Tailoring your SRE lessons to meet student needs

Imagine… it’s the beginning of the year for you and your year 4 SRE class. The students are sharing some things about their life. Frankie is the son of the minister from the church down the road. Sarah tells you that her grandmother reads the Bible to her once a week while she is babysitting. James has never been to church and doesn’t own a Bible.

These three students have a lot in common. They are friends who go to the same school, and like similar things. They’re all in your class because their parents want them to be taught Christian SRE. They’re all excited and eager to learn.

They’re also vastly different. Each of them have their own unique personalities. They have different things that they like to do. And they each have a different level of Bible knowledge. This presents a big challenge to SRE teachers. How are you going to teach your lesson in a way that allows each of these students to learn effectively?

The answer to this question is something called differentiation. In the classroom, differentiation means tailoring your teaching and instruction to meet individual needs. It’s not an easy task but it’s one that is worth thinking about.

The NSW Department of Education says that

‘Effective differentiation functions on the premise that every student can do remarkable things with the appropriate guidance and support’[1].

Using the example above differentiation means:

-        helping Frankie to move beyond his knowledge (head) of the Bible to think about what it means for the way he lives (heart/hands);

-        helping Sarah to grow in her understanding of the Bible stories she has heard; and

-        helping James to remember the things he is reading in the Bible for the first time.

There’s a lot to be said about how to differentiate in your SRE class. Today we’re just going to think about the first step, which is knowing your students.

It probably goes without saying but in order to meet the individual needs of your students, you need to know what your students need. And in order to know what they need, you need to know who they are.

Know their personalities

As you read through your Connect, Beginning with God or Big Questions teacher’s manual you’ll notice that during the ‘Way In’ section there’s often questions that ask, ‘what do you think about…’ or ‘how do you feel about…’ or ‘what would you do if…’. These questions help you get to know the personalities of your students. Knowing what they like and what things they are interested in is information that will help you as you prepare your lesson. It will help to decide what learning activities and teaching techniques are going to work best for your class.

The kinds of questions that can help you get to know the personalities of your students are:

-        what’s your favourite… (food, toy, animal etc);

-        what do you like to do on the weekend? and

-        would you rather…

Know their lives

Knowing their personalities is about who they are internally. Knowing their lives is about understanding some of the external factors that impact who they are and how they interact with the world around them. External factors like family, home life and significant people in their life, have a big impact on children, and on their needs in the classroom. This kind of knowledge will also help you use language that recognise the particular culture and family sensitivities that might exist in your class.

The questions that can help you get to know the lives of your students are:

-        who lives in your house?;

-        who is someone you trust? and

-        what do birthdays look like in your house?

Know their faith

The students in your classes will range from those who have very little Bible knowledge, to those who have had the Bible read to them regularly since they were very young… and everything in between.

Understanding where each of your students are in their faith will help you to apply your lessons to them and build connections between their lives and the gospel.

The questions that will help you get to know their faith are:

-        do you go to church?;

-        do you own a Bible? and

-        do you have a favourite Bible story?

Knowing your students is just the beginning of differentiating in SRE, but it’s the key to starting well. What questions can you ask this week to get to know the personality, lives and faith of your students.

[1]https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/professional-learning/teacher-quality-and-accreditation/strong-start-great-teachers/refining-practice/differentiating-learning