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Practical Lesson Ideas and Activities for Catholic Educators
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Catholic Colleges in March Madness: Part 2

Here's a re-do of a post we published last year during the all-encompassing NCAA Basketball tournament. Once again the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is upon us—commonly known as March Madness for the fact that one loss brings the end for each of the entries causing a madness to pull out a victory. You may have also noticed a “madness” among your students who are engaged in filling out brackets and circling winners for games leading up to the championship game on April 7. This post isn't meant to condone all the non-academic behavior that often leads to a lack of productivity at school and work, but only to draw a small lesson from it and have some fun that comes with college basketball. Of the sixty-five teams that began the tournament, eleven were Catholic colleges. If you aren’t ready to pull your hair out with all the talk of basketball, you could build on this current event and build a lesson around it. To start off simply, ask the students to circle the Catholic colleges on a printable bracket. The teams are: East Regional Mt. St. Mary's (if play-in winner) Notre Dame St. Joseph's Midwest Regional Villanova Siena Gonzaga Georgetown South Regional Marquette St. Mary's (CA) West Regional San Diego Xavier You could then have them do a rating of the Catholic teams (based on the seedings). It might look something like this: 1. Georgetown (2) 2. Xavier (3) 3. Notre Dame (5) 4. Marquette (6) 5. Gonzaga (7) 6. St. Mary's (CA) (10) 7. St. Joseph's (11) 8. Villanova (12) 9. Siena (13)/San Diego (13) 10. Mt. St. Mary's (16) After the games are played, see how the ratings check out. Also, hand out a blank map of the United States. See how many students can correctly place the Catholic college in the correct locations by state: Maryland Mt. St. Mary's Indiana Notre Dame Pennsylvania St. Joseph's Villanova New York Siena Washington Gonzaga District of Columbia Georgetown Wisconsin Marquette California St. Mary's San Diego Ohio Xavier Enough of the fun and games. You can also use the Catholic tournament teams as a starting point for several questions of interest or even for further research (now, that’s real madness!). Use the following trivial questions as discussion starters. Have your students develop some more: 1. Which of the Catholic colleges in the tournament are named after saints? (St. Thomas of Villanova, St. Francis Xavier, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. Mary, Notre Dame, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Diego de Alcalá ) 2. Which college was named for the French explorer who mapped the northern portion of the Mississippi River (Marquette) 4. Which are Jesuit colleges? (St. Joseph's, Gonzaga, Georgetown, Marquette, Xavier) 5. Which college is founded by the Franciscan friars? (Siena) Enjoy March Madness! No doubt your students will.Combat a lack of productivity at school or the workplace due to "the Tournament" by drawing these and other lesson from it and join in with some of the fun of college basketball.

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Our Ancestors of Faith

With the Easter Vigil approaching, point out to your students how the nine Scripture readings recount the story of our salvation and help us to remember our ancestors of faith who at once prefigured Jesus Christ, Our Savior.Also, consider this activity to help the students recall their own Baptism and their own faith ancestors. Suggest the following:Activity Suggestions Locate the baptismal records of your grandparents by contacting (via Internet, mail, or phone) the parish where they were baptized. Record information like date, place, name, and godparents. Write a report on how the Christian faith originally came to the nation(s) of your ancestors. Write a short essay or produce an audio or video presentation that shares what you learned about God and faith from one of your relatives. Trace your family’s history on an ancestry site on the World Wide Web. Develop a display with religious artifacts that are important to your family. Tell why they are so. Arrange for a relative to tell his or her “story of faith” in a presentation to your classmates. Resource LinksProvide the following website addresses that may help the students in research information about their families: ancestry.comonegreatfamilytree.comgenealogy.com

