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Teacher Training Courses

The Bible Literacy Project sponsors an online graduate-level course on how to teach a legal, rigorous and academic public high school class on the Bible. This course – the ONLY university-based teacher training for how to teach about the Bible in public schools – is offered in partnership with Concordia University’s College of Education in Portland, Oregon.

To register for these course please visit http://www.cu-portland.edu/blp

What kinds of courses are available?

Three price and content structures are available: a modestly priced short course which gives a certificate of completion, a mid-price course for continuing education units and a full-price course for graduate level credit.

• CEU 022W, CEU 023W, CEU 024W, Four-week seminars. How to Teach the Bible in Public School. $200 each.
  • CEU 023W - The Gospels, Spring 2008 Feb 18, Spring 2009 Feb 23, Spring 2010 Feb 22
  • CEU 024W - Heroes of Faith, Spring 2008 Apr 7, Spring 2009 Apr 13, Spring 2010 Apr 12
  • CEU 025W - Women of Valor,  August 3, 2008
  • CEU 022W - Genesis, Spring 2009 Jan 5, Spring 2010 Jan 4
     
• EDU 896W, How to Teach the Bible in Public School: Content, First Amendment Guidelines, Lessons from Genesis to Revelation, A Continuing Education Course for English and Humanities Teachers
  $800. Offers Continuing Education Units equivalency. Begins Spring 2008 Jul 13, Spring 2009 Jan 5, Spring 2010 Full Term
   
• EDU 596W, How to Teach the Bible in Public School: Content, First Amendment
  Guidelines, Lessons from Genesis to Revelation, A Rigorous Graduate Course for English and Humanities Teachers
  $1620. Offers graduate credits. Spring 2008 Jul 13, Spring 2008 Jan 5, Spring 2010 Full Term
   

How are these course opportunities the same?

• Each course studies the Bible as literature.
• Each course provides teaching tips for an academic study of the Bible.
• Each course reviews First Amendment Guidelines for teaching about the Bible in public schools.
• Each course models best practices for an academic study of the Bible.
• Each course is completely online. The course participants receive assignments, discuss readings, and complete assignments in a special web site accessible only to course participants and their Concordia instructor.
• Each course offers a “Bible Literature Certificate of Completion.”
• Each course is offered in cooperation with Bible Literacy Project, Inc., Front Royal, VA

How are these course opportunities different and which is best for me?

Each course in the CEU Series is a four-week seminar-type course. Each four-week seminar focuses on a different part of the Hebrew Bible or New Testament. ($200 each) The seminars are for teachers and other interested persons who want an introduction to an academic study of the Bible. One purpose of the seminars is to help interested teachers develop expertise -- including materials and strategies -- for teaching about the Bible. Another purpose is to provide teachers, board members, administrators and other interested persons with a “feel” for and a knowledge-base of academic study of the Bible (as opposed to devotional or doctrinal study). Course participants earn one hour of “limited graduate seminar credit.” The one hour of “limited graduate seminar credit” may be accepted at some universities as an elective in education graduate programs. One hour of credit requires 30 hours of work. Those 30 hours are the equivalent of 3 CEU hours (1 CEU per 10 hours of work).

CEU 023W, How to Teach the Bible in Public School: Content, First Amendment  Guidelines, Focusing on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John A Four-week Seminar for English and Humanities Teachers and Other Education Stakeholders, 4-week seminars. This seminar includes study of the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

CEU 024W, How to Teach the Bible in Public School: Content, First Amendment Guidelines, Focusing on Heroes of Faith: Moses, David, Isaiah, Job, Jonah, Daniel, and Paul, A Four-week Seminar for English and Humanities Teachers and Other Education Stakeholders, 4-week seminars. This seminar features Biblical heroes of faith commonly encountered in Western culture, including Moses, David, Isaiah, Jonah, Job, and Paul.

CEU 022W, How to Teach the Bible in Public School: Content, First Amendment Guidelines, Focusing on the Book of Genesis, A Four-week Seminar for English and Humanities Teachers and Other Education Stakeholders,  4-week seminars. This seminar includes study of popular Genesis narratives commonly encountered in Western culture, including the Creation, the Fall, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, Tower of Babel, Abraham and Sarah, Joseph, and Jacob and Esau.

