The Trial Balance
Some teachers omit the review, or pass over it in a perfunctory way.
This is as if a merchant should never balance his books, or, taking a
trial balance, should be heedless of the result. If we are to prosper
in this our Father's business, we must be careful as any merchant to
discover just where we stand with our scholars; we must test their
progress often and thoroughly, and never rest satisfied or let them
rest satisfied until they and we are assured that the balance is
comfortably on the right side of the ledger.
One reason for the common shrinking from review day is because we have
not manfully met it at the very beginning of the quarter. It is the
preview that gives success to the review. When the teacher looks
carefully through the twelve lessons ahead of him, grasps the
underlying thread that binds them together, and forms his plan for a
review at the outset, review day has lost all its terrors. Then every
lesson becomes part of a consistent series. Then the weekly reviews,
which alone make possible a successful quarterly review, lay each a
course of a steadily rising edifice.
No clearness of knowledge may be expected unless the teacher knows
clearly at the start just what it is that he expects the scholars to
know; and the building grows with double certainty if the little
workmen themselves are given glimpses of the architect's plans,--at
least of a "front elevation." "For these three months," the teacher
may say, "we are to study Christ's life as Mark records it. My plan is
for you to vote each Sunday on the most important facts we have
studied,--either in the lesson text or in the 'intervening events.'
Sometimes it will be one fact; it will never be more than three. All
together there are thirty facts we shall learn, and they will make an
outline history of Christ's entire life."
How such a scheme, clearly and often stated, will clarify and
systematize the quarter's work! Three or four times during the three
months the teacher will propound brisk questions covering the points
of all the previous lessons of the quarter, following this by a
written test. Let him prepare for each lesson a card, on which he
prints questions answerable by the facts to be learned. Fastening
twelve hooks on a board, he hangs these cards on the hooks week by
week, and uses them in these reviews and in the final review of the
quarter. If the class is one of little tots, a symbol for each lesson,
cut out of pasteboard or consisting of some object, may be hung up in
place of the card,--such a symbol as a needle stuck in a piece of
cloth, answering to the story of Dorcas.
Some such preparation will make thoroughly successful a written
examination on review day. The questions should be simple and clear,
and such as can be answered fully in a very few words. They should
take up only the points on which emphasis has been laid throughout the
quarter. If the teacher presents the plan in a jolly way, the class
will enter into it heartily, as good fun.
For a change, now and then invite the scholars to bring in, on review
day, lists of what each considers the ten principal events of the
quarter. A comparison is to be made, and the events that receive the
most votes will constitute a model list. This exercise in itself will
make a pretty good review.
An excellent review may be based upon the six natural divisions of all
lessons,--times, persons, places, events, sayings, teachings. The
"sayings" are the short sentences best worth memorizing. A review
"quiz" may take up these six points one after the other, carrying each
over the entire range of lessons, sometimes chronologically, but more
often at haphazard.
A more elaborate plan is to assign each of these categories to some
scholar the week before, telling him, for instance, that you will
depend upon him alone to fix the location of all the events in the
twelve lessons. Carrying out the comparison indicated in the title to
this chapter, you may do very thorough work by getting each scholar
to keep a Sunday-school ledger. He will open up a page to the account
of "persons," another to the account of "events," and so on, and will
make weekly entries on each page. The quarterly review will then be
indeed his trial balance.
I am very fond of a map review. Using a large outline map, sometimes
one drawn before the class on the blackboard by a scholar who has
practised the feat, I call for the first event of the quarter's
lessons, and one of the class places a figure 1 at the scene of the
event; thus with all the events in order. Then, reviewing again, I
ask, pointing to the map, "What was event No. 7, here at Sychar?" or,
"Four events at Jerusalem--what were they, in order?"
Another good way to use the map--a map, this time, drawn in outline on a
large sheet of manilla paper--is to employ "stickers," bright bits of
gummed paper, cut to various shapes. Blue stars, for instance, stuck
here and there over the map, will indicate the points where Abraham is
found in a series of lessons. They may be numbered, or not. Gold stars
may show where Christ worked the miracles studied during the quarter.
