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

Lesson intended for use with AQA Religion, War and Peace unit. It details different types of pacifism and scriptural sources from the Gospel narratives. A card-sort encourages students to analyse the scriptural sources. Students will learn key scripture in support of pacifism. Furthermore, students are asked to compare contrasting accounts in the Bible and evaluate whether or not Jesus was a absolute pacifist and if not, what he really thought about violence.

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.

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 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.

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

The Sala Dei Nove is a series of Frescos in the Council Chambers of Sienna. They are entitled 'Allegory of Good Government', 'Allegory of Bad Government', 'The effect of Good Government' and 'The effect of Bad Government'. The example appears in the AQA RS textbook and this task is designed to help students identity key features of the frescos. This resource includes three high resolution images of the frescos and a number of small cards to place onto the pictures as annotation. I include an annotated version as an answer sheet or hand-out. Print the frescos onto A3 and provide these to each group. Give a set of the cards (printed A4) and ask the students to place the cards onto the pictures. In doing so, students should come to an understanding of the utility of the frescos to the Council of Nine and the people of Sienna. All images shared freely by Wikipedia as faithful reproductions of images in the public domain.

This is a game I created and use with Y9 as part of a SOW that addresses the question of 'What is real?' This game features in a lesson on the Matrix and we explore whether or not students think it's always best to know the truth. The link to the film is made through the choice of the red and blue pill. I devised the game in order to help students find reasons and give justifications for deciding to either stay in the Matrix, or leave and discover the truth. It's necessary to print the game board as A3 and the cards as A4.

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 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.

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 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

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.

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

For use with discussion on Cartesian dualism. Ryle argues that dualists such as Descartes are fundamentally misunderstanding what the 'mind' is and explains their model as a 'category error'. Why not first teach my lesson explaining Cartesian dualism? https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/descartes-substance-dualism-ocr-2017-a-level-soul-mind-and-body-11523728

I use them sticking out around my board but they're a pretty adaptable lot...

The empathy person task is a way of showing understanding of concepts/ideas or events by forcing students to categorise their thinking. I've used this task to accompany video material often. Such as the key events like Passover ('Prince of Egypt' works well for this) or ritual events like weddings/funerals. I've used it when teaching prejudice and discrimination, wealth and charity, the list goes on.

A tailored reading for information sheet with an accompanying analysis triad. Students are tasked with creating their own religious festival subsequently.

This follows on from my first A2 Compatibilism lesson on the features of Soft Determinist thinking and the form developed by Locke. With this foundation in place and with the appropriate language to hand, I ask students to analyse Hume and draw links between his language and the theory set out by Locke and the locked room thought experiment. This information is taken in part from the Stanford Encyclopaedia and reformatted to be more easily accessible. plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-freewill/ If you're struggling, the answers I give to the three types of liberty are as follows: Liberty of Indifference: Being to choose against your will. Liberty of Spontaneity: Being able to carry out your will unconstrained. Hypothetical Liberty: Having a number of valid different options that you may or may not will to do and can do. The previous lesson is available for sale here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/as-a2-compatibilism-soft-determinism-11124715

A selection of images on the topic of 'humans' or 'humanity'. I have used these images as stimulus for the assessment task in my KS3 SOW on human nature entitled 'What is a human?' Find it here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727