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Resource: Echoes:
Uniting with the Church to Transform the World.
Published by: David C. Cook Church Ministries.
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Is this Sunday School curriculum affiliated with a particular denomination? Is it nondenominational? Ecumenical? A partnership among several denominations? Or what?
This resource is an interdenominational, multicultural curriculum resource.. - What are the main goals, aims, objectives, or purposes
of this curriculum resource?
The main goal of the adult, youth, elementary, and pre-school resources is to aid and advance Christian education. The curriculum also has as its goal to coordinate a complete learning experience for the students, with particular emphasis on African-Americans. - What is the main content of this Sunday School
curriculum? (for example, Bible
stories, books of the Bible, theological questions, Bible and life issues,
denominational identity, etc.)
Adult: The content of the curriculum is Bible and issue life based. The primary focus is to study the Bible and abstract from it the application for life. Youth: The curriculum for the youth is Bible and life oriented. The curriculum focuses on the Bible and what it has to say concerning the matters of life. Elementary: The elementary curriculum focuses on stories of the Bible and the meaning gained from interacting with them. It is through interaction with the stories that principles are raised for this age group. Pre-school: The content of this curriculum focuses on Biblical characters, the stories that surround them and becoming familiar with these characters and their stories. - How is the curriculum organized?
(for example organized around the common lectionary, the Uniform
Lesson series of Biblical texts, topics, themes, etc.)
The curriculum resources are organized in the following way: Pre-school and elementary lessons are organized around Bible stories and characters in 3 units (with lessons within each) with the supplementary materials listed below. Youth lessons are organized around different topics with an overarching theme in 3 units with lessons within each and supplementary materials listed below. Adult lessons are based on the International Sunday School lessons in 3 units with lessons within each. - What age levels are included in this curriculum, and
how are they grouped? (for
example, grades 1-3 together)
Echoes is divided into preschool (ages 3-4), early elementary (grades K-1), elementary (grades 2-3), upper elementary (grades 4-5), middle school (grades 6-8), youth (grades 9-12), and adult materials. - What is the structure of a typical lesson and what
kind of learning activities are generally included? (for example, a lesson might be structured around Opening,
Presentation, Exploration, Response, Closing.
Learning activities might emphasize reading, workbooks, and
discussion)
Pre-school, elementary, middle, youth, and adult lessons all include the same structure: a lesson overview which includes life need, Bible learning, Bible application, and life response sections. Pre-school learning activities include memory verse work, sharing Bible stories and age appropriate ways to present life lessons. Elementary activities include Make-It/Take-It activities and role play. Youth learning activities include supplemental materials from High School Creative Teaching Aids. Adult learning activities include a variety of discussion questions. - When you purchase this Sunday School curriculum, what
do you get? (for example,
teacher guide, learner books, packet of class resources, etc.)
When purchasing this Sunday School curriculum, one receives the following materials broken into age groups: Adults: 1 Adult Teacher’s Commentary, 1 small Adult Comprehensive Bible Study, 1 large print Adult Comprehensive Bible Study Youth: 1 High School Teacher’s Commentary, 1 High School I.D., 1 Creative Teaching Aid Elementary: 1 Teacher’s Commentary,1 Bible Activity for Kindergarten, 1 Story resource, Early Elementary Make-It/Take-It Preschool: 1 Creative Teaching Aid, 1 Preschool "Make-it/Take-it", 1 "My Sunday Picture" Each set of materials also comes with a supplementary materials packet. In these packets you will find teaching aids that coincide with each lesson. The aids are age related and specific and parallel to each lesson covered by the curriculum. - How much does it cost?
[Reviewers did not answer this question.] - What theological tradition, perspective, or
orientation do you note in this material?
Theologically speaking, Echoes has an evangelical perspective. - Over all, what is your assessment of the strengths
and weaknesses of this Sunday School curriculum?
There are several strengths of this resource. Each one contains a lesson overview page. Additionally, each lesson overview takes the teacher (or the preparer of the lesson) through the lesson in a very detailed way. Another wonderful feature is that the resources give you classroom tips to help you with each age group. I also like the fact that there is uniformity of lessons across the age groups. One weakness, however, is that Echoes does not provide as many creative and fun ideas for the adults. Also, the adult lesson overview only allots five minutes for discussion (something adults really like to do and it would be nice to allot more time for that).
