Required Materials

Luther’s Small Catechism, 1991

New International Version (NIV) Bible

“Applying Luther’s Catechism” Workbook

Notebook

Paper

Pencils/pens

Rationale

Confirmation is a time of spiritual growth in the life of the students. This means that they will come into a closer relationship with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Each year of study in school has lead them to this point. Now it is time for them to take all that they have learned and begin to process it in their personal lives. They will learn what it means to be 1) a Christian and 2) a Lutheran. In confirmation class they will come to know that it is important to know Jesus personally as their Savior. They will also learn that it is important to feed their faith regularly through worship, study and prayer.

The secondary goal of the class is the rite of confirmation (which will take place for this class, on April 25, 2010). We remember that confirmation is a public rite of the church, which is preceded by a period of instruction. This class is that instruction.

We will cover the Small Catechism. This is the basic teaching tool of the Lutheran Church. Through the year, the students will be asked to put their faith into practice. At those times, they will learn that faith in Jesus Christ is not a mere “head” knowledge but is ”heart” knowledge as well. They will learn that they need to be practicing their faith day after day, not only in preparation for confirmation but through out the rest of their lives.

Requirements

Each student is required to complete any and all assignments as they are given on the class schedule or in class. We will be using the workbook “Applying Luther’s Catechism.” The schedule of the lessons is in the notebook. The students will have the lesson done when they arrive for class. I will collect the books, grade them over the next couple days and return them to the students on Saturday/Sunday services. This means that you will need to either be in worship each week or make arrangements to get your book so that you can do the next lesson.

During class we will be doing worksheets that correspond with the book lessons. We will be working directly from Luther’s Small Catechism during the classes. The students will always need a pencil or pen with them for each class.

Memory work is also on the class schedule. For the general memory work (Bible passages or chief parts of the Catechism) the student can do memory in one of two ways: 1) He/she can say the memory work at the beginning of the class period. He/she will need to be ready when class begins. He/she will be given a few minutes to look it over but will not be given time to “learn” the memory work at the beginning of class. It will be graded according to the scale listed later in these sheets. 2) He/she can write the memory work out 5 times. This must be done when he/she comes to the class. It cannot be done on the computer but must be hand-written. If it is written correctly, the student will receive full credit. If the memory is not written out at the beginning of the class, points will be taken off. This is a change in memory to try to help those who struggled a little with memory. You MUST do one or the other. And you MUST be ready when the class begins.

The students are required to complete 2 sermon summaries a month (Sept. – April). This means that they will need to be in worship at least twice a month. The expectation is that they will be worshiping with their families every week. Worship is a very important part of the confirmation experience. A copy of the summaries is available both in the workbooks as well as at each entrance to the church.

Sermon Summaries

There is a tendency to wait to complete the sermon summaries at the end of the school year. Therefore this year there will be a schedule for turning in the sermon summaries.

2 Sept. summaries due Oct. 1

2 Oct. summaries due Nov. 5

2 Nov. summaries due Dec. 3

2 Dec. summaries due Jan. 7

2 Jan. summaries due Feb. 4

2 Feb. summaries due March 4

2 March summaries due April 1

2 April summaries due May 6

The sermon summaries should be done here at Immanuel. If you are attending another church and are in need of a summary, you may do that sermon. Any worship service may be used: Sunday, Wednesday, funerals, weddings, special services, etc. The student needs to do 2 a month. I would expect that the students should be in worship a minimum of 2 times a month. The 8^th grade students will be acolyting so they should be able to do their sermon summaries at those services. Please do not put off doing the sermon summaries. If you wish, you can review the sermon on the Internet at immanuelaltamont.org. Click on the sermon button and you can access the sermon. They are posted every Monday and stay posted for 1 month.

Grading

The grading scale is according to the ALIS scale (which is similar to AGS). If the student does his/her work, does the memory work in a satisfactory fashion and completes the sermon summaries, there should be no problem receiving a good grade in this class. If the student refuses to do the work, or does a poor job on memory, he/she will receive poor grades. If there is a problem in doing the work, I will be discussing this with the parents. I will be giving out grades each quarter.

Each memory passage is worth 5 points. If the student is able to get through the passage is with 1 or less helps, he/she will receive all 5 points. If there are 2-3 helps, it will be 4 points; 4-5 helps, 3 points; 6-7 helps, 2 points; 8-9 helps, 1 point; more than 9 helps, 0 points. I expect every student to receive either 4 or 5 points for each section of memory work. Once again, this is review so the students should be able to handle the work.

Each lesson in the workbook is worth 20 points. If the student has worked on it, answered the majority of the questions and shown effort, he/she will receive the 20 points. That number will come down as the work is not done. You will be able to keep track of how the student is doing when the workbook is returned.

It is expected that the student will receive a passing grade in the class, just as in school. If the student does the work, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Other

The students may be required to do other work from time to time. I expect this to be finished as well.

If you have any concerns during the school year, please talk with me ASAP. I will do the same. I do want to make this a good year. There is much that we can do together. I need your help and support to make it possible.