Moving Backwards

Posted By on November 2, 2009

mad-man-pulling-hair-outTonight’s class was not a good class, but honestly I suspected it would be challenging.  Classes last for one hour.  Normally, I take control from the very beginning and can maintain it throughout that hour.  Tonight however, we had every student go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  While I love this sacrament and profess it’s importance to my class every year, when it is all said and done, it has the impact of a field trip on the class.

We basically spent the first half hour doing an Examination of Conscience, me trying to ease some students’ fears at the realization of what was going to be happening and then going upstairs to the Church for the actual sacrament.  When we returned to the classroom, somehow it all fell apart.

We were supposed to review the story of Abraham, Issac, Jacob and Joseph.  To tie it into what we already learned, I reminded them of the story of Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel and the story of Noah and the Great Flood. That’s as far as we got.  The questions started like if this was the first time they had ever heard this story (we only covered it two weeks ago) and it digressed from there.  Questions like:

Why was it Adam & Eve’s fault?  The snake made them do it.
What does God look like?
Does God have hands?
God killed everyone on earth?
Why did he pick Noah?
God killed?  That’s mean! Didn’t he commit a sin?
What if there were other good people on earth?  How could God kill them all?
What if God does it again?
What if he doesn’t keep his promise?
What if …
What if …
What if …

I’m always torn with how far to let questions go.  I see myself heading into the spiral, but the questions show some amount of interest and curiosity on the students’ parts that I don’t want to discourage.  The problem with allowing it to continue is that I can’t cover the material I’m supposed to cover.  In tonight’s case, I was able to cover none of the material I needed to.  Additionally, 90% of tonight’s questions came from the same student and were becoming slightly argumentative.  I couldn’t really tell if they were sincere questions or an attempt to take control of the direction of the class.  In any case, I probably allowed this to go on too long before the light bulb in my head went off … “These are all good questions.  Why don’t you stay after class and we can discuss it further?”

The student of course could not stay tonight, so I immediately offered staying after next week’s class as an alternative.  But by that time, the damage was done.  There was 5 minutes left to class and I needed to close up the impromptu Q&A discussion with some very specific points to ensure that everyone left the class with an accurate understanding.

By the time I left class, I was completely exhausted, totally frustrated and had nothing accomplished from my lesson plan to show for it.  Did I do the right thing by allowing the questions to continue?  Should I have covered the material and just left Q&A for after class time for those that wanted the information?  I’m sure I would have gotten no takers and would have lost an opportunity there.  All I know is that next week I now have two weeks of material to cover in a one hour time span.  I also have an new appreciation for what school teachers face on field trip days.

What do you other catechists do in situations like the one I encountered tonight?  When do you cut off the Q&A and focus on your lessons and when do you let your lessons slip to help satisfy your students’ thirst for understanding?  I’d love your thoughts since I suspect this will happen again.  In the meantime, I need a stiff drink to recuperate.  Time for some hot chocolate!!

Thanks and until next time, keep sharing the faith.

Categories: Challenges, Classroom, Lessons, Ministry
Tags: , , , , ,


| More

About the author

My name is Carlos Torres, and for better or for worse, I am a Catechist. As a Catechist, I help supplement the religious education that parents give at home with focused and detailed lessons around Scripture and Tradition as taught by the Church. Now, I have no background in teaching, much less in dealing with a group of tweens and teens who don’t want to be with me, in a classroom, on a weeknight, learning about faith; yet week after week, I and many other Catechists do just that by letting the Holy Spirit guide us in planting those seeds and helping fulfill the Church’s mission to “go and make disciples”.

Comments

  • http://thereligionteacher.blogspot.com Jared Dees

    Carlos, sorry to hear about the challenges. If it makes you feel any better, my eight grade CCD didn’t go as well as I had hoped tonight either. I try to minimize the Q and A as much as possible. I think it’s ok to go off topic for a a few minutes particularly if it hits home a lesson from a previous session. In my experience, most of the off-topic Q and A’s are driven by only a few interested students while most of the class doesn’t see the point (let alone get the point). I have had a number of students intentionally get me off topic and fired up by asking antagonizing questions. They thought it was funny.

