3.  Do you know a considerable number of stories adapted to the age of your pupils?  Are you constantly adding to your list?  Are you a good story teller?  Are you studying to improve in this line?  Even if your lesson material does not provide stories, do you bring such material in for your class?

4.  What use do you make of nature in the teaching of religion?  President Hall thinks that nature material is one of the best sources of religious instruction.  Do you agree with him?  Are you sufficiently in love with nature yourself, and sufficiently acquainted with nature so that you can successfully use the nature motive in your teaching?

5.  Do you constantly make use of stories and illustrations from the lives of great men and women in your teaching?  Do you take a reasonable proportion of these from contemporary life?  Do you bring in stories of fine actions by boys and girls?  What use have you been making of events in the lives of nations in your teaching?  Are you reading and studying to become more fully prepared to use this type of material?

FOR FURTHER READING

Houghton, Telling Bible Stories.

Raymont, The Use of the Bible in the Education of the Young.

Brace, The Training of the Twelve.

Drake, Problems of Religion, chapter IX.

Athearn, The Church School.

CHAPTER VIII

THE ORGANIZATION OF MATERIAL

The organization of material to adapt it to the learner’s mind and arrange it for the teacher’s use in instruction is hardly less important than choosing the subject matter itself.  By organization is meant the plan, order, or arrangement by which the different sections of material are made ready for presentation to the child.  The problems of organization may apply either (1) to the curriculum as a whole, or (2) to any particular section of it used for a day’s lesson.

It is possible to distinguish four different types of organization commonly used in preparing material for religious instruction: 

1.  The haphazard, in which there is no definite plan or order, no thread of purpose or relationship uniting the parts, no guiding principle determining the order and sequence.

2.  The logical, in which the nature and relationships of the material itself determine the plan and order, the question of ease and effectiveness in learning being secondary or not considered.

3.  The chronological, applicable especially to historical material, in which the events, characters, and facts are taken up in the order of the time of their appearance and their sequence in the entire situation or account.

4.  The psychological, in which the first and most important question is the most natural and favorable mode of approach for the learner—­how the material shall be planned and arranged to suit his power and grasp, appeal to his interest, and relate itself to his actual needs and experience.