My Lesson Chart
My recipe for a well-prepared lesson is expressed in Captain Cuttle's
formula: "Make a note on 't."
I have read the lesson text, and the text before the lesson text and
after it. I have read the wisest commentaries I can find, and as many
of them as I can find time for. I have "mulled" over the matter for
myself a day or two. By this time my brain is thronged with facts and
a-tingle with suggestions.
Then, the lesson leaf or some other convenient copy of the lesson text
before me, I construct the chart by which to make my Sabbath cruise.
First, one must get out to sea; there is the introduction. How shall I
fit this trip in with last Sabbath's voyage, and how shall I get under
way?
As I plan my introductory questions, I write at the head of the lesson
text some word to represent each question, such as "author?" "time?"
"place?" "circumstances?" "purpose?" "outline?"
With the questions concerning the text itself, however, I do no
writing; I simply underscore neatly those words or phrases of the text
that will hint at the point to be raised. For example, take the verse,
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," and the questions: (1)
How was this imagery prompted by David's life? (2) What use did our
Lord make of the same simile? (3) What comfort should we get from this
thought in the trials and uncertainties of life? (4) How does Christ's
shepherding keep us from want? (5) From what kind of want does it keep
us? (6) What makes you sure of this? (7) How was all this proved true
in David's case?
As each question occurs to me, or is suggested by my reading, I
underscore a word that henceforth stands for that question. These
words, in the order of the questions, are: (1) "shepherd"; (2) "Lord";
(3) "my"; (4) a curved line from "shepherd" to "I" connecting the two
sentences; (5) "want"; (6) "shall not"; (7) "I."
It will sometimes need a little thought to decide just which word will
best represent the question, but that very thought will fix the question
more firmly in the mind. If more than one question should be attached to
one word, make two short underscorings, one beside the other.
When the question contrasts two persons, two expressions, or two
events, "railroading" is in order--a line, that is, drawn clear across
the printed page, connecting the words which the question connects.
If you have a parallel Bible, or some lesson help that gives the King
James and the Revised versions in opposite columns, it is an excellent
plan to mark in one version all the points of history, geography,
biography, customs, dates, and the like, and in the other the points
requiring practical application to heart and life. The latter will
obviously go best in the Revised Version. The points indicated by the
underscorings in the King James Version may first be considered and
got out of the way.
If, however, you must use only the Authorized Version, distinguish in
some manner between the two sets of points--the merely explanatory and
the hortatory. Use black ink for the first and red ink for the second,
or a straight line for the one and a wavy line for the other, or for
the first a single and for the second a double underscore.
Proceeding in this way, I soon have a line under every word requiring
explanation, every hint of a strange custom, every reference to other
parts of the Scriptures, every point for practical application. I have
underscored words representative of all the thoughts that especially
appeal to me as fitting the needs of my class.
When this has been done, it is time to make my outline. If my study has
suggested to me an outline of my own, that will be better for me than
any other man's. The outline is the plan of campaign, the thing I wish
especially to emphasize, and under it, ranged in order, the points of
minor importance. I write this outline on the margin of my lesson text.
Having decided on the outline, I go over my underscorings again,
doubly or trebly underscoring the words that have reference to the
thought around which I intend to center the entire lesson--the thought
that is to be the lesson's enduring monument in the minds and lives of
my scholars.
Now I am ready for review. I go over the whole, starting with the
detached words jotted down at the beginning,--"author," "time,"
"place," etc.,--and consider all the underscorings, railroadings, and
curved lines, stopping at each to frame a question of my own and to
make sure of my best answer. I do this in precisely the order in which
I intend to take up these points in the class. Not the smallest part
of my work at this juncture is to simplify, by erasing the
underscorings where the questions may be spared without interfering
with my main purpose; and then I review once more in the same way, to
confirm my grasp on the lesson plan.
By this time every underscoring is luminous, and my page of lesson
text has become a graphic picture of the lesson I am to teach, a true
chart for my voyage.
Do you think the process too tedious, brother teacher? It is not a whit
too thorough when you remember the infinite interests involved; and
every repetition of it will increase your skill, and the rapidity of
your work. I have used this method for years, with various classes, and
know it to be practical, pleasant, and profitable. Try it, and see.