    • http://www.catechistcorner.com Carlos

      Thanks for the comments, Jared. I think I need to find the right balance next time. Allow a few minutes for questions that are relevant to the topic. Offer to answer other questions after class and keep the momentum going. I agree that I don’t want to lose the rest of the class by just focusing on one student.

  • http://thereligionteacher.blogspot.com Jared Dees

    Carlos, sorry to hear about the challenges. If it makes you feel any better, my eight grade CCD didn’t go as well as I had hoped tonight either. I try to minimize the Q and A as much as possible. I think it’s ok to go off topic for a a few minutes particularly if it hits home a lesson from a previous session. In my experience, most of the off-topic Q and A’s are driven by only a few interested students while most of the class doesn’t see the point (let alone get the point). I have had a number of students intentionally get me off topic and fired up by asking antagonizing questions. They thought it was funny.

    • http://www.catechistcorner.com Carlos

      Thanks for the comments, Jared. I think I need to find the right balance next time. Allow a few minutes for questions that are relevant to the topic. Offer to answer other questions after class and keep the momentum going. I agree that I don’t want to lose the rest of the class by just focusing on one student.

  • http://www.twitter.com/denise205 Denise

    I’m sorry it was a challenging session, Carlos. I think we all have those from time to time. Is the timeline of what you need to cover each week determined by the DRE or parish curriculum, or is it your own timeline? If it’s your own timeline, relax. If something doesn’t get covered one particular week, it will surely come up again. Perhaps an Advent session on the Jesse Tree will allow you to cover multiple weeks of “catch up” material in an engaging way.

    If the curriculum comes from the DRE with a specific timeline, be sure to involve him/her in the discussion of how to make up lost time. But your QA time may not be “lost time” if it engaged students. When questions arise in my own class, I try to address the relevant ones. Sometimes I’ve told students that we’ll come back to that topic another time–and then I have to be sure to keep that promise. It’s a fine line of following the schedule and going off topic, but I always like to remember that we have to engage them where they are if we want to reach them. Good luck next time!

    • http://www.catechistcorner.com Carlos

      In my case, the curriculum is set by my CRE. I will be able to cover the material next week, but instead of having the students read stories, I will have to summarize them in the form of a lecture. If I interject my own questions to ensure comprehension in between stories, I should be able to keep them engaged, but I prefer to have them help read the stories in the hopes of greater retention.

      I hope the person asking the questions did get something out of the answers and maybe others in the class too, but I need to retain control and slow the responses down to it doesn’t seem so argumentative. Maybe I’ll employ a technique of John Paul II’s by having them help answer their own question by asking a question in return.

      Thanks for you comments, Denise.

  • http://www.twitter.com/denise205 Denise

    I’m sorry it was a challenging session, Carlos. I think we all have those from time to time. Is the timeline of what you need to cover each week determined by the DRE or parish curriculum, or is it your own timeline? If it’s your own timeline, relax. If something doesn’t get covered one particular week, it will surely come up again. Perhaps an Advent session on the Jesse Tree will allow you to cover multiple weeks of “catch up” material in an engaging way.

    If the curriculum comes from the DRE with a specific timeline, be sure to involve him/her in the discussion of how to make up lost time. But your QA time may not be “lost time” if it engaged students. When questions arise in my own class, I try to address the relevant ones. Sometimes I’ve told students that we’ll come back to that topic another time–and then I have to be sure to keep that promise. It’s a fine line of following the schedule and going off topic, but I always like to remember that we have to engage them where they are if we want to reach them. Good luck next time!

    • http://www.catechistcorner.com Carlos

      In my case, the curriculum is set by my CRE. I will be able to cover the material next week, but instead of having the students read stories, I will have to summarize them in the form of a lecture. If I interject my own questions to ensure comprehension in between stories, I should be able to keep them engaged, but I prefer to have them help read the stories in the hopes of greater retention.

      I hope the person asking the questions did get something out of the answers and maybe others in the class too, but I need to retain control and slow the responses down to it doesn’t seem so argumentative. Maybe I’ll employ a technique of John Paul II’s by having them help answer their own question by asking a question in return.

      Thanks for you comments, Denise.

