Strategies
Strategies While Teaching About Religion
"Concept/Question Chart": 2 parts to a Chalkboard: Students will identify the religious concept being alluded to within the text, e.g. the Ten Commandments, Judgment Day, or a Sacrament, and write this concept on the left side of the board. On the right side of the board, students will pose any lingering questions about this concept, as well as formulate higher-level thinking questions inspired by it, and have these questions answered by their peers.
Strategies While Teaching About the History of Religion
"Text-Text; Text-Self; Text-World Connections": Students write down these three associations in their spiral, leaving a blank space after and underneath each. As they learn about the different topics in Christian religious history, students will take each topic and make a text-to-text connection, then make a text-to-self connection, and finally make a text-to-world connection. For example, for the Ten Commandments, I would write: "The Ten Commandments can also be found in Religious Dogma or Christian Catechism" (connecting the text to another text). "The Ten Commandments can be found in my life when I obey my Mom and Dad" (connecting the text to the self). "The Ten Commandments can also be found in Hollywood headlines because one should not commit adultery" (connecting the text to a world issue).
Strategies While Reading the Text Through a Religious Lens
"Think-Pair-Share": Independently, student will read a brief passage from the play that has a religious allusion in it and identify the line of text that contains it. In pairs, students will show their partner their line of text and discuss what religious concept is alluded to in the line of text. As a class, students will share their answers with their peers, ideally so that the class arrives at homogeneous answers about the specific line of text.
"Evidence/Application Chart": 2 parts to a chalkboard: As students read the text through a religious perspective, on the left side of the board they will write the line of text as evidence that supports the concept taught. On the right side of the board is where they apply what they have learned: students must bring in present-day examples of people in society living out the religious concepts, e.g., newspaper articles, magazine pictures, advertisements, etc.
Strategies for Discussion
"Socratic Seminar Circle": Students are to sit side by side, forming a circle in the classroom. Place one student at the board. Elect a discussion leader. When a student has a question, he or she may raise a hand and, after being handed the tennis ball by the discussion leader, he or she may pose the question to the entire group. A student can only be called on by the discussion leader, and he or she can only speak or respond to a question by holding the tennis ball. The question is to be answered in full by the other students, with the discussion leader deciding when a question is stale. As the questions are answered, the student at the board must write down the specific examples provided as evidence for each answer. Please note: in order for this Socratic Seminar to be effective, there are three general rules: A student may speak only when holding the tennis ball, each classmate must speak at least once, and the teacher neither speaks nor participates in the discussion.
Strategies for Analysis
"Claim-Evidence-Commentary" Paragraphs: Students will need to practice making a one-sentence claim, providing one sentence of evidence for this claim, and offering two to three sentences of commentary about it. As they look at initial teacher examples, students will be better able to make Claim-Evidence-Commentary pieces of their own. For example, one can make a claim that in Act III, Scene iii, L 40-42 ("O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't, A brother's murder"), Shakespeare makes an allusion to the murder of Cain and Abel in Claudius' speech, as evidenced by the story of Cain and Abel in Gn 4:10-12. King Claudius realizes that he offends God by breaking one of the Ten Commandments in killing his brother Hamlet. King Claudius recognizes that he is like Cain, jealous of his brother Abel, and that this is obviously not a Christian way to live.
Strategies for Composition
"Claim-Evidence-Commentary" Paper: Students should take one religious concept taught and find three to five examples alluding to it throughout the text. Each example is fortified within a claim, evidence, commentary paragraph (see above). Include an introductory paragraph that establishes the controlling argument and a concluding paragraph summarizing all the main points made within the paper. Students are ready to compose an actual essay.
"Compare/Contrast" Paper: Students should compare the importance of religion in 16th C England to the importance of religion in the 21st C. Students are to make three claims about religious potency in the 16th C, as well as three contrasting or comparison claims about religious influence in the 21st C. Each paragraph must produce a claim, backed up by valid, accurate, cited evidence, and accompanied by commentary (see two strategies above). Include an introductory paragraph that establishes the controlling argument and a concluding paragraph summarizing all the main points made within the paper. Students are ready to compose an actual essay.
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