Six classroom activities for learning Scripture
Photo from Photos.com“Lord, send out your spirit and renew the face of the earth….” The Easter season leading into Pentecost offers us an opportunity to look anew at Scripture passages we often take for granted. It is an opportunity to approach Scripture with new hearts and minds, that we might be renewed.
We can bring new hearts and minds to Scripture by looking at Scripture through the lens of Bloom’s taxonomy. Bloom’s taxonomy, created by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 and revised several times since then, is a model of classifying thinking and learning according to six levels. The goal of most learning is to move beyond basic knowledge to integrated comprehension. In the case of Scripture, our goal is to be renewed through learning.
Remember
The lowest level of the taxonomy, which simply means classification system, is remembering. Remembering might mean knowing something or having knowledge of something. For example, as learners we may know that the reading on Pentecost Sunday talks about people speaking in different languages. We might not understand why they spoke in different languages, but we remember and know that they did.
Learners at the remembering level are able to list out the details from the readings and name the who and what of the Scripture passage.
»Activity: A simple activity that engages learners at the remembering level is to have them play a trivia game about the Pentecost readings to see what they remember and know after you read the readings to them.
Understand
The second level of Bloom’s taxonomy is understanding. Learners move beyond simply remembering details about the stories and begin to comprehend the meaning of the Scriptures.
»Activity: Invite your learners to read simple commentary on Scripture passages to deepen their understanding. Or, ask them to write a newspaper article about the Pentecost event and how it impacted the world.
Apply
Applying is the third level. How do we take what we know and understand and put that into practice?
»Activity: Invite your learners to compare the impact of Pentecost on the early life of the church with how the Holy Spirit is part of their lives and the life of the church today. For another activity, give your learners copies of the opening, closing, and preface prayers from the Mass for Pentecost. Ask them to identify what the church is saying about what we believe about the Holy Spirit through the prayers. How is the Spirit described? What actions or attributes are mentioned in the prayers? How do they line up to the Scripture readings?
Analyzing
Once your learners have experience applying something, they will be more able to analyze what they have learned.
»Activity: Learners could create posters describing the various ways the Holy Spirit is portrayed in Scripture, beyond the Pentecost event. The analysis enables learners to compare the images and their meanings by placing them side by side.
Evaluating
Well-formed lovers of Scripture learn to critically reflect and evaluate that which is before them. At this fifth level, learners might be evaluating how their images of the Holy Spirit have been changed because of their learning.
»Activity: Learners might examine the images of the Holy Spirit and ascertain which image seems to fit best for them and their current life journey and why.
Creating
If learners are able to move through all of Bloom’s stages, they will move to the highest level of thinking or learning, which is creating.
»Activity: Learners at this stage would be able to create their own image for the Holy Spirit or create a presentation about the Holy Spirit to share with others that. Their presentation would be rich with images or creative expressions to engage others in learning more deeply about the Holy Spirit.
Scripture is not something we want to take for granted, but something we want to renew us and recreate us especially as we celebrate Pentecost. Bloom’s taxonomy offers us a path to ensure that we are providing learners with not simply basic content, but content and process that helps them to integrate and live a theology of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Mariette Martineau is an author and trainer who has worked in the areas of youth, family, and intergenerational ministry and lifelong faith formation. She is currently a student completing her bachelor of education to teach in Canada’s public Catholic schools.
