Asking Big Questions in SRE Lessons – C-cycle

As you prepare for your lessons this year, ask this one question: Who will lead God’s people God’s way?

There’s no denying that I’m passionate about the “Big Questions” method of structuring SRE lessons: I’ve run training on it, and I published an article on it last year for B-Cycle. Which is why I’m back to share how I’m preparing for C-Cycle this year.

As I prepare to teach C-Cycle this year, teaching through the stories of King Saul and King David, I’m going to ask this one question every lesson: 

Who will lead God’s people?

So, in lesson 1, which looks at the failure of the cycle of Judges, I’m going to ask my students:

“Did the Judges lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”

In lesson 2, which looks at Eli, his sons, and the call of the Prophet Samuel, I’m going to ask my students:

“Did Eli and his Sons lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”

In lesson 3, which looks at Israel’s rejection of Samuel and request for a King, I’m going to ask my students:

“Did Samuel lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”

Introducing a “Big Question” like this at the beginning of the lesson, and answering it at the end of the lesson is a teaching strategy called Visible Learning. Educational researcher John Hattie aggregated thousands of articles about best teaching practice and found that creating clear learning outcomes is one of the most powerful strategies teachers can use to increase the effectiveness of their teaching.

In our situation, the learning outcome is: “We are going to answer this Big Question” by the end of the lesson.

There are numerous benefits of using the Big Question strategy in SRE.

1.       It gives you a framework for your lesson preparation

Having one big question that you want the students to be able to answer at the end of the lesson helps you tailor your learning activities to suit.

For example, if I’m using the question from lesson 1: “Did the Judges lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”, I will be writing my lesson plan to help me draw out the words and phrases that will help the students answer this. I will focus on the flaws of the Judges and draw out how the book paints a downward spiral where God’s people move further and further away from him.

All of these tweaks to the lesson are based on my teaching goal, which is: to help the students answer the big question for the week.

2.       It gives you a clear “launch” and “landing” for your lesson

I will talk more about “launching” and “landing” the lesson in my next article. But for now, if you introduce the Big Question at the beginning of the lesson, it will launch the students into the lesson content with purpose: they know where they are going. If you answer the Big Question at the end of the lesson, it will help them see the destination they’ve arrived at and what they’ve learned as a result of the lesson.

3.       It helps make learning “sticky”

Big Questions are also really helpful in reviewing past lessons. It almost ends up working like a mini-catechism which you can return to throughout the semester.

At the beginning of week 2, for instance, I will ask: “Who can remember the Big Question from last week”? Or, if that’s too tricky, I will ask, “Last week we asked “Did the Judges lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?” or, “Can anyone remember If the Judges helped God’s people obey him or not?”

It’s amazing how asking one simple key question like this helps unlock last week’s content so much more effectively than an open question like “Who can remember what we learned last week?” 

4.       It links all the lessons for the semester together as one cohesive unit of learning

Using the same format for the Big Question each week is deliberate because it ties the unit together. By the end of the term, I hope my students will see how the Old Testament Kings point to God’s true King – Jesus.

Using Big Questions is one small change you can make in your lessons which with have a huge impact on the effectiveness of your teaching. Why not give it a go?

Below is a list of Big Questions I will be using as we look at B1 this term – feel free to use them yourself.

Lesson 1: “Did the Judges lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”.

Lesson 2: “Did Eli and his Sons lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”

Lesson 3: “Did Samuel lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”

Lesson 4: “Did Saul lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”

Lesson 5: “Will David lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”

Lesson 6: “How does David have the power to lead God’s people God’s way?

Lesson 7: “Will David’s descendant lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”

Lesson 8: “What happened when King David did not live God’s way?

Lesson 9: “Is Solomon the perfect, promised King who will lead God’s people God’s way? How can you tell?”

Lesson 10: “How do Christians know that Jesus is the perfect King who will lead God’s people God’s way?”