Innovative Religious Education

The RE Store

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:26:00 +0000

A new educational app for students learning GCSE/A-Level Religious Studies. Scan the QR code with your mobile phone's camera and it will take you there. It will go Live as of September 2012 in my new role as Head of Religious Education.

This is what it will look like on your smartphone (IOS, Android or Windows)

Olympics & Sweatshops Lesson

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 21:46:00 +0000

As the summer term draws to a close we are looking at a series of global issues, specifically around themes of trade, globalisation and inequality. There are lots of resources available which have tenuous links to the London Olympic games, however I think this lesson serves a great purpose in raising students' awareness to a very important issue. The ethical emphasis surrounds the question of 'Does it matter what we buy?'. I hope you find this useful. As ever please provide feedback on your experience of personalising/using this resource to @Mr_Betts on twitter. This is a free resource, so please share your good practice #reteacher

Lesson Powerpoint

Lesson Resources

Classroom Management (Visual Noiseometer)

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:04:00 +0000

Here is a nice idea for influencing the level of 'noise' students are working at during tasks. This could also be used when entering or exiting the classroom also. All you need is an inbuilt microphone (now found in most laptops/tablets) or an external USB mic (or similar). It effectively picks up the sound in your classroom and you as the teacher can set the sensitivity. Give it a try. Click any picture and follow the stages below. Ensure your speakers are turned down on your laptop so it doesn't produce any noise, otherwise you will get feedback.

Click on red 'go' button

Tick 'reduce echo' and close

Click allow

Change sensitivity for your class/task

The History of Religion

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 07:37:00 +0000

Here is an excellent video showing you, geographically and historically, how the main world religions have developed in 60 seconds!!!

Goanimate

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 23:08:00 +0000

In the same way as Xtranormal this technology is free to create unique animations using limited functions, it also even remains very simple to navigate and provides unlimited possibility of use in the classroom. Students can create short videos or feature length movies using scenes (at a small cost), characters, camera angles, text to speech and other features. This is yet another create way for students to share their learning and be creative in RE, inside and outside the classroom.

Perhaps G&T students could create a 'thought' for the week cartoon for the whole school to watch and discuss in their registration/form groups (using the short movie option). There are endless possibilities! In this particular example I have inserted a controversial statement from the U.S President to American citizens as an example concerning poverty and wealth. Likewise students would be able to sign up (or sign in using their google mail is even easier) and respond.

Xtranormal

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 22:28:00 +0000

This is a demonstration of how the Xtranormal software could be used to get characters to discuss a topic or key religious event. For example, the 'actors' in the movie could be telling a parable of Jesus or perhaps giving two sides of an argument on a given issue or question.

It could be used as part of your own teaching to present information or alternatively students could create their own animated movie at the click of a few buttons. It is very simple to use. The only downside it that you only get the equivalent of two free movies before you are required to buy 'points', however this is relatively inexpensive for a department to fund should you want to use this excessively. Like all technology, this could feature in only scheme of work or RE unit and would therefore not require student to pay anything at all for their creations! Check it out...

Scoop.it! Video

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:34:00 +0000

Scoop.it!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:00:00 +0000

An excellent free resource to share the latest news stories from around the globe with your students. This could be used in connected with Voice thread to develop online discussions also. You can even have a 'Scoop.it' button linked to your teaching or class blog to provide instant updates and increased visibility.

What is particularly useful is the ability to share, comment and make notes on each story. Perhaps you could guide students to particular sections or set a quick homework task in preparation for a new topic. However you use this tool it certainly has the potential to increase the profile of RE in your school. You can visit my new innovative religious education youtube channel for a quick video demonstration showing some of the features I have described here.

Of course Scoop.it can be used on a Mac or PC, however you can also download the free app to publish stories to your interactive topical online magazine! This is available for IOS and Android for free! An alternative piece of technology to do this is Paper.li which has very similar functions.

Voice Thread

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:22:00 +0000

With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world. All with no software to install.

A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.

Ideas on how to use this in your RE lessons coming soon from @Mr_Betts

9/11 Lesson

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:05:00 +0000

Here is a lesson devised from the 2012 National Competition of the 9/11 Education Programme. The lesson is focused upon 'What really matters in relation to 9/11?'

