Excerpts from the Workshop Rotation Model book

Special Notice: Melissa Hansche and Neil MacQueen have revised and expanded the original Rotation manual posted for free at this website since 1996. The resulting book was published by Presbyterian Publishing House. Due to contractual obligations, this webpage now contains only an abbreviated version of the first draft of the book.

The basic idea is still here though and is supplemented by other articles at this website which Neil has written in subsequent years to address particular issues, such as “Creating a Scope and Sequence.” The Ideas Exchange at rotation.org is also full of helpful suggestions, lists, resources and lessons from Rotation educators.

You can order the Workshop Rotation Model book through Pres. Publishing, Amazon, ~or through Neil's secure online order form at his company's website: http://www.sundaysoftware.com/rotationbook/bookorder.htm.

For a long time, Workshop Rotation was the only Workshop Rotation Model book in existence. Now that several denominational publishers have published “for sale” sets of Rotation lessons, several of them have published Rotation books or brief introductions. They include Cook Communications Workshop Zones linked on this site’s Links page or found at the Cook website.

Here are some lengthy excerpts from the original Workshop Rotation book.

Introduction

This book is for those who...

-Wonder if there's a better way to do Sunday School.

-Are dissatisfied with their current curriculum.

-Are frustrated finding (or being) teachers.

-Are tired of bored students.

-Have bland unimaginative classrooms.

-Think Bible literacy is important.

-Are looking for ways to boost attendance and appeal to visitors.

--Enjoy being creative.

-Believe in teaching through various learning styles.

-Are willing to risk change.

In 1990, we began exploring a new approach to Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church in Barrington Illinois. We called it the Workshop Rotation Model. Our kids and congregation called it "a great Sunday School." The list you just read was our list. We've since discovered that it's just about everybody else's list too. Every day we talk with teachers, pastors, parents and Christian educators who are looking for something better for their Sunday School. This book is for them, and for you.

People often ask what prompted us to reinvent our Sunday School. The answer is simple. Our program was in crisis. Low attendance. Difficulty in recruiting. A basement facility that looked like a dungeon. An expensive denominational curriculum few teachers liked (and some never took out of the cellophane wrapper). Both of us had joined the church staff within six months of each other. Melissa came as the part-time Children's Director, Neil as the Associate Minister for Education and Fellowship. After watching the program run (or not run) for several months, both of us knew something had to change. Both of us were willing to risk failure in order to achieve success, and found that our congregation felt the same way. Perhaps most important: both of us had children in the program.

Before coming to work at the Presbyterian Church in Barrington Illinois, Melissa had been a High School teacher and volunteer in charge of Sunday School in her home congregation. Melissa was the kid who grew up loving Sunday School. By contrast, Neil was the kid who didn't like Sunday School and rarely went. With different gifts and by different paths we found ourselves in the same suburban Chicago church in desperate need of a solution. In the summer of 1990 we sat down in front of a flip chart to figure out what to do about Sunday School.

Whatever we came up with, we agreed that it had to be workable for both volunteers and staff. At that time, Melissa worked at the church only 10 hours a week. In addition to Children'sMinistry, Neil was involved in both Youth and Adult Ministry. We were creative people and wanted to have a creative program. We knew, however, that the Achilles Heel of any church program was the amount of time it took to plan it and recruit people for it. Creative models have come and gone precisely because they were unsustainable in a volunteer environment or heavily dependent on one or two creative people. We knew we wanted to do something creative, but we had to find a way to not burn everyone out, including us!

One option on our flip chart was to shut Sunday School down and do something else rather than continue boring our kids into membership oblivion. We had heard of other churches doing just that --doing something different on another day of the week. We knew we were going to create some other opportunities but weren't ready to throw in the Sunday morning towel. We felt Sunday morning was an opportunity and time slot too important to pass up. We also wanted to give it our best effort before doing something drastic. We believed if we built our dream program the children would come.

And come they did! In our first year of the Workshop Rotation Model, we not only increased attendance, we created a second Sunday School hour during our second Service to handle the demand. More important, our kids were learning their Bible stories in a fun and memorable way, and they wanted to come back. More about the results in Chapter Five.

The Workshop Rotation Model in brief...

In chapter two we'll describe the Model in detail. For those who can't wait, here is a brief description.

