Facilitation

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Teaching religion often presents opportunities to learn and dialogue about sensitive issues. Depending on the identities and lived experiences of your students, they may experience discomfort, distress, sadness, anxiety, even possibly anger. The Thinking Classroom will help nurture relationship building with the small group interactions and collaborative learning but students might need encouragement and a sense of safety to lean into the practice.

To help create an inclusive and safe space for your class, we encourage you to explore the CCC Listening with the Heart website. You can find trauma-informed teaching resources, how to facilitate critical and courageous conversations, and how to take a strengths-based approch.

Below we also highlight some facilitation tools used in the set of learning activities for this Thinking Classroom resource. You may be familiar with them. The section below is an excerpt from the Listening with the Heart website.

Ways to Facilitate Discussions as a Class & Collaborative Learning in Groups

Please see brief explanations of these activities or more detailed

explanations with sample exercises in Lesson 4 of Listening with the Heart.

Circle Talks &

Step into the Line

Basic Pass

for simple prompts

Butterfly Pass

for involved prompts

Think-Pair

Gallery Walk

Four Corners

Vertical Nonpermanent Surfaces (VNS) and Visibly Random Groups (VRGs) are often referred to in the lesson topics. Please see the infographics for more information on the Thinking Classroom faclilitation on the Teacher PD page.

Page updated

Report abuse