PSR assessment...

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rainy918

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Hello!
I am teaching a group of 3rd graders in their 1st year of PSR…
so this means that they are about 8 years old, but it is the first experience they will have with a structured class (for religion).

Last year, I was a bit surprised that the children didn’t know bible stories or why we celebrate Christmas… I really did have to start at the very beginning with that group.

Now I realize that each year, the kids are a different group, but this year, I wanted to be a bit more prepared…
I want to do a “fun” questionnaire with the kids on the first day, sort of to break the ice, and sort of to know where I stand…

I need some help with the questions though. I am not sure if I am phrasing them correctly or if I am missing any that might be very important!

Thanks for any help that you might offer! God Bless.

Here is what I have so far:

Do you know who Jesus is?
Do you know where Jesus was born?
Do you like to color?
Do you like to do crafts?
Do you know the Our Father prayer?
Do you know the Hail Mary prayer?
Do you know the Glory Be prayer?
Have you heard about the saints?
Do you have a bible?
Do you go to mass/church?
Are you glad you are in this class?
What do you want to learn this year?
Do you like crafts?
What is your favorite holiday?
Who is Mary?
When is your birthday?
 
I’m planning on something similar. I teach RCIA for kids, so they can be in quite a wide variety of places in their faith journey. Here is a link to the questioner that I made up. I did it in multiple choice. I tried to put in the right answer, an obviously wrong one and a couple other common ones even if they aren’t right. And I said they can pick more than one on pretty much any question.

Also, I have a social group for catechist down there in my sig. It is new, but I’m hoping it becomes a resource for catechists. I sent you an invitation or you can click on the link to join. 😃
 
How about:

Who is your patron saint?
Do you pray to your guardian angel?

Just my 2 cents. Have fun!
 
Karen,

This is EXACTLY what I am thinking! And I am going to give them the same exact sheet at the end of the year to see if I got through to any of them!

I really appreciate this so much. I am going to join your group as well. I have been looking for something like that too.

Its nice to make our acquaintance and again, thanks for the help.

God Bless you and good luck in class…
when does yours start? Mine starts late, Sept. 23rd. I am so excited.
 
We start Sept 13th. I’m excited, I love teaching! 😃

Actually I need to get going because we have a retreat/training today, so I better get moving.

I’ll talk to you later! 👋
 
rainy918 said:
Hello!
I am teaching a group of 3rd graders in their 1st year of PSR…
so this means that they are about 8 years old, but it is the first experience they will have with a structured class (for religion).

Last year, I was a bit surprised that the children didn’t know bible stories or why we celebrate Christmas… I really did have to start at the very beginning with that group.

Now I realize that each year, the kids are a different group, but this year, I wanted to be a bit more prepared…
I want to do a “fun” questionnaire with the kids on the first day, sort of to break the ice, and sort of to know where I stand…

I need some help with the questions though. I am not sure if I am phrasing them correctly or if I am missing any that might be very important!

Thanks for any help that you might offer! God Bless.

Here is what I have so far:

Do you know who Jesus is?
Do you know where Jesus was born?
Do you like to color?
Do you like to do crafts?
Do you know the Our Father prayer?
Do you know the Hail Mary prayer?
Do you know the Glory Be prayer?
Have you heard about the saints?
Do you have a bible?
Do you go to mass/church?
Are you glad you are in this class?
What do you want to learn this year?
Do you like crafts?
What is your favorite holiday?
Who is Mary?
When is your birthday?
Click to expand...
You are going to get alot of yes and no answers that may or may not be accurate. For example someone may answer “yes” to “Do you know the Hail Mary prayer?” when in fact s/he does not. Also, two children could answer “yes” to “Have you heard about the saints?”, one having heard something in passing and one having been read saint stories to him/her for years.

I love the question, “Who is Mary?” I think you’ll get a lot of really interesting and probably humorous answers. I am sure you’ll have a kid or two who may blow you away with what they know (I love when that happens…).
 
Thank you for your response, HouseArrest. I think that you are exactly right which is why I was excited to find Karen’s paper with the multiple choice. I will add many more multiple choice questions and maybe leave a couple of them for sentence answers.

I am so exicted!
 
I concur that multiple choice questions are the way to go. Yes or No questions can’t really tell you as much.

It depends what you’re going for. KarenElissa’s questionnaire looks very good. I think it would definitely give you a general idea of where the kids are at, which may be all you need for third grade (particularly with this being their first year). If you’re looking for a longer, more detailed assessment, here are some tips for coming up with more questions.

Start by coming up with some basic categories. Of course, the Catechism is a good place to go for that, as is the basic curriculum you have to work with. God/Trinity, the Church, Scripture, Sacraments, Morality, and Prayer are some basics. Once you have the categories, then you can start to key some questions into those categories in an even mix.

Divinity Religious Education had some excellent Catholic Quiz booklets, but sadly they seem to have fallen by the way-side. I’d recommend trying to find some used copies, but a quick search of Amazon shows them going for over a hundred dollars in some cases. :eek: They were a good source for questions. 😦 I mention them so that, if your parish has any lying around, you can use them.

Catechist magazine (which I do not recommend overall) does have a monthy feature “What’s Your Catholic IQ?” which is quite helpful. So if you have some copies lying around, you could use them, but I wouldn’t subscribe to the magazine solely for that purpose.
 
Just out of curiosity, why don’t you recommend the Catechist magazine?
 
rainy918 said:
Just out of curiosity, why don’t you recommend the Catechist magazine?
Click to expand...
I guess I shouldn’t impose my “baggage” on you when it comes to catechetical magazines. Sorry. :o

It’s not that Catechist magazine is awful. I probably stated my dislike for it a bit too strongly. It’s hard for me to put my finger on exactly. I guess it just seems (to me at least) to be focused more on method than on content. I prefer magazines like The Sower that give you both. It’s been a while since I’ve read through any of the articles in Catechist magazine, though, so perhaps it has improved.

I think there are definitely worse magazines out there than Catechist. It just seems a little doctrinally light. That’s just my opinion, though.
 
Well, I love love love to read, so thank you for pointing me in the direction of The Sower. I only recently saw a copy of the Catholic Digest, and wasn’t overly excited by it…
I like Catechist magazine, but can definately “feel” what you are saying. I kind of like the lightness on some days… and the quick little lessons I can gather from it for “my” third graders.

🙂

Thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut on all of this :cool:
 
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