This lesson would work well as part of Citizenship schemes of learning and in RE specifications that explore religious expression, conflict or similar themes. I hope you find it useful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lKZqqSI9-s (Live footage of 9/11 - Show first part)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD036QAWWZM (Controversy over Mosque at Ground Zero)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5BxgUVk66o (Mosque at Ground Zero Documentary)

The third clip could be used in a follow up lesson for a 'Community of Inquiry'.

Euro 2012 Lesson

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 00:51:00 +0000

This lesson could be used in conjunction with Religious Education or Citizenship Lessons. Unfortunately racism has arisen during the build up of Euro 2012 held in Ukraine & Poland. It can be very valuable to use such events to highlight inequality, ignorance and prejudice that continues in the world of sport today. Arguably the UK has made significant progress, however this gives students an opportunity to reflect and consider solutions to racism on the continent.

All video resources embedded in the powerpoint can be found online for free
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18370369 (Racist chants at Dutch Euro 2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_z3GTmUQI (Racism towards Eto'o)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjB9wDXzZXE (Football against racism)

Please differentiate and adapt accordingly to your group. Tweet me how it goes and/or if you require further notes on how to run particular activities @Mr_Betts

(Tasks adapted from 'Show Racism the Red Card')

Photographer refuses to shoot gay wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:11:00 +0000

Here is an example of how you could use technology or certainly a 'community of inquiry' to stimulate discussion. It is great to find the most controversial issues going and searching the news for the big issues hitting our society. In the UK we are seeing much debate surrounding re-defining marriage; this article is just an example of a linking news story.
This survey was created using polldaddy.com which is incredible simple and easy to share with the world. Ideas such as this could be used as a quick homework or starter/plenary when studying 'same sex relationships' or 'religion and society' topics, specially when the law and beliefs may conflict. Just give the class the link! Have your say by clicking 'Take our survey' at the end of this post. You will see it is quick, simple and gets you thinking about what you value. Please retweet the link, let's see how many responses we can get.

Read the article by clicking the image

KS3 Religious Education 9/11

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 23:16:00 +0000

At my current school we have moved to a KS3 skills based humanities curriculum which has involved covering broad topics or themes. In doing so, the historical, religious and geographical elements were highlighted in preparation for the respective GCSE courses that follow. An integrated pproach to the humanities subjects seems to be becoming popular in many schools and teachers I am in contact with. In the midst of this, how can RE teachers ensure particular themes/beliefs are studied appropriately and creatively?

One way to ensure RE remains a strong and engaging element is through examining controversial events in detail or even project based work. Shown below is an example of how RE can be incorporated into a broader humanities curriculum whilst covering key themes/topics at KS3 (e.g. Crime & Punishment, Terrorism in the modern world, Justice, Forgiveness, Islam etc)

(Resource developed by the 9/11 Education Programme)

"Sparking a love of learning"

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 22:55:00 +0000

What is Philosophy all about? How can it help develop cognitive skills?

The Diamond Jubilee

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Its always important to try and be topical in the classroom, especially when the pressures of exams have drawn to a close.

A contributor for RE Today, Lat Blaylock, has responded to RE teachers asking for lesson ideas surrounding the theme of the Diamond Jubilee. This is what he said.

"The Queen's own Christian vision is seen in her Christmas broadcasts - which are all on youtube. Id' get pupils in pairs, to look at one of these and see what she says about religion and belief. They could make this a linked '60 years in history' activity by including some message from each decade of her reign. Then tell them they are her advisors for the 2012 Christmas broadcast, and they are to come up with ideas about what she might say about religion in Britain today in her Jubilee speech. You could even get a pupil to dress up and deliver their own 'Queen's speech' to video camera".

Video and share with your school community!

Community of Inquiry

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 11:33:00 +0000

This is a very useful whole class activity that helps to introducing new topics and facilitate debates effectively whilst giving ownership to students. Students are given responsibility to create questions that will be examined and questioned as a class.

How does it work?
1) Firstly, students are presented with a 'stimulus', this could be a picture/quote/an item related to the topic/recent news article. I have some examples below of how to introduce typical themes featuring in GCSE RE specifications.

WAR/CONFLICT/PEACE

Links to Just War / Pacifism

TREATMENT OF ANIMALS

Links to Animal Testing / Stewardship

EXPRESSING FAITH

Links to Religious Clothing / Human Rights

2) Ask students to think of any question about the stimulus you have given them. Depending on your class you could use the think/pair/share strategy to encourage students to select their best questions.

