Here’s a document I’ll be working on for the next few months — a complete year’s worth of weekly lesson plans for 7th level Catholic religious education, cryptically referred to as "CCD".

I teach the 7th level class in the CCD program at my Parish. Here’s how I’m doing the lesson plans:

• The lessons are based on the Loyola Press textbook Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life, ISBN 0829415467, from the "Christ Our Life" series, for 7th Level
• I read the chapter in the week prior to class and find things to riff on
• I actually find the book very effective — I was surprised about that at first. It’s easy, as an urban, Generation X Catholic, to be cynical about stuff like that
• The text does get a little hokey, but it plainly lays out a lot of the really intense aspects of Catholicism — "You are one of God’s unique special gifts to the world", etc.
• I never print this text out and hand it to the kids — it’s just a guide to my ruminations
• In class, we do a lot of bantering before getting down to business. It’s good to let things ramble a while
• Once we do get to the book, I read directly from it and then give my little mini-speeches that are seen in this document

If you’re teaching 7th grade CCD and find yourself with a blank page, try this one.