What kind of leadership or facilitators do you have for the small groups? One year we had only one or two HS catechists, so we put them in charge of the Confirmation class for that year, but we had several youth volunteer from the previous Confirmation class. We trained them as small group facilitators and used a resource based on the Sunday lectionary with the 9th graders. They proclaimed the Sunday scriptures, read a teaching from the guide provided, and did some faith-sharing questions and some journalling. this is similar to the Breaking open the Word portion of RCIA.
This became the foundation of small faith sharing groups that still go on using lectio divina adapted for small groups (something promoted in our diocese). Some of these prayer groups now involve youth who have graduated and are still meeting in college. What surprised me is that when this “experimental” class came to Confirmation prep the next year they were very solid and very well prepared in doctrine as well as the Gospel, since the guide they had been using related the Sunday scriptures to doctrinal areas, as in RCIA.
We now use this small group model for faith sharing with the Sunday gospel as part of most classes, although we still teach the standard HS curriculum for the rest of the session. We also use this format for retreats and Confirmation sponsor meetings. Another bonus is many of those youth who trained as small group facilitators are now full-fledged catechists, are still active in the parish or in their campus Catholic ministry. It proved very successful as a post-Confirmation program, as it seems the leaders learned as much as those they were helping.
Several publishers have magazine or “handout” format resources that cover the topics listed in OP, one is Connect by Silver Burdette (comes in Jr Hi and HS versions). We used it in my former parish, although I have no personal experience with it.
