WORKSHOP ROTATION MODEL (WRM)

Sunday School with a New Spirit!

Something is different about today's Sunday Schools.  In a drama workshop, children create "handimal" puppets and act out Noah's Animal Extravaganza. Next door in a room created to look like a biblical times tabernacle, children emotionally write "Letters from the Ark."

"Dear God," one child writes, "It keeps on raining! When will it stop?"

Down the hall, children sit in theater seats, munching on popcorn, and view a video about Noah in the video workshop. Meanwhile, "DOVE ADVERTISING AGENCY" busily creates an advertising campaign for a 40-day cruise on a large ark.

"MUST LOVE ANIMALS," a colorful poster reads.

Kids in the cooking workshop bake edible rainbows, while in the game workshop children play a game of limits (important exercise in the tiny "rec room" on an Ark!). Throughout the workshops, children become immersed in the Scripture and explore life applications.

Would you like to have your Sunday School be this exciting?

Children (and adults as well) retain only 5% when taught through lecturing. However, they retain 85% more when taught through learning experiences. Going from room to room to learn a lesson through art, videos and games is part of a new and exciting model called Workshop Rotation. This creative and effective Sunday School approach is spreading across the country in all denominations. Each Sunday, children rotate to different workshops to learn about God. Each workshop utilizes a particular learning style to engage children in the lesson. Children have a variety of gifts and abilities, and possess multiple intelligences. They learn in different ways through the various workshop experiences.

The goal of Workshop Rotation is to reach children with biblical and faith truths so that they will develop integrated faith. In churches around the country, attendance at Sunday Schools is doubling, and children are learning and retaining at the experiential level. Most of all, they can apply these truths to their lives.

A wonderful example of how the children do learn a faith story and can apply it personally is from a true story of an Art Workshop at a church using Workshop Rotation Model.  The biblical story for the lesson was about Peter's denial of Christ. The children were doing mosaics as their art project. One little girl was carefully placing all the glass pieces in the frame, making her picture - the first step before she put the cement mixture over it. She was so absorbed in what she was doing that she didn't realize how close to the edge of the table she was getting. All of a sudden her mosaics fell off the edge and onto the floor - and the girl dissolved into tears. Her teacher came to help her, and together they sat on the floor, picked up each piece, and reconstructed her picture. When they were about done, the girl looked up at her teacher and said, "Oh, I get it! When I fall apart, God can put me back together, too!"

Integrated faith!

1This depiction of a Workshop Rotation Model Sunday School was written by Joyce Claus, educator and President of The Potter's Workshops curriculum, and used by her permission. You can reach Joyce at her e-mail, PottrWkshp@earthlink.netor visit their web site at http://www.Potters-Workshops.com.

2Howard Gardner, educational research professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, used this expression to describe seven "intelligences" each person possesses, as described in his book Frames of Mind, (1983, Basic Books, New York, NY).

3This story is from a Sunday School class at Glenview Community Church, Glenview, Illinois, using curriculum by Cornerstones Publishing. The story was their "Test of Faith/Peter's Story". For more information on Cornerstones curriculum contact them by e-mail: crnstone97@earthlink.netor visit their web site at http://www.cstones.com.


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