First, The Rotation Model redesigns your classrooms into creative media-inspired kid-pleasing workshops that teach Bible stories. These workshops included: art, drama, a-v, computers, Bible games, puppets, and music. Classes or groups rotate to new workshops each week for a four or five week "rotation" period. During that five week period only ONE Bible story is taught. The entire rotation, -every workshop, every week, is focused on learning one Bible story. Workshop teachers do not rotate. They stay put in their workshop -repeating their lesson to a new group of children each week (with some age appropriate modifications). That's the Workshop Rotation Model in a nutshell.

The first time we drew the Model on the flip chart, it looked so simple we thought something had to be wrong. It addressed every problem we had listed. It looked too easy. And yet it is this simplicity which turned out to be one of the model's strengths. We looked at our listing our wishes and problems. We looked at our solution and said, "Let's do it."

Of course, we did have to get permission from our committees and leadership. Surprisingly, that was easier than we thought. Like the story of the Emperor with no clothes, we soon found many of our members felt the same way we did about Sunday School. They had seen the same problems we had seen. They too were ready for change.

We started Workshop Rotation almost immediately using summer classes to try out our new model and get our rooms together. When September came we hit the ground running and haven't looked back since. We did tinker with our model for a year or two before telling other folks about it. Slowly but surely other churches began adopting the Rotation Model for their Sunday School. Most experienced the same or even greater results. It's now estimated that more than 1200 churches are using the Model in a variety of settings and in many denominations. "Rotation churches," as they often called themselves, are sharing their enthusiasm and materials across the country in every state. "The WoRM" as the Workshop Rotation Model is affectionately abbreviated, is well-known in many Midwest church educator circles, including those in the Chicago area, northeast Indiana, Dayton Ohio and parts of Wisconsin. Clusters of Rotation churches can be found around the Denver area, Central Florida, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Portland, Minneapolis, Oshkosh, Kansas City, Cincinnati and St. Louis. There is now a Rotation Model newsletter, website (www.rotation.org), and annual national conferencse (in addition to many regional events). While originally networking through Presbyterian channels, Rotation has spread to many other denominations. This is due in part to its adaptability and the realization that most Sunday Schools, regardless of denomination, are experiencing stagnation or decline.

The Workshop Rotation Model is not merely a creative new way to teach the Bible. It's really just a new way to organize what we already know how to do, -which is teaching the Bible creatively. Many of the Model's organizational and creative ideas have been floating around for years. Some Vacation Bible School curricula have used a rotation model in one form or another. The Workshop Rotation Model is a combination of good ideas brought together at the right time. Sunday School is in trouble in many churches. And the Rotation model may be the solution.

Many of us believe Workshop Rotation is something bigger than just this particular model. Models will come and go as needs and ideas change. The Workshop Rotation is about the willingness to risk change for the sake of doing something better. It's about creating a program that takes into account the limitations of our volunteers and allowing their strengths to shine through. It's about stopping the conveyor belt that's sending kids and their families right out the back door into membership oblivion.

Is the Workshop Rotation Model the right model for your Sunday School? Maybe so. This book is here to help you think through that question. The one answer we're sure most churches cannot afford is to continue doing more of the same. The evangelism of our kids is too important to their spiritual journey and the future viability of our congregations. May God bless your ministry with his children, Melissa Armstrong-Hansche and Neil MacQueen May 1999

Chapter One:

What's Wrong with the Traditional Sunday School Model?

Plenty. Where are all those kids that were in Sunday School twenty and thirty years ago? Where are they now on Sunday mornings, and where are their children? Is it possible that the very programs we put them through --are part of the reason so many have decided to stay away? Could their childhood experience of the boring Sunday School be just below the surface of their decision to continue to walk away then? ...and stay away with their kids now? When they think of going to church with their kids, do memories of church basement mildew, hard folding chairs and lifeless lessons affect their enthusiasm and decision-making? Of course they do. Even those who enjoyed Sunday School (or survived it) or had a nice Sunday School and grew up to become faithful church members often have a difficult time getting their own children to go to Sunday School.

Today's parents are in some significant ways different than the generation of parents before them. Today's generation no longer accept that old excuse for Sunday School that it's like medicine, "bad tasting but good for you." This generation of parents is far less willing to support a program that leaves a bad taste in their children's mouths. They are the ones who grew up saying, "I'll raise my kids differently, you'll see!" Now in charge, they have transformed the public school experience from the rooms full of desks in a row to the dynamic multimedia classroom we see today. They expect teaching methods to be reasonably interesting if not fun. And when it's not, they sympathize with their kids like no other generation before them.