  • http://www.catechistsjourney.com Joe Paprocki

    Carlos, it sounds to me like you were facing an almost impossible situation in the first place. You said that you spent the first half hour doing an examination of conscience and then took them all to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And in the time remaining (you only have 60 minutes total…how did you have any time remaining?), you were supposed to teach Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph?!!!! How much time did you have left in the first place (before the Q & A began)? I can’t imagine that you had any amount of time left to adequately address any new info at that point. None of that is your fault, of course, it’s just the plight of us catechists being asked to do so much in the minimal amount of time we’re allotted. Now, add to that the fact that you have a group of typical adolescents/pre-adolescents who are typically inquisitive and are gonna ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer! Perhaps the only advice I can offer in such a situation is to look at how much time you have as a whole. If time is short, as it was yesterday, perhaps you just need to say, “let’s hold that question for next time so we can finish tonight’s material” and then deal with it when you have a little more breathing room. Aside from that, it is always a judgment call as to how long to allow Q & A to go. It’s great when they are truly curious, it’s another thing when it is one or two students monopolizing and/or trying to get you on a tangent. Hang in there Carlos! Perhaps Reconciliation was all that they needed yesterday! :)

    • http://www.catechistcorner.com Carlos

      Thanks Joe! The examination and the sacrament for the entire class took about 30 minutes combined, so that left me about 30 minutes for the lesson. About 5 minutes into that lesson is when I can sucked into the Q&A spiral. By the time I realized that I needed to put an end to it, I had 5 minutes left. Now I know how school teachers feel on field trip days.

      You offer good suggestions here. I really appreciate your insights and guidance.

  • http://www.catechistsjourney.com Joe Paprocki

    Carlos, it sounds to me like you were facing an almost impossible situation in the first place. You said that you spent the first half hour doing an examination of conscience and then took them all to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And in the time remaining (you only have 60 minutes total…how did you have any time remaining?), you were supposed to teach Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph?!!!! How much time did you have left in the first place (before the Q & A began)? I can’t imagine that you had any amount of time left to adequately address any new info at that point. None of that is your fault, of course, it’s just the plight of us catechists being asked to do so much in the minimal amount of time we’re allotted. Now, add to that the fact that you have a group of typical adolescents/pre-adolescents who are typically inquisitive and are gonna ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer! Perhaps the only advice I can offer in such a situation is to look at how much time you have as a whole. If time is short, as it was yesterday, perhaps you just need to say, “let’s hold that question for next time so we can finish tonight’s material” and then deal with it when you have a little more breathing room. Aside from that, it is always a judgment call as to how long to allow Q & A to go. It’s great when they are truly curious, it’s another thing when it is one or two students monopolizing and/or trying to get you on a tangent. Hang in there Carlos! Perhaps Reconciliation was all that they needed yesterday! :)

    • http://www.catechistcorner.com Carlos

      Thanks Joe! The examination and the sacrament for the entire class took about 30 minutes combined, so that left me about 30 minutes for the lesson. About 5 minutes into that lesson is when I can sucked into the Q&A spiral. By the time I realized that I needed to put an end to it, I had 5 minutes left. Now I know how school teachers feel on field trip days.

      You offer good suggestions here. I really appreciate your insights and guidance.

  • http://platytera.blogspot.com/ Christian

    When my kids ask digressing questions I can’t give a quick answer to I will say, No Digressing! or we’ll cover that later in the year, or ask me again after class and stick to the subject.

    When we have Confession the priest sets up in a vacant classroom or stairwell, and one child at a time goes to confession while the rest have regular class.

  • http://platytera.blogspot.com/ Christian

    When my kids ask digressing questions I can’t give a quick answer to I will say, \No Digressing!\ or \we’ll cover that later in the year,\ or \ask me again after class\ and stick to the subject.

    When we have Confession the priest sets up in a vacant classroom or stairwell, and one child at a time goes to confession while the rest have regular class.

«     »

About the author

My name is Carlos Torres, and for better or for worse, I am a Catechist. As a Catechist, I help supplement the religious education that parents give at home with focused and detailed lessons around Scripture and Tradition as taught by the Church. Now, I have no background in teaching, much less in dealing with a group of tweens and teens who don’t want to be with me, in a classroom, on a weeknight, learning about faith; yet week after week, I and many other Catechists do just that by letting the Holy Spirit guide us in planting those seeds and helping fulfill the Church’s mission to “go and make disciples”.