Saint Andrew Catholic Church and School

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A New Approach to Elementary Faith Formation

A few years back while working for my home parish, I was walking the halls, checking in on the elementary faith formation classes. I passed one room, peeked in and saw the kids noisily chattering away while coloring religious pictures. A couple of boys were getting rowdy, and the catechist was doing her best to keep their       influence from spreading to the rest of the class.

A little further down the hall, I saw a cutout of a great gray mountain, much like the old Price Is Right game in which the mountaineer makes his way up based on the contestant’s guesses. Among other things, the kids were learning about Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, and their teacher had brought in this homemade game and a few  related props to drive home that portion of the evening’s lesson. She had other materials and props prepared to support other aspects of the class.

Both catechists were dedicated volunteers. The former was a faithful working mom who was hanging on at the end of a long day. The latter was single Catholic woman with more time on her hands and a great love for teaching the faith. As I shared my observations with the rest of the staff, we began to think: How can we relieve the stress of the first volunteer and enable more students to benefit from the creativity of the second?

The solution was simple: To create three or so “stations” for each lesson, with a lead teacher at each stop, and rotate the students in small groups under the guidance  of another adult or teen leader.

The benefits were immediate: We could plan diverse and engaging activities for students with different learning styles, we could get kids up and moving to the next station before they got too sleepy or restless to focus, and we could take the burden of preparing for more than an hour of content off of our volunteers—instead asking just three teachers per grade to prepare one outstanding, 20-minute activity and present it three times. Parents reported that their children enjoyed faith formation classes more and retained more as a result!

Last year at Saint Andrew, most of our elementary Faith Formation classes had too many children for too few volunteers, and kids were too tired, excitable or   distracted to focus. To fix this, I am proposing a similar approach to what I described above:

  • Parents and students arrive at 6:30 PM and check in with their adult or teen class leader. The group, ideally 10 to 12 kids, opens in prayer together.
  • At 6:35 PM, the group begins their first station of the night. Each of the three groups starts at one of the three stations. For the next 20 minutes, the lead teacher for that station teaches with support from  the class leader.
  • At 6:55 PM, they rotate to the next station, with five minutes to transition. The second station runs from 7:00 to 7:20 PM.
  • They rotate again, and the third station runs from 7:25 to 7:45 PM. Parents meet their child’s small group at the final station to sign them out at the end of the night.

The catechists and volunteers I’ve shared this approach with so far have agreed that this would be great for students and volunteers alike. The challenge is that it requires more volunteers—at least five or six per grade.

Can you help us make this happen? We need a few   more teachers—but more than that, we need dependable, faithful adults and teens who enjoy spending time with kids. I will provide all the material you need, or only as much as want if you feel creative. The commitment is two and a half hours, roughly every other Wednesday.   If you can’t commit to that, consider teaming up with someone who can cover the weeks you can’t!

We will do great things this year, but we need your help. Contact Jim Thorp at jimt@saint-andrew.net or 763-441-1483 with questions or to volunteer—and join us for our next Grade 1-5 Catechist Training Meeting on Thursday, September 13, at 6:30 PM in the Cafeteria. If you can’t make the meeting, I’ll set up a time to meet with you.

Please pray for our Faith Formation programs: That we may find the volunteers and leaders we need to reach and teach every child who registers; that we may convert hearts and families to Christ; and that every family in our parish will be drawn more deeply into the Mass and the other sacraments. The souls of your people are in your hands, O Lord. Sacred Heart of Jesus, we trust in you!