Appendix

Assess Your Learning Activities for Life Preparation Lessons

After you have finished teaching one of the categories of Life Preparation lessons, consider helping students reflect on their learning and growth. To do this, you could include one or more of the following activities in the upcoming Assess Your Learning lesson. These activities can be adapted to best meet the needs of your students.

Scripture Study Skills

Demonstrate the ability to use the scriptures to receive help and inspiration

Think of an interesting way to help students prepare to reflect on scripture study skills they have used recently to prepare them to receive help from Heavenly Father. Look for ways to make it interesting and relevant for students. You could do something like identify skills to effectively search the internet (like the activity below) or, if students have experience using AI, they could talk about skills for making an effective AI prompt.

Consider the following scenario:

Suppose you were preparing for a school project and needed to rely on the internet for resources.

• What skills have you learned to make an internet search more or less effective?

Invite students to make a list on the board of the scripture study skills they have learned. Next to each skill they could share how these tools might help them receive help and inspiration from the Lord. Skills your class may have learned include:

• Focusing on Jesus Christ

• Looking for symbols of Jesus Christ

• Making comparisons

• Inviting the Holy Ghost through prayer, removing distractions, and pondering

• Marking or highlighting words and phrases

• Taking notes

• Cross-referencing or linking verses

• Identifying implied or clearly stated truths

If your class learned and practiced additional skills, you could add them to the list students create.

To help students demonstrate a scripture study skill they have learned, select a scripture passage for students to practice with. This could be a doctrinal mastery passage or a meaningful passage that students were not able to study in seminary.

Demonstrate your ability to use scripture study skills to receive help and inspiration from the Lord by doing the following:

1. Read the passage through a few times.

2. Determine which scripture study skills you would use to seek understanding or inspiration and listing these skills in your study journal.

3. Practice each of these skills with the passage you selected.

4. Record in your study journal what you learned by using these skills.

When students finish, you may want to have them share with the class or in small groups which skills they used and what they learned from the experience. As students share, you may want to ask follow-up questions about how incorporating these skills in their personal scripture study can help them draw closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

For the Strength of Youth: Making Choices

Receive strength from the Lord to make inspired choices

Consider writing the word Choices on the board. Show students the following items and ask them to share an important choice or choices involved with that item. (Each item represents a lesson in the For the Strength of Youth category.)

A cell phone

A patriarchal blessing

A For the Strength of Youth guidebook

A paper titled “Goals,” with a few goals written on it

In your study journal, take a minute to list important choices you have made, or struggled to make, in the last several weeks. They could include the choices involved with the items shown, like technology, patriarchal blessings, topics in For the Strength of Youth, or setting goals. Record your responses to the following questions:

• How have you sought the Lord’s strength, help, or guidance to make choices recently?

• How have you felt His strength, help, or guidance to make inspired choices?

• Which challenges have you faced or might you face when making these inspired choices?

After students have had time to reflect and write, consider inviting a few volunteers to share. As students share how they have felt the Lord’s strength, emphasize the Lord’s willingness to help us. As students share challenges they are facing, invite the class to take a moment to ponder how they might help. They might look for scriptures or statements in the For the Strength of Youth guidebook or ponder their own experiences. Invite them to share.

Invite students to conclude this exercise by writing what they feel the Lord would want them to do as their next step.

Building Self-Reliance

Build self-reliance in the Lord’s way

Consider displaying an image that depicts Joseph of Egypt and inviting students to recall what they learned about self-reliance from studying his story (see Genesis 37–47). It may be helpful for them to look through notes in their journals or scriptures as they reflect on what they learned.

You might consider providing some, or all, of the following scripture references for students to refer to:

• Genesis 41:37–43, 49, 54–55 (Joseph of Egypt storing grain for a future famine because he received revelation from the Lord)

• Genesis 45:4–11; 47:11–12 (Joseph of Egypt blessing his family because of his efforts to build self-reliance)

• Malachi 3:8–11 (obeying the Lord’s law of tithing)

• Moses 4:23–25; 5:1 (Adam and Eve working for their food instead of God giving it to them)

Ponder the following questions and record your thoughts in your study journals:

• In what ways are you building more self-reliance?

• What challenges to building self-reliance are you facing?

• How will you invite God to help you continue to build self-reliance?

Consider inviting a few students to share their thoughts.

Physical and Emotional Health

Apply principles and skills to be more emotionally and physically healthy

Consider displaying a picture of a tree being battered by wind, or you could draw a tree on the board. If students drew a tree in their study journals as they studied Lesson 181: “Building Emotional Strength in the Lord,” invite them to review the emotional challenges they labeled on their tree.

Alternatively, students could write around a new drawing of a tree some of the emotional challenges they have experienced or may face in the future.

• How can the emotional challenges we face in life feel like whirlwinds?

• What have you learned recently in seminary for how to deal with emotional challenges?

  As students share, look for opportunities to testify that we can cope with emotional whirlwinds by relying on the strength and power Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have promised (see Helaman 5:12).

• What are some principles or skills you have tried applying to receive emotional strength from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ?

• What has been helpful? What have you learned or still want to try?

If students share difficulties or challenges, seek inspiration to know how to help. Members of the class could assist each other by demonstrating compassion and understanding.

