WoRM Workshop Rotation Model (WoRM)
The Williamstown Sunday School has adopted the Workshop Rotation Model (WoRM) approach to Sunday School.
WoRM for Sunday School began in 1990 when a Presbyterian church in Chicago decided it was time to reinvent Sunday School or close it down. By 1995 enough churches in the Chicago area had successfully adopted the Model to call it a movement. www.rotation.org was created in 1997 to provide resources, lesson plans, and community for the grassroots movement. Many of the original Chicago Rotation educators began organizing conferences. Several started publishing ministries. As of 2005, it is estimated that over 8000 churches in the U.S. and Canada have now adopted or adapted the Model. And after a decade of showing little interest, several major denominational and independent publishers are now publishing Rotation-style curriculum.
July 2010 - Update
We have celebrated the completion of our first 6 years of offering the WoRM rotational model for Sunday School. Six years ago, Andrea, Jennifer Lafave, and Edwina Billyk selected 40 stories from the bible on which to base the program. These stories were favourites, stories that had interesting characters, and stories that provide a good foundation to teach our children. The children spent 4-6 weeks studying a story in various ways. The story and its messages were learned through drama, cooking, crafts, games, music, puppets, field trips, and storytelling.
Our season ended with an invitation to the congregation to join Sunday School in a “rotation” experience on June 27th. Our story for the day was of Jesus at the wedding in Cana.
To focus on the ‘experiences’ similar to what the children have done, we were divided into groups by the children using coloured popsicle sticks. One child must have liked green as the green group had only a couple of people assigned!
The purple group drew pictures of the wedding guests in cartoon style under the leadership of artists, Edwina Billyk and Tessa Lafave. The red group made wedding dessert (strawberry shortcake) with Bevan Lafave and Susan Edwards. Rob Moncrieff and his wedding guests experienced God’s world in the outdoors and another group sang “I prayed in the tub” under the leadership of Tina Cairncross. Cody Chambre and Paul Andre Moncrieff. The yellow group were thespians and acted out the "modern" version of the story. The green team - with some additions - played games outside.
We failed at reproduction of water into wine! A jug of water surprised some as it really was clear Kool-Aid. What a marketing gimmick - Invisible Kool Aid.
Amidst all this fun and laughter we had to come down to earth as we realized this was a time to say goodbye to Mary MacGregor, our Sunday School leader for this last year. We can offer a million thanks, Mary and wish you much happiness in the next step – the biggest step in “experiential learning”. We wish Mary and Doug all the best as they were married at our church on July 10th.
Jennifer Lafave, Edwina Billyk and Mary MacGregor have been the creative team that has made this program a success. The Session has approved the continuation of this program; including paying an individual to lead it. Starting in September - the program will begin again. Let's look forward to another 6 years.