3) Ask a student to write down the questions on the board/screen so that all students can see them. Remember this could be conducted as a whole-class or two smaller groups with one nominated 'chair' who facilitates the discussion - alternatively this could be opportunity to use support staff in the room.

4) Students can vote which question they would like to discuss first. Let the discussion begin! Make rules explicitly clear. The more you do this activity the beter trained students will be. I would even try to display a poster at all times to remind students of key rules. Alternatively the first time do this students could create 5 key rules and sign an agreement.

5) During the discussion encourage students to give at least one reason for every view they have. Students should try to say whether they agree or disagree with the last person who spoke and say why

There are numerous ways to run the discussion. Hands up, Students nominate next speaker, or some teachers like to be more creative a use an item the speaker holds and passes on.

Broadcasting RE

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 21:50:00 +0000

There are a few benefits of producing/planning an RE broadcast in your school. I would also suggest that this activity could be conducted as a whole school focus / video entry competition with prizes and/or planning could commence in lessons.

As an RE practitioner you have two options regarding developing the focus of the broadcast. You could ask students to research a current affair in the news that week or simply give them an interesting or controversial article to get the ball rolling. Encourage creativity in RE e.g. You could pose a challenging ethical or philosophical question and students could act and be interviewed as different faith members.

This certainly feeds into developing RE in whole school dialogue, specifically the spiritual and moral components of SMSC. In addition, there are clear links to be made with student voice, citizenship and features of the RE curriculum.

An RE broadcast can:

Encourage open, critical, investigative learning in RE
Provide innovative opportunities to link the RE to other areas of the curriculum
Provide possible opportunities to engage with people of different faiths within the local community
Encourage higher order thinking in an RE context
Develop speaking and listening skills and improve the use of RE specific vocabulary
Promote pupils’ spiritual development
Raise the profile of RE within the school and wider community
Provide learners with a genuine voice to express their views, opinions or beliefs in a respectful and considered way
Enable collaboration, discussion and dialogue
Provide a vehicle for RE to be heard

Depending on links within your school, students could liase with the digital media faculty or edit their broadcast at home. Share this on your school's Intranet/VLE

Facilitating Group Discussions

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 21:17:00 +0000

Every teacher knows that student group discussions left to their own devices have the potential to slowly fade into meaningless chat. So, like me you might be wondering how as teachers we can improve our ability to facilitate discussion into purposeful talk. What is most important, in my opinion, to to give every student a purposeful role in the group. It is also helpful to model how the activity works. If you have not tried group discussion your class will need 'training'.
When studying just about any topic in RE or PSHE we can encourage students to DISCUSS. Take a look at this next activity and consider how you might be able to build it into one of your lessons.

Discussion Bingo (Skills: Explaining, Analysing)

1. Students work in small groups (3-5).
2. Each student is given a set of cards and their objective is to get rid of all their cards.
3. Pupils are given 4 cards to begin with. Each card will say “Propose”, ”Support”, “Challenge” or “Question”.
4. If there are remaining cards, they can be shuffled and randomly distributed to the group, but all members should have an equal number of cards.
5. Students should be told what each card means. Target your questioning for this.

Propose an argument or new point.
Support, corroborate or back up another person’s point by developing it further.
Challenge, disagree or contradict another person’s point.
Question something said by another person or identify another question which they have raised.

6. Each time a student makes a contribution, they must play the relevant card
(place it in the middle of the table).
7. It should be made clear to pupils that their contributions do not have to
be their own beliefs, but simply relevant to the card they are playing.
8. The discussion ends when all pupils have played all their cards.
9. Time for class feedback on your lesson focus

(Adapted from the Farmington Trust)

A kinaesthetic plenary/revision activity

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:59:00 +0000

Here is an idea to develop exam techniques or to use as plenary in your RE lesson. Sometimes revision lessons or checking student's progress can get a bit bland and passive, this is certainly an example of active learning.

This activity involves a kinaesthetic approach to developing explanation skills. Students therefore focus on how they link their ideas together, what it means to explain them fully and link them back to a question being set.

How it works: An exam question or moral dilemma is displayed on screen. Organise students in small groups. Allow students thinking time and ask to present to the class. Provide students with mini whiteboards or A4 plain paper as an alternative, and a set of cards which have connective phrases written on them e.g. therefore, this means that, as a result of, because of this, however, on the other hand, a consequence of this is.....

