Calling RS/RE ethics teachers. Need an amazing lesson please

[SeeLyon]

abortion. Clever motivated learners.
It need to challenge show progress and not play safe.
Am thinking something about rights. Moral personhood.

Anyone got either prompts or activities you like.

[SeeLyon]

Year10

[scaryteacher]

I did an abortion debate over two lessons with a small GCSE set. I divided them into pro and anti, and they had to research the law and the arguments and then present them using a character, so anti perhaps from the view of the Dad; pro from a feminist viewpoint; anti from a religious viewpoint and vice versa. It was a very entertaining lesson and got quite heated.

[SeeLyon]

Thanks. Interestingly early feminists were anti abortion. I never knew.

[MorningPurples]

could talk about very recent referendum on the definition of 'personhood' that took place in Mississippi, and how the resolution could potentially have had implications (depending on who was interpreting it) not just for abortion, but also for cloning, IVF, stem cell research, access to contraception, and various other issues - how the issues all inter-relate, etc. What such a resolution would have meant for the rights of women vs rights of fertilised egg, etc. Whether such a resolution would be likely to be put forward here, and why or why not (ie influence of different campaign groups, degree of religious feeling in different places, views of different political parties). Of course similar laws etc debated in many countries but this was only a couple of days ago, so very current.

[PotteringAlong]

Am bumping so this appears on threads i'm on! On maternity leave and nO sign of baby so will give it some thought tomorrow!

[Letchlady]

Following on from the debate idea - how about a kind of hotseating idea. This is where all students debate, but they are first given a role or position that they have got to research and then maintain in the debate.

Works best with smaller groups of students, so depends on the size of your group!

Or, do you fancy getting technical and perhaps making / reproducing some kind of chat / debate show. You could allocate roles - experts / hosts / etc. I used to do this to make a 'this is your life' tv show, but it needs 3 lessons - one to prepare, one to film and one to watch. Also split the class into two groups for the filming, so that one group makes up the audience and the other group are doing the show. This then keeps the size of each group smaller, so that all students participate.

I no longer teach in schools (in FE now) but I'll have a think....

[DioneTheDiabolist]

I would think that regardless of whether you think that abortion is right or wrong, the question of whether it should be available is the main issue to be discussed. Economics, morals, health and personal circumstance all contribute to such a decision.

Given that, is any one person qualified to make that decision for another?

[SeeLyon]

Thanks yes. Don't really need material. More styles

[SeeLyon]

Overnight I have decided to look at fathers rights wrt the Stephen hone case in?2001
Could do general stuff then the hot seating in three largely ability based groups ( hence differentiate )
With rights of baby
Mothere and dad all clashing?

Any thoughts?

[PotteringAlong]

Could do it as a thinking hats exercise? Cpuld use the g and t to be the 'big hat thinkers' and use them to keep the groups on task so they effectively run the lesson after being set up?

Could do an exam question using big fish diagrams?

[PotteringAlong]

asq.org/learn-about-quality/cause-analysis-tools/overview/fishbone.html

Concept map might work well too - could be plenary or as a starter for general abortion stuff tp recap / see where they are?

[Milkshake3]

Have you seen the news that in Russia they are going to limit access to abortions because of the falling population? How about that as a trigger for discussion....

[SeeLyon]

thanks for both those
ive never done big hats..

[SeeLyon]

ok i googled
i want to know about big hats dites moi SVP

( sniggers at self)

[PotteringAlong]

Right; thus is how I do it:

Split your group into 5 groups, one for each colour hat (apart from the blue hat). Give 6 kids a hat to wear (you can buy them for about £10; I'll try and find them!) and some suggested questions. These are your 'big hat thinkers'. Get these to carousel through the groups and they are in charge of the discussion in that group. Allow 5 mibs per discussion and 2 mins writing time so approx 35 / 40 mins.

For the plenary do the blue hat - how do you move forward - and let your big hat thinkers come together to form another group.

The stuff about Russia would be a fab thing and if you can formulate it as a statement for them to look at you can explicitly link it back to the GCSE evaluation type questions. Something like
"Russia is right to limit abortions in order to increase the population". Do you agree?

Or

"the high rate of illegal abortion in Russia is proof that they should relax, not tighten, their abortion laws". Do you agree?


Obviously how you phrase it depends on the ability level of your class etc.

[PotteringAlong]

thinking hats for sale

[PotteringAlong]

If you can't buy them then print out pictures of the hats, make a circle of card to go round the head and stuck them on like a crown!

[SeeLyon]

whats the relevance of the hats though?

babmboozled

[SeeLyon]

ok i have read hat thing on de bono website.
this might be too much new stuff all at once..

you ar helping.
sorry if im sounding crappoid

[SeeLyon]

Q am thinking of
its " the mother the father and the unborn baby all have equal rights concerning abortion" DYA etc

Liek the carousel q idea too.
i need to show Diff so having key ag and t people managing the debate would be good

[PotteringAlong]

The hats can be really simple. All it is is a way of breaking down the question so pupils think of different sides of the argument BUT by doing it a step at a time they think of different things instead of the 'whole picture'.

Don't look at the de Bono website; it's ludicrous! Are you a member of the TES? If not get s login and search there. Or PM me your email address - I'm happy to send you stuff.

Mother / father / unborn baby could work well - split into 6 (yes/no) for both sides, with a pupil managing the discussion.

Then get them to move into different groups - make sure 1 person from each original group us there so you've got someone from all the different points of view.

Ask each group to make a decision - yes / no / unsure and then do a thought line plenary?