Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

5 6 / C O R N E R S T O N E C U R R I C U L U M M E N T O R ’ S G U I D E

Review the Mentor’s Guide to understand the lesson objectives and gather ideas for possible Contact activities. (Two to three Contacts are provided which you may use, or feel free to create your own, if that is more appropriate.) Then, create a Contact section that introduces the students to the lesson content and captures their interest. As a rule, Contact methods fall into three general categories. Attention Focusers capture student attention and introduce them to the lesson topic. Attention focusers can be used by themselves with motivated learners or combined with one of the other methods described below. Examples: • Singing an opening song related to the lesson theme. • Showing a cartoon or telling a joke that relates to an issue addressed by the lesson. • Asking students to stand on the left side of the room if they believe that it is easier to teach people how to be saved from the Gospels and to stand on the right side if they believe it is easier to teach people from the Epistles. Storytelling methods either have the instructor tell a story that illustrates the importance of the lesson content or ask students to share their experiences (stories) about the topic that will be discussed. Examples: • In a lesson on the role of the pastor, a Mentor may tell the story of conducting a funeral and share the questions and challenges that were part of the experience. • In a lesson about evangelism, the Mentor may ask students to describe an experience they have had of sharing the Gospel. Problem-posing activities raise challenging questions for students to answer and lead them toward the lesson content as a source for answering those questions, or they may ask students to list the unanswered questions that they have about the topic that will be discussed. Examples:

Preparing the Contact Section