Would anyone be willing to read??

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

It can be a struggle to get students to volunteer to read. Sometimes it’s a struggle to keep the same student from volunteering to read too often. If you find yourself having the same issue in Sunday school class, scripture reference cards might be a solution for you. Let me tell you a few reasons why I like to use these cards when teaching a story from the bible.

They get students reading from the Bible.

Do these cards guarantee that my students will go home and spend hours with their study Bibles? Probably not. But it does give them practice looking up a book, chapter, and verse as well as a chance to read God’s Word for themselves.

They give students a chance to preview their verse.

Allowing students time to find their verse and read through it gives them time to ask for help with any difficult words. Nothing is quite as embarrassing as panicking during a read aloud and misreading “King Solomon” as “King Salami” (don’t ask me how I know….). Once students have read through their passage on their own, they’re able to pay attention to the lesson and the other verses instead of ignoring everything else while they anxiously wait to see if they’ll be called on.

They allow the teacher to pre-determine the reading assignments.

I don’t know about you, but my “on the fly” teaching decisions aren’t always the best. Thinking about which students will read each passage helps the lesson go smoothly. Little Suzie reads above grade-level and loves to read aloud? Great! Give her the longer passage. Timid Timmy has volunteered to read but isn’t as confident in his abilities? No problem. Hand him a shorter passage.

They’re easy to make!

Oftentimes, I scroll past teaching ideas that require a lot of extra work. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always worked hard in any teaching position I’ve had, but if I can skip the printing, coloring, laminating, cutting, and binding, I will. Scripture reference cards can be typed ahead of time or simply jotted on a post-it note and handed out.

That’s it! Nothing fancy, but something this elementary school teacher has found to be effective in the Sunday school classroom.