Thinking of Illustrations

Coming up with good illustrations requres a lot of thought, and thinking is hard work! Remember the old Winnie the Pooh cartoons where poor Pooh is walking around in circles tapping his forehead and muttering to himself, "Think, think, think!" That describes a lot of us as we try to keep our teaching fresh and relevant for our TCE students.

During the IOT advanced training held at our CEF International Conference in May, we enjoyed an evening called Instructors' Cafe Live. It was a fun evening of chatting, eating and idea swapping. There were various tables set up to discuss different topics of interest to IOTs. One of those topics was illustrations.

The facilitator of the illustration group kept notes on what was shared regarding finding, filing and using illustrations in teaching TCE courses. A request was made that we publish the notes from that group in particular. Following are the random ideas that were compiled from those discussions.

1. What makes an illustration effective? It relates to the topic; real life situations; something demonstrated in the lives of the children I’m teaching (GNC); a quote that inspires me personally; if I can visualize it in my head (this helps me understand it better); if it speaks to my heart first; illustrations that are current—not outdated; something that God has taught me or I have gone through (good to use for the devotions); personal events with children.

2. How do you file illustrations? Have a file folder in my drawer & put them in when I find them; when I find them I put them in my lesson plan or file folder on the corresponding TCE subject; have a file on the computer that has illustrations and testimonies; on my computer my files are divided by TCE class subject; have an illustration pool file on the computer where new illsutrations are stored by subject. When one is put into a lesson plan, it is removed from the pool; have a notebook and write down things I hear, then file them.

3. Where do you find your illustrations?

• The Instructors' Cafe


• Country Living magazine (funny things kids say)


• E-mails with quotes, statements from various people


• Our Daily Bread or other devotionals


• Reader’s Digest


• Google search for kid related stories


• E-Sword (has a section of illustrations)


• sermonspice.com (video clips)


• The Story File by Steve May (an illustration book)


• Children’s Defense Fund reports


• Nwspapers (look for local statistics related to children (ask someone clip newspaper articles for you)


• reverendfun.com (cartoons)


• religioustolerance.org


• Quotations from Children’s Bible Essay’s


• The Speaker’s Quote Book by Roy B. Zuck (good to use for introductions & illustrations)


• Things that kids say in club (note: have a helper write it down for you)


• Pastor’s sermons


• Answers in Genesis


• Liberty Counsel (lc.org) for updates on school happenings


• Other IOTs


• Books used in personal reading (devotional, biographical and personal experience books are good);


• Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations by Paul Lee Tan.

4. How do you keep from repeating illustrations or overlapping with other instructors? Only use an illustration for six months so you keep updated/fresh; if another IOT in my TCE course uses one of my illustrations I refer back to it and try to tie it with my class; before I teach, look over my lesson plan and try to update and improve on my illustrations; change at least one illustration each time i teach; discuss with co-workers what intro/conclusions & illustrations each are planning to use so there is no overlapping;

An additional note on using quotes as illustrations: Try to find some background information on the person you are quoting so TCE students have a frame of reference for the quote they are hearing (i. e. who exactly was William A. Ward, who said so many insightful things about teaching? Google his name and find out!)

We hope these ideas are helpful and have perhaps made you think about how you find, file or use illustrations. If you have anything to add to these ideas, please click the COMMENT link below and share them with the rest of us!