Week one/ Lesson one
Materials:
· Handout about the culture topics
· Video
· Computers
Objectives:
· Students will understand the meaning of culture
· Students will become with the three main monotheistic religions
Duration: 85 minutes
Instructional procedure:
Students will have 10-15 minutes to write a thinking page in their notebook to answer the questions: How do you define culture? What topics go in culture? When students are done writing, they will share their writing and the different answers will be put on the board for discussion. After the discussion and agreement on the list of topics that go under culture, students will be given handouts with titles of topics like: music, clothing, food, religion, holidays' celebrations and family. Each student will have to answer the question "what is your culture" in each topic mentioned in the list. Students will have to get into groups of three to compare their individual lists with each others'. Then each group of three will talk to a different group to compare their group lists. After all groups compare their lists, students will share their findings as individuals and as groups. Students will have to share something new they learned about each other and a discussion about culture differences will follow. To close this activity, students will write a learning page in their notebook about what they learned from this activity and then share with the class.
Students will have a short computer research assignment to do in groups about one of the topics from the list about culture: religions. The class will be divided in three groups. Each group will be assigned one of the three religions: Judaism, Christianity or Islam. Each group will be given a handout that shows a table with information to fill out about their assigned religion. The information students will have to gather about the assigned religion is: origination, holy places, holy book, original language, prophets, prayer time, fasting, almsgiving, marriage. The teacher will introduce these titles in Arabic language. After students share their findings they will write their learning page about what they learned from today's lesson. Students will share their writing.
Closure: Students will watch a 5 minutes video about the similarities and differences between the three main religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam from the perspective of a Rabbi, a priest and an Imam .
Homework
:
Based on the information presented in the short video, students will have to prepare a minimum of five questions for the presenters coming next class to speak to the students about the similarities and differences between Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Week one/ Lesson 2
Materials:
· Students' questions' lists
Objective:
· Students will be familiar with the differences and similarities between the three religions
Duration: 85 minutes
Procedure: Students will meet in groups by assigned religions to discuss the questions they prepared to give the presenters. They will put the questions in one list per group and each student will choose the question s/he will ask the presenters. The Teacher will go over the questions with the students.
Students will attend a presentation about the differences and similarities between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The presentation will be done by three presenters each from a different faith. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions.
Week one/ Lesson 3
Materials:
· Venn diagrams
· vocabulary quiz
Objective:
· Students will discuss their learning about the similarities and differences between religions
Duration: 85 minutes
Students will meet in groups and share the answers to the questions they asked to the presenters. The teacher will give the students a Venn diagram sheet to use to fill out the similarities and differences between the religions. The teacher will also project the diagrams on the board and have students participate in filling as a class. The teacher will guide the students to use the previously learned Arabic vocabulary when filling the diagrams. A discussion about the topic of the presentation will follow.
Assessment: Students will have a religions vocabulary quiz. The last minutes of class will be used by students to write their learning page about what they learned about the similarities and differences between the three main religions and share their writing in class.
Week two/ lesson 4
Material:
· Transparencies
· Clothing pictures
Objective:
· Students will learn about the next topic under culture: The head cover
· Students will learn not to judge people from their head cover
· Students will be able to identify each others' clothing in Arabic
Duration: 85 minutes
Procedure:
Students will write their thinking page by answering the questions:
· Does the way you dress reflect the person you are?
· Do you judge others by the way they dress?
The teacher will have the students share their answers and will put their answers on the board.
The teacher will use a different transparency with pictures of different clothing to teach the matching vocabulary in Arabic. Students will practice the vocabulary by identifying what their classmate is wearing.
Assessment: The students will show their understanding of the material they were taught today by working in groups of two to perform a scenario. Each group will have a number of pictures of different people dressed in different ways, some with or without head cover. The teacher will give each student one picture that also exists on the desk. Each student will use that picture to describe himself or herself to his or her partner. The partner will have to find the matching picture from the collection of pictures on the desk.
The teacher will use a transparency with photos of women from different cultures and social ranks with different type of head covers (Laila Ali, Diana Spencer, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Mother Teresa, other pictures of women from Spain and Russia as well as pictures of Jewish and Muslim women, some with and some without head cover like an Egyptian woman working in the field and Queen Rania of Jordan).
Students will work in small groups to discuss the following:
· Why the women in the transparency cover their hair?
· What does their head covering symbolize? ( job, religion, tradition, style, other?)
· Does the head covering tell you about the origin or belief of the person?
A discussion will follow.
Assessment
:
Students will write their learning page about today's lesson and share their writing.
Homework
:
Students will have vocabulary word search of a list of the vocabulary they learned today. The list is in English. Students will have to find the matching Arabic word.
Week 2/ Lesson 5:
Materials:
· Computers
· Article: " Social work and the house of Islam"
Objective:
· Students will be able to identify the different head coverings used in different religions.
· Students will understand the different reasons of the use of the head cover in the different religions
Procedure:
Students will work in groups to do a computer research about the use of head scarves by different religions. Each group will be assigned one of the three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Students will have 30 minutes to research the following:
· The different reasons for the use of headscarves in the assigned religion (religious and non religious use)
· Pictures and names of the different headscarves used in the assigned religion.
Each group will share their findings and a discussion will follow. The teacher will give the students a Reading for Information Assignment. They will have to read the article "Social work and the house of Islam" in groups, find the answer to 8 multiple choice questions and discuss two open ended questions related to the article. Students will share their answers and discuss as a class.
Homework: Students will have to write their learning page about what they learned from today's class.
Week three/ Lesson 6
Materials:
· Video
Objective:
· Students will learn about the next topic under culture : marriage in Muslim culture
Procedure: Students will write their learning page about what they know about marriage in Muslim culture". After sharing their writing, students will watch a movie made in Morocco in Arabic language with English subtitles. The translation of the movie title is "The search for my wife's husband". The movie is a comedy. It portrays the traditional life of Moroccan families. The story is about a Moroccan man married to three women. It talks about his stressful life due to the fact that he tries to be fair and give equal attention to all of them. After watching the movie students will brainstorm what they learned about marriage culture in Islam. A discussion about the movie will follow.
Homework: Students will write a paragraph about their own marriage culture.
Week three 3/ Lesson 7
Materials:
· Article
Objective:
· Students will compare and contrast marriage culture in the religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Procedure:
Students will share their writing about their own marriage culture. The class will discuss the similarities and differences in marriage culture in the three main religions. After the discussion, students will have a discussion about existence or non-existence of polygamy in the three religions.
Students will then read the article "Marriage in the Arab World" and work in groups of two to answer open ended questions about the topic. Students will share their writings and a discussion will follow.
Assessment: Students will write their learning page about what they learned about marriage in different religions.