K
KCT
Guest
What book(s)/ series does your parish Religious Ed program use? Do you like it? Why or why not? And from what perspective are you answering - parent, catechist, other.
Thanks!!
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1
1ke
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We use Faith First Legacy for 1-6. Faith First has a junior high program for 7-8 that we’ve also used.
For 2nd grade sacraments I’ve used several different books, none of which I am totally happy with.
For high school/confirmation we’ve used the Understanding the Catechism series (4 books), Theology of the Body for Teens, T3 Teen bible studies, and some others.
We also have some curriculum from the diocese we use.
Frankly, I tend not to use a book at all. I use the diocesan curriculum guidelines and teach without a book. But of course most catechists aren’t able to do that.
I find Faith First to be adequate. The Understanding the Catechism series is really good, but it is written for Catholic school so you have to heavily adapt and cut for a parish CCD program.
I am a catechist and the parish CRE.
The parish had Faith and Life at one time (before my time) but the teachers and the kids hated it. It was WAY too much text and it was geared more for school than a parish program. Solid orthodox teaching, but not compatible with our parish program.
I’m sure Puzzleannie will weigh in on this topic.
For 2nd grade sacraments I’ve used several different books, none of which I am totally happy with.
For high school/confirmation we’ve used the Understanding the Catechism series (4 books), Theology of the Body for Teens, T3 Teen bible studies, and some others.
We also have some curriculum from the diocese we use.
Frankly, I tend not to use a book at all. I use the diocesan curriculum guidelines and teach without a book. But of course most catechists aren’t able to do that.
I find Faith First to be adequate. The Understanding the Catechism series is really good, but it is written for Catholic school so you have to heavily adapt and cut for a parish CCD program.
I am a catechist and the parish CRE.
The parish had Faith and Life at one time (before my time) but the teachers and the kids hated it. It was WAY too much text and it was geared more for school than a parish program. Solid orthodox teaching, but not compatible with our parish program.
I’m sure Puzzleannie will weigh in on this topic.
K
KCT
Guest
Ignatius Press publishes free lesson plans for using it with a once/ week religious ed program. I’m curious about how they go over with catechists.The parish had Faith and Life at one time (before my time) but the teachers and the kids hated it. It was WAY too much text and it was geared more for school than a parish program. Solid orthodox teaching, but not compatible with our parish program.
H
HouseArrest
Guest
I am a parent of Catholic school children. Our school and REP program use the same text - Faith First - for K-8. The teachers at our school obviously, out of necessity, supplement, because there is nowhere near enough material to use for an entire week. I hear there is more online, though. When I try to study for tests with my kids there is nothing to really ask them in the chapter.
I substituted for REP 8th grade a few weeks ago. It was the first time i had ever taught REP. i used the 7th grade Faith and Life book a family member had. I did look up the modifications for REP and it worked well. I did have to go out and buy materials for making a sacramental, and paid for it myself, but maybe other REP programs have funds for that. Not here.
I substituted for REP 8th grade a few weeks ago. It was the first time i had ever taught REP. i used the 7th grade Faith and Life book a family member had. I did look up the modifications for REP and it worked well. I did have to go out and buy materials for making a sacramental, and paid for it myself, but maybe other REP programs have funds for that. Not here.
1
1ke
Guest
They used F&L here over 10 years ago, so I’m guessing the internet resources were not what they are now.Ignatius Press publishes free lesson plans for using it with a once/ week religious ed program. I’m curious about how they go over with catechists.
1
1ke
Guest
Faith First has a parish and a school version. I’ve never used the school version, but it looks like it has more material per lesson.I am a parent of Catholic school children. Our school and REP program use the same text - Faith First - for K-8. The teachers at our school obviously, out of necessity, supplement, because there is nowhere near enough material to use for an entire week. I hear there is more online, though. When I try to study for tests with my kids there is nothing to really ask them in the chapter.
C
Castello
Guest
Have used Faith and Life with the RE Lesson plans for years, have taught 5th and 6th grade and my husband has taught 1st grade for a few years (have moved on to teaching Confirmation for the past 2 years). I have also taught from Faith First.Ignatius Press publishes free lesson plans for using it with a once/ week religious ed program. I’m curious about how they go over with catechists.
Faith First is more “fluffy” but not as bad as some of them out there.
Faith and Life is the gold standard. Before they came up with the weekly RE plans, I did my own (for myself and for DH). I think there is no need to talk down to kids they way that FF does (and if we need to talk down to the Catechists, well, time to educate those Catechists!).
P
puzzleannie
Guest
CRE and catechist, grades K-12, including sacramental prep, plus RCIA children and adult. and catechist formation.
Diocese has not updated list of approved texts in years, not since big revisions of most major series and consolidation of publishiers in 2007+.
Basal series here is Loyola Press: Christ Our Life
because they were late coming out with anything bilingual, and what they have is barely adequate, we have been using Creemos/We Believe by Sadlier (bilingual) for Spanish elementary classes. School uses parish edition of We Believe (English only) and the sacramental prep books from Sadlier.
