A Model for the New Testament Survey I Course

This is built on the principle that the student will study the Handbook assignment, fill out the Review Question in the Workbook, study the answers, and then come to class where a quiz will be administered and graded in class. Following that, the student will view the DVD lecture in class and fill out the Class Sheet while viewing. This last step of viewing will confirm and embed further what the student has already studied and bee quizzed over. So the first two weeks of study would go as follows :

Week One: History in Review – Since this is the first week, there are no review questions. The student views the DVD and fills out the Class Sheet. The Supervisor then assigns the lesson for Week Two which will be Preparation for Christ. For the next seven days the student will readPreparation for Christ in the Handbook, answer the review questions in the Workbook for this chapter and study the answers in preparation for a quiz over the review questions at the next class session.

Week Two: Preparation for Christ – The class begins with the quiz over Preparation for Christ, then the grading of the quizzes in class by the exchange of papers among the students and the leading of the Supervisor. All quiz and exam papers are to be kept by the Supervisor and destroyed after recording the grades. Then the class views the DVD lesson for Preparation for Christ and fills out the Class Sheet in the Workbook while viewing the DVD. The Supervisor then reviews the assignment on Geography in Focus for the student to begin the same process for the following class session. Once the lessons progress toMatthew, there will be weekly Bible reading assignments, so the student should be encouraged to begin reading these initial Bible readings from the beginning of the study.

GRADING

All weekly tests and term tests are included in the Supervisor’s Manual. Each week the supervisor will need to photocopy the appropriate quiz or exam so as to administer it to the students. Generally, after completing the tests, the students would be asked to exchange quiz/exam papers. Then the supervisor could lead in grading the papers and then collect the quiz/exam papers. He will be asked to judge some answers which are suspect. I try to be objective as to what the student is trying to say and may in some instances give half credit if the answer had an element of relevance to the question. Wild guessing that betrays a lack of preparation in study, however, does not generally attract credit!

The first section of the Supervisor’s Manual consists of a number of pages of review questions and answers followed by a section of blank quizzes and exams. The New Testament course has class sheets in the workbook for the student to fill in during the viewing of the DVD lecture, and the Supervisor’s Manual will contain those class sheets with the answersparticularized answers to each term test. This is provided both for the convenience of the supervisor and the variation that may occur in the way the question is asked from the original review question. The supervisor may resource these two sections for all the needed answers.

The next section contains the four terms of weekly tests which is followed by a section including all TERM tests (mid-semester and final). All tests completed by the students both weekly and term tests are to be destroyed and not returned to the student. This is the responsibility of the supervisor. The Homework sheets are also to be destroyed.

The term test completes any responsibility of the student for the questions relevant to that term. In other words, we do not test the student again over the review questions of Term One once the student has sat for that test.

Several components go into calculating the final grade for each semester:

1. Weekly test grades for the two terms of the semester – this accounts for about 55% of the final grade for the semester.

2. Final term test grades for the two terms of the semester. These account for about 30% of the final semester grade.

3. Grade on map project. Supervisor will grade these. I generally give a high or medium grade depending on the effort and quality of the work. The supervisor will use his discretion. This grade will account for about 10% of the semester’s final grade.

4. Any occasional testing over the map exercises is left to the discretion of the supervisor and is considered as practice to achieve excellence and does not figure in the grading, though we do not generally inform the students of that! It is treated more like a fun experience.

5. Having completed answering all review questions in the spaces provided in the student’s Workbook will gain a 100% grade for that component. The supervisor asks to see if the blanks are full, not whether they are correct. It is good to check the workbooks occasionally so that the students can be encouraged to have it all done by the end of the semester, since it accounts for 10% of the semester’s final grade.

6. The four components will be put into the Excel Grade Sheet which can be downloaded from the bottom of this page. It will calculate the weightings of each component and give the final grade. Please note that there is an Excel  gradesheet page for each semester, since the first semester has a map project and the second semester does not, so the weightings differ slightly.

The weightings are as follows:

Semester 1:

– Weekly test average = 55%
– Final Term 1 test = 13% (called Mid-T on Grade Sheet)
– Final Term 2 test = 13%
– Map Project = 10%
– Workbook review questions filled out = 9%

Semester 2:

– Weekly test average = 56%
– Final Term 3 test = 17%
– Final Term 4 test = 17%
– Workbook review questions filled out = 10%

Missiionary Outpost does not provides certificates of completion, but it is an excellent motivation for the church to do so and to present it in a public service.