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How to create a learning unit for your Bible class

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Parent Category: Teaching & Preaching

Category: Sunday School Helper

Published on Monday, 11 February 2008 13:07

Building a Bible Learning Unit

Part 1 – Reasons for Planning a Unit 

"I love teaching my class. But there are somenights when I am desperate for ideas on what to teach the next morning.” If onlyteacher had a unit planned, she wouldn't be always trying to thinkwhat to teach next.

A learning unit (or teaching unit) is a series of related lessons or Sunday school activities that a teacher plans to use over several classes.This unit centers on a bible character, a series of related stories, or a biblical theme.

Planning a learning unit takes work and forethought, but it is well worth the effort.A teacher may want to include learning units in his/her strategy for the following reasons.

1.Planning ahead is actually easier than not planning

The teacher who uses units of learning to plan several weeks or months of lessons knows in advance what he/she needs to prepare for each week.Without a long-term plan, a teacher sometimes spends more time on Saturday night brainstorming for an appropriate topic instead of actually preparing the lesson itself.A pre-planned course of action saves the teacher the frustration of deciding what comes next.

2.Topics are varied and comprehensive

The teacher who creates a learning unit will teach a wider variety of subjects than a teacher who selects topics at random.He/she doesn’t fall into the trap of repeating a small number of favorite themes many times.Teaching “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) requires a systematic plan.  While in the process of making a chart of 10 weeks of lesson plans, the teacher may notice that he/she has selected “Salvation is Free” as a theme for 6 of the 10 weeks. Although, it is true that salvationisfree and should be emphasized, the teacher may wish to cover other topics.So the planning chart helps identify redundancies or gaps over the course of a semester.Planning a learning unit is one good way to ensure that students are getting a wide scope of Biblical knowledge.

3. Learning is reinforced through review

The teacher who is teaching a unit is more likely to review previous week’s material.While referring to the theme’s timeline, map, chart or bulletin board, the teacher can easily show a logical or chronological sequence as the lessons progress.Students should anticipate what they will be learning in the coming weeks as well as remember what they covered in previous sessions.

4. Cooperation is developed between teachers

Creativity sometimes runs dry after weeks or months of teaching. spite of this burn-out phenomenon, teachers without plans may find it difficult to share a class.By creating a learning unit, two or more teachers may easily share the load of teaching and still maintain a consistent theme or approach.

Part 2 - The Elements of a Building a Bible Learning unit

Fortunately, the process of creating a learning unit is common sense: choose a biblical theme, identify its components, and select verses and activities that relate to the theme.

Two examples of units...

7 important Sunday school lessons for teens
1.    Daniel -  The simple diet decisions of a young man helped him become the greatest of the prophets.
2.    Joseph – Who maintained sexual purity out of respect for God and became the ruler of an empire.
3.    Mary – A young maiden was going about her own business when God noticed her and chose her for a miraculous task.
4.    Absalom – An anxious young man takes "reform" to the level of rebellion and pays for his mistake with his life.
5.    Ruth – A young woman learns to trust God even in matters of romance.
6.    Timothy – Paul writes an inspiring letter to a young man who needs to be inspired to fan the flame of his God-given gifts.
7.    Samuel – A young boy survives the evil influences of the older guys to become so respected that “none of his words fell to the ground”.

More Examples of Learning Units for Sunday School

Animals of the Bible– Noah, Balaam, Jonah, Elijah etc.

Parables of Jesus–, Fisher, Lost Son, Vineyard Tenants, Two Builders etc.

Stories from the exile– Daniel’s lions, Fiery Furnace, Jerusalem’s Wall, Dreamsthe Future etc.

Heaven– Its requirements, features, inhabitants, location, duration, construction etc.

Seven people from John’s gospel who were saved

The top 10 villains of scripture

TheHebrews 11Hall of Fame

Jerusalem, the key city of the Bible In Abraham’s Day, David’s Kingdom,the Temple, Calvary - the cross outside the city wall, Historical Battles, Jerusalem in Prophecy

Journeys of Paul

Examining the Lord’s Suffering– the supper, prayer, betrayal, the trials, the people at the cross, resurrection, propitiation, the Psalms of suffering

How we got our Bible– inspiration, prophecy, early forms of writing, preservation of the scripture, the reformation in Europe, translation

The Family Tree– Stories from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph

Missionaries of the Bible– Jonah, Stephen, Paul, Peter, Two Witnesses, 70 disciples, the Great Commission

Walk through Romans –Chapters 1 to 6 and the doctrines of the gospel

Exploring the Gospels –The authors, synoptic parallel studies, their audience etc.

New Testament books with only one chapter

Part 3 – Put it on the wall

To give your unit a “Title Page”, create something large for your classroom wall that tells students and visitors to your room what the current theme is.In addition to announcing a subject a bulletin board should be a teaching aid used in the lesson such as a map of the places you are talking about, or a timeline of the stories, a family tree of all the characters in your lessons or simply a picture of each lesson. 

At the very least, copy your lesson chart on the white board or a poster to let the students know what you have taught and where you are taking them.

Conclusion

Learning units are standard procedure in most educational settings, but in the case of Sunday school or youth group Bible class the planning approach is sometimes done randomly.By creating (or borrowing) a unit of related lessons, your students will benefit from better planning and you, as a teacher, will avoid the frustration of dreaming up what you might teach tomorrow.

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