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Three Scripture Activities

Listed below are three short New Testament Scripture activities that can enrich Scripture or faith synthesis courses. These activities are taken from Our Catholic Faith: Living What We Believe.Have the students look up the following places where Jesus is called "Lord": Matthew 8:5-9 (healing the centurion's servant) Matthew 8:23-27 (calming the storm) Matthew 9:27-29 (healing two blind men) Matthew 14:25-33 (walking on water) John 20: 11-18 (appearance of Mary of Magdala) John 20: 24-29 (appearance to Thomas and the others) Ask: In each case, do you think the person addressing Jesus uses "Lord" in the sense of a person of rank or earth authority, or are they recognizing Jesus' divinity.Have the students develop journal entries or illustrations for each station of the cross. Provide the following Scripture references:Jesus prays in the garden. (Mt 26:36-45; Mk 14:32-41; Lk 22:39-46)Jesus is betrayed and arrested. (Mt 26:47-56; Mk 14:43-52; Lk 22:47-53; Jn 18:1-14)Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin. ( Mt 26:57-68; Mk 14:53-64; Lk 22:66-71; Jn 18:19-24)Peter denies knowing Jesus. ( Mt 26:69-75; Mk 14:66-72; Lk 22:54-621; Jn 18:115-18, 25-27)Jesus is condemned by Pilate ( Mt 27:11-26 Mk 15:1-15; Lk 23:1-5; Jn 18:33-40, 19:13-16Jesus is scourged and crowed with thorns. (Mt 27:27-31; Mk 15:16-19; Jn 19:1-3)Jesus takes up his cross. (Jn 19:16b-17)Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus (Mt 27:32; Mk 15:21; Lk 23:26)Jesus meets the weeping women. (Lk 23:27-31)Jesus is crucified. (Mt 27:33-37; Mk 15:22-26; Lk 23:33; Jn 19:18-19)Jesus promises paradise to the crucified thief. (Lk 23: 39-43)Jesus cares for his mother. (Jn 19:25-27)Jesus dies. (Mt 27:45-50; Mk 15:33-37; Lk 23:44-46; Jn 19:28-30)Jesus is buried. (Mt 27:57-61; Mk 15: 42-47; Lk 23:50-53; Jn 19:38-42)Teach the students a simple way to remember the books of the New Testament by having them memorize the following poem. To extend the activity, have them either set this poem to music or develop their own simiilar mnemonic device.Matthew, Mark, plus Luke and JohnTell the story of our Savior,While the Acts of the ApostlesShow our early Church behavior.Paul wrote letters to the churchesThat he founded: one to Rome,Two were written to the folksWho claimed Corinth as their home.Then he wrote six more epistles;Galatians, Ephesians were his next.Philippians, Colassians followed after.The Thessalonaians got two texts.Paul had friends he loved to talk with,Friends like Timothy and Titus.Philemon he wrote to briefly,Then the Hebrews begged him, "Write us!"Others preachd of God's KingdomAlso wrote of God above:James wrote once, and Peter twice,But John three times said, "God is love!"Jude wrote also of the KingdomAnd the need to know God's Son.Last of all John's Revelation,And with that our list is done.

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Freedom Simulation Lesson Plan

