Teaching the Bible, Hosting the Conversation
Orientation phone call: Tuesday Sept. 14, 2010
Course Sessions: Sept. 17 – Oct. 29, 2010
Diane Shallue, Ed.D., facilitator

This is a course on teaching the Bible in the church. The emphasis in this course is on teaching adults. Much of what you will learn, however, may also be applicable to teaching children, and especially youth. The focus of this course is on the act teaching. It is not a course on the Bible, though you will have a variety of opportunities to engage biblical texts along the way.

Textbooks:
1.    Teaching the Bible in the Church by John M. Bracke and Karen B. Tye, (St. Louis: Chalice Press), 2003. Reading assignments listed with each session.
2.    Opening the Book of Faith: Lutheran Insights for Bible Study by Diane Jacobson, Mark Allan Powell, and Stanley N. Olson, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress), 2008.
Several of the presenters refer to this book in their sessions, especially chapters 3 and 4. You will want to read the whole book, preferably before beginning the course itself. Chapters 1 and 2 provide a framework from which to study the Bible. Chapters 3 and 4 suggest four approaches to Bible study that we will explore from a variety of perspective throughout the course.

Facilitator as Resource
The class facilitator will be familiar with the lectures and reading material, read student postings, and will be rotating the type of interface she uses with the student each week.  The weeks that there is a live chat that will be the interface.  Other weeks the facilitator will be responding to either essays or to the key question forum or give a general written response to the issues of that week.

Course Schedule
Tuesday, September 14, 7:30 PM Central Time, Conference Call (1 hour or less).  This time will be used to acquaint you with the class website and how to use it, to become acquainted with each other, as well as to establish your covenant as a class. The facilitator for this course is Diane Shallue, Ed. D., president of Lutheran Association of Christian Educators. Information on the conference call will be emailed to registered students in advance of the call.

Weekly course guide:

Sometime Friday through Sunday…
•    Watch the lectures for the session
•    Read any assigned readings
•    Post your thoughts in the discussion essay forum
Monday through Tuesday
•    Read the forum postings
•    Respond to 2 of your classmates in the discussion essay forum with a 1-3 sentence response
•    Post your thoughts in the key question forum
By Thursday evening of each week
•    Read  the forum postings
•    In the key question forum respond to at least 2 other participants with  1-3
sentences.

Variation: In Session 5 there will be a 1 hour live chat on Tuesday Oct. 19 at 7:30 PM Central Time.

Final Paper
For those wishing to do a final paper, the paper is due Nov. 19, 2010, two weeks after the completion of the course.

Course Sessions
Friday September 17      Session 1: Teaching as Conversation: Where Do We Begin?
Friday September 24      Session 2:  Teachers and Learners:  Relationships Matter
Friday October 1            Session 3:  Adults as Learners: What Does the Brain Tell Us?
Friday October 8            Session 4:  How We Teach Matters as Much as What We Teach
Friday October 15          Session 5:  Hearing Other Voices: Multi-cultural Commitments and Concerns
Friday October 22          Session 6:  Using Visual Media to Teach the Bible