So, as it turns out, my first session of religious education for this evening was canceled due to the excessive heat here in Chicago! It is in the mid to upper 90s during this 2nd week of September! Well, that’ll give me more time to polish my own lesson which will now take place next Tuesday!
In the meantime, I’ve put the finishing touches on a resource I think you’ll find helpful. It is a Session Planning Formwith convenient fill-in forms that catechists can use (in Microsoft Word) on a weekly basis to flesh out their lesson following the 4 steps outlined in my book Beyond the Catechist’s Toolbox: Engage, Explore, Reflect, and Respond.
These 4 steps are drawn from the Finding God faith formation program, however, the Session Planning Form that I’ve developed may be used with any textbook.
The idea for developing this resource came to me from an email I received from a catechetical leader in Kansas who wrote:
Dear Joe,
Last week I read your Beyond the Catechist’s Toolbox and I was delighted with it. In fact, I was so impressed with it that I ordered it for all my catechists to be given to them at our inservice meeting. I am the DRE in two small Northeast Kansas rural parishes. I was wondering if you have a lesson planning sheet available on your website that incorporates the four step plan of Engage, Explore, Reflect, and Respond? Thanks for all you do to help catechists and their ministry. I share many of your ideas with my catechists.God’s continued blessings!
Barbara Berg, Director of Religious Education
St. Dominic Catholic Church, Holton, KS; St. Francis, Xavier Catholic Church, Mayetta, KS
I told Barbara that I did not have such a resource but that now I was inpsired to create one! So, thanks to Barbar Berg’s inspiration, I’m happy to share with you this new, convenient, and easy-to-use resource!
Religious Education Session Planning Form (to move from one fill-in field to another, simple hit Tab!)
I look forward to your feedback and suggestions…this form can be easily ammended.
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