Making Megilloth kits

You can create map kits (scrolls in different fonts, font size (large print edition in A3), scroll holder (like what your scrolls come in when you graduate), try it in multiple languages* You just need to provide pens and markers to accompany scrolls

* That could be interesting. When I was in London studying for my MTh at King's, my HK colleague read the English bible from left to right, the Hebrew Bible from right to left, and the Chinese Bible from top to bottom)

Megilloth Mappers

Start a Sunday School movement called Megilloth Mappers using Text mapping to teaching/learn the Bible. Possible???

Here's the vision. A group of you have been invited to teach about innovative learning strategies amongst the Sunday schools of 10 churches from a major denomination. You decide on text mapping and now need to prepare to introduce the idea to those churches.

You have 6 months to prepare for the venture. How would you train a group of 10 text mapping trainers on how to do text mapping as well as prepare resources for introducing this innovation in those churches? How would you persuade leaders in the church that this is a workable teaching-learning strategy for developing Bible literacy? What are the natural atttractions as well as negative reactions to this approach to studying Bible (and other) texts?

Text mapping exercises (v)

Text map the gospel of John.

In the gospel of John, the big epistemological question revolving around Jesus is raised by the author:
Who is Jesus? What evidence do we have that he is who he claimed to be?

That question must be answered because assent of the mind often precedes assent of the heart. The removal of the barrier of ignorance and certainty moves the believer into the realm of commitment and devotion.

One of the themes in John relates to authority and power. Power enables, it compells, it enchants, it liberates, it restrains, it prevents. it hinders.

As you explore and map your way through John's gospel, highlight characters and incidences involving power. They could be displays of power, claims to power, clashes between powers, etc.

How does the author's development of the power theme eventually lead his readers to faith in Jesus?

(Note: When you are mapping a lengthy text, you don't have to complete the tasks all in one 60 minute session. You can stage the activity over more than one session.)

Text mapping exercises (iv)

6. Text map Rodney Fulton's article entitled A Conceptual Model for Understanding the Physical Attributes of Learning Environments. Critical questions include:

1. What problem about the learning environment is he trying to address?
   
   
2. What elements does he propose we give attention to in addressing the problem? In what way does he integrate the elements?
   
   
3. Give details about each of the elements he highlights in his model.
   
   
4. What addition important ideas does he raise which are not highlighted by the questions above?
   
   
5. How can we apply his proposed model to an educational situation within a) church b) missions training c) seminary education?
   

Text mapping exercises (iii)

5. For the chiasmatics amongst us (ie the David Langite tribe), text map Psalm 9-10, etc.

Text mapping exercises (ii)

2. Text map Gen 1-11, exploring the creation-uncreation-recreation theme and the progressive development of sin theme found in those chapters.
(After the exercise, you can reflect on your work in the light of a) The Theme of the Pentateuch by David Clines (1978) and b) Handbook on the Pentateuch by Victor Hamilton (1982 - note the 2nd ed is due sometime later this year).

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3. Text map the patriarchal narratives from Gen 11:28-Gen 50:26, paying particular attention to four themes:
a) Fulfilment of the promise of posterity, b) Fulfilment of the promise of land, c) Fulfilment of the invitation to relationship between God and His people, and d) fulfilment of the call to be a blessing to the nations.
(Likewise, after this exercise, you can reflect on your work in the light of a) The Theme of the Pentateuch by David Clines (1978).

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4. Text map the Hebrew text of Gen 1:1-2:3/4

Text mapping exercises (i)

1. Text map a) Susanna and b) Bel and the Dragon, the group of stories which are found in the Apocrypha. The texts are accessible at the Apocrypha section of The Net Bible

2. I have prepared the text for you. (Click here to download it.). Print the sheets out and make scrolls out of the sheets. As you map out the text, you want to be answering the following questions:

a) What is the setting of the stories?

b) Who are the characters in the story and in what ways are they characterized?

c) What are the crisis/conflict points in the stories? How are these crises resolved?

d) Stories often are written to shape community values and to engender hope. What values are affirmed in this text? What hope is inspired in these texts?

What textual evidence is there to support your answers?

Actually, if you wish, you could use the "WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW, WHY" concept map in tandem with text mapping to try to summarize your ideas, or to allow different groups to develop their understanding of particular characters, etc.

What is textmapping all about????

Here is an overview of text mapping from the Text Mapping Project Site:

1. Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course content. It is practiced on scrolls, which are an alternative environment to books. Textmapping and scrolls can be used strategically, but they are not strategies. They are enabling technologies - simple, basic tools which can be used for reading and classroom instruction. The same strategies that can be taught in books can be taught more clearly and explicitly by using scrolls and mapping.
   
   • Textmapping involves long paper scrolls, colored markers, and a spatially-descriptive form of marking called mapping.
   • It has seven key instructional benefits.
   • It is easy to learn and easy to implement in the classroom.
   • Implementation costs are very low.
   • It has been used with mainstream, ESL, and special needs classes at all levels, from elementary through college.
   
   
2. Textmapping enables teachers to clearly and explicitly model reading comprehension, writing and study skills in the course of regular classroom instruction.
   
   
3. Textmapping shines a light on the pre-reading process. It focuses more attention on, and spends more time with, the text itself - lingering on the page, delaying abstraction, forcing readers to engage in a more careful in-context comprehension of both the big picture and the details, and enabling teachers to explicitly and systematically model comprehension processes.
   
   
4. It is low-tech, easy to learn, easy to teach, requires no special equipment, and can be adapted easily and inexpensively for use in the classroom. All you need is access to a copier, tape or glue-stick, and colored pencils, markers, or crayons.
   
   
5. People commonly confuse Textmapping with Semantic Mapping, Concept Mapping, Story Mapping, and other so-called mapping techniques - all of which are actually diagramming techniques. For more on this, see a comparison of Textmapping to other graphic organizers.
   
   
6. Perhaps the best way to understand Textmapping is to make a scroll and map it yourself.
   
   
7. The Textmapping Project seeks to contribute to the improvement of reading comprehension skills instruction.
   

Note: Text mapping can be developed in conjunction with the Wheels for Literature Advanced Organizer which can be found at http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/teaching_techniques/wheelsli.html

Here is an excerpt from their site:

Wheels for Literature create an advance organizer that will support memory, attention and processing when reading short stories, novels, essays, plays and long poems. The wheels always have main ideas inside the wheel and specific information spiked around the outside of the appropriate wheel. Establishing the demands of the task in advance helps focus attention, support working memory and produce a review system. While reading, the basic information is recorded on the appropriate wheel as soon as encountered. The basic demands such as characters,setting and plot are always tracked but any other requirements such as examples of man versus nature can also be tracked by adding additional wheels.

The Wheels for Literature strategy is an adapted use of the wheel to meet the needs for literature assignments. The wheels provide a concise summary of the details and main ideas to remember. The wheel set-up depends on the type of literature that is being read.

Text mapping

Here is an interesting innovation which is called Textmapping. Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course content.

This will be very useful for the study of the Bible since what we really want to do is to aim at seeing the big picture while studying Bible books which at the same time engaging in active learning processes.