The church is experiencing a decline in volunteerism and institutional loyalty in part because of the changing notion of commitment and the increasing number of things people want to commit themselves to. Our people have more options choices. It's not that people don't have the time to be great teachers. There are still 24 hours in a day. It's simply that they have chosen to do something else. They're spending more time at the soccer field, the club, at work, traveling, or just looking for time to spend at home. The pressure is on to find "family time," and in some households just plain sleep. Options for kids are greater too. Remember when the only thing on Sunday morning television was a news show and Davey and Goliath? With so many other opportunities, many in our churches are opting out of supporting church programs they find less than fulfilling.

The "logistics" of church attendance have changed too. The rise in single-parent households and children alternating weekends between divorced parents are new challenges to Sunday School attendance and teacher recruitment. The demise of the corner church has further distanced our members from us, both psychologically-speaking and time spent in the car. Restful weekends have gone the way of the hula hoop. Sunday morning now competes for attention during the typical family's action packed weekend.

These changing notions of commitment and volunteerism are not only true for this generation of parents, but today's seniors as well. We all have more options to devote our attention to and we're less inclined to say "yes" to options that make us uncomfortable or that we find frustrating. Rather than view this as a negative, however, it can be seen as a positive. It has forced many churches and Sunday Schools out of their slumber.

Times have changed. Attitudes, needs, and educational styles are changing. The Sunday School needs to change as well or it will continue to lose ground in a battle it must not lose. Whether you agree or not with our assessment of the traditional model, the numbers and the struggles across the denominations are telling us that we need something more than the Sunday School model of the 1950's. For many churches right now, it's more than just a matter of vitality, it's a matter of viability. And the further Sunday School stagnates, the more it becomes an issue of viability for us all.

We need successful Sunday Schools. When Children's Sunday School fails, it fails more than just the children. When Sunday School fails, it fails the family, the youth groups, and the future of the congregation itself. When Sunday School fails, Confirmation classes become crash-courses in Christianity, youth can't find the New Testament, and teenagers become scarce in worship.

When Sunday School fails, potential teachers go into hiding and frustrated committees begin looking for the next "Holy Grail" of a curriculum that save the program. When Sunday School languishes, ministers and church leaders who fund budgets and salaries don't take Children's Ministry seriously. Young families are less likely to join or stay active in the church. Parents aren't getting the help they need to raise their children in today's world. We fail the next generation of the Church by sending them fewer church goers who are less enthusiastic and more biblically illiterate.

When Sunday Schools attendance drops, denominational statistics begin to slide and with them the prospect of future mission dollars. Years after the Sunday Schools fails, pastors head off to contemporary worship seminars to learn how to win back into the Sanctuary many of the same people who were chased out when they were young.

When Sunday School thrives, on the other hand, children are happy to be there and they learn more about the Word of God. The thriving environment tells them God is alive and welcoming. Attendance increases. Church shopping visitors are interested in coming back and joining. Budgets and salaries get more support. Staff, committees and teachers are happier and more creative.

The purpose of this book is to share a model for revitalizing Sunday School. It attempts to address all these issues in a practical way. The Workshop Rotation Model is not, however, a panacea. It cannot overcome poor planning, uninspired leadership, or an unwillingness to change. Sunday School isn't the only area of Children's Ministry in need of our attention. There are other important things a congregation needs to effectively evangelize its children. (...A list appears in the book)

Chapter Two:

Problems, A Wish List, and a Solution --The Workshop Rotation Model

One day in June of 1990, in an act of confession, we sat down in front of a flip chart and made a list of all the problems we were having with our Sunday School. That process in and of itself is worth doing if you've never done it before. When we presented the Rotation model to our church leaders, we took them through the same confessional process. What an eye-opening experience it was for us all.

Our Problems.... (Your problems?)

The Teachers

Where did all our teachers go? Many of them have become working mothers. Early on in our search for a new model for Sunday School, we knew we could no longer depend on finding teachers who could teach for the entire year or even part of a year. Team teaching was only a partial solution. We knew we would still end up with Saturday night or early Sunday morning planning on their part. You certainly don't get creative lessons and enthusiastic students that way! We needed more from our teachers, not less. But they needed less, not more. We wanted the teachers to be even more creative and exciting. Where were we going to find them and how could we train each teacher to be a bible scholar, A-V wiz, drama coach, art teacher, and game leader that the traditional curriculums demanded them to be? We knew that too wouldn't work. A teacher who has all these skills and the time to offer them is a rare find.

