K-12 Writing Activities with a Spiritual Emphasis

1
K-12 Writing Activities with a Spiritual Emphasis

• Pollyanna Barnes, chair
• Rondi Aastrup
• Marcia Daniel
• Roberta Merrow
• Apryl Symonds

2
Introduction and Purpose

• Spirituality in writing does not entail just
  prayer before a class and reading a text. It
  involves saturating the whole lesson with
  spirituality, setting the spiritual foundation
  with Biblical principles and teaching concepts
  and practices through them, so that the student
  understands their practicality and applicability.
  The following are topics and activities that
  integrate faith and learning in the writing
  class, grades K-12. Additionally, sample lessons
  are provided to exemplify this approach to
  teaching.

3
Topics and Activities (in no particular order)

• Poetry of the Bible
• Prose of the Bible
• Explore different genres in the Bible
• Write a poem that illustrates a principle from
  the Bible
• Write a sketch that illustrates a principle from
  the Bible

4

• The Bible as a novel
• Using The Book of God
• Writing the Bible as a story
• Research
• Culture, history, psychology, religion
• Writing process
• Modernize it
• Do different writing activities with
  topics/stories in the Bible
• Make up a song, a rap, a skit, a poem

5

• Include the Spirit of Prophecy
• How can we make it more interesting, more
  applicable and relevant to students? Help them
  see the value of EGW
• Bring her words to other elementswhat does she
  say about historical events
• Work through Messages to Young Peopledebate
  issues, act out pros and cons of what shes
  sayingcorrelation between what she says and
  whats happening
• Advertisementscreate an ad for something theyve
  read in the Bible or EGW

6

• Steps to Christ or Ministry of Healing to teach
  essay writing
• Biblical applications in a writing format to
  illustrate the writing process and support with
  literature
• Write and illustrate a parable
• Modern day proverbsevery culture has them

7

• Writing workshopcreate an ad for someone to come
  to Christ
• Write a generic lesson plan that would work for
  writing with the focus of applying Biblical
  principles or S-of-P
• Come up with ideas as to how we can do thisone
  example of that lesson plan on each levellist
  various ways that it can be used in writing
  across the curriculuminclude goals and preferred
  practiceslist resources

8

• Elements of the lesson plan
• High school is more in depth and more independent
• Generic components
• Objectives
• Understand genre
• Apply form and principle to their own work
• Reflect on principle and apply to own life
• Share/publish/present
• Journals/diaries of Bible characters, Adventist
  pioneers
• Biographies or autobiographies or memoirs of
  Bible characters, Adventist pioneers

9

• Write a teen/kids devotional
• Participate in the Insight writing contest or
  submit to it or the Junior Guide
• Write a childrens book and illustrate it and
  share it with elementary kids
• Interview with Godresearch Gods character via
  Bible, then create an interview of Him from what
  youve learned
• How to use this across the curriculumcurriculum
  connections

10

• Newsletter of a particular Biblical
  place/era/group/person
• Write an epistle similar to any one of the
  Biblical epistles
• Write their own Adventist Girl story
• Write some Adventist Boy stories
• Write a hymn
• Write a play abouta Biblical storya pioneer
  storythe background of a hymnan old testament
  king

11

• Design and carry out a family worship (beginning
  to end)
• Write their spiritual memoir
• Keep a prayer journal
• Design and maintain a blog
• Design a website about a Bible character, an
  Adventist pioneer
• Create a webquest about a character, pioneer,
  spiritual topic
• Create a power point about a Bible character,
  pioneer, spiritual topic

12

• Writing Through the Bible Elementary K-8
• Genres throughout the Bible
• Book of God (see Amazon.com)
• Prayer Writing/ Prayer Journals

13

•  Have each group come up with a skit that
  demonstrates the joy that comes in putting Jesus
  first, Others next, and Yourself last.
• Story of Job

14
8 Sample Lesson Plans

• Biblical short story
• Adventist Pioneer biography
• Hebrew poetry
• Parable writing
• Expository essay using Steps to Christ
• Writing through the Proverbs
• 5-day plan with devotional
• Persuasive writing using Ministry of Healing
• Writing prayers

15
HEALTH/TEMPERANCE Spirit of Prophecy

• Main Idea/Supporting details
• Read the quotation/references from a selection
  of EGWs writings on health.
• determine the lesson/Main idea/Health tip that
  EGW is portraying using Ministry of Healing, and
  the Adventist Home,
• Writing/Opinion Essay
• Choose one of the 8 health tips and write an
  opinion essay on it. (Do you agree? Why/Why not?

