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From: "Ari Thomaz" <>
Subject: [LDS-WC-L] Re: Class outlines to Leonie
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 10:16:18 -0300
References: <00d401bff556$31829fe0$95608ea1@pre-inst>


Here it is the other posted message there is one year ago in the list, and
that can guide you .

Ari Salomão Thomaz
Brazil South Area Adviser in FH

CENTRO VIRTUAL DE HISTÓRIA DA FAMÍLIA
Esteio,RS
Pesquisando: Beux, Beus; Premaor;Costabel;Pons;Costi;
Boscardin;Frison/Frizon;Girardi;
Schmitt;Marmitt;Schuh;Feiten;Cigana;Caresia;DallaCosta;Meggiolaro;Scalet;Bra
un;Callabrigo;Spanevello;Doro;Dal Cello;Bouchard;Long;Dib;Feltes:
Pres. do INGERS (Inst. Geneológico do RS) www.ingers1.org.br
Lista de discussao sobre genealogia do INGERS:
Consultor de Hist. da Fam. -Area Brasil Sul (RS e SC) IJCSUD


Subject: Re: Teaching the genealogy class


At 10:54 AM 7/24/99 -0500, M. Harris wrote:
>I'm the Ward Family History Consultant and my Bishop has ask me to start
>having a class on Sunday for this. I'm not a teacher and don't really know
>how to do this, can someone give me some ideas about how to put lesson
>together and do this the right way. PLEASE help me. I'm scared!!!!!

Here's my advice on the subject; as always, your mileage will vary, and
you should feel free to disregard anything or everything I say. But what
I am about to say works well for me, at least.

- There is no official lesson manual. I've heard some people say that "A
Member's Guide to Temple and Family History Work" or "A Guide to
Research"
is the lesson manual. They are not. You can use them if you prefer, but
it's important to realize that you have an enormous amount of freedom to
decide what to cover. Use those booklets if you wish, but as for me, I
only
use them secondarily. My approach is to find out what the students want
to know, and follow their lead.

- In my opinion, people who attend the genealogy class already know why
they should be doing genealogy -- they aren't really there to hear
quotations
about the importance of the thing. They want to know *how*. They want
details about how to use FamilySearch, TempleReady, and PAF; how to order
microfilms, how to contact parishes, how to use censuses and passenger
lists, how to organize their (sometimes remarkably haphazard) collections
of
notes and documents into a family history -- in short, how to do the
specific
kinds of things that genealogical research is all about. There's nothing
wrong
with an inspirational quotation or story or two, but they should be the
garnish,
not the meat, of your presentation.

In other words, focus on the "how", and assume they already have the
"why".
(For the occasional new member who doesn't have the "why", be sure they
have a copy of "A Member's Guide" and tell them to read it at home.)

- If it is at all possible, make the class as hands-on as possible. Count
your blessings if you are able to hold the class inside the FHC, or if a
copy
of FamilySearch exists in your building which can be used for the class.
You can easily consume four or five sessions of class time by doing a
"hands-on introduction to FamilySearch" (one session on AF, one on the
IGI/OI, one on TempleReady, one on the FHLC, and one on the other
stuff, the SSDI/MI/SCR), and your class members will consider this the
most useful part of your class.

If you can't get FamilySearch and your class members in the same place
at the same time, you'll have to do what I've done -- ask them to
pretend that they're using FamilySearch, and try to describe it in words.
It's a lot less visual (and less fun), but it's still important and
useful
information.

- Once you've covered FamilySearch, the next thing to make sure is
covered is all of the publications that are listed in the Family History
Publications List (FHPL). Not each one in detail -- just make sure that
they know what they are, and that they exist. Make sure they know
about the resource guides for each state and country, about the U.S.
Military Records guide (lots of people have lots of interest in that
one),
the genealogical word lists, the three "LDS ancestors" guides, and so on.

(P.S. The FHPL also lists a whole bunch of how-to-use-FamilySearch
guides, most of which are free. Make sure you've ordered enough of
them for each class member, and give them away as handouts during
the "intro to FamilySearch" part of your class.)

- After that, the rest of the class is up to you:
-- Using A Guide to Research as a class outline is a good approach
(but don't spend more than two class sessions on it).
-- You may want to give the class an assignment, such as adding a
new pedigree-chart's-worth of information to Ancestral File, or taking
a family through TempleReady, and spend time doing that assignment
in class; alternatively, considering making it a homework assignment
for the class members to do individually.
-- If you're up to it, I have the most fun just opening the class
discussion
up for Q&A. The plus side *and* the minus side of this approach is
that
the class discussions can go all over the map. They'll ask all kinds
of
questions, including specific details about how to use PAF (which I
don't usually include in my "intro to FamilySearch" unless they ask; I
do include TempleReady in that intro, though), or what a GEDCOM file
is, or how to use censuses and soundexes, or passenger lists or
probate
or parish records, and so on. If you feel prepared for that kind of
chaos, it's a great way to make sure that all of their questions are
answered. If you do this, keep going until you run out of things to
say, and/or they run out of questions.

In my experience, all of the foregoing will take about eight weeks.

That's my advice. Take it for what it's worth. Other people may have
other advice, which is perfectly fine: I don't claim that this works for
everybody, just that it works really well for me.

When I first started doing this I followed a class outline which I obtained
from a post right here on Elijah-L. I still have it around here somewhere,
I'm pretty sure. For the first time or two that I taught that class, it was
tremendously helpful to me to have that structured outline to guide me.
But I found, once I had a little more confidence, that it was more fun to
chuck that outline and go with the flow, and the result is the general plan
I have described above. It's a lot less rigid and less structured, and so
it
may seem less useful, but in my experience, it's been a lot more fun and
lot better both for me and for the class.

Them's my proverbial two cents.

--

Brian C. Madsen

(work: )



----- Original Message -----
From: Leonie Joy Yong <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2000 5:37 AM
Subject: Re: [LDS-WC-L] Class outlines


Hi all,

Can someone please tell me which brochure or manual has the outlines for
teaching the Family History Sunday School lesson. We've never done anything
like this. We only do Book of Mormon Study Guide for Sunday School.

Many thanks,
Leonie Wilcock Yong
Melaka, Malaysia



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