The Seven Minute Rule

WANT TO KEEP YOUR STUDENTS ENGAGED AND LISTENING TO YOUR LESSON? CONSIDER THE “7 MINUTE RULE”  WHEN IT COMES TO PLANNING YOUR NEXT LESSON: 

I know traditionally, youth ministry lessons tend to resemble a sermon/lecture (“Auditory Learning”) more than they do other kinds of presentations. The church is a setting for 20 minute plus sermons, which might work for the adults, but it honestly doesn’t work for your students.

Even in recent conversations about Generation Z and Generation Alpha, this group of students is called the “Goldfish Generation” due to their short attention span thanks to media and other influences.

It is being researched that middle school students’ brains are not developed enough to keep the complete focus we would like them to have for a full lecture-style presentation.

• The first 7 minutes are the most important. 

They are the time period you will have the most attention, and when students choose whether, they will listen fully the rest of the time. It is like the old traditional youth ministry model of “Hook-Look-Book-Took.” The first 7 minutes are our “Hook” time more than ever.

• Every 7 minutes you need to stop the sermon/lecture do something and change it up.  

This takes on various forms in an academic setting with seatwork, assignments, or reading. In our youth ministry setting, it can be much more diverse and a bit more fun, either way, as you plan your next lesson think about how you can change pace every 7 minutes in order to keep your students engaged, listening, and learning. 

HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO CHANGE THE PACE AND KEEP YOUR  STUDENTS ATTENTION: 

• Classics: “sermon” illustration story, tell a personal story, tell a joke…
• Video/Media: clip from a movie, YouTube clip, pre-made video, or even a commercial…
• Questions: group survey response (*raise your hand if…), turn to the person next to you, think about…
• Handouts: create your own, pre-made one, or use a blank sheet for asking questions and reflecting 
• Funny: silly pictures, silly videos, even a silly skit…
• Game: quick trivia, upfront challenge, mid-lesson bonding icebreaker,…
• Upfront Interaction: Invite students to come up and participate in an illustration and have small whiteboards that they hold while you write on them…
• Change Locations: Move mid-way through the lesson to face a different way or completely move the group to a new place or even outside…
• Use Your Imagination… Don’t Bore Them!! I have even had a t-shirt with a funny picture or phrase that I had on under a zipped-up hoodie, revealing it while I was talking.
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* Looking for Creative Resources for Better Teaching Check Out our “ONE NIGHTS”.  They are an all-inclusive, complete night of youth ministry including some of the ideas mentioned above.  Also be looking out for our new product line for Sunday Mornings/Sunday School called “7-Minute-Sundays”, based on the above concepts! 

* Need help or have questions about how this could work in your context, feel free to reach out to Dan, “distvanik@youthminhub.com” .