All the events in one year of Christ's ministry may be represented by
green stars, in another year by scarlet stars, or purple stars. The
method branches out into many fascinating applications.
Some teachers make large use of the golden texts. If these have been
emphasized, they may wisely be introduced in the review. Write each upon
a card. If you have artistic talent, you may make each card a thing of
beauty, to be kept as a souvenir by the scholar. These cards will be
distributed at random, and each scholar will be expected to answer the
questions, first of the class and then of the teacher, on the lesson
whose golden text he holds. I would not urge the recalling of lessons by
titles, for the titles are not constituent parts of the lesson; but the
golden text usually goes to the heart of the matter. Neither would I
favor such a plan as the one last mentioned, that assigns one lesson to
each scholar, unless the entire class is drawn into active participation
by such a questioning from the scholars as I have indicated.
A pleasant and profitable review for some classes is based on the
quotable passages in the quarter's Scripture. These memorable
sentences are written on cards, which are distributed evenly. Every
scholar is expected to tell when, where, and by whom his quotation was
first spoken, and at the close of the exercise each scholar will be
called upon to repeat all his quotations from memory. Then the teacher
will gather the cards, mix them up, present the pile now to this
scholar and now to that, and ask him to give the facts about whatever
quotation he may draw. The success of this method of review, as of all
others, will largely depend upon its previous announcement, the
scholars having gone over the quarter's lessons at home with this
coming test in mind.
The review may sometimes take the form of a contest; you may call it a
"question tournament." Appoint leaders, and let them choose sides. Each
side in turn has the privilege of asking a question of the other side.
The question must be passed upon as fair by the teacher. The scholars on
each side take turns in answering, and when the scholar whose turn it is
cannot answer, his entire company has a chance. If no one on that side
knows the answer, the other side gives the correct reply, and thereby
scores one point. The side with the highest score wins the tournament.
Methods less brisk than this employ pen and ink. You may ask the
scholars to bring to the class tabular outlines of the quarter's
history. A little book, connected with the quarter's study in some
way, may be offered as a reward for the best outline, if the teacher
thinks it wise; some teachers would not. At another time ask each
scholar to write a five-minute essay on some topic that will require
study of all the lessons, the topics all being different. These essays
are to be read before the class, and their themes should be as bright
as the teacher and her shrewdest friends can make them. A variation of
this plan is to propound to the class a series of questions, all
requiring search through the twelve lessons, and allow each scholar to
choose a question upon which he will _speak_ for two, three, or four
minutes before the class on review day.
Whatever your review gives or fails to give, be sure it leaves with
your class a clear-cut outline or summary of the three months' study.
Omit the consideration of lessons not closely connected with the
story, like some of the temperance, Easter, and Christmas lessons.
Center upon some graphical scheme whenever possible, if it is only a
vertical line divided into decades along which events may be strung,
or a circle so divided as to represent Moses' life or Christ's. If you
can, group the lessons around some great personality prominent in
them. Never fail to bind them together with the golden thread of their
relation to Christ. Trace through them the progress of some thought or
event, such as God's leadings that developed the Israelites, the
growth of the Christian church, the unfolding of Christ's life, or
David's, or Joseph's. Discover what unity the lessons have, and bring
it out in the review.
If these matters have been discussed in the quarter's lessons, set
them in fresh lights. It must be a new view as well as a review.
If you have succeeded well with one form of review, thank God,
and--change the form next time. The methods suggested in this chapter
are not equally valuable in all reviews. Make out a programme in January
for the four reviews ahead of you, and plan them all differently.
And finally, review your reviews. Review them on the review day, going
over the same ground at least twice, in varying mode; and in your
weekly reviews thereafter take occasion now and then to revert to the
work of the preceding quarter. A matter is not learned to-day unless
it is learned for all days.
If the review discloses weak spots, strengthen them. If it discloses
excellences, praise them. With steady and honest purpose, take on
review day the trial balance of your work, and may God grant you a
balance on the heavenward side of the ledger!