KS3 and KS4 Religion and the Media Unit - 12 Lessons

Religion Studies / Philosophy / PSHE

This 12-lesson unit, ‘Religion and the Media’, is an update to a previous incarnation of this unit, modernised, well-designed and made even more engaging to keep in line with current thinking and relevant issues.
Individual lessons are intended as a double (roughly one and a half hours per lesson) however, due to time restrictions and the embedded support in the corresponding Work Pack, could also be taught in a minimal one hour per lesson.

Lessons Include:

• What is a Media Message
• Religion in the Media
• Charlie Hebdo
• Westboro Baptist Church
• Banksy
• How do religions use the media (inc. LGBTQ+ case study)
• Is there a balance between freedom of speech and harmful content?
• Are gagging orders moral?
• Should the media profit from tragedy?
• When does the media become propaganda?
• Should the media promote ethical advertising?
• What is the future of ethics and the media?
  *Lesson resource sheets if using exercise books

This scheme of learning has been devised explicitly to support the Recovery Curriculum, interleave learning with previously-learned units and support cognition through interleaving techniques.
Although part of a unit, lessons can also be taught as a stand-alone lessons, e.g. for revision. The corresponding Work Pack(s) would also support a home-learned curriculum as the PowerPoints and Packs themselves include differentiation and scaffolding, where required.

The new scheme of work is specifically designed to promote the two skills desired for success at GCSE (and beyond):

AO1 (Knowledge and Understanding)
AO2 (Analysis and Evaluation)
The resources are specifically created to ensure students are aware of the skill they are demonstrating and how to improve further through modelling.

These new units bring the relevance back to our topics, for example, through thought experiments and reference to current affairs. Students will experience greater engagement and enjoyment in a fair and balanced approach.

Lessons include:

• Homework Slide
• Unit Cover and lesson overview
• Starter activity, including interleaving
• Key words (literacy focus)
• Introduction of key information (AO1 - knowledge) and how this is used (AO1 - understanding)
• Introduction of a contentious issue or debate (AO2 - analysis) and finalised judgement (AO2 - evaluation)
• Plenary

The lesson resource sheets:
These are designed so that even those who have limited curriculum time can explore the full unit without having to feel the time pressures on their classwork.
The resources provide time-saving activities, whilst still being able to cover the breadth and depth of the course.
In addition, students who may be limited by literacy issues, e.g. slower writing paces, are not disadvantaged or capped in their progress. Therefore, some classes could use a mixed approach - part resources, part exercise book - and all students will be able to progress through the same volume of content.

Please give feedback: I am always happy to respond to comments - whether positive or constructive - this will help to improve the quality of my resources in the future and, more importantly, the quality of pupils’ RE/RS education in general - which is what we’re all here for!