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• KS3 Lesson Plan - R.E.

KS3 Lesson Plan - R.E.

Aim: To identify ways in which religions recognise that human beings are valued equally, even though we are all different.

Starter: In rough, make some notes on one of the following:
1.Have you ever been in a situation where you felt different from most other people around you? Or
2.Think of some famous people in Britain today who each come from a different religious tradition. How do you know which tradition they each come from? [Feedback]

Group work
In small groups, look at the profiles provided. These are of individuals who, during the Holocaust and other genocides, experienced discrimination because they were ‘different’ from those around them.
What negative things are experienced by those discriminated against?
What do we learn about the characters of those who discriminate in these profiles?

[Feedback]

Class work
Those who discriminated in during the Holocaust and other genocides were going against religious and moral teaching. Suggest some reasons for how they were able to do this.

In the Jewish and Christian traditions, human beings are described as being ‘made in the image of God’ (Genesis 1 v 26). What do you think this means? How can this idea be used to encourage people to treat others with dignity?

Individual work
Choose one of the following texts:

-Matthew 25 vv 31-46

-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:5 (text reproduced at the end of this lesson plan).

-Hadith: ‘Allah does not look upon your outward appearance; He looks upon your hearts and deeds.’

Illustrate the one you have chosen with a story (fact or fiction). Your story should show clearly how we can learn lessons about valuing other people, even though they may be different from us.

Further work
-’We are meant to be different. There is so much variety in the natural world and human beings are no different.’ Do you agree? What do you think can be useful or valuable about having so many different varieties of creatures?
-Find out: i) What two religious traditions say about prejudice and discrimination.
ii) What the Bible says about responsibilities to neighbours and strangers.

Appendix

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4: 5

A wife loves her husband
Not for his own sake
[But] because the Self lives within him;
A husband loves his wife
Not for her own dear sake
[But] because the Self lives within her;
Children are loved
Not for their own sake
But because the Self lives within them;
[Everything] is loved
Nor for its own sake
But because the Self lives within it.
Brahmins, kshatriyahs, creatures, the universe,
Aspects of God, everything;
These are the Self.

• KS3 R.E. Lesson Plan (pdf)