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SUBMITTED BY: Patrick Bickford     BORROWED FROM / INSPIRED BY: Tom McDonald, Ishikawa website     EDITED BY: まだ

Religion

TOPIC: Religion     DATE ADDED: Feb 23, 2011  

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 50 min.
 
2 votes: 3 stars
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Brief Outline: Teach the students about the big three western religions, especially the similarities they share.

 

Materials Needed:

 

Detailed Explanation:

  1. See if the students can guess what ‘religion’ means. As a hint, tell them that Japan has two religions: Shinto and Buddhism.

  2. Ask the students to name any religions they can. Use hints if necessary to make sure you get Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Then, move onto the worksheet:

    • Listening Exercise: The students listen to the following monologue and answer the questions on the handout.

      • "September is a big festival for Muslims. The name of the festival is Ramadan. Muslims don’t eat after sunrise and before sunset. They only eat at night. The Jews have a big festival in October. The name of the festival is Yom Kippur. In this festival the Jews don’t eat for one day, from sunset to sunset. Christians also have a festival where they don’t eat. The name of the festival is Lent. They stop eating one food for 40 days."
      • Reading Section: The JTE takes the students through the passage, making sure they understand. Then, the students answer three true or false questions.
      • Criss-Cross Game: The students all stand up. I ask questions about what they have learned. Students raise their hand and answer. If they answer correctly they can sit down, and can choose if their row or their column sits with them. Continue until everyone is sitting.
      • Write a Speech: Students write a speech about their favourite religious festival, typically Shinto. JTE gives translations for students about the festival being celebrated. Give them translations for kiriko and mikoshi before they start.
      • Word Search: This activity is self-explanatory. 

 

Tips/Cautions:

  • I don’t think the students really learned very much real stuff about the religions. They learned the names of the holy books and main prophet, but not what the religion really stands for. They did seem to understand about the similarities though, and while I didn’t really have time to dedicate to further points, they further seemed to understand my brief point about the sadness that they are so often at war with each other.

 

Comments:

  • (Mar 7, 2011) Reckz said:
    Sounds good. Good follow up classes could be "Politics", "Homosexuality" and "Abortion: Your Feelings", that way you can cover the whole spectrum of uncomfortable topics with them