One authentic tool we use with the Potter's Workshop curriculum is spiritual journals. Other authentic tools are observation and listening. Watch for understanding as children act out stories in drama. We have had parents tell us how lessons have had impact on their children's daily lives through things they have done or spoken. Recently one group of junior high students, while on a retreat, remembered a workshop drama lesson from years ago which led them to a new level of understanding on the current lesson.
Spiritual journals are journals in which the children write in weekly.
In some fashion children respond to and reflect on the workshop lesson. Children start journaling as early as kindergarten with pictures, progressing through the years to concrete responses and eventually to more abstract responses. Hopefully writing about their faith through the years will help writing a faith statement in junior high confirmation less intimidating. The Potter's Workshops curriculum provides a journaling idea to be used at the end of each workshop. Journals can be spiral notebooks or paper stapled together with a designed cover.