Year 9 RE at STM

I thought I would start a post on some of the excellent title pages I know I am going to receive. I have managed to photograph one already, so I will start straightaway. Keep up the good work!

I have been very impressed with the high standard of much of the work so far received from the Vocations Assessments. I have also enjoyed discovering new sources through reading your work. For example, I would like to thank one of my pupils who drew to my attention Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns’ Palm Sunday homily, entitled “From Hope to Hope”, which considers the role of the laity in the Church. Another pupil found an excellent description of the vows that Religious take at the Archdiocese of Boston’s site. Well found!

I may well post other websites and books as I come across them in your work. Watch this space!

One important for everyone to consider. When you are completing homework which involves research, I know that many of you will use books and websites to give you ideas. So do I, when writing university essays for example. In fact, it is encouraged, and I encourage you all to use some of the websites featured on here and others that you find using search engines carefully. What is very, very important is that whenever you do use information from a website, either by quoting directly from it or by using its ideas in your own words, you should always quote it.

For example, the above page I mentioned with the former Archbishop of Sao Paulo’s homily would read www . findarticles . com/ p/ articles/ mi_m1141/ is_22_39/ai_99983923/ pg_1, (without the gaps, of course - for some reason it keeps on disappearing when I write it as a proper webpage!) although I could always write it as “From Hope to Hope: Role of Laity in Church Reform - A Lenten Homily by Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, 4 April 2003″.

Then I can not only applaud your good taste and excellent research skills, but I can also see that you are becoming a skilled academic who clearly references other people’s work so that future readers can extend their own knowledge too!

I look forward to receiving long bibliographies at the end of all your homework from now on!

Here are some of the good pieces of homework from last term. Hopefully they will inspire you all to produce even more beautiful title pages this half term!

(If your work is here, and you would like me to take it down, please let me know - but hopefully you will be happy with sharing your great work!)

(Click on any picture if you would like to see it bigger.)

Also, if you want to make any constructive and helpful comments on any of these pieces of work, remember: 2 stars and a wish! What’s good about it? How could it be improved?

2.1 Homework means Term 2, Homework Week 1 - I thought it would be easier in the long run than carrying on with week 7, 19, 27 etc …

Homework is due on Wednesday 31 October.

Complete a title page for the new topic, which is The Spiritual Quest. The aims of the unit are listed below: these should be on your page, along with appropriate images, in colour. I may take pictures of the best images to be added here later. In fact, I had some very impressive ones for the last unit on Vocation - I think I will post them here to inspire you to do even better ones for the Spiritual Quest!

By the end of the unit we will know:
• What proof is there that God exists?
• Why are there other religions?
• How is faith tested?
• What are the similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam?
• What are the Five Pillars of Islam?
• Is religion the cause of conflict?
• What is the purpose of life?
• What happens when we die?
• Why is Advent important to Roman Catholics?

I have sent the 9A assessment home to those who were in Northern Ireland last week. This assessment should be completed by Monday 29 October.

I promised those who were in school to receive the assessment that I would put sentence starters on this blog to help you out, so here they are!

Vocation means …
The three types of Christian vocation are ….

Those Christians called to serve God as Religious take three vows. These are …

The vow of _________ means ….
For example, a nun or monk promises to …
This might affect their life by …
I think this vow would help a Religious because …
This vow might be hard to take because …

(Repeat this type of answer for each of the three vows.)

I think the vows are / are not necessary for a Religious because …

However, others might disagree with me because …

If I were a Religious, the vow that I would find hardest would be the vow of ________ because …

This is only a very brief outline which should help you aim for at least a Level 5. However, you will have to include a lot more detail! Remember, you should spend about 40 minutes or so on your answer, and I would expect about a page and a half to two pages. You can type up your answer if you want.

Marco found a useful site that clearly explains what the vows mean at the Archdiocese of Boston’s site. Remember, if you include quotes from this, or other documents, to put them in quotation marks and clearly reference them. See the post above, “Bibliographies”, on how to do this. We can then all help each other to learn more, since I can share useful webpages on this site.

All the best!

Homework is due on Monday 22 October (or preferably before the holidays!)

This week you have a partial Homework Amnesty in order for you to catch up on any homework you might have missed on the topic of Vocation before we move on to the new topic. You can find links to all the homework from this term below.

