The Workshop Rotation Model
The Workshop Rotation Model for Sunday School began in 1990 when a Presbyterian church in Chicago decided it was time to reinvent Sunday School or close it down. By 1995 enough churches in the Chicago area had successfully adopted the Model to call it a movement.
Rotation.org was created in 1997 to provide resources, lesson plans, and community for the grassroots movement. Many of the original Chicago Rotation educators began organizing conferences. Several started publishing ministries. As of 2005, it is estimated that over 8000 churches in the U.S. and Canada have now adopted or adapted the Model.
"We weren't trying to invent a new model, - we were just trying to solve our problems," said Melissa Hansche, D.C.E. at the Presbyterian Church of Barrington, -the church in Chicago Presbytery where the model got its start. What problems is she referring to?
* Bored kids and teachers
* Declining attendance
* Lack of Bible literacy
* Drab and uninviting classrooms
* Sedentary teaching
* Expensive curriculum (that's half used)
* Poor teacher preparation
* Trouble recruiting teachers
* (your problem here)
The decline in Sunday School is one of the worst kept secrets in the Church. Some say "it's a sign of the times." Others of us wonder out loud whether the traditional model EVER worked. (Where are all those kids we had in our Sunday Schools back in the so-called "good old days" of the 50's and 60's? They're at home reading the Sunday paper.)
The Workshop Rotation Model in a nutshell:
* Teach major Bible stories and concepts through kid-friendly multimedia workshops: an Art workshop, Drama, Music, Games, video, Puppets, Storytelling, Computers, Science, Cooking ...
* Teach the same Bible story in all of the workshops for four weeks, rotating the kids to a different workshop each week.
* Here comes the extremely teacher friendly part: Keep the same teacher in each workshop for all four weeks -teaching the same lesson week after week (with some age appropriate adjustments) to each new class coming in.
Here's why it works:
* The Workshop Rotation Model concentrates on the major stories of the Bible over and over again. The model's philosophy recognizes that kids not only love repetition, but they need it to develop a lasting memory and understanding of content.
* The multi-intelligences (creative methods) approach in the model isn't a fad or merely kid-friendly, it is calculated to take advantage of our student's God-given thirst for multi-modal learning.
* The model allows teachers to get better at their lesson. By the second week of the rotation, the teacher is already improving the original lesson plan for the next class. And because the teacher is assigned to teach in the creative mode they are comfortable with, the teaching and learning experience are enriched.
Excerpted from The Workshop Rotation Model, A Brief Introduction & History by Neil MacQueen; Copyright 1998. Revised 2005.; website: rotation.org.
We need you!!! Please contact Martha Martin if you are able to help out with a rotation. All materials provided. marthamartin@eastlink.ca; 440-2687
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