Closure

Joe Paprocki Intermediate Grades

Tonight is the last session that I will be teaching for my 6th graders this year (next week is our closing Mass). I’ll reflect soon on what this experience has been like for me (in brief, it’s been wonderful!) but for now I’d just like to offer a glimpse of what I’ll be doing tonight.

Preliminaries (15 mins)

  1. Gather, attendance, misc. – young people write prayer intentions
  2. Opening prayer ritual/procession

Engage (10 mins)

  1. I plan to offer a few words about the final assessment taken last week and my thoughts about how they did.
  2. I will explain that the goal is for all of us to succeed and become better disciples of Christ and that some may be a few steps ahead of others but we’re not going to leave anyone behind!

Explore (40 mins)

  1. 3 students will re-take the final assessment. First they will have an opportunity to find all the answers in their Gr. 6 Finding God textbook, using this copy of the assessment with page numbers indicated. They will have 15 mins to do so and then 5 minutes to study/review before being given a clean copy of the assessment to retake (20 mins).
  2. 1 student will complete the assessment since she received an Incomplete last week.
  3. The remaining students will use their Finding God textbooks, scissors, glue, and markers to create posters that summarize 4 key areas of our Catholic faith. I thought this would be a nice closure experience for them.
    • The 7 Sacraments /Celebrating Our Faith
    • The Liturgical Calendar / Feasts and Seasons
    • Prayer / Praying Our Faith
    • Morality / Living Our Faith

Reflect & Respond (10 mins)

We will use the remaining time to pray in their “sacred space” – I will lead them in a simple guided reflection, thanking Jesus for the blessings of the past year.

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About Joe Paprocki 2742 Articles
Joe Paprocki, DMin, is National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press, where, in addition to his traveling/speaking responsibilities, he works on the development team for faith formation curriculum resources including Finding God: Our Response to God’s Gifts and God’s Gift: Reconciliation and Eucharist. Joe has more than 35 years of experience in ministry and has presented keynotes, presentations, and workshops in more than 100 dioceses in North America. Joe is a frequent presenter at national conferences including the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the Mid-Atlantic Congress, and the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership. He is the author of numerous books, including the best seller The Catechist’s Toolbox, A Church on the Move, Under the Influence of Jesus, and Called to Be Catholic—a bilingual, foundational supplemental program that helps young people know their faith and grow in their relationship with God. Joe is also the series editor for the Effective Catechetical Leader and blogs about his experiences in faith formation at www.catechistsjourney.com.

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