I work as a Head of Philosophy, Religion and Ethics in one of the country's highest achieving state schools.
I am passionate about ensuring that my subject is engaging, relevant and academically rigorous.
I devote time imagining, creating, differentiating and tailoring my resources so that the students benefit from quality teaching materials and I hope that they are of real benefit to your own practice.
I work as a Head of Philosophy, Religion and Ethics in one of the country's highest achieving state schools.
I am passionate about ensuring that my subject is engaging, relevant and academically rigorous.
I devote time imagining, creating, differentiating and tailoring my resources so that the students benefit from quality teaching materials and I hope that they are of real benefit to your own practice.
In this lesson students will start to explore key Christian ideas about God's nature. They will learn about key qualities: Immanent, Transcendent, Omnipotent, Omnibenevolent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Eternal, Oneness.
They will learn identify teachings which support these beliefs.
You will need to print and cut the card sort for use in pairs or groups of three.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A. It is, however, a mainstay of all exam boards and will work across the new specifications.
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will reflect on the modern world and our technological advancement and consider the ethics of memory manipulation, artificial intelligence and designer babies.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
A group work lesson with a puzzling task to understand Descartes' substance dualism. Designed for the NEW 2017 OCR Religious Studies A Level it will work with any course including mind body dualism.
Students will understand Descartes' beliefs about mind and body. They will be able to present his arguments in favour of dualism and also evaluate his arguments.
Ready to teach, lesson includes:
Full lesson plan
PowerPoint
Resources
Worksheet
In this very relevant and evaluative lesson students learn to explain pacifism and the broad spectrum of beliefs that this covers, as well as understanding the religious context in Christianity and Islam.
They will go further, working in pairs and groups, to assess and form an opinion on the usefulness of pacifism as a means to address conflict through key pacifists and other thinkers.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Religion, peace and conflict'. It will, however, work with any specification including pacifism. Target grade is 7-9.
Ready to teach this lesson includes:
- Full Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Worksheets
- Homework research sheet
In this active and group working lesson students explore examples of scientific challenges to religion and evaluate the claim that science has removed the need for religion. They will come to an understanding of the unique offering made my both science and religion to our understanding of the world and be able to employ quotes from a range of key thinkers.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - ‘Arguments against the existence of God’. It is, however, a mainstay of all exam boards and will work across the new specifications. Target grade is 7-9 though you can reduce the level of challenge my focussing on the easier sources.
Included:
- Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Card sort - Scientific Discoveries
- Quote cards for Science and Religion
I have loved teaching this lesson and it has always led to very high level evaluative responses.
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will reflect on their ideas of the 'good life' and what gives life meaning. They will compare these with others and consider the implications for us as people.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
In this highly differentiated lesson, students will challenge themselves to work out the Ontological argument put forward by Anselm and the criticisms from Gaunilo. They will also be able to evaluate the criticism from Gaunilo. It's all ready for the NEW 2017 OCR Religious Studies A Level.
The lesson has a focus on independent learning and student-led activities. Included are all of the resources, a powerpoint and a detailed lesson plan. Just add chocolate!
Notes:
The card sort runs over three pages and needs to be printed onto green, yellow and red card. The first page should be printed onto green, the second onto yellow and the third onto red. This means students can choose their level of challenge by the traffic light colours.
Answer to the quiz: BCCABCACB
In this pair-working lesson students are challenged to understand the range and diversity of reasons for committing crime and how these can affect our the way we judge criminals. They also consider two contrasting teachings in Christianity and apply these to the same issue.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Reasons for Crime'. It will, however, work with any specification including Crime and Punishment. Target grade is 7-9.
Ready to teach this lesson includes:
- Full Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Silent Debate Sheet
An introduction to compatibilism with a focus on the specific understanding put forward by Locke.
The powerpoint offers key information for students' own note taking and I have included some guidance in the presenter notes for yourself.
The resource includes a differentiated group interpretation sheet where students are tasked with examining quotes from about and from famous compatibilists including Locke, Hume and Hobbes in order to identify key features of compatibilist thought.
Included is a 50 word grid for use with the plenary.
I hope you find it helpful since it has taken me a long while to feel very comfortable teaching this area of the course!
I have provided for free the follow-up reading on David Hume (which can be given as an independent reading task or done in lesson). It can be found by searching 'A2 Compatibilism' on the TES resources or by copying this URL into your address bar:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a2-compatibilism-david-hume-reading-with-questions-11127076
Used with A2 AQA Life, Death and Beyond though relevant to AS AQA Nature and Value of Human Life (and many others!)
Examines Christian, Buddhist and Hindu teachings.
Print the Card sort onto Green/Yellow/Red card as instructed at the end of the document.
Print the Gapfill onto A3 double sided (one each).
Print the Learning Grid onto A4 (one each).
Lesson Plan:
Starter- Students to organise the quotes however they like in pairs. Choosing their level of challenge based on the colour.
Students are likely to sort from most positive to most negative.
Main - Gapfill task in groups.
Then groups to pull out key features of each religion's attitude to what a human is, completing the first column of the Learning Grid sheet.
Plenary - Students to return to their pairs to make links between these ideas and the quotes in the card sort used as the starter.