CEU 025W, How to Teach the Bible in Public School: Content, First Amendment Guidelines, Focusing on Women of Valor: Miriam, The Strong Woman (of Proverbs 31), Naomi, Ruth, Esther, Rahab, Hannah, Judith, Susannah, the Marys, and More!

EDU 896W, How to Teach the Bible in Public School: Content, First Amendment Guidelines, Lessons from Genesis to Revelation, A Continuing Education Course for English and Humanities Teachers ($800) EDU 896W is a 15-week continuing education course. This course is less rigorous than EDU 596W, yet covers much of the same course content. The course EDU 896W is for interested high school teachers who desire to earn “limited graduate seminar credit.” The course EDU 896W covers foundational Bible texts, from Genesis to Revelation, in order to understand concepts and allusions that permeate Western culture. Course participants will develop expertise — including materials and strategies — for teaching Bible literature. Course participants earn four hours of “limited graduate seminar credit.” These four hours of “limited graduate seminar credit” may be accepted at some universities as electives in education graduate programs. Each one hour of credit requires 30 hours of work; therefore, approximately 120 hours of work are invested to complete this four-hour course. Those 120 hours are the equivalent of 12 CEU hours (1 CEU per 10 hours of work).

EDU 596W, How to Teach the Bible in Public School: Content, First Amendment Guidelines, Lessons from Genesis to Revelation: A Rigorous Graduate Course for English and Humanities Teachers ($1620) EDU 596W is a 15-week graduate level course. This course, the most rigorous of the three, is for educators who desire to earn graduate credit that transfers to master’s degree programs. The course EDU 596W covers foundational Bible texts, from Genesis to Revelation, in order to understand concepts and allusions that permeate Western culture. Course participants will study Bible literature and curriculum and instruction strategies so that they may acquire discrete Bible knowledge for a well-rounded education in order to (a) integrate the Bible into their English or humanities courses or (b) teach a full course in Bible as literature.  Course participants earn three hours of graduate credit.

Experienced high school English teachers and university professors developed the online course with input and complementary video-streaming from nationally-known eminent scholars.

Marie Goughnour Wachlin (Ph.D., University of Oregon ) Director of the Bible Literacy Project Teacher Training Program Adjunct Professor, Concordia University, Portland Oregon Author, The Bible Literacy Report: What do American teens need to know and what do they know? * Coordinator, online training course.

Robert Alter (Ph.D., Harvard) Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley * Introduction to Bible Literature Teaching * Bible Translations * David

Roger Grant Baker (Ed.D., Brigham Young University) Associate Professor, Brigham Young University, UT * Literary Bible Reading * Women and the Bible

Paul C. Borgman (Ph.D., University of Chicago) Professor of English, Gordon College, MA * Abraham * Book of Mark

Gayle Carpenter (Ph.D.) College of Humanities Instructor, Ohio State University at Columbus * Teaching Tips

Thomas B. Dozeman (Ph.D., Columbia University) Professor of Old Testament, United Theological Seminary, OH * Genesis * Abraham

John Edward Ferguson, Jr. (J.D., Vanderbilt University) Law Professor, Howard Payne University, TX Attorney, First Amendment Center, VA * First Amendment Guidelines

Tremper Longman III (Ph.D., Yale University) Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies, Department Chair,   Westmont College, CA * Hebrew Poetry * Wisdom Literature

Mikeal C. Parsons (Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) Kidd L. and Buna Hitchcock Macon Chair in Religion, Baylor University, TX * Life and Teachings of Jesus

Leland Ryken (Ph.D., University of Oregon) Clyde S. Kilby Professor of English, Wheaton College, IL * Introduction to Bible Literature Teaching * Introduction to the New Testament * Acts

Hans Spalteholz (M.A., Columbia University; A.M., Divinity School, University of Chicago) Professor of English and Religion, Emeritus,  Concordia University,   Portland, OR * Moses * Prophets

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