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Lesson Plans Having surveyed a medley of topics that bear strongly on this site's theme (e.g., accepting differences, recognizing bias, supporting civic values, teaching about religion and nonreligion, promoting public civility and tolerance, and understanding multiculturalism), we list here several lesson plans of likely academic value, awaiting evaluative comments on lesson usefulness. We invite feedback from teachers on any lesson used with students and will consider this feedback as we pursue our effort to locate a bank of quality lessons for linking to this website. Altruism: Meeting Society's Needs Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. In the U.S. today, many people's fundamental needs are not being met. Food, shelter, medical care, and safety from violence are elusive for increasing numbers of people. In a spirit of altruism, individuals, faith-based organizations and secular groups undertake humanitarian efforts to meet these people's basic needs and -- in the process -- discover that other, more profound needs are being met for the server as well as the served. In this lesson, students explore the meaning of altruism and the bonds that are created when people take care of each other. Resources include segments from RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, Web sites, and guest speakers. As a culminating activity, students explore and synthesize the themes of the lesson through a service learning project. Grades 5-8, make sure you look at: Background, Procedures for Teachers, and Organizers for Students Traditions and Transformations Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. Jewish culture provides a lens through which students can observe how traditions endure and are transformed over time. In this lesson plan, middle school students learn about Jewish culture as a living, changing tradition and relate Judaism to traditions in their own life. Students learn about Jewish culture from a variety of perspectives: They look at Jewish religious and secular traditions including Jewish holidays, sacred and secular music, dance, and visual arts. They also consider the relationship of religious traditions to cultural and secular traditions. Resources include segments from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Web sites, and interviews with guest speakers. As a culminating activity, students explore and synthesize the themes of the lesson through arts activities. Grades 6-8, make sure you look at: Background, Procedures for Teachers, and Organizers for Students Religion in Public Schools Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. One of the most emotional and controversial issues raised by the First Amendment is the question of the role religion should play in public institutions. The First Amendment prohibits government from establishing a religion and protects each individual's right to practice (or not practice) any faith without government interference. In this lesson, students will focus on one aspect of the presence of religion in public institutions: the controversy surrounding religion in the public schools. Through research and interviews with community members, students examine different perspectives on this issue. They then act as a fact-finding commission whose job is to offer a recommendation to a school administration about its policy on religion in the school. This lesson would work well in the context of a unit on the United States Constitution and the events that led to the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Grades 6-8, make sure you look at: Background, Procedures for Teachers, and Organizers for Students In My Other Life: Learning of Other Cultures Common Vision, Common Voices EDSITEment lesson (National Endowment for the Humanities). This lesson’s goal is to challenge stereotypes about cultures unfamiliar to us; to expand awareness of the range of factors that help constitute a cultural identity; to research, organize, and present information about everyday life in an unfamiliar culture; to create an imaginative firsthand account of life in an unfamiliar culture. Experiencing Prejudice and Discrimination ERIC lesson to help students come to understand the prejudices and discrimination that have existed throughout history and continue as negative aspects of our society today. Supreme Court Decisions on Freedom of Religion ERIC lesson plan. Seventeen Supreme Court decisions are the basis for discussion on First Amendment Right, Freedom of Religion. Any and all can be discussed in depth or simply touched upon. The wide range of cases help students to understand that this "freedom" has limits and bounds and is constantly under attack. Cultural Acceptance ERIC lesson plan: The student will experience racial indifference first hand. Galileo and the Inevitability of Ideas EDSITEment lesson. Lesson goal: to understand the historical significance of Galileo's scientific achievements; to explore the element of "inevitability" in our perception of historical developments; to examine the values underlying historic choices. Cultural Change EDSITEment lesson. Political developments leave a clear trace in the life of a nation, usually marked by legislative mileposts like the Fourteenth Amendment, which dictates equal protection for all, and the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. But such developments have a cultural dimension as well, often evident in the attitudes and assumptions implicit in political arguments. Socrates and the Law EDSITEment lesson. Eight lessons on the themes (1) To learn about Socrates and his significance within Western civilization; (2) To analyze the arguments on the rule of law that Socrates presents in the Crito; (3) To explore the claims of law on personal conscience; (4) To consider the relationship between individual rights and the