is to communicate biblical truth and life principles and help your students understand them. We want our students to clearly understand God’s Word. In the “Book” part of the class session you will clarify the meaning of the passage and communicate the general and transferable principles from the passage.

When we think of this, we often think of the lecture portion of the class. If you do lecture work to communicate in creative and memorable ways, utilize visual aids including picture PowerPoints, props, whiteboard drawings, pictures, video clips, etc. to illustrate the key points

But, there are alternatives to lecture. One of the overarching goals that we have for our students is that they be lifelong learners; eager to dig-in to God’s Word with tools they’ve learned to use in TC. So, we want the students to take responsibility for study and learning. To do that we must engage the student and make the learning interactive.
Interactive content engagement ideas:

1. One of the primary ways that you can do this is to give the students questions that require them to use available reference materials and discuss, in small groups, the answers to the questions and then discuss the answers with the entire group. You might also give them a list of related scripture passages to discuss and gather further information from.
2. Quiz Questions – Assign a section of the training for students to write quiz questions on. They can do this in groups. In creating the questions they must become familiar with the material.

These are only a few ideas. You can search the internet for “alternatives to lecture” for many more ideas. The students will have a more rewarding experience and remember the truths they have learned when they self-discover those truths rather than simply being lectured.

Think about it

• What classroom experience from your past is one that you remember well because the teacher engaged you in the learning process?
• Choose a new idea and put it into practice this week.