One traditional excuse has been to blame the volunteers. "If only they would...." "Why won't they...." A traditional response has been to try and train them within an inch of their life. We knew whatever we did, the teaching commitment had to be realistic. It had to bring out the best in them and make them want to teach again. Our solution had to involve more people, not just the faithful remnant.

The Curriculum

All of us, it seems, have been on a quest for the Holy Grail, --searching for that one new and improved curriculum that can solve all our problems. Like other churches, ours had been trying different publisher's guaranteed remedies. These quests begin with Kick-off Sunday bally-hoo and end a few years down the road in a quiet whimper and renewed search. Our latest "new and improved" curriculum had failed us (or we had failed it), and it was expensive, not only in terms of budget, but lost time and opportunity as well. We decided that our solution wasn't to go out and buy something else. We had a whole shelf full of "something else." Instead, we determined that the answer wasn't a new curriculum.

Our Classrooms

Our classrooms were sadder than sad. Furniture-choked rooms with beige concrete walls, and faded construction paper letters on crooked bulletin boards spelling out "_ESUS LOVES YO_." None of us would decorate our children's bedrooms like we did our classrooms. None of us would allow inadequate lighting and "basement mildew decor" in our schools, why had we allowed it to happen in our church? Our kids didn't want to go down there. Even WE didn't want to go "down there." No matter what we taught, we knew it would be the kiss-of-death to put it all back into our uninspired classrooms. We wanted an atmosphere that expressed the love of God, not something out of Dante.

The Schedule

Our attendance, special event schedules and teachers' availability varied throughout the year. We were paying for 13 Sunday lessons a quarter but rarely had even 10 free Sundays to teach them. We needed something that was flexible, adaptable, inexpensive, and able to ignite some enthusiasm while being faithful to the Word of God.

Bible Literacy

We wanted our kids to remember their lessons. We were tired of Confirmation kids not knowing who, what, where or why about the Bible. We questioned why we were moving too fast through the Bible -as if all our kids were there every week. We wondered if it was reasonable to be spending so much time in any other part of the Bible when our kids couldn't remember the basics about Jesus' life. We also recognized the need to go back over previously taught material. We needed to find out what didn't sink in the first time. We also knew that our students had a better chance of remembering their lessons if we refreshed their recall.

Apathy

We wondered out loud if anybody other than a handful of us was taking Christian education seriously anymore. We wondered if the apathy affected not only our recruitment and attendance, but our budget, staff salaries and leadership abilities. Worse, we could see the apathy reflected in the faces of our kids and parents. Few parents wanted to step into their kids' classrooms and the kids couldn't wait to leave.

Attendance

Last but not least, we had lousy attendance. On any given Sunday more than half of our kids were missing. And yet we bought the curriculum and our teachers dutifully prepared their lessons every week as if everyone was there all the time.

We knew there were many other factors that affect attendance (such as, good preaching). New to the church staff, we were told, "Our families are just very busy." Instead of making or accepting excuses, however, we believed we could do better. But how?

And then we made a "Wish List"...

1. We dreamed of a real art room to get messy in, to concentrate our art supplies, to be taught by someone who enjoyed teaching children through art (not just someone skilled in crafts). We joked about banning construction paper to see if we could live without it.

2. We dreamed of a drama and puppet area full of costumes, props and plenty of room to put on bible skits. An A-V room where the kids could relax and view or act out God's word in something other than folding chairs or an old bathrobe.

3. In our dream program, each classroom and every hallway would be a visual treat, a place kids would love to be. We dreamed of a place and a program that would turn kids on to the things of God and his Church, not turn them off. We wanted even the walls to teach, welcome and comfort.

4. We wanted a model that didn't ask our teachers for an unrealistic commitment of time, training or skills. We wanted a Sunday School that could tap in to busy but creative talent in our congregation rather than just the ones who had the time or felt obligated to help.

5. We wanted to reduce our reliance on and expectations of expensive curriculum. Purchasing teacher manuals, flyers and workbooks (which didn't always get used or enjoyed) was eating up our budget. We literally had a room full of creative resources collecting dust. Our teachers knew where these materials were, but they were hard-pressed to use the denominational curriculum, let alone wade through all our other resources. The answer wasn't a cleaning cloth, but a fresh idea about using some of those resources.

6. We wanted a model that spent more time on central bible stories and not four weeks on "The Man with the Withered Hand" or a Winter in the Minor Prophets.