Preparing for Future Education and Employment

Understand the importance of lifelong temporal and spiritual education

The following activity gives students the opportunity to explain the importance of lifelong spiritual and temporal education.

Invite students to imagine the following scenario. You could make adjustments in the scenario to fit the needs of your class.

You have been asked to speak at a youth event at the beginning of the school year. The event is meant to strengthen faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. The topic you have been given is “The importance of spiritual and temporal education in following Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.”

Write an outline for a two- to three-minute talk. Consider the following as part of your outline:

• The importance of spiritual and temporal education in Heavenly Father’s plan

• One or more scriptures or prophetic statements that supports your message. (for example, Doctrine and Covenants 88:77–80)

• An experience you or others have had that helped you feel the importance of lifelong learning

After enough time, you could invite students to share their outlines in small groups or invite several volunteers to share with the class.

Create a plan for future education and employment

If students have had an opportunity to make plans for future spiritual and temporal education, invite them to review the plans they have made. If students have not made plans, invite them to take this time to create a plan for how they would like to continue pursuing spiritual and temporal education in a way that will involve the Lord in their plans.

Questions that could aid in the discussion include the following:

• How are you involving or how could you involve Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in your plans?

• What questions do you still have about future spiritual or temporal education options?

• Which next steps might you take as part of your plan?

Succeeding in School

Apply skills to succeed in school

Consider writing the following lesson titles on the board:

Involving the Lord in your learning

Taking responsibility for your learning

Organizing tasks and priorities

Overcoming procrastination

Invite students to read the titles and reflect on how they have applied these skills to their schoolwork. To do this, you could invite them to do the following.

Draw two stick figures and speech bubbles. Imagine two people are discussing something you would like to improve to succeed in school.

In the first bubble, complete the sentence: “When it comes to school, I struggle with ”

In the second bubble, complete the following with what you have tried to do to apply the principles and skills you have learned recently in seminary to help you succeed in school:

“Here are some things that I have tried …”

“I am trying to continue or adjust …”

You might invite a few volunteers to share their drawings with the class. Encourage students to listen carefully to their classmates. Ask if they have any additional experiences or principles from the lessons that may help. As students listen to each other, they may feel prompted by the Holy Ghost to try some of the skills that others have found helpful.

Missionary Preparation

Feel an increased desire to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others

To prepare students to reflect on their feelings about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others, consider briefly reviewing some of the things they learned or applied from the missionary preparation lessons. For example, if students studied Lesson 198: “Choosing to Serve a Mission,” you could hold up a mirror and ask the following.

• What experiences have you had sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others using “the mirror quality to conversation?” What are some other ways you have tried sharing the gospel recently?

As students share their experiences, you might also ask which truths they shared about the Savior or which invitations they extended. You could remind students that in Lesson 197: “Sharing the Gospel in Natural Ways” they looked for truths about Jesus Christ they were excited to share with people they love (see Isaiah 1:18; 25:4, 8–9; 40:28–31; 43:25; 54:10).

Reflect on things you may have learned or applied from the missionary preparation lessons. Then answer the following questions in your study journal:

• Do you feel your desire to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others has increased, decreased, or remained the same?

• What do you think has contributed to the way you feel about sharing the gospel?

Consider inviting a few volunteers to share what they wrote. Encourage students to continue seeking the desire and opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

Temple Preparation

Feel an increased desire to make covenants with God in the temple

Consider using one or more of the following activities to help students assess their desire to make covenants with God in the temple.

Invite students to reflect on principles they have learned from the Temple Preparation lessons. They could review their scriptures and study journals to remember what they learned about the laws of sacrifice and obedience, how the temple teaches about Jesus Christ, and how to prepare to worthily enter the temple by studying the temple recommend questions. If needed, you could provide the following:

Review the following scripture references and statement by President Russell M. Nelson about blessings that are available to those who worship in the temple:

Exodus 25:8; 1 Kings 6:12–13; Haggai 2:6–9

[T]hose who serve and worship in the house of the Lord … can expect to receive answers to prayer, personal revelation, greater faith, strength, comfort, increased knowledge, and increased power. (“Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys,” Liahona, May 2024, 121)

After students have had a chance to review their scriptures and notes, display the following to help students reflect on how their desire to make covenants with God in His house has been impacted by these lessons.

Choose one of the following:

1. Share a picture of a temple and share how the temple reminds you of Jesus Christ. If needed, you can find an image in the media gallery at temples.ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Share your thoughts and feelings about making and keeping covenants with Heavenly Father in His temple.

2. In one of the temple preparation lessons you learned about the importance of preparing to worthily enter the temple. Is there anything you have learned or felt recently that has influenced your desire to make and keep covenants with Heavenly Father in the temple? If so, write a note to yourself in your study journal.

Teachings of Church Leaders

Understand and apply the teachings of Church leaders to their lives

Throughout the course, students had opportunities to study and apply the teachings from Church leaders. For this activity, you may want to remind students of the specific talks you studied as a class. Consider writing the titles of the talks on the board. Invite students to select one of the talks and review the message and any notes they may have taken. Organize students into partnerships, if possible with someone who selected a different talk. Have each partner share their response to the following two questions.

• How would you summarize the message of the talk you selected?

• Why might that message be important for teenagers today?

After each partner has shared, invite students to think about how they have tried to apply the teachings of the talk they selected. You could ask them about the successes or setbacks they have had when applying these teachings.