rule of law in contemporary society. Evaluating Eyewitness Reports EDSITEment lesson. Eight lessons on the goals of (1) To gain experience in working with eyewitness accounts of historical events; (2) To explore issues related to the evaluation of historical evidence; (3) To consider the uses of historical evidence within different kinds of history; (4) To recognize that historical evidence may raise questions rather than provide answers about a past event The Multicultural Community—My Home ERIC lesson. In this lesson students are engaged in a study of the multicultural character of the local community. Community resources, e.g., people, places, things, and events, are incorporated into the classroom/field-based investigation. An Approach to Teaching Religious Tolerance ERIC lesson plan. Students will be encouraged to think about What is truth? and how different people can have different interpretations, traditions, cultures, languages, and, ultimately, belief systems or religions to explain truth. Students will examine various cultures and history to see how beliefs can be learned. Hopefully, an awareness of the importance of religious tolerance will be developed. Looking Into The Mirror: A Survey of Racial, Cultural and/or Socio-Economic Intolerance ERIC lesson plan. The intent of this lesson is to provide various activities to give students a deeper understanding of human relationships and of intolerance that has existed in our society, both past and present. The Bill of Rights Is For Us Today ERIC lesson plan. A bill of rights is needed in a free society in order to protect the rights of the individual from abuses by the government. Government rarely acts against the interests of the majority, and often the beneficiary of a specific decision is one of the minority. Yet, the entire society benefits from the protection of minority rights. Oftentimes protecting the minority causes great controversy, but each person benefits ultimately. We are all a part of some minority, whether it be race, religion, economics, political beliefs, or social beliefs. We all need our individual rights protected. Science and Sacred Life — Kennewick Man EDSITEment lesson. Goals: (1) To learn about the discovery of Kennewick Man and what this ancient skeleton suggests about the earliest inhabitants of North America; (2) To examine the controversy surrounding Native American efforts to rebury Kennewick Man in accordance with their traditions and federal law; (3) To explore the relationship between science and religion as reflected in their shared concern about human origins; (4) To gain experience in the close analysis of argument. Freedom of Hate Speech? Investigating Hate Group Propaganda and Free Speech on the Internet New York Times Learning Network: This lesson encourages students to defend or refute whether hate groups should enjoy the same right of free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment as individuals and groups that promote less controversial beliefs, as well as whether or not the Internet should censor Web sites that promote such groups. When Students Don’t Clique: Breaking Down Group Barriers in the Classroom New York Times Learning Network: Students examine the roles of cliques in schools and ways in which schools can foster tolerance among diverse groups of students. The class creates a survey addressing these issues to be distributed among a large portion of the student body, and students individually share their thoughts and experiences in personal reflective essays. Whose “Truth'' Is Out There? Examining the Historical Significance of the “Evolution Versus Creationism'' Debate New York Times Learning Network: In this lesson, students examine different ways people arrive at and understand what "the truth" is, focusing particularly on the evolution versus creationism debate that has been a "hot topic" in education throughout the 20th century. Interviewing of Historical Figures Columbia Curriculum Exchange: The students will gain knowledge of historical figures using an interviewing technique. (Might we suggest freethinkers?) Class Culture Columbia Curriculum Exchange: To begin to understand people of different cultures, students must first know how all cultures are alike and different. There are certain things that all cultures have, whether or not they are exactly the same. These things are called cultural universals and include such things as religion, values, what is considered right and wrong, games, music, rites of passage, etc. Locke on Natural Freedom: How Man Negotiates Away His Natural Freedom Columbia Curriculum Exchange: The relevance of this lesson is that students are asked to recognize that our legal-political system has developed through a process of moving from philosophical ideals to compromised working models. A Question of Ethics Columbia Curriculum Exchange: a unit of instruction that helps students to understand the term ethics, learn what ethical questions are, and develop a self-checking ethics guide. Forming a Government Columbia Curriculum Exchange: The formation of a government, and the development of laws, is a concept taught from the beginning to the end of school. The lesson helps students understanding of governmental systems, the laws they create and the punishments assigned for the violation of those laws. Through the use of a cooperative learning activity the students will develop their own government, author laws, and designate the consequence for the violation of those laws. Will atheists be allowed? Creating a Bill of Rights Columbia Education Center. Students are asked to write a Bill of Rights for a new democratic country. This activity is designed to show students the problems faced by the Founding Fathers. This activity should be conducted as an introduction to the study of the creation of the Bill of Rights. |
Teaching About Religion |
in support of civic pluralism |