I'm teaching Sunday School now to the ladies class and they are used to a lecture type of teaching but I want to engage them in discussion. I'm having a hard time with this. They don't seem to want to have interaction and I don't know if they just don't want to draw attention to themselves or maybe they just don't know their bible well enough to discuss the scripture. They're all very sweet and I love them. They are also mostly seniors.
Any ideas on how I can encourage interaction and discussion?
Scarlett O has some excellent thinking. I would also include the following:
First the setting needs to be addressed. Depending on the size and room, try not to have anyone “hiding” behind someone else. Sitting in a circle is good, but if that isn’t workable, grouping the seats so there are no squares will help. That is, make the rows curve so that the group is not in rank and file. Then you also sit down. Do not stand unless you are going to write a very brief note on the board – and do that sitting down if possible. If the group is too large to sit at their level, get a stool.
People respond to folks standing to talk as one being lectured, and no one talks during a lecture. Folks who are sitting are less threatening, and more engaging.
Second, immediately engage the folks in a casual conversation in which you express the need for their input. It could be a recipe, color coordination, flower selection,... Valentines is coming, perhaps ask why red, white and chocolate seem to be the colors of both Christmas and Valentines? Depending on how old these older ladies are, they might be highly opinionated, and this will give you great insight into the approach you will want to take in the lessons.
Again, Right from the start ask questions that the folks are comfortable answering about their lives and living. However, when you bridge to the lesson, change to rhetorical style questions.
Our Lord engaged folks by asking rhetorical questions and stories (parables) that made the point.
If you use an outline or handout, make the rhetorical questions the major points.
This will immediately call for an internal response without presenting the “put on the spot” emotional feelings that can distract and hinder the shy elder by being vulnerable.
Stay at the lowest parts of Blooms Taxonomy:
http://www2.honolulu.hawaii.edu/facdev/guidebk/teachtip/questype.htm
As you base the lesson upon questions in which the answer is obvious, and you are giving support to the obvious answers, you are modeling and presenting appropriate thinking strategies that will engage the listener and gradually open them to become used to even considering a response.
As the weeks progress and the folks get used to you asking questions, gradually work up the scale into higher thinking questions and also slowly move the questions away from the rhetorical.
It is most important that during these transition times, the responses given by those attending are never wrong – even if the answer given really is wrong. You are not interested in how right or how wrong an answer is, but that some oral communication is actually given!
Pointing out a wrong answer will shut the door on any further response.
If the answer is wrong, move to the highest levels of synthesis and evaluation and draw the listeners to draw their own conclusions in nonthreatening and supportive questions. Our Lord did this when presenting parables such as the Good Samaritan, and the workers of the field, in which the audience was presented a scenario and were drawn into the conclusion.
