Five Tips for More Personal Teaching

Written by Richard E. Dodge

Trying to teach all the material each week from your Leader Guide is much like trying to get everything on our "to-do" lists done in one weekend. It usually just doesn’t work because there is more to cover than there is time to cover it.

The content of the teaching procedures is intended to be generic, meaning that teachers must adapt material to fit learners’ needs. While the ideal is to cover all the content in some way, teachers should select portions of the content based on learners. Simply using the procedures as printed can cause learners to leave with an inadequate understanding of how to live and use the content. Here are some tips for how to customize content for your learners’ needs: 

Pray for wisdom - Pray for insights into how to meet their needs and for His wisdom in understanding and applying personally and then teaching the lesson.

Start from scratch - Read the background material and procedures. Pause and think about each learner to identify how the material can relate individually and collectively.

Write a lesson plan - Once you are familiar with the procedures, choose elements of the teaching plan that you feel apply to your learners. Then adapt these as appropriate to how learners prefer to engage in the content. For example, some learners like to engage new material through visual methods while others prefer to use logical thinking skills. These are two of the eight preferred approaches to learning. You can discover the remaining approaches and learn how to use them effectively in Teaching Adults: A Guide for Transformational Teaching.

Prepare for surprises - No one can anticipate every possibility in every teaching situation. Pay special attention to the eyes of persons from different culture backgrounds for signs that tell indicate the need to explain something a little more clearly.

Learn to adapt in motion - Talk with newcomers when they arrive to get a feel for how they learn and whether they are Christian. Sometimes a particular part of the lesson can lead to extended discussion or to unexpected emotional expression. Be ready to change your teaching plan to address other concerns.

You essentially are writing a unique teaching plan, even though you begin with ideas from the teaching procedures in the Leader Guide. Just as you would not try a sample of everything you see in a cafeteria serving line, you cannot try every idea included in every teaching plan. Include the material you want to use and don't try to cover everything.

Remember, you are teaching people God’s Word, not just teaching a lesson.

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