You may be wondering, how are pens and booklets new inventions? It started during our last SBS. It seemed as though students were not as disciplined to finish their books, horizontals were getting checked later in the week, and the staff were wondering what to do.

A new idea began to surface, what would happen if we went to physical writing again? Many students were using their computers to do their work and we wondered, could that be affecting completion rates? Is it easier to email an incomplete pdf than to hand in empty charts? Plus, studies show that people who handwrite learn more and have better retention than those who take notes electronically. Here are two links that relate to that discussion:

So this year we made the plunge, we are going back to pen, paper and a computer- free classroom. We have heard of other SBS’s doing the same thing, and we have heard good results.

What about these booklets? Every year there is the challenge of printing all of the vertical charts, teaching charting programs, printers breaking down.

To solve this problem, we have created a ‘booklet’ for each week (see picture). In this booklet is the place for students to write in their final horizontal, their BRI information, and their charts (the students need to draw in the paragraph breaks according to verse size and write in their paragraph titles- like the good old days!) There is room for their application of the week and special note-taking pages for classwork. If the book contains a special assignment the booklet is designed for this as well. Some of the booklets include relevant background information. The booklets are fully bilingual English-Russian. They can be used every year.

And the best part?  You can’t get your booklet until you have your horizontal checked, so there is sufficient motivation to do that before class!

Will students learn more? Finish more charts? Be more inductive in their study (not waiting for information from class to look for structure)? Will the staff be quicker to return homework with the stack of booklets looming on their desk instead of pdf’s in their already crowded inbox?

We shall see! Graduation with the pens and booklets system is December 2017.