Archive for the ‘Assessment’ Category

The Jesus Biography Project

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

I know that some of you haven’t spent masses of time looking at Jesus. This is an opportunity for a bit of a research project.

It’s due in the penultimate week of term (the week before last).

Your task is to write a brief biography of Jesus, explaining the link between what he did and who Christians believe him to be. The handout with all the details you need is here.

Resources:
Basic introduction to Jesus’ life
BBC Religion – Life of Jesus
ReligionFacts.com – Life of Jesus

You can also use the New Steps in RE: Book One book, which has a whole chapter on the life of Jesus, as well as the other books around the classroom.

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Places of Worship Presentation

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Your task is to produce a 5-10 minute PowerPoint presentation about a religious place of worship (eg. a church, or a mosque, gurdwara).

Below is a list of resources to help you out. There are also lots of books in the classroom, particuarly New Steps in RE: Book One.

General Help
REOnline – Places of Worship
BBC Religion – Places of Worship in pictures

Sikh Gurdwaras

Sikh temples are quite interesting because they have a “langar”, a food hall for everyone to use (Sikh and non-Sikh), which shows their belief in the equality of all human beings. They also have a special “bedroom” for their holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, which they treat as a person and so put to bed every night.

Sikhs.org – the Gurdwara
LearningLive
Gurdwara virtual tour

The Jewish Synagogue

Jews have met in the Synagogue for many centuries. It is not so much that the structure of the building tells us about Judaism, but they have lots of special things in there which tell us about them. You might talk about the idea that different Jews called their place of worship by different names and explain why.

Chabad.org – Interactive Tour
BBC Religion
JewFAQ.org

Christian Churches

There are lots of different kinds of churches – it would be excellent if your presentation showed some of the differences between them!

RE:Quest – Virtual Tours
h2g2 – Church Layout

Muslim Mosques

There’s loads of stuff to find out about mosques. There is meaning in both what the building looks like, and lots of stuff to say about what happens inside too!

Birmingham Council of Muslims – Virtual Mosque Tour
BBC Religion
Hitchams School Mosque website

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Religion and Law Assessment

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Learning Objective: To write a newspaper article exploring the way law operates in different religions.

The point of this assessment is to see how well you can explain what different religions believe about law. Really good assessments will analyse and evalualte the ideas. For the assignment handout click here.

Marking:
This project will be marked on effort, understanding and independence. You will get raffle tickets for each category, and the winner of the raffle will get a prize! The more raffle tickets you get the better your chances!

You might want a bit more information about what the different religions believe, so look below.

Judaism:
Judaism 101 on Halakhah
ReligionFacts.com (quite complex).
MyJewishLearning.com

Islam:
BBC Religion

Buddhism:
Buddhism for Children – Search for “Karma” or “Precepts” on the page.

Christianity:

Christianity 101 – Grace
Christianity for Kids
This is quite a difficult topic, so please ask me if you want help.

Good luck! Remember that copying and pasting from Wikipedia proves nothing and won’t get you any marks!

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Religious Art Assessment

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Use the handout to help you. If you’ve lost it you can pick up a copy here.

This work is due in on the last lesson of term. If it isn’t finished in time you’ll be expected to do it during the last lesson of term while the rest of us are watching a DVD.

There’s lots of information on this website:

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Islamic Geometric Art

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Muslims do not like to make pictures of God because they believe that Allah is invisible and any pictures of him would not do justice to him.

However, they do use shapes and patterns to make art which represents different things.

Symbolic structure
Repeating patterns can represent the order Allah has put into the world, and can also represent the unchanging his laws.

Symbolic Shapes
In Islamic patterns many of the shapes have meanings:

  • Circle – A symbol of Allah who has no beginning and no end. The centre can also be a symbol for Mecca, towards which Muslims face to pray.
  • Triangle – A symbol for three aspects of human beings: body, mind and spirit.
  • Square – The four elements of the world: earth, water, wind and fire.
  • Hexagon – This can be created from six circles placed around a seventh. As seven is a perfect number, and circles are perfect the hexagon represents heaven.
  • Star – Often represents the spread of Islam because the points of the star spread out from the middle. (Thanks Bisshu for reminding me about this)

Here are some examples, which you might be able to explain:

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Jesus in other cultures

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Jesus as a man from the Middle East (Israel). However, many people draw pictures of him as a person from another culture to show that Jesus is not just there for people from Israel – he is for everybody.

Have a look at some of the pictures from this website and use them to illustrate the point that Jesus is for everyone.

Of course, all of the pictures tell us different things about Jesus too. You will do even better if you can explain what else these pictures might say about Jesus. I have a little book explaining each one if you want to try this.

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Art of Jesus’ birth

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

In this lesson we looked at several piece of art showing Jesus’ birth. In each we tried to identify how four key teachings came out:

  • Jesus is fully human AND fully God.
  • Jesus somehow reconnects human beings to God.
  • Jesus, the “light of the world”, brings God’s peace.
  • Jesus is the most important person ever to live.

The main picture we looked at was Botticelli’s Nativity:

Botticelli Nativity

Do you remember the things we talked about? Your essay needs to try to explain what they mean:

  • Jesus is right in the middle
  • Jesus is naked
  • Angels and human beings are hugging at the bottom
  • A demon is running away in the bottom right
  • Angels are coming down out of heaven

Here are some of the other pictures. Remember to ask yourself…

  • Who or what is the main thing in the picture? How do you know it is the main thing?
  • Where is the light coming from?
  • What can we tell about the way the main characters are feeling? How can you tell? What is it trying to say?
  • What is happening in the rest of the picture? What do these things tell you about the main bit?

Ghirlandaio’s Nativity:
Ghirlandaio Nativity

Previtali’s Nativity:
Previtali Nativity

Rubens:
Rubens Adoration

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