Suggestions for Flexible Days

The pacing guide for daily teachers is based on a 36-week or 180-day school year. This manual provides 160 daily lessons, leaving 20 days for which no teaching material is provided. These 20 “flexible days” should be used wisely for worthwhile goals and activities, including the following:

1. Adapting the daily lessons. You may want to spend extra time on a lesson that takes longer to effectively teach. You may also want to use the supplemental teaching ideas that appear at the end of some lessons or take time to answer students’ questions about a particular scripture passage or gospel topic. Flexible days allow you to take advantage of these opportunities while maintaining your pacing schedule and fulfilling your commission to teach the scriptures sequentially.

2. Mastering key scripture passages and Basic Doctrines. You may want to use the review activities for scripture mastery passages that are found throughout the manual and in the appendix. You could create additional scripture mastery review activities that meet the specific needs and interests of the students in your class. You could also use part of a flexible day for activities that help students review and deepen their understanding of the Basic Doctrines. Early in the year, you could use a flexible day to administer a Basic Doctrines Assessment (BDA) that has been designed to help teachers assess the extent to which students understand, believe, know how to apply, and are able to explain some basic doctrines of the Church. To find the Basic Doctrines Assessment and other assessments on the S&I website (si.lds.org), search using the keyword assessment. The BDA reports help teachers who have administered the assessment to analyze their students’ needs and adapt teaching to better meet those needs.

3. Reviewing previous material. It is helpful for students to periodically look back at what they have learned in previous lessons or from a particular book of scripture. You could provide students with an opportunity to explain a truth from a previous lesson and share how that truth has influenced their lives. You could also create and administer a quiz or learning activities that review previous material.

4. Allowing for schedule interruptions. School activities or assemblies, community events, weather, and other interruptions may require you to cancel or shorten class periodically. Flexible days can be used to allow for such interruptions.