As part of an annual in-service day at Notre Dame, several high school theology teachers offered lesson plans to share. Presented below is the third of a series of lessons that will be offered from time to time on the Engaging Faith blog. Adapted from a lesson By Kat Morris Chaminade-Julienne Catholic High School Dayton, OH   Objectives The students will be able to: • define freedom and explain our Christian call to form our conscience and choose the most loving decision in a given situation. • explain the responsibility that comes with freedom. • recognize the authority of conscience. Activities (to be completed on a block day with a 90-minute period or over two days with 45-minute periods) Freedom Simulation and Discussion • Write on the board: “What is freedom?” • Post signs around the room with this question printed on them. Activity Stations Set up five activity stations around the room as follows: 1. A TV monitor where the last 30 minutes of the film The Mission is playing. 2. A TV monitor where the last 30 minutes of the film The Shawshank Redemption is playing. 3. A CD player or something similar where the song Cry Freedom by Dave Matthews is playing 4. Desktop computers with instructions to do a Google search for the question “What is Freedom? 5. An area where several quotations on freedom are displayed. For example: • “Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better”—Albert Camus • “History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid.”—Dwight D. Eisenhower • “Freedom is like taking a bath—you have to keep doing it every day.”—Florynce Kennedy • The average man doesn’t want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.”—H.L. Mencken Put a “Do Not Disturb” placard on your desk and sit there without interacting with the students. Give the students “freedom” for the first 30-45 minutes of the class period to explore the stations, use the materials provided and work on a definition of freedom. If they “choose” to do nothing, let them be. The simulation is to see what they will do without teacher direction Process the Activity As possible, have the students arrange their chairs in a circle. Lead a discussion on the activity that just took place. Ask: • What was the point of this activity? • What did the activity teach you about freedom? (Discuss specifically each of the activity stations.) • How were you free in this activity? • What did you choose to do? • Why did you make this decision? • Was your freedom limited in any way? • What limits people’s freedom? Follow-up Offer a definition of freedom: “Freedom is the ability to make choices. As Catholic Christians we are called to choose the most loving thing in a given situation. We form our conscience to help us grow closer to the objective Truth and understand what is the most loving option. We must support our ability to choose and ensure that all others have the right to choose as well. Have the students write their answers to the following questions: • How does the Church promote freedom? • How are we obliged to follow our conscience? • How did you feel about this simulation activity?

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Gift Giving

Teenagers are at a “Christmas crossroads.” No longer do they sit with toy advertisements from the Sunday paper and circle all the things they want in the hope that “Santa” will magically enter their house on Christmas Eve and give them these things. The magic of Christmas should never disappear from anyone’s life, no matter what age. However, teenagers should begin to realize that they have more responsibility for making the Christmas spirit come alive. They need to do for others what has, for most of their lives, been done for them. Encourage your students to look for ways to give as well as receive. Whether they have an outside job or earn money doing chores around the neighborhood, teens should use their own money to thoughtfully choose gifts for their own family members as well as friends. They can then learn the thrill of seeing someone open a present they have chosen (and wrapped!). Teens should give to people outside of their immediate family as well. If they have grandparents who live nearby, they should pay them an extra visit beyond the one on Christmas Day. If their grandparents live farther away, they should write them a handwritten letter. Or, they could record a video message on the appropriate system available to their grandparents and sent it along. The poor and needy of the local community should be gifted. Tell teens to use some of their earned money to buy a toy they always wanted as a kid but either never received or really enjoyed if they did get one. After it is wrapped carefully, they can donate it as part of many parish or community giving projects to benefit those in need. Christmas is about giving. At the first Christmas, God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, gave his life to the world by becoming a human being. Eventually Jesus would be rejected and put to death, giving his life for our salvation. The best Christmas gift of all. Last Minute Christmas Project Offer a three-hour free baby-sitting service for parents who need to do last minute Christmas shopping this Saturday. Teens baby-sit children at the school or parish while the parents are shopping. St. Stephen Parish in Tinley, IL offered such a service this past Saturday. Have the students arrange several stations where they can interact and supervise the children, for example, two or three craft areas where teens lead the construction of things like Christmas wreaths, coloring projects, or cutting out snowflakes. At another station, keep several short (30-minute) Christmas DVDs on hand. It’s preferable not to show full-length movies in order to continually attract the attention of more and more kids. Finally, many teens can spend one-on-one time with children playing board games and interacting in many other forms of play. Here’s one of many websites that offer other babysitting ideas. Make sure to provide permission slips as needed. If the parents wish to offer a donation, have the teens vote on a charity to give it to.