We don’t use separate sacramental prep books, the 2nd year texts in most series do a decent job w/o spending extra money on this.
Middle school has two tracks, Saturday uses the textbooks Christ OUr Life, Tuesday uses a lectionary-based resource, Pflaum Gospel Weeklies (grades 4-8) which are supplemented by a basic faith catechism they provided beginnign 2009. The same topics are covered in both tracks, but in a different order. Bibles used are Breakthrough (St Marys Press) for all these classes.
Diocese has just started to produce curriculum guidelines for High School, and as yet no updated list of approved texts. I was on the committee that gave (name removed by moderator)ut, but no results as yet.
High School: One Faith One Lord (Sadlier) for new 9th graders who are uncatechized, or no religious ed class since first communion.
Those coming from CCD or Catholic school have Intro to Catholicism (Midwest Theol. Forum) supplemented with T3 Bible Timeline, Theology of the Body for Teens (both by Ascension Press), and Confirmation. Year 2 is application of what has been learned, in small group study and discussion format, assisted by video introductions from several teen-faith formation experts. Confirmation prep (which meets outside CCD) is Confirmed in the Spirit (Loyola Press).
For RCIA we also use Sadlier, Our Catholic Faith/Nuestra Fe for grades 4-8, year one, One Faith one Lord for High School.
We use Making Disciples (our Sunday Visitor) as the template for catechists to use for adult RCIA with handouts from ACM, plus catechism and bible for each participant.
all texts are starting points, not the be all and end all of what we teach. Catechist formation and lived faith are the essentials. With them you can do without texts if you have to (and it has happened many years) without them, the best text is a weak tool because the hand wielding the tool is weak.
Diocese has not updated list of approved texts in years, not since big revisions of most major series and consolidation of publishiers in 2007+.
Basal series here is Loyola Press: Christ Our Life
because they were late coming out with anything bilingual, and what they have is barely adequate, we have been using Creemos/We Believe by Sadlier (bilingual) for Spanish elementary classes. School uses parish edition of We Believe (English only) and the sacramental prep books from Sadlier.
We don’t use separate sacramental prep books, the 2nd year texts in most series do a decent job w/o spending extra money on this.
Middle school has two tracks, Saturday uses the textbooks Christ OUr Life, Tuesday uses a lectionary-based resource, Pflaum Gospel Weeklies (grades 4-8) which are supplemented by a basic faith catechism they provided beginnign 2009. The same topics are covered in both tracks, but in a different order. Bibles used are Breakthrough (St Marys Press) for all these classes.
Diocese has just started to produce curriculum guidelines for High School, and as yet no updated list of approved texts. I was on the committee that gave (name removed by moderator)ut, but no results as yet.
High School: One Faith One Lord (Sadlier) for new 9th graders who are uncatechized, or no religious ed class since first communion.
Those coming from CCD or Catholic school have Intro to Catholicism (Midwest Theol. Forum) supplemented with T3 Bible Timeline, Theology of the Body for Teens (both by Ascension Press), and Confirmation. Year 2 is application of what has been learned, in small group study and discussion format, assisted by video introductions from several teen-faith formation experts. Confirmation prep (which meets outside CCD) is Confirmed in the Spirit (Loyola Press).
For RCIA we also use Sadlier, Our Catholic Faith/Nuestra Fe for grades 4-8, year one, One Faith one Lord for High School.
We use Making Disciples (our Sunday Visitor) as the template for catechists to use for adult RCIA with handouts from ACM, plus catechism and bible for each participant.
all texts are starting points, not the be all and end all of what we teach. Catechist formation and lived faith are the essentials. With them you can do without texts if you have to (and it has happened many years) without them, the best text is a weak tool because the hand wielding the tool is weak.
S
Suzq2
Guest
Our elementary & middle school use the Christ Our Life series & I can’t stand it. Too academic for the children. The curriculum should teach the lesson as to how it relates to the children’s lives and the scripture. The Christ Our Life series is disjointed and sloppily written.
C
Castello
Guest
I would also suggest checking these texts out at the Catholic Culture website. You will see that some of the popular texts (Sadlier “We Believe” for example) is rated RED.
catholicculture.org/culture/reviews/view.cfm?recnum=3115&repos=2&subrepos=0&searchid=821879
catholicculture.org/culture/reviews/view.cfm?recnum=3115&repos=2&subrepos=0&searchid=821879
T
twoangels
Guest
The previous parish I taught at (before I got married) used the Faith and Life series. This is also the series I grew up with when I was a kid. I do not remember getting much out of it. As a Catechist, it is far too much info to cover in a CCD program.
Currently the parish I am at now just started a brand new Catechism program. Most of the focus at the parish has been on adult formation and the Orthodoxy in the parish is very strong. I believe there has always been a class for preparing for Holy Communion and for Confirmation, but I’m not sure what they used previous years.
