The Plan
Theology of the Body for Teens is divided into 10 chapters and is full of ideas and resources. We have adapted the Guide to the Leader's Guide (A tool to help navigate the Leader's Guide) from the resources at thetheologyofthebody.com/download/category/18 .
Our Guides (aka Our Agendas) can be found Here
These guides lay out our weekly teaching plans for using the ToB for Teens books, provide resources and ideas, and are a valuable tool enabling any teacher to introduce this wonderful teaching into the classroom.
We are able to meet with you or discuss with you any part of this plan, including ideas, resources and materials. The following is a sample weekly guide of (75 minutes):
- Bible Reading & Prayer: Start with a Bible Reading, followed by a prayer (This mirrors JPII’s approach in the ToB). These readings and prayers are found at the beginning of each chapter and usually involve 2 student volunteers. There are always two different choices for the readings and prayer and both are reflected in the lesson for the day (the current chapter).
- Two Minute Drill: This is a 2 minute drill based on the previous chapter and serves as a review. The Q & A are both included in the Leader’s Guide, so there is no need to look them up. Quickly review the questions before asking them to ensure they deal with topics that were covered in the previous week.
- Ice Breaker: If possible, do an “ice-breaker”. This is an activity that the students will enjoy. “Ice-breakers” are found in the Leader’s Guide along with the rationale and point to make upon doing the tasks. These activities are fun and usually the students grasp the teaching point quickly once explained to them.
- Story Starter: Read the Introduction and Story Starter (we usually have students take turns reading a the paragraphs), then discuss some or all of the questions after the reading.
- DVD Presentation: Next we watched the DVD segment for that chapter. At this time, Jason & Crystalina & Brian summarize some of the other content from the chapter. As there not enough time in the class to go over this material, watching the DVD is more efficient. When the DVD talk is over, a short ToB Quiz starts. The students look forward to these quizzes, often calling out the answers. They have to pay attention to the talk to get the answers.
- Teaching: Sometimes we would have a teaching, for example, in Chapter one, we asked them for things that are real but invisible to the naked eye. We listed their suggestions on the board. This was to help the students understand how our bodies act as visible signs of the invisible. This point is further explained on p. 11L in the Leader’s Guide
- Movie Clips: We tried to use some of the present culture to support a point from the lesson. For example, we would show a clip of a current movie (and these were very short clips) to make a point that further illustrated the main teaching of the chapter. Lists of movie choices, along with song choices, are found in the Leader’s Guide near the end of each chapter. Each clip has a point to make and these points are included.
- Closing Prayer: We concluded with a prayer, found at the end of each chapter. For example, at the end of Chapter Four, there is prayer to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton p. 65. In the Leader’s Guide on p. 65L, there is a short summary of that particular saint’s life, which we read before we said the prayer.
- Crossword: At the end of each lesson, there is a Glossary of Key Terms. We provided a crossword to help the students become familiar with these new terms, or the students could make their own using one of the many crossword making programs online for example we use www.eclipsecrossword.com/
- Extra Material: While the above material covered the 75 minute period, we were always prepared with more. The Live It Out section near the end of each chapter is very useful either to be read during class or after.
- Assignments: While we would usually just assign the Crossword, there are many suggested assignments at the end of each chapter.
While we are able to facilitate this program at some schools, we naturally can not attend to all the requests we have so we thought that we would lay out our plan to use this program in a classroom setting which we did recently at Father Leo Austin High School in Whtiby in an effort to demonstrate how easy it is, especially for professionals to teach this in their classroom.