7. We wanted a curriculum schedule that took into account the fact that most children don't attend every Sunday.

8. We wanted a Sunday School modeled on the way children love to learn: by movement, by smells and tastes, visual stimulation, feelings, games and drama. We wanted an educational approach that was welcoming and fun, while being fundamentally sound.

9. And finally, we wanted our church leaders, parents, teachers and other members to recognize how important Sunday School was to the health of the congregation. We needed from them no fear of failure and every encouragement.

10. The last thing on our wish list was the fortitude and prayers to make the necessary changes! We knew from the outset that what we were asking for was not out there and that we would probably have to create it. We were determined to go forward --wherever forward might lead us. Staying the same was not an option.

Do any of these problems sound like your problems? Is your wish list similar to ours? If so, read on for a solution that might just make your day....

A Solution: The Workshop-Rotation Model

Wrestling with our dreams and frustrations, we set out to create a program that satisfied as much as we could on both lists. We looked around at other models, adapted a few ideas and came up with a couple of our own. What emerged was what we called the Workshop-Rotation Model. This is the model we follow for grades 1 through 6.

(Note: Other Rotation churches call their Rotation Sunday Schools by various locally inspired names: "New Bible Adventures," "Spirit Trek," "Bible Discovery Zone." In our congregation, we called it "Sunday School." Within a couple of years, "Sunday School" was synonymous with "awesome!" The phrase "Workshop Rotation Model" is usually typically only used by those when describing the model to others. The two of us can't remember why we came up with the name Workshop Rotation. It isn't "pretty" but it does seem descriptive.)

The first thing we changed was the division of our room into grade level classrooms. We redesigned our former classrooms into a collection of creative learning-style based workshops through which classes or groups of kids rotated --one workshop per a week. In our church, the workshops are: The Art Workshop, The Drama and Puppet Workshop, The Audio-Visual Workshop, The Bible Skills and Games Workshop, The Bible Computer Lab, and The Music Workshop. Each of these workshops will be described later.

Each workshop has its own unique decor, furniture and layout to facilitate the mode of learning that will take place in the space. Following a posted schedule, the children rotate to a new workshop each week. All the workshops focus on the same Bible story for four or five weeks at a time.

The second thing we changed was how we assigned our teachers. Instead of teaching a new lesson each week to the same class for all or part of the year, teachers are assigned to one workshop for each four or five week Rotation. They prepare one lesson using a lesson plan that our "Design Team" has given them (more about the Design Team later).

Since they use the same or similar lesson each week as the different grade groups rotate through, the teacher really only has to plan the lesson once. During the Rotation they make age appropriate adjustments using suggestions from the lesson plan. They also make adjustments based on their experience from the previous week. By the second or third week in the rotation, Rotation teachers know their lesson plan by heart and have improved it based on real classroom experience. This frees them up from looking at the

manual, allowing more eye contact with the students. Lessons sound less "canned" since they're not reading it off the page. They also like the shorter length of commitment. Now they say, "Five weeks? I can handle that!" ...and come back for more.

Many churches recruit caring adults to move with each group of students through the workshops as the class "shepherd." Shepherds see to the pastoral needs of the kids, helping the workshop teacher as needed. Originally in our church, we had a designated "shepherd" for each class. But due to some of the unique circumstances and strengths of our congregation and Sunday School, we soon dropped the shepherding idea. Most of our Rotation teachers taught several different Rotation periods during the year and became well-known to our students. Depending on your circumstances and needs you might include shepherds in your design.

The third change the Rotation Model makes is repeating the same story through different learning media for four to five weeks in order to achieve Bible literacy. Repetition is the cornerstone of remembering. Students learn the same story each week through a different workshop medium. This multi-modal approach targets the many learning styles of the student. Because the story is presented each week in a different workshop with a different teacher and medium, the students don't get bored. In fact, we found our students felt good about remembering the story from week to week. This also allowed our teachers to explore the story a little deeper as the weeks went on.

One of the groups that benefited from this slower pace were our infrequent attenders. When they came, they got a great lesson. Because we were taking our time on the major stories of the Bible, their exposure to those stories increased.

The fourth thing that Rotation Model changed was our schedule. Instead of having to combine or eliminate lessons in order to keep up with a traditional quarterly curriculum, the Rotation lesson schedule is set by the church. The length of a rotation can be adjusted to fit the church's calendar, how many workshops we want to use to teach a story with, and how many weeks we want to teach it for.

