If you want to help your students to better connect God’s world and Word, meet their learning needs. “Learning needs” are anything your students need in order for learning to happen. Watch this video about meeting 5 learning needs students have:




Want to work with your colleagues to better meet student learning needs? If so, then purchase Meet Your Students’ Learning Needs (US$25), a discussion-based kit with 7 sessions. As a result of completing these 7 sessions, you will…

1. Define and meet your students’ learning needs.
2. Help your students better understand the importance of connecting God’s world and Word.
3. Help your students better understand that God’s Word can be connected to the part of God’s world they are studying.
4. Help your students understand more biblical principles that connect to what they study.
5. Provide the engaging instruction your students need in order to connect God’s world and Word.
6. Provide time during class for your students to reflect on how God’s world and Word are connected.
7. Demonstrate your commitment to meeting your students’ learning needs.

Download a sample session.

Purchase Meet Your Students’ Learning Needs (US$25). This kit is 1 of a 4-part series:

1. Help Your Students Connect God’s World and Word
2. Use Assessment
3. Use Questions
4. Meet Student Learning Needs

Here's a set of DRAW questions you can use for a discussion of “How can you help your students see the importance of Biblical perspective?”
 
Define: Get the facts defined.
In your last unit or during the last week of instruction in 1 class, what was the fraction?

1. # of lessons in which you taught a Biblical perspective of course content / total # of lessons
2. # of class minutes students learned about Biblical perspective of course content / total # of class minutes
3. # of Biblical perspective assessments / total # of assessments (including homework, in-class assignments, quizzes, and tests)

Respond: Get the facts responded to in terms of feelings/experiences.

1. What excites/frustrates your students about Biblical perspective?
2. What excites/frustrates you about how your students see Biblical perspective?
3. What excites/frustrates you about teaching from a Biblical perspective?

Analyze: Get the facts, feelings, and experiences analyzed.

1. What helps your students see the importance of Biblical perspective? What hinders?
2. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), what value do your students think you put on connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches?
3. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), what value do your students put on connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches?
4. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), what value do you want your students to put on connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches?

What’s next?: Get next steps considered.

1. To get your students to see the importance of Biblical perspective, what do you need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
2. What will you do?

Your students’ objective is to better connect what they study and God’s story of creation-fall-redemption-restoration. You want to help your students achieve their objective. Good.

Now what? Help your students achieve their objective by meeting 1 of their learning needs.

Question: What are you students’ learning needs? To identify your students’ learning needs, review the list of 10 questions below. Note which questions you think you need to answer in order to meet your students’ learning needs:

1. How can you help your students see the importance of creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
2. How can you help your students understand that creation-fall-redemption-restoration can be connected to course content?
3. How can you show your students what connecting course content and creation-fall-redemption-restoration looks like?
4. How can you help your students understand how you teach using creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
5. What vocabulary words do your students need to learn?
6. What engaging instructional strategies will help your students?
   
7. How can you give your students opportunities to think through answers for themselves?
8. How can you provide time during class for reflection?
9. How can you design assessments so that your students connect creation-fall-redemption-restoration with their lives?
10. How can you give your students more practice?

Take action: Answer 1 of the questions you noted. Then use your answer. You might be tempted to answer more than 1 question. Don’t. Keep it simple and doable. Just answer 1 question—then use your 1 answer.

Remember, the goal is not to have an answer. The goal is to use your answer to help your students connect what they study and creation-fall-redemption-restoration. Today.

You know that your students can’t learn everything. To help them focus, you use certain strategies when you really want them to learn something and other strategies when you just want to expose them to something.
 
You think to yourself, “I’ve got to help them connect what they study and a Biblical perspective. What can I do?”
 
Tip: Use the same strategies you use when you really want your students to learn something. For example, imagine you're teaching a unit on Hamlet. You want your students to learn Shakespeare's view of evil.

• What do you do? You design a student assessment on Shakespeare's view of evil and you prepare your students for the assessment.
• What don't you do? If you really want your students to learn Shakespeare's view of evil, you don't use the strategies you use when you just want to expose your students to something—like mentioning a factoid only once (Mel Gibson once played Hamlet).

So, if you want your students to learn Biblical perspective, use the same strategies you use when you really want your students to learn something.

Don’t take my word for it. Read the interview below of a high school teacher and a high school student.
 

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Interview

To teacher: What do you do when you really want your students to learn something?
I design an assessment and then prepare students for the assessment by teaching a lesson. Later, I have my students review the material. I give my students an assessment and grade it. Then I use the assessment data to modify instruction.

To student: What do your teachers do when they really want you to learn something?
My teachers say, “This is important.” They make us take notes, and they repeat key points. They put what they want us to learn on a study guide, and they put what they want us to learn on a test.
 
To teacher: What do you do when you just want to expose your students to something?
I talk about it in class. Or I have my students discuss it briefly. Maybe I’ll show them something, like a poster. For things I just want to expose my students to, I tend not to make specific lessons plans, I don’t spend significant class time, and I don’t give an assessment.
 