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will consider what sets us apart from other creatures and address the question of our unique position and status.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
This is the first lesson I teach in the Religious Pluralism and Theology unit. It is designed to give students freedom and tools to start to embrace the challenge of this complex and exciting unit. Students will open the discussion around pluralism, inclusivism and exclusivism by exploring their own thinking and preconceptions. They will learn and be assessed on key terms including concepts beyond those outlined in the spec to prepare them for better and clearer explanations. Finally, they will watch Richard Swinburne discuss religious exclusivism and compare his views to their own initial ideas.
Ready to teach, lesson includes:
Full lesson plan
Resources
Worksheets
In this lesson students will explore the various arguments around homosexuality including the thinking of Augustine, Aquinas and Fletcher.
They will develop knowledge of the changes in attitude to homosexuality in Britain and be able to employ detailed knowledge of scripture to evaluate the heteronormative position held by some Christians.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Relationship and Families'. It will, however, work with any specification including homosexuality. Target grade is 7-9.
Ready to teach this lesson includes:
- Full Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Worksheet
- Completed worksheet with teacher information
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will explore ideas about the dualist and materialist ideas about body and soul.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will make some tough decisions and pin down what gives life value.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
This content-packed lesson will give students the tools to comprehensively answer any Q3, Q4 or Q5 on divorce and remarriage in Christianity. Students will consider why divorce is so prevalent today and the factors that affect our relationships. They will then go on to explore Christian teachings using Bibles and link these to different beliefs about divorce in different denominations of the Church. Finally, they will apply this new learning to a Q5 with guidance on how to make this an effective answer. In fact, there are a variety of Q5 titles if you'd like to give your students more choice and freedom.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Relationships and Families'. It will, however, work with any specification including Divorce and Remarriage. Target grade is 7-9.
Ready to teach this lesson includes:
- Full Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Recap quiz
- Worksheets
In this puzzling lesson students examine closely different elements, symbols and beliefs about marriage in Christianity. They will be able to explain in detail why marriage is important for Christians. They will also be able to suggest reasons why same-sex couples have fought for the legal right to marry, as well as identify objections that Christians might have for this.
There is a numeracy element to the starter and the group work task really engages the students to figure out how the puzzle goes together.
Lesson plan and all resources are included, it's ready to go out of the box. Please note that I don't use a powerpoint for this lesson - it just doesn't need one!
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will assess the idea of free will and outline some constraints on freedom.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
This display pack is designed to engage students in reflecting on their thinking and argument. The pack includes two displays:
Logical fallacies covering a range of 21 examples of irrationality including:
Strawman, slippery slope, ad hominum, black or white, appeal to authority, bandwagon, middle ground, begging the question, non-representative sample, moral equivalency, non sequitur, red herring, splitting hairs, non-testable hypothesis, anecdotal support, genetic, post hoc ergo propter hoc, appeal to tradition, appeal to emotion, affirming the consequent and denying the antecedent.
Cognitive biases covering a range of 18 reasons why we all fail to be objective including:
Anchoring, confirmation bias, declinism, framing, fundamental attribution error, the halo effect, backfire effect, reactance, groupthink, belief bias, availability heuristic, clustering illusion, conservatism bias, blind spot bias, the ostrich effect, zero risk, in-group bias and the Dunning-Kruger effect.
All of the displays are styled in a high contrast white on black or black on white (apart from the red herring of course…) They are eye-catching and informative for your students of all ages from Year 7 through to Year 13. Great for an RE, Philosophy or Psychology classroom. Maybe these should be in every classroom - just think about the world we could create!
Instructions: Just cut around the shape leaving a small border of white. You could create a board for each or put both together! I’ve uploaded a model of how they look in my classroom.
Stop making puzzles and games from scratch! The Most Amazing Puzzle Maker creates them all for you, AUTOMATICALLY. All you need to do is type up the questions and answers, choose a puzzle and hit print!
What can it make right now?
Large 16 triangle tarsia puzzles
Small 9 triangle tarsia puzzles
Tarsia gem puzzles
Square-up puzzles
Vertical dominoes puzzles
Horizontal dominoes puzzles
Question relays
Bingo! cards
Pairing card sorts
Split word card sorts
How does it work?
You simply type in your questions and answers into the template and the linked cells in the puzzles automatically match the information entered. See how your questions appear in the various different formats and choose a puzzle that best suits your needs.
Superbly customisable for differentiation! You can add distractions to many of the puzzles - these are incorrect answers or answerless questions to up the challenge and really test the students' knowledge or problem solving skills.
There are very clear instructions on how to create and print each of the different puzzles.
The file is an Excel file so is compatible with the vast majority of school or home systems. It works with all versions of Office since 1997!
Who is it for?
Absolutely anyone, these tasks can be used in any subject area and across any phase. They are great for consolidation, revision, working with key terms, knowledge acquiring, competitive group work...the list goes on!
Any new puzzles I create for the Most Amazing Puzzle Maker will be included as a free update. See changelog below.
Changelog:
v1.1 (12/11/17)
- New
Added Split Word card sort - great for primary and languages at secondary
Added Dominoes2 horizontal card sort - better for simpler questions
Added Bingo generator - creates unique bingo cards for each student!
- Fixed
Tweaked various cell formatting
Tweaked language in some instructions to improve clarity
Add new instructions to the front page