Shaping a Ministry that Reflects Every Learner’s Needs

Ever wondered how a simple shift in teaching approach can open doors to a world of inclusivity? Join me, Tracie Corll, as I share the revelations from a learning styles quiz that brought to light our innate biases in teaching. At the heart of our discussion, we navigate the significance of recognizing and accommodating the unique ways individuals absorb information within disability ministries. With a treasure trove of anecdotes from a recent training event, this episode invites educators, volunteers, and church leaders to rethink lesson planning. We introduce a versatile template that champions multisensory education, ensuring that church teachings resonate with each and every participant, regardless of their preferred learning style.

There's a moment of pure magic when inclusion transforms a bystander into an active participant, and in this episode, I recount such a moment from an art museum that will inspire and move you. A young boy's vivid engagement with a painting not only captivated his mother but also an entire crowd, exemplifying how practices designed for those with disabilities can enrich a broader audience. This narrative captures the essence of our mission in disability ministry – to enhance the world's vibrancy through committed, accessible, and enriching practices. It's not just about striving for perfection but about fostering an environment where everyone is truly indispensable. Join us for an uplifting exploration that reaffirms the beauty of fellowship and learning in a community where every single person has a valued place.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hi, my name is Tracy Coral and welcome to Indispensable People. I'm a wife, mom, teacher, pastor and missionary, and I believe that every person should have the opportunity to know Christ, grow in Him and serve Him with the gifts that he has given, no matter their ability. Over 65 million Americans have a disability. That's 25% of the population. However, over 80% of them are not inside the walls of our church. Let's dive into those hard topics biblical foundations, perceptions and world-changing ideas. Hey, hey, welcome to this episode of Indispensable People.

Speaker 2: 0:49

I'm going to talk to you about learning styles and how that impacts our disability ministries, but also I'm going to share a little bit about my learning style and how that impacts some of the ways that I teach and train the churches that I get to interact with. In about a month, I am going to be putting on an area-wide training that I'm super excited about and with that I tried to change things up, switch things in, not deliver the same exact content from year to year, because we do do this training each and every year in this similar area. One of the things that I do is I have to look for different media and try to take the topics that we have and see where can we fill in more, where can we get more information? What does the church? What are they actually experiencing right now? How can we best serve them? Those are all kinds of things that we take into consideration. One particular training that I have done recently is on reaching kids and understanding that disability can drive some of the things that we need to do, but also every single person has their own learning style and disability doesn't necessarily tailor what that is.

Speaker 2: 2:17

At this training, I shared a learning styles quiz that I handed out to every attendee and I asked them. So this was a training that I already did, not the training that's coming, but I asked them to go ahead and fill this out. It was kind of funny because I asked them before I gave them the paper what they thought their learning style was. When they went in to do the learning style, I could hear some giggling and I could go. This is hard because some of the questions they were like but I'm more than one. I like this and I like that they were able to come to the conclusion that maybe they have one strong learning style, but there might be more than one area to learn from or to help them to engage in learning. I did this not because that adult really needs to know what their learning style is, although that is very helpful but what we also need to know as volunteers is that at times actually quite often the way that we learn tends to be the way that we teach. Although that might be helpful for some of the individuals under our teaching, it's not helpful for all, because we don't all have the same learning style.

Speaker 2: 3:45

I have what I call a lesson plan template that I typically share with churches, because one of their number one questions is curriculum. What kind of curriculum can we use for a special needs ministry? First of all, what you need to know is that your number one goal is to involve everyone at their age and stage level in typical services. If at all possible, we can make accommodations within those services and classes and events so that people can be included, and what we want to make sure is that you know. We know that God created us for fellowship right, and so removing people from their age and stage groups, it doesn't give as big of an opportunity as fellowship. Now, don't hear me wrong. If people need to learn in a different environment, under different circumstances, absolutely give them exactly what they need. However, again, if at all possible, let's try to help everyone come together in fellowship and in learning so that they can spur each other on. You know there are scriptures upon scriptures about how you know we are supposed to be there for one another, to encourage each other on, to help grow in the faith, as iron sharpens iron. We could go on and on in the scriptures for that, but I always tell people when I train them, when we're giving them suggestions and different things that they can do within that context of fellowship and learning amongst the entire group, the things that you can do.

Speaker 2: 5:43

You know some people might think, oh, that's an extra effort, that is too much extra work. But again, let me go back to that lesson template that I told you I share, because all it does is it breaks apart the need for a curriculum, because no special needs curriculum will be all inclusive. It just won't. It's not possible. But you can take any curriculum, even if it is a special needs curriculum, and you can take it into this lesson template that breaks things down and says, okay, well, what's the main idea, what's the big idea you know whatever term you like to use in your church and then what's the supporting scripture? And then we break it down how can I present the big idea and the scripture in a multi-sensory approach which also helps the learning styles? So I'm going to use my five senses, that's number one. Then I'm going to look at visual, kinesthetic, musical, auditory, all those kinds of different types of learning style within that lesson template and go, okay, well, here's what I can hit amongst all of those things. And so you're saying, okay, I can use any curriculum and I can take this lesson template and I can break down my lesson into these things and then go okay, how can I apply it to their lives and how can we exercise this in prayer? That's the lesson template.

