Principles of Christlike Teaching: Invite Diligent Learning

Invite learners to live what they are learning.

Skill

Plan to follow up on invitations given in a previous class and invite learners to share their experiences living what they learned.

Define

As you prepare invitations for students to apply what they are learning, you can also plan to follow up. These follow-up moments can come at the beginning of subsequent classes, through out-of-class communications, during devotionals, or among peers. To plan follow-up moments, you can ask yourself:

1. What invitation can I give that will allow students to share their experiences living a truth they learned in a previous class?

2. When will be a good time to follow up?

Asking these questions invites the Holy Ghost to guide you as you plan to follow up. Planning to follow up with students will help them feel accountable and want to fulfill their commitments, which can help lead to conversion to Jesus Christ.

Model

• As Brother Dalton prayerfully prepares the next learning experience for his students, he asks himself, “What invitation can I give that will allow students to share their experience living a truth they learned in a previous class? When will be a good time in the next class to follow up?” The thought comes to him to give the students time at the beginning of the next class to write in their journals about their efforts to act on a truth they learned in the last lesson.

Click here to see a video of this model.

Practice

Practice asking the following as you prepare your upcoming lessons:

1. What invitation can I give that will allow students to share their experiences living the truths they learned in a previous class?

2. When will be a good time to follow up?

Discuss or Ponder

• How will consistently following up deepen the conversion of the young people you teach?

• What are some ways the Holy Ghost has already inspired you to help learners share their experiences living what they have learned?

• How could you create a culture of students sharing their efforts to live the gospel throughout the course of a term?

Incorporate

As part of your lesson preparation, establish a time to ask these questions:

• “What invitation can I give that will allow students to share their experiences living the truths they learned in a previous class?”

• “When will be a good time to follow up?”

Want More?

• M. Russell Ballard, “Following Up,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2014, 78–81.

Skill

Ask search questions that help learners consider who God is and blessings He offers them.

Define

Teachers can assist students in their desire to live what they are learning by asking questions that help students consider who God is and the blessings He offers them. These search questions should include a scripture passage and an invitation for the student to identify an attribute or promised blessing of God. They should be asked before they read the passage. The more students know God and what He has to offer, the more they will be willing to act.

The models and practices below are general examples. Training will be more effective if models and practice opportunities are connected to the next lessons that will be covered in the curriculum.

Model

• What promised blessings do you see in Doctrine and Covenants 19:16–19 that inspire you to follow Jesus Christ?

• As you study John 14:6, what do you learn about who Jesus Christ is that helps you have confidence in what He promises?

Click here to see a video of this model.

Practice

For the following scripture passages, write a search question that will help learners consider who God is and blessings He offers them:

• Moses 1:1–6

• Psalms 23:1–2

• A scripture passage from your next lesson

Discuss or Ponder

• What are you learning as you practice these search questions?

• Where in the scriptures do you see people acting in faith because of what they know about God and His promises?

Incorporate

• For the next couple of weeks, find an opportunity to use this type of search question at least once in each lesson you teach.

Want More?

• 1 Nephi 3:7 (Because of what he knew about Jesus Christ, Nephi had confidence to go and do.)

• Joseph Smith History 1:13 (Joseph Smith knew he could venture to ask God when he considered what God could do for him.)