16

• Grades 6 12 Research a concordance /bible
  find a text to substantiate these quotations
• Grades 2-5, use the Text bank to correlate verses
  with the quotations
• Writing Prompt for health/temperance
• How does this quotation relate to your personal
  life? How can you improve based on what you have
  read in this tip?
• Will your salvation be impacted if you do not eat
  meat?

17

• Is it a sin not to be a vegetarian?
• Write an essay on the correlation of excercise
  and a healthy body
• Persuasive Essay Prompt
• Some people are concerned that students are not
  as healthy as they should be. They think that
  regular exercise and information about good
  health habits are essential parts of an
  education. Therefore, some people want to require
  a daily physical education and health class for
  all students. Write a persuasive essay stating
  whether or not you agree that all students should
  be required to take a daily physical education
  and health class. Give reasons why you think as
  you do.

18

• Report Educationally generated report that
  relates to the 8 health principles and publish in
  a literary forum
• Debate pros and cons of various health tips
  (Caffeine Debate), make a graph, persuasive essay
• Design an exercise program
• Design an Ad/Flyer promoting a healthy lifestyle
  (Use ideas from the 8 health tips)

19
Guarding the Avenues of your Mind?

• In what areas would you focus on to protect your
  mind? (Present in song, skit, poem, art,
  audio-visual, powerpoint) J2E 1,2,5,6,7,8,9
• Create a comic strip character and story about
  Guard the Avenues of Your Mind?
• Prayer
• Write a prayer of Thanksgiving/Repentance to God

20

• Compare Davids Prayer, Hezekiah, Jehosephat .
  What were they praying for?
• Discuss the following prayers
• Praise Psalms 9
• Trust Psalms 25
• Safety Psalms 35
• Thanksgiving Psalms 8
• Discuss Story Endings
• Materials Bible Stories (Volume editions)

21

• Story endings (Beginning, middle, end) Create
  an alternate ending to the following stories. How
  do you think it should have ended? Draw a
  picture to match your ending
• Daniel in the Lions Den, Three Hebrew Boys,
  Writing on the Wall, Samsons last hour of
  strength
• Peter walking on the water

22

• When bad things happen to Christians, is God
  still leading in their lives?
• Yes. I will not fail you or abandon you (Joshua
  15). I am with you always, even unto the end
  of the age (Matthew 2820). Whenever trouble
  comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.
  For when faith is tested, your endurance is
  fully developed, you will be strong in character
  and ready for anything (James 12, 3).

23

• Should personal appearance make a difference in
  our treatment of others?
• No. In 1 Samuel 167 the Lord says that He does
  not look at the outward appearance of a person
  but at his thoughts and intentions. Also read
  Philippians 23 Dont be selfish dont live to
  make a good impression on others. Be humble,
  thinking of others as better than yourself.

24
Some Internet Resources

• http//circle.adventist.org/files/jae/jae200163033
  703.pdf
• Using the Word Studying Biblical references in
  poetry
• http//circle.adventist.org/browse/resource.phtml?
  leaf7408
• Solo time with Goda teen devotional
• http//circle.adventist.org/browse/resource.phtml?
  leaf2782
• Interview with Godmovie, article, power point
• http//www.innvista.com/culture/religion/bible/com
  pare/hebrew.htm
• Parallelism in Hebrew Poetry
• http//www.whiteestate.org/vez/apr07/vez1.html
• Ellen White Visionary for Kids, an e-zine for
  ages 9-14
• http//www.whiteestate.org/godsmessenger.html
• Gods Messenger, 38 lessons for grades 1-12
• http//www.whiteestate.org/vez/vez.html
• The White Estate
• http//www.aplib.org/
• Adventist Pioneer Library
• http//www.asdal.org/sdare/arsweb.html
• Adventist Historical Resources on the Web
• http//circle.adventist.org/browse/resource.phtml?
  leaf1198