Most churches have found that four or five weeks is a good rotation length. It allows them to cover the story in-depth, achieve Bible literacy, and keep a reduced preparation time for the teachers. A church with six grade groups in the Rotation, can teach a three week Rotation about the Birth of Jesus if that is all the time they have between Thanksgiving and special Advent Sunday programming. They will still need six workshops for the six groups, but that for that Rotation each grade group will miss three of the workshops. Conversely, A church with only two or three grade groups can study the Prodigal Son for as many workshops as they can muster. This flexibility in adapting to the church's schedule, number of workshops you have, and number of grade groups, makes the Rotation model usable by any size program or schedule. You can view sample workshop schedules in Chapter Nine.

The Rotation Model also eliminates the need for frenetic eight step lesson plans. In their place are simple three or four step lesson plans. The reason? It takes time to do a Bible study and then re-enact it as a drama, to watch a video, to create a wire sculpture, to do Bible research on a computer, or set-up a puppet play on the Bible story.

Traditional eight step lesson plans often turn the teacher into something of a ringmaster or juggler. With a simplified lesson plan, the teacher's focus is off the manual and on the learning activity they are skilled at teaching. Teacher stress level is reduced and there is less of a tendency to lecture. And there is more time for teacher-student interaction because your teacher isn't trying to figure out what to do next or running around looking for the scissors.

One of the big changes the Rotation Model brings is the degree of reliance on expensive prepackaged curriculum. Lesson plans come from a "Design Team" of creative volunteers who glean from other resources and come up with their own ideas. Finding one creative art project every five weeks is a whole lot more doable than coming up with a creative new project every week.

The Rotation model also recognizes that our individual workshop teachers will modify some of what we give them and improve on the original lesson plan week after week. The money saved by not buying expensive packaged curriculum gets plowed back into the program for other projects, props, costumes, computer software, bright paint, and creative decor.

The Workshop Rotation Model brought us excitement, biblical literacy, improved attendance, happy students, happy teachers, improved interactive learning, new volunteers, renewed support for the program and ownership of the education process. One of the best results was with our visitors and new members. Our Sunday School became the number one reason people said they continued to visit and eventually join our congregation. "Our kids didn't want to go anywhere else," they told us.

The Workshop Rotation Model isn't merely a make-over. It's about evangelizing today's families. In the next several chapters, you will read more about each aspect of the Workshop-Rotation Model. But before sharing more details about "how" it works, in the next chapter we'd like to suggest "why" it works.

Historical Footnote:

The Workshop Model has many things in common with some VBS programs, learning centers and other creative curricula developed over the years. We agree with Solomon that there truly is nothing new under the sun. We've run into educators who "did something like Rotation back in the 19__'s." What makes the Rotation Model unique is the combination of certain ingredients and its slower pace allowing creativity to be sustained over the long haul without burn out. Unlike VBS, the Rotation Model focuses on ONE story, rather than several under a general theme.

Chapter Three

Why the Workshop-Rotation Model Makes Sense

(abbreviated)

It works! Now for those who need more explanation, here they are....

Reason 1: It is practical for the teachers and fun for the kids.

Imagine yourself a volunteer teacher in the Rotation model. You are approached to teach three Rotation sets a year, -a fifteen-week commitment. The first two Rotations work into your schedule nicely and you get a scheduled break before your last five week "tour of duty" during November when you'll be out of town. The first two Rotations you're in the Art Workshop because you love teaching with art. Nobody knows this about you (yet) but you had a minor in drama at State U. so for the third Rotation you decide to tackle the Good Samaritan in the Drama Workshop.

No running around Saturday night. No fumbling through your teaching manual on the way to church. The kids can't wait to see what their going to do in your workshop. And if it doesn't turn out well your first week, you get a "do over."

...

Reason Two: It emphasizes the learning environment.

We believe the first lesson a child learns from Sunday School is, whether or not they are welcome, whether or not there is anything here to be excited about. All of us learn and react from our surroundings. This is particularly true of children. Children "read" the environment we create for them and these impressions help shape and shade all lessons that follow.

Researchers tell us that among children (and many adults) these subjective "readings" of the learning atmosphere have a strong emotional component. Feelings are created and rekindled by sight and smell. Feelings about the teacher, the room, and lesson activity become linked to their feelings about God, the Church, the Bible. Think about it for a moment from a child's perspective. What might spiders and mildew, dark hallways and ugly walls be saying to the child about God? ....