Each person is given a connective phrase card
The first person writes their first sentence in response to the question/statement
The next person starts off the following sentence (this could be a description of a philosophical argument or an example of a teaching/concept studied) They hold up a linking statement card to explain the point further
The next student then writes the consequence or effect of the previous point
The next person hold up another linking statement and so on....

This activity also promotes literacy and independent thinking skills (although working in groups). It should focus students upon explanations and linking of their ideas and the implications of them. As a always this could be adapted to suite your classroom e.g. a seated row of student could give discussion using the connective cards.

Taking it further: If you had access to video recording equipment (audio or video) you could ask student's to assess a groups response using criteria for a particular exam question.

(Adapted from the Farmington Trust)

The New Ofsted Framework

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:44:00 +0000

I discovered a helpful extract from a book which focuses on the new Oftsed criteria, specifically teaching and learning. Whatever your perpectives towards inspections, ticking the boxes, meeting sets of criteria, it is required when Ofsted arrive. In a recent inspection I was searching for ideas and felt I needed to know more about what exactly Ofsted are looking for in 2012. That's why I want to share this book with you. I am not advocating this as 'the complete guide to teaching', but as always take and apply what will work for your teaching style and your students in the classroom on a day-to-day basis.

Use full screen to access easily

A Whole School Approach to RE

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 22:17:00 +0000

This document provides some helpful and creative ideas to initiate whole school dialogue about Religion, Morality and Spiritual matters. The important thing is not to try everything all at once. Try one new idea in a half term, review how students respond and keep it fresh!

(Gifted in RE - Produced by Religious Education Council)

Supporting G&T students in RE

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 22:09:00 +0000

Here are some quick and simple ideas to support SMSC and G&T students for Religious Education at your school.

Displaying 'thought provoking' or philosophical quotes (e.g. Students could be required to research the life and work of the famous person who said the quote or where the original text came from together with its context)
Debating/Public speaking clubs. Naturally RE lends itself to debates about controversial issues i our society. Promote this by getting students to highlight a moral/philosophical issue, allow a weeks preparation, then students can participate and chair the discussion.
GCSE RE conferences and debating competitions, such as 'debating matters'
AS/A2 Religious Studies also have conferences held with keynote speakers. Dare2engage has some interesting resources for this.
Asking students to write book reviews from the Learning Resource Centre
Whole school writing competitions (e.g. How did 9/11 change the world?)
Students could film themselves giving their views on a controversial issue in the news each half term. This could be called 'The Big Questions' video diary or they could create an online blog.

Gifted & Talented in RE

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 21:49:00 +0000

How can I identify students who could be considered G&T in RE?

Often very thoughtful and reflective
Ability to empathise
Use your professional judgment based upon class discussions and assessments
Good insight and analytical ability
High verbal processing speed and ability to produce balanced arguments
The ability to analyse and evaluate moral, ethical, and religious issues and concepts at a high, even creative, level

Why bother with G&T in RE?

Most schools and academies should have a working document that could be called something like a 'G&T register'. This is where teachers from a range of subjects identify students who fall into this category. That being said, what can teachers actually do once this list has been collaborated? Is it just a nice document to show Ofsted you are ticking all the boxes? As an RE specialist I would suggest the following benefits.

Challenging tasks can be embedded into schemes of learning
Lessons can be personalised so that every student is able to make rapid and sustained progress
Student's natural gifting and interests are carefully nurtured and encouraged.

In other posts I have mentioned the 8 Level scale in reference to assessments and measuring progress. The scale can also help RE teachers to plan appropriate tasks and resources. Some activities correlating to specific skills are shown below.

(Adapted from the Farmington Trust)

Connecting RE Teachers

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:12:00 +0000

Connect. Share. Discuss.

Please comment on individual blog posts, share good practice (assessment/resources) and creative ideas from your own school. Ask a question that the community of RE could help you with. Sign in to comment with any social network account such as twitter or facebook.

get your own embeddable forum with Talki

Parents unaware of RE 'opt out'

noreply@blogger.com (Mr Betts) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 16:50:00 +0000

What do you think about this story?

Should all young people 'have' to study Religious Education?

Do you think this article prompts a discussion about what is meant by 'RE' itself?

What would be the impact if nobody learnt about other people's beliefs and values?