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The Bible Lab

Dr. Daniel Smith Christopher, Professor of Theology at Loyola Marymount University and author of The Old Testament: Our Call to Faith and Justice is a “hands on” teacher who has envied those in the math and science fields who are able to enhance their courses with work in a “lab.” He’s proposing that teachers of religion (and the other humanities) have the same opportunities to make lab or studio sessions part of their coursework. And he’s asking for your help. Here’s a sample of Dr. Smith Christopher’s favorite Bible Lab sample with a link to two more lessons. We hope to grow the Bible Lab with the possibility of eventually publishing a book with the best interactive ideas for teaching and learning Scripture. We are seeking out some of your best ideas with the invitation to have them sited here for many to share. If you are interested please label and e-mail them to the attention of the Bible Lab! at this special address.   Dr. Moorey’s Mystery Background The most successful hands-on experiment that I have used in my freshman college courses (and with visiting high school students and in adult education settings, too) is what I call: “Dr. Moorey’s Mystery.” It is named for Dr. P.R. Moorey of Oxford University (who passed away in 2004), with whom I consulted on the original design of the this experiment when I first invented it while a graduate student at Oxford. Preparations You will need a total of four homemade clay pots for this experiment. Pot 1 should be roughly made as a “pinch pot” without using a wheel. For my series, each of the pots has an obvious rim . Each of your four pots should have one obvious feature that remains constant throughout the series. This is a very significant clue, and illustrates what archeaologists look for in studying pottery styles. The next three pots should be made on a wheel. Pot 2 should be made with thick walls. Leave your finger impressions on the side (e.g. do not smooth the walls on the outside). Don’t forget your constant feature (like the rims on my pots). Pot 3 should be made with thin walls, smoothed surface, and even some decorations (e.g., a design, or even simple animal figures, etc.). After this one is made and fired, take it apart from the others, find a safe place to burn some paper, and set this one pot only on the burning paper to get some black sooty markings on this pot. Pot 4 should be very much like Pot 3, but only with smooth walls, and no designs, and no burn marks. When you have finished making these four, generally similar sized pots, each one of them should exhibit at least one generally similar feature (as I said, for my set it is rims around the top). Next, break up (smash!) all four pots. Keep only a few pieces of the first, hand-made pot, including pieces that feature your main stylistic clue (e.g. rim, etc.). This is your “most primitive” pot, and should have fewer sample pieces than the others. I keep all my pieces together in a box, and bring it to class on the very first day of the course, in order to have a surprising, “hands on” activity for a class that most students think is going to be bookish and slow. Classroom Directions I ask the entire class to stand, come forward, and draw pieces of broken pottery from the box. I then tell the entire room that there is a story in these pieces, and their task is to tell the story. Make up something fun, like, “While digging the foundation for my house, something incredible was found . . .” or “While the gardener was working in the garden by the school, he stumbled onto . . . .” I always stop, with a smile, and say, “This is not a true story.” Finish the story with: “These pieces are dying to tell you a story—your task is to give these pieces a voice! Tell their story!” You must clarify, however, that the key to unlocking the story is that they must also seek the answer to a single critically important question that is answered with either “yes” or “no”. I inform them that they can ask any question they want at any time, but I will only answer the correct question. If the class is not moving toward this question, I give a hint – “it has to do with how they were found.” In the meantime, I tell the students to circulate around the room, collecting information about the pottery pieces. They will make lots of good observations. Affirm the observations they make, like: “the pieces seem to come from more than one pot” and “the pieces are made from the same material” (suggests same people making them?). Eventually someone will say: “Were they all found at the same time?” That is the question and they immediately realize that the different pots they are discerning among the mixture must represent different pots from different times. Now have them group the pieces, and try to guess which came first, then next, and analyze why they are saying this. The key to the experiment is making sure that students are not allowed to speculate beyond reasonable inferences from the evidence. Teaching the Lesson The point of the lab experiment to illustrate a number of critical skills for the study of biblical texts: - biblical study requires careful, critical, and rational thought; - biblical study requires historical analysis based on evidence; - biblical study must rely on the evidence first and foremost; - speculation must have a basis in evidence. In this particular mystery, the evidence is the pottery pieces. In the Bible, the evidence is the text itself—not what we think it says, not what it is supposed to say…but what it actually says. The experiment teaches students to examine the evidence before making guesses as to meaning and purpose in biblical study. And, it is lots of fun as you get better at guiding groups through the experiment.

