Understanding Catholic Christianity

(Teaching Manual)
Author: Thomas Zanzig , Barbara Allaire

Illustrator: Michael O. McGrath and 45 student artists

The course Understanding Catholic Christianity offers a comprehensive overview of Catholicism for ninth graders, to serve as a foundation for the other high school religion courses and faith formation experiences they will have. The teaching manual is an integral component of the course and was designed to fully support the full-color student text.

For each chapter of the student text, the teaching manual provides the following information:
a summary of the major concepts with references to numbers in the Catechism of the Catholic Church teacher prayers at the beginning and end of each chapter prayer services for the class student text review questions, with suggested answers activities from the margins of the student text additional activities for each major concept, such as discussion questions, small-group activities, role-play situations and skits, case studies, suggestions for interviews and guest speakers, recommendations for audiovisual resources, writing activities, journal-keeping, and research projects a total of twenty-eight student handouts, with removable masters for copying

The teaching manual contains the following additional resources:

• an introduction to the course, including a course rationale, an outline of the major concepts of the course, lesson planning suggestions, and descriptions of how to use the features of the student text and teaching manual
• an appendix of additional suggestions for effective teaching
• an annotated list of recommended audiovisual resources
• a list of audiovisual distributors
• a bibliography of suggestions for further reading
• sample test questions, also available free of charge in editable format

  More activities are suggested in the manual than a teacher could use in a semester. This wide selection allows teachers to choose the activities that are best suited to their students.

  Grade level: Understanding Catholic Christianity is intended primarily for use with ninth-grade students in a one- or two-semester course, although it can be used for other grades as well.

  Free electronic testbanks: We are happy to share with you the electronic files of the test questions that are found in our teaching manuals. These testbanks are offered free of charge to any high school teacher who has purchased a classroom set of one or more of our SMP textbooks. The testbank files are in text format, so they can be easily accessed within your preferred word-processing program. You can then format, arrange, edit, and print out the questions to create tests for your students. The electronic testbanks are available online for downloading. Call our customer service representatives toll-free at 800-533-8095 to request your free electronic testbanks.

  Free high school teaching resources online: At SMP’s Web site Faith Community Builders, you’ll find a virtual community and innovative information that will be helpful for your course, and it’s free! The Web site contains hundreds of teaching strategies and articles selected to enhance your courses, annotated links to other Web sites, back issues of the Connect newsletter, vision papers for your high school community, prayer requests, and a discussion forum with your peers. Get connected with the people and resources you need now--anytime of the day or night!

Length: 362 pages

Size: 8.5 x 11

Number of Handouts: 28 handout masters

Copyright: 1996