We took these "first lessons" to heart and committed ourselves to transforming our Sunday School surroundings regardless of what model or curriculum we came up with. We wanted our kids to feel God's love and warmth even from the paint on the walls. Our former beige and block basement became a feast for the eyes. Outside the Workshops, colorful Bible story murals abound. The children are greeted by smiling Bible characters and a large display area signaling the Rotation theme. Old furniture has been stored or thrown out. Dark corners have been relit. Fresh pictures and posters have been hung. "Church clutter" and poorly used bulletin boards were removed. Signs were posted for visitors. Old or broken fixtures (lights, hardware, faucets, doorknobs, vents, etc.) were fixed or replaced. Banners were brought out of storage. And most significantly for asthma and allergy sufferers, that mildew smell has been eradicated!

This transformation has happened with enthusiastic support. Even our Trustees came to understand the needs of children and saw that this wasn't going to be the "same old." When the program make over was presented to them in terms of attracting members and keeping those we had active and educated, they enthusiastically joined with us. They appreciated the fact that we were saving money on a curriculum by using our own resources or less expensive ones. They saw how excited the children were to be learning in the Workshops. Several of them wished it had "been like this when they were a kid" or when their own kids were younger.

Our A-V Workshop has theater seats, not folding chairs. (Many churches have found theater seats free from theaters that are remodeling). There's a popcorn machine in the corner and Bible movie posters on the walls.

The Drama Workshop has cushions and couches to sit on, with plenty of floor space to create any scene we can imagine.

The more traditional learning environment of the Bible Skills and Games Workshop has plenty of "gameware" and a large white sheet draped underneath the fluorescent lights like a tent. In fact, many other Rotation churches have gone our "Temple Workshop" one better... they have created a "Scripture Tent" right in the middle of the room.

Because we believe atmosphere to be so critical to the learning process, we spend quite a bit of time making our rooms exciting places for the kids. Because we don't have to spend our budget on an expensive curriculum, we have money to spend on the little extras that can mean a lot. When you look at your rooms, think big, think different, think like a kid. In Chapter Four, you'll read about more room ideas.

Reason Three: The Model uses multiple learning styles to teach the Bible

Each one of our students has many different learning styles. Some learn better by doing or saying, moving or sitting still, viewing or hearing, touching or tasting, discussing or pondering.

In fact, we all learn through all these different styles -and some styles more than others. It is a multi-sensory marvel soaking up input from its external world, arranging and linking it together in countless ways at multiple levels in the brain. The more multi-sensory the learning the more broadly and deeply it is stored and recalled. Because the brain is wired for this way, conscientious teaching must be "wired" this way as well to make the most of our students' capacity to learn and grow.

...

Of course, Sunday Schools have always known about learning styles. Even many traditional curricula have been rather creative in their approaches. The Rotation model simply slows the pace down, making the lesson planning and execution less of an impossible task for the teacher.

The issue isn't whether learning or teaching styles should be used -we've always used various styles. The issue raised by the Rotation Model is how best to organize our Sunday Schools to take advantage of different learning and teaching styles. The discussion in this next section completes the thought.

Reason Four: The Workshop-Rotation Model recognizes our teachers for who they are, and who they are not. When we hand a manual to a volunteer teacher with little or no training and then give them a class of kids for the semester or year, it's a game of roulette. Even when we pick good teachers with good teaching and relational skills, we still have issues, such as, "Bill won't do the art project because he's all thumbs." "Jill can't sing a note so she doesn't use the music part of the lesson." "Bev would rather lecture and skip the games because she thinks they're too childish." "I don't know why Ted was so off today, usually he's a great teacher." "She didn't have time to get the props together so we're going to watch a video instead."

The Workshop Rotation Model recognizes our teachers for who they are, not what we wish them to be. They don't always do a good job. They're not always as prepared as they should be. And left on their own with a lesson plan, they will pick and choose the activities that they are most comfortable with. The Rotation Model identifies the gifts of our teachers (and their weaknesses) and puts them in a workshop where their talents can best serve the kids. The weekly repetition of the lesson let's them improve and feel better about their teaching experience. The ability to have a "do-over" is perhaps the single most powerful and compassionate aspect of the model.

This power and compassion extends right into the lesson plan itself. Traditional lesson plans try to do too much. They try to jam too many styles of learning into each lesson. This creates lesson plans with six or more elements to conduct in a 45 to 60 minute class period. This a recipe for teacher frustration and student overload. One could also make the case that it didn't work in terms of Bible literacy or attendance.

