Here's a twitter project I copied from another teacher. Students tweet one news story about religion to a hashtag each week during the quarter.
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Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic™ knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and and Belief-O-Matic™ will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing. "
This is a great introductory activity for students which always sparks conversation.
This is a great introductory activity for students which always sparks conversation.
Defining Religion/ Introductory Peardeck
Here is a pear-deck that introduces students to religion through some of the scholars, like Freud, Marx, Rudolf, and Smart. Students also watch a Religion-for Breakfast video which define religion. Here is a link to the slide show.. It will only open in FCPS net.
Here is a link to a pdf of the presention for those of you outside the FCPS domain.
Here is a link to a pdf of the presention for those of you outside the FCPS domain.
This test, developed by Harvard University, measures attitudes and beliefs about the world’s major faiths.
- Click here and scroll down to Religion IAT.
- Click on the Religion IAT
- Read the instructions and hit “continue.”
- Answer the demographic questions if you like (these are not sent to me) or skip them. Hit continue.
- You will not see a black screen with information about various religions. Read this and the directions. Then hit “I’m ready to begin this task.”
- Start the test. It will go through similar questions several times, so don’t worry if you don’t get the hang of it right away.
- Once the test is over you will answer a number of questions about your feelings toward various faiths. Answer these honestly.
- Read the results and print out the results. You may take the test again if you’d like.
- Write 2-3 paragraph reflection on your results.
Religious Typology Quiz from Pew Research
"Are you a Sunday Stalwart? Solidly Secular? Or somewhere in between? Take our quiz to find out which one of the religious typology groups is your best match and see how you compare with our nationally representative survey of more than 4,000 U.S. adults."
Where did everything come from and where are we heading? These are the questions at the heart of many origin stories. Here are eight stories from around the world along with a chart (the stories come from Big History Project) Click the button to access the stories.
Students write a worldview autobiography in this exercise. They attempt to incorporate answers to questions like these: What are the sources of your information about religion? What perspectives do they represent? What perspectives are not included? How do your assumptions about religion, and/or your experiences with religion shape your perceptions? What sources about religion do you consider trustworthy or valid and which ones are suspect and why?
How do you self identify regarding religious affiliation or worldview and who are the most influential people in your life who have shaped your views? What significant experiences have you had that impact your understanding of religion? Do you identify as an atheist? A humanist? An evangelical Christian? A devotee of the Goddess? An Ismaili Muslim? Is your self-identity the same or different than your parents or your grandparents? If different, what influences were significant to you?
The purpose of this exercise is to highlight our individual “situatedness” and the ways that our perceptions are shaped by our social, cultural, geographical, and historical contexts. Your autobiography can be written or represented artistically. It should be 250 to 500 words.
How do you self identify regarding religious affiliation or worldview and who are the most influential people in your life who have shaped your views? What significant experiences have you had that impact your understanding of religion? Do you identify as an atheist? A humanist? An evangelical Christian? A devotee of the Goddess? An Ismaili Muslim? Is your self-identity the same or different than your parents or your grandparents? If different, what influences were significant to you?
The purpose of this exercise is to highlight our individual “situatedness” and the ways that our perceptions are shaped by our social, cultural, geographical, and historical contexts. Your autobiography can be written or represented artistically. It should be 250 to 500 words.
This chart allows students to record the number of religious sites within their local area. Students can use google or other search engines to see how much religion is embedded in their local culture. The exercise is meant to demonstrate the diversity of religion in most metropolitan areas.
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Here are a number of short exercises to help students understand the different definitions of religion.
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This project takes students to Bill Moyers PBS site on faith and reason. The section on sacred myths includes clips and biographies from different writers. Students read and listen and note the different perspectives on myth. The lesson helps students understand the importance of myth in both religion and culture.
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Star Wars provides a great introduction to the study of myths. It has some of the classic elements of the hero myth. Click on the button to see one way to use the saga in religion class.
CrashCourse developed an excellent series of videos on mythology that fits in perfectly my short unit on mythology and religion. One covers the Yoruba and Orishas, another covers the Indian pantheon of gods. I might use them next year as "flipped videos" and develop questions for them.
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Students should learn about the influence of important scholars on the study of religion like Freud, Marx, Otto, and others. Here are a few clips to help students with that understanding.
Here's a short activity for Ninian Smart's Six Dimensions of Religion.
Use these links to do the following:
Common Features of Religion
Read: Common features of Basic Religion
Find as many modern examples of all of the features listed as you can. In other words, how do the ten features defining basic religions live on in American society today?
Here's a short activity for Ninian Smart's Six Dimensions of Religion.
Use these links to do the following:
- List the six dimension of religion and rank them in order of importance/
- List the six dimensions of religion as they would emerge with he development of a particular religion (which elements would come first and how would the others then develop from there )
- Southwest Minneapolis High School review of the Seven Dimensions.
- Study Library
- Westminister College, essay
Common Features of Religion
Read: Common features of Basic Religion
Find as many modern examples of all of the features listed as you can. In other words, how do the ten features defining basic religions live on in American society today?
- https://mypassionisbooks.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/walkabout-and-other-rites-of-passage-by-fran-parker/
- http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&contentSet=EBKS&idigest=fb720fd31d9036c1ed2d1f3a0500fcc2&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=GIC&docId=CX3045302291&source=gale&userGroupName=itsbtrial&version=1.0
- http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Rites_of_Passage.pdf
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When you think of worshiping idols, what comes to your mind? Golden calves? Giant statues? Here's a sobering look from The Skit Guys |
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