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As the Year Came to a Close

As the school year wound down, the students began to get a handle on all the year’s material and prepare for final exams. There was a lot of nervousness and worry. It was certainly a year of fun times and laughter, but also one of hard work and stress. The end of the year is a time when they look back and try to review what they have learned. So one day, as they flip back through pages of notes and seek to piece things together, I asked them to stop and reflect. I asked them to reflect on a topic which we have talked about many times: happiness. I asked to answer this question “What do you feel is the key to happiness?” I started playing a CD of Gregorian chant I had nearby and not a minute had gone by before they had begun to write. I went to my desk to give them some freedom. After a few minutes I went around the room and saw most desks with at least one page completed. It struck a cord. These teenagers had clear ideas about happiness. To my surprise, they weren’t focused on having things or going places, but on things that give meaning to life, that are fulfilling. Their responses to the question “What do you feel is the key to happiness?” included: “Family, friends and God” “To follow God’s path” “Being the best version of yourself” “Everything that’s pure and clean” “God” “Loving people and people loving you back” “Peace” “Living life to the fullest and sharing special moments with your family” “Being generous and helpful to others” “Being around people you love and the people who love you” “To have God in our lives” “Laughing” “A sense of completeness” “A sense of belonging” “Being needed for something” “Knowing that you have a purpose” “Perfect harmony with everyone and yourself” “If doing good and helping others makes us happy, then the ability to choose to do good will make us happy” “Living the way God wants” We have explored many lives of people in the world who are making a difference such as at Do Something or the Urban Youth Ministry. These students are about to go off and begin their fun-filled summer vacation. Perhaps this summer will be spent knowing that happiness has other roots. Perhaps they’ll be encouraged to strive to find true happiness, and join the many who are out there making the world a better place. If you still have some days left with your students before the year ends, offer them the challenge to get to know other youth their age who are out there helping others. They just might take you up on it.

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Religion Lessons and March Madness

Once again the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is upon us—commonly known as March Madness for the fact that one loss brings the end for each of the entries causing a madness to pull out a victory. You may have also noticed a “madness” among your students who are engaged in filling out brackets and picking circling winners for games leading up to the championship game on April 2.Of the sixty-five teams that began the tournament, nine were Catholic colleges. If you aren’t ready to pull your hair out with all the talk of basketball, you could build on this current event and build a lesson around it. To start off simply, ask the students to circle the Catholic colleges on a bracket sheet. The teams are:Midwest RegionalNotre DameWest RegionalVillanovaHoly CrossGonzagaEast RegionalMarquetteBoston CollegeGeorgetownSouth RegionalXavierCreightonYou could then have them do a rating of the Catholic teams (based on the seedings). It might look something like this:1. Georgetown (2)2. Notre Dame (6)3. Boston College (7)4. Marquette (8)5. Villanova (9)/Xavier (9)6. Creighton (10)/Gonzaga (10)7. Holy Cross (13)After the games are played, see how the ratings check out.Also, hand out a blank map of the United States. See how many students can correctly place the Catholic college in the correct locations by state:IndianaNotre DamePennsylvaniaVillanovaMassachusettsHoly CrossBoston CollegeWashingtonGonzagaWisconsinMarquetteDistrict of ColumbiaGeorgetownOhioXavierNebraskaCreightonEnough of the fun and games. You can also use the Catholic tournament teams as a starting point for several questions of interest or even for further research (now, that’s real madness!). Use the following trivial questions as discussion starters. Have your students develop some more:1. Which of the Catholic colleges in the tournament are named after saints? (St. Thomas of Villanova, St. Francis Xavier, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. Mary, Notre Dame)2. Which college was founded by and named for the family that helped to bring the telegraph to the west? (Creighton)3. Which was the first Catholic college founded in America? (Georgetown)4. Which are Jesuit colleges? (Holy Cross, Boston College, Gonzaga, Marquette, Georgetown, Xavier, and Creighton)5. Which college is founded by the Augustinian fathers? (Villanova)Enjoy March Madness! No doubt your students will.

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