In the Workshop-Rotation Model, class content and lesson plans are pared back to only a few elements. Each Workshop teaches a complete lesson through its own particular style or medium using teachers skilled in those styles. After six years of teaching with Workshops, it has been our experience that the children and teachers don't get bored by the slower pace and the repetition of the story. On the contrary, they relax, interact, have fun, get more involved, and get more time to think and do and talk. As the weeks progress, knowledge and understanding improve.

The Rotation Model doesn't ask for unreasonable commitments from our volunteer teachers......

The Rotation Model offers our members an easy to digest commitment. It gives them an opportunity to teach children in their preferred style. Rotation churches report new teachers coming out of the woodwork, and with them, their support for the program.

Reason Five: The Model is adaptable to different size churches, facilities, and theological points of view. In our first year of operation we didn't give much thought to whether or not our Model could be used by other churches. We were simply doing something that worked in our situation. Slowly but surely, however, all sorts of other churches began giving it a try. One of the first was a church half the size of ours with only a part-time Director of Christian Education (Our church had 900 members when we started the Rotation Model). Since then, the Rotation Model has found its way into churches of all sizes and circumstances. The smallest church we know of doing the Model has 41 members. The largest has more than 6000 members. Interestingly enough, it was a 600 member church which helped the 6000 member church by sharing their first year materials and insights.

Because workshops replace classrooms, most churches don't have a "where do we do it" problem. In fact, many churches have extra space due to membership decline and a smaller Sunday School than what their facility was built for. Smaller churches, however, often only have two or three classrooms to convert to workshops. Spurred on by the creative problem solving the Model engenders, these churches have adapted the Model quite successfully to their situations. One room might pull double duty as a drama workshop one week, and an A-V workshop the next.

The Workshop Rotation Model IS a theological point of view. It seeks to make the Word of God attractive and memorable to young people. It tries to make Sunday School more like heaven than purgatory. It believes in our member's giftedness and recognizes their limitations. Beyond that, we believe it is the responsibility of each individual congregation to determine content, scope and sequence of the curriculum. Having said that, it is surprising how much consensus there is across the country and denominations about what Bible stories and concepts should be taught to our children. We encourage each church to go through a discernment exercise, --to gather church leaders together and let them decide (and thus, own) their Sunday School's content. We have our own particular thoughts on what we think should be taught through the Rotation Model. You can find our scope and sequence in Chapter Six.

Practical, flexible, adaptable, kid pleasing, teacher friendly, inviting, learning styles informed, Bible literacy producing and educationally sound, --the Workshop Rotation Model works.

Chapter Four: The Workshops Described

This chapter describes the five main workshops in our church, and descriptions of many other creative workshops.......

• The Art Workshop 
• The Drama Workshop 
• The Puppet Workshop and Interesting Puppet Workshop Variations...
• The Audio-Visual Workshop
• The TV Newsroom Workshop --an interesting hybrid between A-V and Drama Workshops
• The Bible Skills and Games Workshop

"The Tent Commandments," "Temple School," "Bedouin Encampment," the variations are as endless as the imagination and resources.

The Music Workshop

The Bible Computer Lab

Other Possible Workshops...

Workshop Variations

What about preschoolers?

What about teens?

What about adults?

Fellowship Groups and the Rotation Model....

Chapter Five: Reactions from Kids, Church, Staff & Teachers

Chapter Six: Curriculum Our Six Year Plan

The Six Year Workshop-Rotation Plan The Presbyterian Church of Barrington

The importance of teaching stories

Chapter Seven: The Design Team, Teacher Recruitment & Training

Other Ways to Produce Lesson Plans

Other Sources for Rotation Curriculum

Recruiting Teachers

Training

Large and Small Churches

Shared Space

The Exodus Story --A Rotation Lesson Set

Chapter Ten: What others are saying about the Workshop Rotation Model

Resources

About your authors

Melissa Hansche is a Presbyterian Church educator serving the Presbyterian Church in Barrington Illinois where she is responsible for children and youth education. Melissa is a former High School teacher, and mother of two children. The Presbyterian Church of Barrington 6 Brinker Road Barrington, IL 60010 (847-381-0975)

Neil MacQueen is a Presbyterian minister, formerly serving in two parishes as an Associate minister for Education and now working full-time at Sunday Software in Hilliard Ohio. Neil is also a Parish Associate at Hilliard Presbyterian Church. Neil also created and continues to volunteer time to the Rotation Model website at www.rotation.org . Neil and his wife Malinda have three children. Sunday Software, 4369 Brickwood Dr. Hilliard Ohio 43026 (800-678-1948)