Tanenbaum Curriculum

Religions in My Neighborhood, p. 102

Lesson Name

Religions and Beliefs in Our Community

Grade Band

Elementary (Grades 3-5)

Middle School (Grades 6-8)

Required Materials

• Have enough copies of the Beliefs handout for each student, with extras for students who ask for additional copies.
• Have chart paper and markers.
• Have additional copies of homework assignment worksheet as may be needed.
• Have masking tape to post worksheets onto quilt.
• Make space on all four walls of the classroom to post six to eight homework sheets on each wall, depending on the number of students in the class.

Standards / Competencies

CASEL Core Competencies

• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness
• Relationship Skills
• Responsible Decision-Making

Common Core ELA-Literacy Standards

• Speaking and Listening
• Writing
• Reading Informational Text

NCSS Social Studies Themes

• Individuals, Groups and Institutions
• Culture

Recommended Time

50 minutes

Essential Question

What are the religions in our community and how can we respect them?

Learning Objectives

• Identify the religions or beliefs members of their family follow
• Compare and contrast similarities and differences among and between religious and non-religious belief systems
• Recognize that people follow many different religions and belief systems
• Explain why they think it is important to value and respect religious and non-religious belief systems that are different from their own

Important Vocabulary

Diversity

Activating Prior Knowledge

Ask students to think about and picture in their minds a vegetable garden they have helped to plant or one they visited in person, saw in a book, saw in a movie, or saw on TV. Ask students to brainstorm the kinds of plants they have seen in gardens.

Ask students to be as specific as they can. If, for example, a student responds, flowers, then ask what kind of flower. If the response is vegetable, what kind? Quickly chart student responses. Be sure to get a good number of responses.

Ask students to look at the large list they made. Ask: What do all of the plants in the garden have in common? One response may be: We can eat all of them.

Ask: How are they different? Responses may include: Some are herbs, some are fruits, others vegetables. How else are they different? Generate two or three other responses, such as: some grow on vines, some grow underground, they are different colors.

Explain that a word we use when we have many different things is diversity.

Ask: What are some of the benefits of having so many different kinds of plants in one’s garden? (Possible answers: not everyone likes the same fruit or the same vegetables, it would be boring if we only had one kind of vegetable to eat, etc.)

Core Instruction

Ask students to take out their Religions and Beliefs homework sheet.

State: We are going to make a mural of our diversity of beliefs. Each of us created a square for our Diversity Quilt when you did your homework last night.

Divide the class into four groups of between six and eight students each. Assign each group a wall on which they will post their homework sheets. (Remember, some students may have completed more than one worksheet because different members of their family follow different religions or beliefs.)

Give each group a piece of chart paper and a marker. Tell students to print as neatly as they can a list of the names of the religions or beliefs from their individual homework sheets. While students are making their charts, distribute masking tape to all the students and designate one group at a time to post their worksheets next to one another on the wall in the shape of a quilt. When all homework sheets are posted, ask for a group to read the list of religions and beliefs in the group’s quilt. Repeat until all four groups have read their lists.

Ask the groups to stand in front of their part of the quilt. Then ask each group to move to the wall to their right. Tell them they have five or six minutes to review the quilt of that group. Move the groups at five to six-minute intervals until they are back at their part of the quilt. As the students are circulating around the room, collect the four charts and note which religions or beliefs are mentioned once, twice, or many times.

Ask students what similarities they noticed in reading each group’s quilt. Get two or three responses.

Ask what differences they noticed. Get two or three responses.

Wrap-up

Ask: Why do you think we made our Diversity Quilt? Encourage students to provide as many ideas as possible.

Ask: Why do you think we should value and respect our different beliefs?

Assessment

Create a Symbol: Ask students to create a symbol that represents their own beliefs or a belief system they’ve learned about. They can explain their choice verbally or through a short-written explanation.

Learning Beyond Classroom Walls

Extension: Ask students to select a religion or a belief system, not his or her own, and write a three to four paragraph essay comparing and contrasting the religion or belief system with her or his own. Adjust the length of the essay according to grade level.