Religion Lesson Plan: Culture
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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Religion, and supports the standard of analyzing the role of religion in human culture and society. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.
Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Display this image from the movie (timestamp 1:03):
Ask students:
- What symbols do you recognize? What do you think they mean?
Step 2: BUILD BACKGROUND
- Read aloud the description on the Religion topic page.
- Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding.
- Have students read one of the Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
Step 3: ENGAGE
Students express what they learned about religion while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.
- Make-a-Movie: Make a mini-documentary describing one religion featured in the BrainPOP movie. Include details about its cultural significance for practicing communities. (Essential Literacy Skill: Determine central ideas)
- Make-a-Map: Make a concept map comparing and contrasting monotheistic and polytheistic religions. (Essential Literacy Skill: Summarize key details)
- Creative Coding: Code a meme that celebrates the diversity of world religions. (Essential Literacy Skill: Make logical inferences from explicit details)
Step 4: APPLY & ASSESS
Apply: Students complete the Religion Graphic Organizer, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.
Assess: Wrap up the lesson with the Religion Quiz.
Step 5: EXTEND LEARNING
Culture Unit: Continue to build understanding about diverse beliefs and practices with more BrainPOP topics.
Additional Support Resources:
- Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how BrainPOP Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas.
- Modifications for BrainPOP Learning Activities: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
- BrainPOP Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.