Any RE teachers about?? Fancy helping me lesson plan (pretty please)?

[Wonderstuff]

Haven't seen twinset for a while actually

Anyway currently doing a SOW for next half term. Entry level humanities course for year 9 nurture group, so pitched below GCSE level. Some of them have seriously weak literacy but are fairly bright, a couple are finding entry level a real challenge!!

In the asssessment they have to pick 2 from three words a christian would use to describe god and explain their choices. The words are Patient, Forgiving and Powerful. I thought that the Prodigal Son would be a good story to get across the patient and forgiving qualities? But my Bible knowledge is poor. Any better ideas. Any chance anyone knows a link to a site which would have the story told in cartoon form not too patronising for 14 year olds?

So far only on lesson 2 of 8 so may be back for more ideas
Ta

This is what I've got - seems quite dry.

Starter ? Recap on last lesson. How do Christians describe God? Write down as many words as you can in 2 mins

Christians learn about God through the Bible. The bible has many stories to help Christians understand God. Today going to look at the Prodigal Son

Read through together.

Pupils to put together cartoon strip to tell story to a child

Plenary: What qualities does God have in the story? Draw out forgiveness and Patient. Discuss

How about looking at JC rather than God? God can be unforgiving -i.e. vengeance is mine, I shall repay saith the Lord etc, and God can be seen in both OT and NT as unforgiving.

Make it dynamic - involve the kids.

So,

Starter: personal reflective activity - think about a time when you have let someone down, done or said something you regretted. How did you feel? What did you do in order to feel better?

Be prepared to share your thoughts with the whole class. Short discussion (you will hopefully get the idea of forgiveness/atonement out of this)

Main activity

Put laminated sheets with quotes from JC about forgiveness round the room. Give each student a worksheet.

In groups of two or three ask them to look at the quotes and answer the key question on each quote. Complete worksheet.

After the students have looked at all the quotes they have to come to a consensus in their groups about how each question should be answered.

Class discussion on the answer to each question.

Plenary

In groups either, draw a poster to show what they have learned from JC's teachings on forgiveness. Share with other groups.

or

Body sculpture to explain what they have learned.

I have this and the resources on my PC, and a follow up lesson as well looking at forgiveness in action, but you'd need the Test of Time video and teaching pack for that
.

If you want the lesson plan and resources email me [email protected] and I'll ping them off to you.

If they are less able, then having them move around and discuss helps. Some of my best lessons have been discussions with those at the lower end. I used to give them handouts, and then we would talk about the issues, and they had the notes for when they needed to revise.

Using God because that is how the exam is worded, really really need to be careful not to confuse the weaker students.

But really do like your ideas, thanks

Virtually no RE resources in school so chance of having that video is slim but thank you for offer.

Build up your own resources is my advice. I worked in a department where we did have resources, but I spent a great deal of my salary on building up my own resources bank, as that could move with me from school to school. I brought it to Belgium with me and the boxes are sitting in the cellar, but if I teach again when I go back to the UK I have everything I need.

What is the SoW? Who specified God? I would have thought male would have been the word used to describe God; or father perhaps. Have you done the Trinity with them yet? The triune nature of God is central to Christians, which is why you could use JC as he is the son.

I would be wary of the Prodigal son as the brother of the Prodigal doesn't show much forgiveness, but rather resentment. The one about stopping the stoning of the woman taken in adultery might be better; people in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones could be the modern equivalent.

You could get the The Lion Graphic Bible which has OT and NT in comic strip form currently £5.98 from Amazon.

How about handing out the Bible and getting the students to choose their own stories? You could provide cue cards to help students with their choices if needed (This could then be differentiated, guiding weaker students towards easier to understand passages, and brighter students towards more complex passages).

Then get them to find the passage and work out what it teaches them about God, as per your suggestion.

Then getting each group to make something: poster, newspaper article, booklet, play etc) to present the story and the meaning back to the rest of the class - they could choose how they want to present this back to the rest of the class, differentiation by task.

Then once each group has presented their ideas back to rest of the class, you could set them the task of writing something like "How do Christians use the Bible to learn about God?" As the students present their ideas back, you could provide a worksheet / grid for them to fill in - with a column for the story and a column for what it teaches Christians about God.

Agree with the idea of using a graphic Bible / tabloid Bible or similar for differentiating how they access that material.
HTH

Twinset is still here but has a new name.
Keep bumping, she will surely see it - has been about today

Thanks all. The group I have are very low ability, most of them struggle to read anything at all, we also struggle with group work as many have EBD issues, some ASD, though last week I did go the whole week without anyone storming out or insulting anyones mother, so we are making progress there. Maybe I could try some meditation to get them to calm down and chill out??! We could reflect on why we are here before exploring the Christian point of view?

The course I am teaching is this one I am only teaching 6 RE lessons, with the view to complete 3 tasks from the spec. 2 on Christian beliefs, 2 on marriage and 2 on Christmas (we are going to make christingles )

The question which carries the most points gives them 6 words and asks them to pick 2 that could be used to describe god (they need to plump for powerful, forgiving or patient) and explain their answer. They also need to say why Christians go to church and give 2 reasons why Jesus told followers to call God 'Abba' meaning 'daddy'. No need to go into anything as complex as the trinity. I am really trying to keep it all as relevant to the assessment task as I can.

That bible sounds good, I will look it up.

I Don't know if this is very left-field, but Biblegateway is a great site, and there is a version called "The Message". It is a modern-day equivalent, 'street language', might make it a bit more accessible.

Try teaching the trinity with toblerone - gets the attention!