Module+3

D. Ryan Huff- (I changed to purple. The green was hard for me to look at.)

Within Seminary, I think that there really is one main problem that we address every day. That problem is trying to get the students to apply the principles that are taught within the scriptures. Of course, within that over-arching problem, each day is filled with different principles to teach. One day we might focus the importance of getting married in the temple and the next day might be about the importance of paying tithing. However, if a teacher can help students to understand the significance of reading the stories found in the scriptures and then help them to learn how to look for principles within the stories, then maybe we can teach them how to apply what they have learned so that they can follow this process on their own.

Returning to the lesson about the children of Israel wandering for 40 years in the wilderness, I have searched for a problem that the lesson might be trying to solve. Although the manual doesn't come right out and state the problem, I think there is one hidden in the identified principle that we are trying to teach: "The Exodus can be seen as a symbol of mankind’s journey through mortality and back into the presence of God."

There are a few content elements that are listed within the manual that would help one to develop the skills necessary to be able to apply the principle within their own life. The manual asks the reader to sort through some verses to describe how the Israelites faced bondage and their deliverance, how they survived the wilderness for forty years and how they entered into the Promised Land. This is a very basic element to solving the problem. This allows the students to explore the scriptures so that they get a basic understanding of the story. The manual then asks the students to read several more verses to see how the children of Israel went through theses same four stages spiritually and not physically. This step really helps to develop the storyline with the Lord in mind. Essential the first content element in this lesson is that of reading the text. Any principle embedded in the scriptures must be found first through reading before it can be applied.

The next element is that of discussing what has been read. The lesson calls for a classroom discussion of the events that are found in the lives of the Israelites as they wander through the wilderness. Discussion allows the students to analyze what they have read and formulate that information so that it can be shared with others. It also provides an opportunity for each learner to gather more insights and information from the minds of their peers. An additional step to the discussion is that of application. Hopefully, the application of the principles that have been discussed will naturally be carried into the hearts of the participating students. If the students can see how the children of Israel were blessed for their obedience and punished for their wickedness, then they can make the jump of realizing that what is happening in the scriptures can be parallel to their own lives and then make the necessary individual application.

Once again, this lesson doesn't really teach a whole problem skill set. It does however, use a set of component skills that allows the students to identify, analyze and apply a principle that they have found in the scriptures. However, the ability to accomplish this is a whole problem in and of itself, but it is just repeated every day and for every lesson.

I think that you have found your problem. I agree, that one of the most important problems that we all have to solve through our scripture study is how do we liken the scripture to ourselves. I have highlighted in blue your statements of this problem. Each lesson, each day, becomes a portrayal of this problem. If you then take each lesson from your syllabus and teach students how to "identify, analyze, and apply the underlying principle then you will have accomplished a very important goal. I look forward to seeing how you develop the component skills associated with this process. I think you have the surface skills involved but as you study each lesson to see how students can identify the underlying principle you will find other details of how to apply these skills. dm

Brandon's breakdown of Genesis 13 As usual I am a little unsure as to exactly what I am doing with this, but I think I have a good idea. I'm going to continue my approach of just choosing a random chapter each week and crtiquing the manual on that particular chapter, or section, since those are essentially the "units" that we teach in seminary. Today I choose Genesis 13, the story of Abraham, and Lot. The principle being taught is "Charity, unselfishness, and peacemaking are Christlike attributes that merit the blessings of heaven."

I actually feel that the lesson follows the Problem Solving approach fairly well. In the manual it starts out by having two students come to the front, the teacher presents them with two "treats," one of which is substantially better than the other, and tells them that they can both get one, and they can choose who gets which one, but they can't divide either of the treats in half. The class then watches as the two figure out who will take which treat. This appears to me to be the presentation of the first problem. Since this is the simplest possible version of the problem, once the two have come to a conclusion, the teachers asks how the situation would be made more difficult if we were dealing with "stereos, cars, houses, or land?" and then the class opens to Genesis 13.

This is where I am a little unsure. Seminary always seems to have a question based approach to finding out the steps, so rather than simply telling, the teacher than asks "What seems to have motivated Abraham and Lot in solving their strife?" It then gives several cross references to help understand what the two of them were thinking, and why, as well as a cross reference that shows what the final consequences was for both of them. I feel that the example was a terrific step by step break down for how to resolve problems. One approach that might help clarify a little might be to ask the students to look for which vereses the specific traits that are being taught (Charity, unselfishness, and peacmaking) can be found, and then when they are using the cross references, ask them to look for what happened to the person who used those traits, and what heppened to the person who didn't. But even without them, I think the course did a good job.

