Let’s say you have a class size of 50+ students and you can’t use your natural voice to get all of them fully involved in the lesson. What strategies would you use?
In this blog post, I am going to share with you seven simple ways to manage a large class size in an adult Sunday school lesson.
But first, let’s examine some challenges of working with a large class size.
- You have a job to deal with students with wandering thoughts or those who seem to use their phones to read the Bible while they are busy chatting on WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram.
- Disengagement. It is easy for students to tune off when they can’t hear you, especially those at the back seats.
- Large class size will require more resources or teaching aids.
- Large class size will need more time to meet every student’s needs.
Here are 7 simple strategies to solve this problem:
- Repeat what the learner says so that other members of the class can listen and understand.
- Do not use a monotone voice. Vary the tone of your voice to capture learner’s attention. This solves the problem of interferences from neighbouring teachers.
- Invite the learners to repeat what you’ve said, or to restate it so you could be sure they are following up with you.
- Use visuals and hands-on activities as much as possible.
- Move and drift your body constantly as you deliver your lesson.
- Do not express gross dissatisfaction when learners cannot provide answers to your questions.
- Break the class into small groups and assign a co-teacher. Most church premises have limited space to accommodate many small groups in a bible lesson. Therefore, under such circumstances, an alternative strategy would be to work with a co-teacher.
Share with us in the comments below other strategies you can use to handle a large class size in a limited space environment.
Unto God’s Glory,
Go
teach like a pro!
Shei Jini
