Additional Helps for Teacher Development
Skill: Invite students to write insights in their study journal before they answer a question out loud


“Skill: Invite students to write insights in their study journal before they answer a question out loud,” Teacher Support and Training Resources (2024)

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Skill: Invite students to write insights in their study journal before they answer a question out loud.

students in class

What is my initial understanding or ability? (Assessment)

How often do you invite your students to write in their study journals before asking them to respond to a question out loud?

What is it and why is it important? (Define):

Inviting students to write insights in their study journal is an effective way of preparing students to receive revelation and be more willing to share their personal insights out loud. Before requesting a verbal response, teachers can invite students to write a response to a question in their journals. These invitations include the question to be answered and a specified time to write.

Who or what provides a good illustration of this? (Model):

Here are a couple of illustrations of how this can be done:

After reading in Acts 10:34, a teacher says, “Class, will you please take three to four minutes to write your answer to this question: What does the phrase ‘God is no respecter of persons’ mean to you?” After the time has elapsed, the teacher invites the students to share what they wrote.

The teacher asks, “Students, will you please take two to three minutes to write down what you feel Heavenly Father is trying to teach you today?” Two to three minutes later, the teacher asks, “Are any of you willing to share what you wrote?”

How can I practice using this skill or applying this principle? (Practice)

In this week’s lessons, identify a question or questions in the curriculum you want your students to answer in their journals prior to answering out loud. Create an invitation you can use to invite them to do so. Be sure to include the question to be answered and the specified time.

Ponder or discuss:

How does inviting students to record their insights before sharing out loud affect their learning experience?

How and when will I incorporate this?

This week, try one of more of the questions you Identified above. In future lessons, as appropriate, continue to create invitations for students to write in their journals before asking them to respond out loud.