Week 1 - Title Page (Vocation)
Week 2 - Vocations Speech
Week 3 - Lay Ministry Leaflet
Week 4 - 9A - Second Vatican Council Essay
Week 4 - 9G - Marriage Vows
Week 5 - Learn Key Words and Complete Assessment

We will also have completed an evaluation in class - however, it would be very helpful if you could complete it on here too. Copy and paste the questions below into the Comments box.

1. What do you think this unit aimed to teach you?
2. Write down two new pieces of knowledge you have gained during this unit.
3. Write about a lesson where you learned the most. What happened in this lesson to help you learn?
4. Do you prefer to work in group or by yourself? Explain your answer.
5. Are there any other ways you think we could benefit your learning or improve this unit of work?

Thank you!

9A Assessment is on Monday 15 October.
9G Assessment is on Thursday 11 October.

Your assessment will involve writing an essay in class. You will have one question to answer, but your answer should show that you understand the whole topic of Vocation.

Therefore, your homework is to revise this topic; in particular you should learn the key words and their meanings. (There are two links there, to the words and to the meanings - these are pdf files that can be printed out and stuck to cards to help you learn and revise all the key words for year 9 - you will need to work out which ones are the necessary meanings for this term!)

Key Words:
Service, Vocation, Laity, Ordained, Religious, Discernment, Lay Ministry, Chrism, ‘Priest, Prophet, King’, Storge, Eros, Philia, Agape, Vows, Consent, Fidelity, Nuptial Mass, Marriage Register, Prostrate, Charism, Minister, Seminary, Deacon, Divine Office, Anoint, Laying on of Hands, Monastery, Habit, Contemplative, Friar, Monk, Nun, Apostolic, Religious Order.

One very good way to revise a topic is to use a mindmap. I would recommend using lots of colour pens on a piece of paper, but you can download Freemind, a free mindmapping software written in Java. The school has OpenMind installed in the ICT suites - perhaps some of you might have that at home.

Follow the links to find images of mindmaps.

If you prefer a more linear way of learning and revising, then you could write bullet points about Vocation, and ask your parents to test you. It would be especially good to buy some index cards and highlighters to help you with this!

Here are the topics we have covered in this unit:

What is vocation?
Christian Vocation
Discernment
Taking Flight (or Taking Risks - What if God wants us to do something we don’t want to do?)
Lay Vocation (’Priest, Prophet and King’ and what can be learnt from the Second Vatican Council)
Marriage
Rite of Marriage
Holy Orders
Priestly Life
Religious Life (The three vows of Obedience, Chastity and Poverty)

It was great to see so many parents tonight at the Curriculum Evening, and I enjoyed being able to speak to some of your parents. I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you and your parents that if you have difficulties with your RE work (either classwork or homework) you can leave a comment here for me, which I can pick up and answer.

Welcome to any parents who have come to have a look and see what homework your son or daughter has been set this week! You can also look at the STM RE Hub which has a page called “Useful Websites” - if children are having difficulties with homework, or would like to do some extra research, then there are a variety of websites that will help inform them about current religious and ethical topics. You can also look at SamLearning - there are a few RE activities on there at the moment. We mainly deal with Christianity, but I would encourage students to widen their knowledge of world religions by looking at all the tasks on this site.

Please feel free to post comments with further recommendations of things you would like to see on this Year 9 RE Blog!

Homework is due on Monday 8 October.

Write a set of marriage vows that reflect the importance of marriage.

For example:

I, (insert name), take you, my future husband / wife, to be my lawfully wedded wife / husband.
I promise to …
I promise to …
I promise to …

(You could include ideas like “be faithful to you”, “support, encourage, love you” … Think about the qualities that you thought it would be good to look for in a marriage partner - could you promise to try and have those qualities? eg to be a good listener, to have a good sense of humour, to be trustworthy …)

Present your work neatly on your page, perhaps adding a border that includes symbols of love and marriage (wedding rings, doves, hearts?)

For more help on marriage and weddings, click on the RE Quest webpage link. Here you will find out more about Christian beliefs about marriage, as well as a section called “Do What?” which describes a Baptist wedding ceremony.

Homework is due on Monday 8 October.

Your homework is to finish the Second Vatican Council essay task. Your essay should explain what the role of the laity is, what the mission of the Church is, and how the laity (including yourself!) can help the Church fulfil her mission.

I hope that there may be some essays that we can share on this site. Use some of the links below to help you.

(Added 30/10/07): Thank you one of my students, who drew my attention to Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns’ Palm Sunday homily, entitled “From Hope to Hope”, which considers the role of the laity in the Church. Well found!