Speaker 2: 7:22

It's literally that simple and it's meant to be that simple, because you can take pastor sermon on a Sunday morning and you can break it apart into those sections and deliver it to an adult with disabilities special needs class if you need to. You can take your curriculum, your kids curriculum, on a Sunday morning, break it down into that lesson template, add some extra components that meet the learning styles and the five senses to help more individuals make connections and have better understanding on a Sunday morning. You can do that in youth ministry as well. It just works across the board for that. And I say all this to say that a lot of times people get overwhelmed with the thought of adding extra things or being intentional about those types of things, and I always just reassure them that anything that they do for someone with a disability, they're going to benefit the rest of the people in the room. Okay, so you use multiple senses and you use different learning styles to teach Multiple. Scientific proof shows that the brain learns by making multiple connections. Information gets retained because there's more than one connection. So tell me that presenting things in multiple ways won't benefit all the other children in your children's ministry. So I will give you an example.

Speaker 2: 8:56

The lessons that I form for Sunday mornings for my child care rooms looks like this Okay, they're going to do a high energy hello and welcome to gauge everyone and bring in their attention, and then they're going to pull out the Bible and they're going to say something about the Bible being real and that the things inside of it are real. So the children can see where the Bible stories are coming from, that it's not just something made up, that it is real. So they're making that connection and then they're going to jump into an interactive story. So for right at this moment, the curriculum that we're using is going into talking about Jesus and his miracles, and what they're using is a mailbox, and a mailbox is going to deliver them different messages and touchable things that they can use throughout the lesson to bring it to life. After the story is told verbally and shown through touch, through the things that they find in the mailbox, then they're going to watch a video about the Bible story. So then you bring in auditory and visual learning. Within that You've already done the hands on with the things in the mailbox and now you're moving on to this. You're seeing where the five senses are coming into play. And then, after they listen to the story, they have an interaction with a character that goes with the curriculum and they tell that character what the big idea is. So then we make sure that we have comprehended what we've learned. After that they're going to play a game or they're going to do some type of coloring sheet or something like that that allows them to put the information that they've learned into work. Now, that's not a whole lot of specialized things. That's opening up the five senses and that's giving ways to different learning styles and so that opens the door for all kids in the room to have that experience. So here's how I want to really highlight the excitement of using those learning styles and the five senses to really make sure that you're making so many connections and helping kids to retain the information they've learned.

Speaker 2: 11:26

So just recently I've watched a video, and the video is entitled Inclusion Makes the World More Vibrant. It's on YouTube. I would recommend watching it. It is fantastic and the way I'm going to explain it to you will never do justice to the video, but anyway, it is of a little boy and his mom and they are going into an art gallery, an art museum, and the boy looks at his mom and he kind of does a shrug and a sigh because obviously at an art gallery you want to be looking at things, you have to be able to take things in visually to enjoy it. What would seemingly be at its height, right, but the little boy looks at his mom and he does the sigh and it is because mom is blind.

Speaker 2: 12:25

So he goes on and he's like I just don't want to do this today. And mom says, listen, art is important, I want you to experience it and I want to experience it with you. And so she encourages him to go on and they settle in front of a painting of it was a battle and the soldiers were on horseback and they're getting ready to charge into battle. Well, this boy goes into this huge dramatic, acting out, playing, giving the most verbal description of this painting, and what happens is, as he's doing this to explain the picture to his mom, then a whole crowd of people come over. So then he finishes his dramatic explanation and the whole crowd breaks out and they're just cheering him on, clapping for him, and they're super excited. And one lady thanks him and then says, hey, would you also show us this? And they want to go on to the next painting.

Speaker 2: 13:39

And the reason that that makes me excited is because I really feel like it boils down what I've been saying for years, and that is what you do for one will only benefit others and opens even more so of what you maybe wouldn't have considered if you didn't have to do those things to reach individuals with disabilities. And so inclusion makes the war more vibrant. What you do for one will bring to life that same thing for others. There will be no detriment in opening the doors to more ways of learning, to delivering things in the five senses, to building opportunities for experience that will cause anyone else to lose out. Inclusion makes the world more vibrant.

Speaker 1: 14:36

Do I know everything about disability ministry? Do I have all the answers? Have I done everything perfectly? I've absolutely not, but we are going to continue this conversation so that people of all abilities can have the opportunity to know Christ, to grow in him and serve him with the gifts that he has given them.