We should step away from seeing teaching as a set of techniques, as something done to students by a teacher.  When we teach, when we design learning, we offer a temporary home in which students will live for a while, and we shape the patterns of life together within which they will grow. - David I. Smith, On Christian Teaching (p. 12)

It is within the above invitation, “to offer a temporary home in which students will live for a while”, that the following transformation lesson design framework finds its purpose. The framework is created to invite students to this home, to nurture them with purpose within this home, and to equip and empower them when they leave the classroom home and explore their role within God’s story beyond the walls of the classroom.

Within the context of the core practices of Teaching for Transformation resides the necessity for teachers to design daily and weekly learning plans. In the same way that TfT’s core practices shape both teacher and student, we recognize that the ongoing, daily design of learning practices are equally vital to the formation of peculiar people.

The Transformational Lesson Design framework aims to:

• identify and name key design elements of transformational lessons
• provide practical examples and tools that will support teachers as they include these design elements in their daily/weekly lessons

The Deep Hope for this framework is to empower teachers to design transforming lessons for the image bearers of our Creator God who fill our classrooms and who long to be invited, nurtured, and empowered to play their part in God’s Story today and for the rest of their lives.

This framework is designed to inspire, equip, and empower you to become creatively obsessive about the intricate details of lesson design—what you are doing, what the students are doing, and what God is doing—from the moment they walk in the door until they leave.