LESSON: Custom Curriculum-Parent Pains

Lesson Topic: The Fifth Commandment

How the Bible text or story is treated:

Text: Exodus 20:12; Colossians 3: 12-21; Philippians 2:2-5
The lesson involves the children in these Scriptures by having them open up their Bibles
to read them aloud. It also asks them to engage with the text by listening and calling out
different characteristics that they hear. This is the longest section of the lesson.

Clarity of aim and curricular structure

Aim: Respect and honor your parents. All of the activities tie in/help expand and
elaborate the central lesson of the text. The beginning activities help make sure that the
kids have an understanding of the topic that theyre going to unpack, and also helps tie it
into their everyday lives.

The role of the teacher and the view of the learners

The students are given a lot of freedom to fill in the meat of the lesson (writing down
characteristics of parents, adding up the pounds of weight, coming up with ways to
honor them), although the teacher provides the structure. The lesson views childrens
ability to have a good relationship with their parents to be pretty unlikely.

Appropriateness of the learning tasks

The tasks did seem better suited for younger middle school-older elementary aged kids.
I think that most 13-14 year olds wouldnt want to make a certificate about how they will
help their parents and take it home to show off, seems a little childish. The one about
counting the weight of parents burdens was good, helps kids understand what exactly
their parents deal with.

Strengths:
-all of the activities flow well together
-has other options for alteration (big group, small group, guys, girls, etc.)
-every task is constructive towards the overall purpose of the lesson
-application drawn from biblical commands

Weaknesses:
-no context for the verses shared (no info about the 10 Commandments as a whole)
-could easily get out of control when talking about negatives of parents
-could be a little too strict in format--the teacher might not feel like they have a lot of
wiggle room
How the Bible text or story is treated:

In the lesson The Fifth Commandment in the junior high curriculum book Parent

Pains, the authors talk about how children should treat their parents based on biblical

commands. The bulk of the lesson is spent looking at three different passages of

Scripture (Exodus 20:12, Colossians 3:12-21, and Philippians 2:2-5) that discuss what it

means to honor others, not just parents. The lesson plan instructs the teacher to have

different children read the scriptures aloud, and then has questions based on each

passage to help the students understand them more. While reading the first half of the

Colossians passage, children are supposed to call out words that they hear about how to

treat family members. We think that the lesson does a good job of staying true to the

text, although there is no context given for the commandment read aloud from Exodus.

We think it would be beneficial to talk a little bit about the meaning of the

commandments and why we should follow them, rather than just seeing it as a duty.

Clarity of aim and curricular structure:

The lesson always keeps its main message (to honor parents) in mind. There are

two activities both before and after the Scripture reading, and all of these are directly

related to discovering more about the topic. The first activity has students write attributes

of parents on pieces of paper on the wall that correspond with each letter of the word (P-

A-R-E-N-T-S). When everyone is done, they underline the positive words, circle the

negative words, and ignore all the neutral ones. Considering the age group, the

curriculum assumes that many of the phrases will be negative. As a transition into the

next activity, the teacher asks the students to talk about why there are so many negative

words used to describe their parents. To help the kids then appreciate their parents

more, there is an activity called pressure pounds. The teacher reads off a list of
responsibilities that many parents have, along with a weight that is associated with each.

The kids total up the amount of pounds that their parents carry, with the idea that it will

create a mental image of how hard it is to be in their position. Next is the Bible reading

section, with the scriptures that talk about honoring parents. The final two activities push

the students to think of practical ways to honor their parents. First, they revisit the first

activity they did with the sheets of paper around the room. This time, they write down

ways to honor their parents in phrases that correspond with each letter of the word. Then

they are instructed to write on a MVP-My Valuable Parent certificate some practical

things that they can commit to do in the next week to honor their parents.

The role of the teacher and the view of the learners:

The teacher is definitely viewed as more knowledgeable than the learners in this

lesson. There are several unnecessary notes directed towards the teacher that actually

belittle the learners. One is after the first activity. It says, If the positive comments

outnumbered the negative ones, you might want to check the Kool-Aid to see if it had too

much sugar. However, while the teacher is seen as possessing most of the knowledge

and experience about this topic, the learners are also given lots of freedom to make the

lesson their own. All of the activities allow for learner participation and depend on the

answers that they give. Even during Scripture reading, students read the passages,

respond to questions, and even engage by calling out phrases that they think apply.

Appropriateness of the learning tasks:

The learning tasks were appropriate in that they were all well-suited to the

lesson, but we think that some of them are too childish for a junior high age group.

Especially the last activity where the students make a certificate for their parents has a

feel of a more elementary-aged appropriate activity. We thought that the activity where
students count the weight of their parents burdens was helpful because it created a

visual/addressed the need of why parents need to be honored.

Strengths:

We think that one of the strengths of this lesson plan is its cohesiveness. None of

the activities are idle-they all contribute to the overall purpose. We also appreciated that

the application points and questions that are asked are drawn from biblical commands

about honoring others. The lesson doesnt strain to draw connections that arent there.

Finally, one of the strongest aspects is the several pages in the back of the lesson that

give instructions on how to modify the lesson plan for a variety of groups. Normally

teachers are left on their own to figure out how to make a lesson applicable to their

students, but there are twelve different categories they can refer to here that give them

specific variations for the different activities. They can use these to help plan ahead of

time or to modify activities in the moment.

Weaknesses:

As stated in the section about biblical text, we think that the reading from the 10

Commandments lacks context. The issue that the lesson focuses on is biblical, but there

is a major oversight in not addressing the motivation for honoring parents. Since it lacks

this background, it can come off as more of a lecture for the learners to follow these

rules because their parents do a lot for them. Also, we worried that in the activity when

students are listing off negative characteristics about their parents, it could easily get out

of hand and turn into a time for kids to say bad things about their parents. Finally, it

would be a difficult lesson to apply to any child without parents or who has a bad

relationship with their parents because it doesnt incorporate any other authority.