To student: What do your teachers do when they just want to expose you to something?
They spend less class time than they would if they really wanted us to learn the material. They say, “This is not going to be on the test.”
 
To teacher: Which do you treat as more important?: (A) What you really want your students to learn (B) What you just want to expose your students to
I want my students to learn, but I know they can’t learn everything. To help them focus, I treat what I really want them to learn as more important than what I want them exposed to. If you want to know what I really want my students to learn, look at my assessments.
 
To student: Which do you treat as more important? (A) What your teachers really want you to learn (B) What your teachers just want to expose you to
What’s going to be on the test is what’s important. So, I guess I treat what teachers really want us to learn as more important.

You overhear: “This doesn’t seem important. My teachers don’t grade me on this. When I wasn’t doing well in science, my teacher talked to me. But since my teachers don’t grade me on this, I don’t know how I’m doing. And since they don’t grade me on this, teachers can’t know how I’m doing. Maybe that’s why they never talk to me about how well I can use a biblical perspective. Do teachers really think this is important?”

You think: “Yes, we think understanding and using a biblical perspective of course content is important. This is a Christian school. We are Christian teachers. How can she think we don’t think a biblical perspective of course content is important? Just because we don’t assess it, grade it, or talk with students about low performance? Why does she think that? Well, maybe she doesn’t think it’s important because we don’t really treat biblical perspective like we do other things we consider important.”

Your goal? You want your students to increase their understanding and use of a biblical perspective of course content. (You know that the more your students feel this is important, the more likely they are to learn. Which means that if your students don’t feel that understanding and using a biblical perspective of course content is important, they are less likely to learn.)

Your reality? Find out what the real reality is before proceeding. The student you overheard might have been having a bad day, be in the minority, or be right on target. Find out by asking your students and by reflecting on your teaching practice.

(1) Ask your students what they think. Share what you heard and invite their responses. Or give a survey in which you ask them to identify (1) how important they think understanding and using a biblical perspective of course content is and (2) how you demonstrate its importance during instructional time.

(2) Reflect your teaching practice by developing 3 fractions: In your last unit or during the last week of instruction in 1 class:

1. # of lessons in which you taught a biblical perspective of course content / total # of lessons
   
2. # of class minutes students learned about biblical perspective of course content / total # of class minutes
   
3. # of biblical perspective assessments / total # of assessments (including homework, in-class assignments, quizzes, and tests)

(3) Use the following 3 questions to reflect on each of your 3 fractions:

1. What conclusions might your students reach?
   
2. How reasonable is it for your students to ask, “Do teachers really think this is important?”
   
3. What would it take for you to increase the number of lessons, minutes, and assessments?

Your options? If you find the real reality matches the student’s comment you overheard, explore ways you can help your students increase the importance they place on understanding and using a biblical perspective of course content. How? By asking questions.

(1) Ask yourself, “How do I communicate something is important? What are 3 ways I can communicate that understanding and using a biblical perspective of course content is important?” Write your answers down on a piece of paper.

(2) Ask your students (as appropriate), “What are 3 things could I do to help you value biblical perspective?”

(3) Ask me, “How would you communicate that this is important?” Here are 6 options:

• Change the target: It’s applying a biblical perspective to course content students have mastered, not mastering course content. Demonstrate this change by talking about it in class and by posting a bulletin board.
  
• Increase the number of biblical perspective lessons. And make these lessons your showcase lessons.
  
• Increase the number of instructional minutes. Ask yourself, “How many instructional minutes do my students need to master applying a biblical perspective to course content they have learned?” Use your answer.
  
• Increase the number of biblical perspective assessments you give each year. For example, give a minimum of 8 major unit assessments in which students have to apply a biblical perspective to course content. And make your biblical perspective assessments your showcase assessments.
  
• Grade the biblical perspective assessments. As teachers, we grade important things; we don’t grade unimportant things. Which message do you want to send about biblical perspective?
  
• Talk to students who do not perform well on the assessment. Talk to parents of students who do not perform well on the assessment

Your “will do’s”? You have a goal. You have reflected on your reality and options. Now is the time to act. What are you going to do? Having a goal and reflecting on your reality and options does not result in your students seeing this as important. Taking action does. Walking your talk does.

(1) Identify 1 action you will take. Identify 1 action from my list or 1 you’ve developed. Keep it simple. You can always identify another action when you are done. And make sure your action plan is SMART:

• Specific
  
• Measurable
  
• Attainable
  
• Relevant
  
• Time-bound

(2) Next, ask yourself, “On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how committed am I to this?”

• If you answered 9 or 10, proceed with your plan.
  
• If you answered 8 or less, what would it take for you to say 9 or 10? Find a way to move your commitment level to at least a 9. If you find this too hard to do, change your plan.

Remember, success is your students increasing their understanding and use of a biblical perspective. Success is not you understanding why your students don’t see this as important. Success is not you working to help your students see this as important or even your students seeing it as important.

But, if your students see understanding and using a biblical perspective of course content as important, they are more likely to actually increase their understanding and use of a biblical perspective of course content.

Help your students. Today.