To say that the Protestant Reformation had a great effect on the world is a vast understatement. Kings, kingdoms, and even everyday people felt the sting—and the freedom—this new movement brought.

Your students will be writing opinions, stories, and more while exploring some of the issues and topics associated with the Reformation, no matter your religious persuasion.

If you’d like your students to learn more about Martin Luther in an interesting biography, check out When Lightning Struck by Danika Cooley of Thinking Kids Press.

These prompts are appropriate for students in 5th – 12th grade.

Let’s dig in . . .

Reformation Prompts

1. Your opinion

Over five hundred years ago, an educated man wanted to start a conversation about some things he wanted to change in his church. He wrote out a copy of the points he wanted to discuss and sent it to his boss; he most likely also nailed a copy of his points on the door of his local church to announce his intentions to begin a discussion about them.

Follow this link for the rest of the prompt. >>

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2. Your explanation

Read Martin Luther’s shocking Ninety-five Theses here or here. Then choose one of his 95 statements and explain what he meant by it.

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3. Your personal story

When Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Saxony (in what is now Germany), on October 31, 1517, he wanted to start a conversation with influential people about how salvation can be found in Christ alone, not in other acts or in the buying of indulgences (official papers from the Catholic Church).

What he did not foresee was the reaction he would get (his life was now in danger) and the movement he inadvertently would start, now called the Reformation.

Write about a time when you did or said something and then got a reaction you did not expect.

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4. Your thoughts

Hundreds of Protestants were burned at the stake for their faith, both men and women, in the years during the Reformation. When the political climate changed with Protestant royalty on the throne, hundreds of Catholics were burned at the stake. You can read more about this in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. In more modern times, Christians have been tortured or beheaded for their faith.

If you were laughed at, marginalized, ridiculed, excluded from a group, or otherwise punished for being a Christian, how do you think you would react? Write your ideas.

If those things have already happened to you, write your experience and reactions to it.

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5. Your fictional story

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”

This is what Martin Luther told his accusers while on trial before Emperor Charles V fewer than four years after he’d published his Ninety-five Theses. He would not recant (take back) what he said against the church selling indulgences, that people who bought them would have salvation. Thesis 32: “Those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned, together with their teachers.”

Luther knew he could be excommunicated, which he was, and he knew he could be killed, yet he did not change his mind or buckle beneath the pressure.

Create a character who is in trouble because he or she will not change a strongly held belief. Where is your character? What situation will you put him or her in? What will happen to your character?