We have a very large Latino community that had their own informal Catechism program that was taught in Spanish. The parish has been trying to unit the communities in the parish, so we are now using a bilingual text “We believe/ Creemos” and the classes are taught in English. The only students registered for the classes this year are Latino. I have no idea how we’d even handle it if we had to teach any other kids. My classroom is overflowing.
Anyway, I like the idea behind the text. It is well arranged for a Catechism program. There are not too many chapters. I also like that it is divided between developing the children’s prayer life, learning about the faith and responding to what we learned. My criticism of the series is that it does not live up to what it says it does. I’m sorry, but having the kids perform a skit does not count as prayer time. Doing Crossword puzzles has absolutely nothing to do with the application of the faith. Its almost too creative. Teaching the one-lesson games to the kids actually takes away from the content the games are trying to teach the children.
As far as the content, I suppose its ok. I have not looked in depth at the other books. I did feel the description of the ressurection left room for denying that the ressurection was a bodily one. Sin was completely glossed over. They refused to mention Hell or Purgatory and the entire book makes getting to Heaven sound like its just about being a nice person. It does utilize the Catechism, and I’ve opened up the sections its gotten ideas from. Its not so much what it says, as what it doesn’t say.
I think a lot of the other parents’ in the parish are smart by teaching their kids at home. I think there are many concepts that just cannot be taught to children. You can dumb it down but usually that just opens you up to heresy and the kids still end up not understanding it.
What I plan on doing with my own daughter is to first get her to memorize basic prayers. My husband is still a big fan of the Baltimore Catechism. I’m not sure if we’ll get away with that though as the parish requires you to use a Catechism approved by the USCCB which means it needs to be in line with Vatican II. I’d love to have a revised Baltimore Catechism for the post Vatican II era. Then I’m talking just straight memorization. I think expecting an 9 year old to get anything out of the explaination given in these books is a lot to ask for. The kids I teach can hold that explanation in their heads maybe for the class period but then proceed to forget basic definitions. And the crossword puzzles and games that are there to help get the gets to learn cause the kids to spend more time trying to figure out how to do the puzzle than to figure out what the key words mean. And I’m sorry but none of the kids want to write their own Christmas carol nor do they want to be forced to draw a picture about what something means. Just get them to know the key words, memorize those definitions and get into understanding what they’ve been memorizing in middle school.
Currently the parish I am at now just started a brand new Catechism program. Most of the focus at the parish has been on adult formation and the Orthodoxy in the parish is very strong. I believe there has always been a class for preparing for Holy Communion and for Confirmation, but I’m not sure what they used previous years.
We have a very large Latino community that had their own informal Catechism program that was taught in Spanish. The parish has been trying to unit the communities in the parish, so we are now using a bilingual text “We believe/ Creemos” and the classes are taught in English. The only students registered for the classes this year are Latino. I have no idea how we’d even handle it if we had to teach any other kids. My classroom is overflowing.
Anyway, I like the idea behind the text. It is well arranged for a Catechism program. There are not too many chapters. I also like that it is divided between developing the children’s prayer life, learning about the faith and responding to what we learned. My criticism of the series is that it does not live up to what it says it does. I’m sorry, but having the kids perform a skit does not count as prayer time. Doing Crossword puzzles has absolutely nothing to do with the application of the faith. Its almost too creative. Teaching the one-lesson games to the kids actually takes away from the content the games are trying to teach the children.
As far as the content, I suppose its ok. I have not looked in depth at the other books. I did feel the description of the ressurection left room for denying that the ressurection was a bodily one. Sin was completely glossed over. They refused to mention Hell or Purgatory and the entire book makes getting to Heaven sound like its just about being a nice person. It does utilize the Catechism, and I’ve opened up the sections its gotten ideas from. Its not so much what it says, as what it doesn’t say.
I think a lot of the other parents’ in the parish are smart by teaching their kids at home. I think there are many concepts that just cannot be taught to children. You can dumb it down but usually that just opens you up to heresy and the kids still end up not understanding it.
What I plan on doing with my own daughter is to first get her to memorize basic prayers. My husband is still a big fan of the Baltimore Catechism. I’m not sure if we’ll get away with that though as the parish requires you to use a Catechism approved by the USCCB which means it needs to be in line with Vatican II. I’d love to have a revised Baltimore Catechism for the post Vatican II era. Then I’m talking just straight memorization. I think expecting an 9 year old to get anything out of the explaination given in these books is a lot to ask for. The kids I teach can hold that explanation in their heads maybe for the class period but then proceed to forget basic definitions. And the crossword puzzles and games that are there to help get the gets to learn cause the kids to spend more time trying to figure out how to do the puzzle than to figure out what the key words mean. And I’m sorry but none of the kids want to write their own Christmas carol nor do they want to be forced to draw a picture about what something means. Just get them to know the key words, memorize those definitions and get into understanding what they’ve been memorizing in middle school.
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