Adapting the Curriculum

As a seminary teacher, you are in a privileged position to help your students to come unto Jesus Christ. Through your regular interactions with your students, you will come to know and love them well. Knowing and loving your students will increase your ability to receive inspiration from the Holy Ghost about when and how to make adaptations to the curriculum. As you prepare lessons using the curriculum, begin your preparation with prayer. Heavenly Father will inspire you through the Holy Ghost with what adaptations, if any, you might make to the lesson content to better meet the needs and abilities of your students.

Reasons you might adapt a lesson include:

• To help students with current issues and questions. (See the case study of Brother Jones.)

• To make a portion of the lesson more relevant based on your students’ needs, abilities, culture, or available resources. (See the case studies of Sister Dube, Brother Reyes, and Sister Rodriguez.)

• To use more recent statements, direction, or resources provided by leaders of the Church. (See the case study of Sister Schmidt.)

• To find a better way to accomplish a given section of the lesson. Examples could include adjusting an object lesson in a way that still prepares students’ minds and hearts to be taught or inviting students to role-play an account from the scriptures rather than watching a video that depicts the same event. (See the case study of Brother Li.)

Before adapting the curriculum, consider asking yourself questions like the following:

• Does my adaptation still provide a learning experience that is Christ-centered, scripture-based, and learner-focused?

• Is my adaptation in harmony with the promptings of the Holy Ghost and principles of Christlike teaching found in Teaching in the Savior’s Way?

• Does the adaptation reflect the intent of the inspired author?

• Does the adaptation focus on converting principles?

• Do I understand how my adaptation can affect future lessons and assessment experiences for students?

Case studies for adapting the curriculum

Brother Jones—Adapting a lesson based on current and time-sensitive issues

Brother Jones diligently prepared on the Friday before general conference weekend to teach a Scripture Course lesson for the coming Monday. To his amazement, he heard the prophet announce that a new temple would be built in the area where he teaches. He knows that students will come to class eager to talk about the temple and that many will have questions about it.

Brother Jones feels prompted by the Holy Ghost to adjust his pacing guide to teach one of the Temple Preparation lessons from the Life Preparation section of curriculum on Monday rather than the Scripture Course lesson.

Brother Reyes—Adapting an activity based on students’ abilities

While studying a lesson, Brother Reyes notices that the lesson relies heavily on a discussion format for students. Brother Reyes has observed that his students are often very quiet and don’t respond very well to discussions. They do, however, really enjoy writing in their journals. Rather than facilitating a discussion, he decides to write two questions from the curriculum on the board and invites students to write their responses. He plans to have willing students share what they wrote.

Sister Rodriguez—Adapting a lesson based on the local culture

Sister Rodriguez is preparing to teach a lesson that includes scripture references about Mary, the Mother of Jesus. There is a culture of strong feelings and differing beliefs about Mary where Sister Rodriguez lives. Many even worship Mary because of her role as the mother of Jesus Christ. As she studies the lesson from the curriculum, Sister Rodriguez looks for an appropriate place to help students understand what the scriptures and Church leaders have taught about Mary. She decides to adapt the lesson by adding the following two questions to what is included in the curriculum:

“What does Alma 7:10 help us understand about Mary? While we honor and love Mary and other faithful disciples in the scriptures, how does Alma 7:11–13 help us understand why we worship only Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ?”

Sister Dube—Adapting a lesson based on available resources

As Sister Dube prepares a lesson, she notices one of the invitations is for students to search for their ancestors on FamilySearch.org

Links to an external site.

. She knows that most of her students do not have access to the internet. She wisely adapts the invitation to have students begin filling out paper family group sheets and talking with their ward temple and family history consultant to learn how they can research other family names.

Sister Schmidt—Adapting a lesson to use more recent statements from Church leaders

During her lesson preparation, Sister Schmidt is reading through a lesson she is going to teach on the following day. While reading a statement from a Church leader in the lesson, she remembers a more recent statement that could accomplish the same purpose. She has recently studied the talk in her personal study, and it is fresh on her mind. She decides to use the more recent statement in her lesson instead of the statement in the curriculum.

Brother Li—Adapting a learning activity to better accomplish the purpose

As Brother Li is preparing to teach a lesson from the curriculum, he reads a suggestion to bring a soccer ball to class. He notices that the purpose for the object lesson is to help students see that the value of a soccer ball can be influenced by knowing more about its history.

Wanting to accomplish this purpose in the most effective way for his students, he ponders for a minute what item he could bring to class that his students would best relate to. He decides to adapt the lesson by bringing a simple necklace to class. After students share how much they think the necklace is worth, he will share who made the necklace and why knowing its history makes it worth much more to him than it might otherwise be.

Suggestions for Adopting and Adapting

Although any of the material in the curriculum can be adapted, the following diagram illustrates a range of how different parts of a lesson may be more appropriate to adapt than others.

For example, the lesson purpose, the context of a block, or the bolded truth may be less appropriate to adapt than how a lesson begins or what examples a teacher might share of a bolded truth. Items closer to the left side may more often be adopted, whereas items on the right side may more often be adapted. Keep in mind that these are suggestions. Teachers are not expected to adapt everything on the right side, just as they are not expected to adopt everything on the left side.