Unfortunately, setting up the final problem, where the students actually get to do it themselves was the weakest part of the lesson. The manual simply staits, "You may want to discuss the problems that come from strife, and the blessings the Lord gives to peacemakers." This is leaning towards a good approach, but a better set up might include asking the students to share examples of when the pattern has worked to bless them in their life, or possibly even giving them a short case study, particularly if it was based on a true story, either from the teachers life, or from a students life, and then asking the students to work it out as a class.

One challenge that I am having with the idea in general, is that a lot of the principles in seminary are really very simply. For instane, I'm not really even sure how to break down, "Have charity" into a list of steps, particularly since the approach we take is to teach it as it is found in the scriptures. I suppose this is a silly question, but since I don't really have any traditional education background I'll ask anyways. When you write out a lesson plan, how do you do the titles of the lessons? As I mentioned, on this lesson, (Or principle that we would teach in a lesson) the title was "Charity, unselfishness, and peacemaking are Christlike attributes that merit the blessings of heaven." The goal is to have something for the student to walk away with. When you teach problem centered, are lessons titled with more of question, (or problem) like "How do I solve contentious situations?" This might seem a little trivial, but as we look back on teaching the "What" and the "How," I'm really starting to see that having a well worded statement for the "What" is pretty important.

I highlighted the option I think is best. Why? Because if you choose the case study you can make it as complex or simple as you think is necessary, you can include the specific areas where you want students to think. If they think of examples they are likely to be simple and just like one you used for demonstration.

There are several challenges to selecting problems. In some cases the lesson stresses a principle and you have to find problems to which the principle can apply. In other cases the lesson stresses an example and you have to abstract the principle demonstrated by the example and then find another example to which the principle can apply. In the case of charity the principle is very general and you have to first identify the component skills used by one who has charity and then find a situation to which these component skills can apply. Applying the scriptures to our lives is a complex skill that requires far more from a teacher than "Can you tell us how you have applied charity in your life?"

Hope this helps. Great start and a wonderful challenge. I hope that I get to teach Gospel Doctrine so I could apply some of these ideas but I'll probably get released for not following the manual :-) dm

The ELF reading program to teach deaf or hard-of-hearing students does not have a problem –centered instructional strategy. There is a big program to teach these type of students HOW to communicate and HOW to read, but this does not count as a problem centered strategy. These students are low developmentally and also sometimes cognitively as it is difficult for me to imagine how to present a real life problem to them. They also do not read so for me to post the problem isn’t going to help for them to read it because they can’t read. This ELF is programmed to teach them to read.

The professor is pointed out that this program could be used to teach concepts of words and I can see now that this program could be readjusted to teach different portrayals of the same word, e.g. climbing a tree, climbing a jungle gym, climbing a ladder, or pushing a wagon or pushing a child ( bullying) pushing a toy truck or a train. This would allow the child so understand different aspects of the same word and generalize into the real world.

The progression of components would allow the program to become more complicated as words are used that have been learned before in different ways, e.g. climbing up a jungle gym and then jumping down, climbing the ladder to the slide and then coming down. Another component of contrasting and comparing up and down could be added. All of these add components make the program more complicated building a progression of reading the same words in different contexts. Making the problem a real world context of using items found in the real world or items in their environments make the program applicable to them.

I am thinking at this point in time that I will have to come up with another program to analyze for whole problem-centered strategies unless someone can give me a clue that I can grasp. LH

I like your kind-of approach to teaching vocabulary as we discussed earlier. I don't think that a problem-centered approach is appropriate at this level for these learners as you have surmised. As we discussed earlier you may want to consider developing a lesson for teachers who use the ELF program. In this case the problem is a teaching problem or a lesson planning problem. Teaching teachers how to use kind-of strategies for teaching vocabulary tied to actual referents as you described above would be such a problem. What do you thing? dm This year was the first that I've had deaf students. I have 5 who sign OR are learning to sign and two of those are deaf. All are non-verbal. This has been a challenge. This is the first year that I've used the ELF program. I'm going to rethink this and use it to teach other teachers to use the program or supplement it to teach vocabulary concepts and also to read the words in English. I will have to read the assignments again to get it better in my head. LH