Random Thoughts Organized Thoughts

The hymn

The song                 ______________
|              |
What is the use         |    FOCUS     |     I. What is Prayer?
of prayer?              |      or      |
|     AIM      |     II.  Why should I pray? 
Are prayers answered?   |              |
| To establish |     III.  How Should I Pray? 
How often should        |  prayer as a |
I pray?                 |  life habit. |     IV.  When Should I Pray?
|______________|
What are the
characteristics of
a good prayer, etc.?

In short, organizing involves the search for thought and the bringing of order out of chaos.  Having selected the aim, the main headings, and the sub-headings, we now face step four—­the enriching of these sub-headings in illustration, incident, etc., so that we may link up these thoughts with the experience of our pupils.  We may think of so much stimulating material that during the ordinary class hour we can cover well only one of these questions.  Our purpose and the needs of the class must determine the extent of our detail.  The actual material that could be used to enrich this lesson on prayer will be given in the chapter on illustration.

Step five involves the problem of application, or “carry-over into life”—­a subject to which another chapter will be devoted.  Of course, we ought to say here, in passing, that application is not something added to or “tacked on” a lesson.  It may be emphasized at the close of a lesson, but in reality it pervades and is inherent in the whole lesson.

* * * * *

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS—­CHAPTER XV

1.  What is meant by calling teaching a composite process?

2.  Point out the essential advantages in outlining lessons.

3.  Show how outlining is not in conflict with inspiration.

4.  Name the essential steps in lesson organization.

5.  Choose a subject from one of the manuals now in use in one of our organizations and build up a typical lesson.

HELPFUL REFERENCES

Those listed in Chapter XIV.

CHAPTER XVI

ILLUSTRATING AND SUPPLEMENTING A LESSON

     OUTLINE—­CHAPTER XVI

     The force of illustrations.—­Three kinds of illustration material: 
     1. maps; 2. pictures; 3. incidents.—­The force of maps and map
     drawing.—­The appeal of good pictures.

     ILLUSTRATIONS

     Illustrative material for a lesson on prayer.

Having discussed the organization of a lesson together with the formulation of the aim, let us now turn to the problem of illustrating and supplementing a lesson.  In organizing a subject for teaching we drive the nails of major thoughts—­through illustration we clinch those nails so that they will be less likely to pull out of the memory.