The Qur'an - Post III

Name: Jonathan Tomick

Lesson #, Title: #1, Peace is Possible

Date: Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Grade level and Class title: 11th grade, English III

Period: Any

Epigraph: “In matters of faith, there are no arguments.” – Anonymous

Background and Rationale:

In the United States, less than a month after the school year begins, we reflect on the anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 are a recent and local example of how religious beliefs can be a source of conflict and argument. Belief systems – religious or not – are often a source of conflict in canonical literature. In order to engage with these texts on a deep level via a mature, scholarly conversation, we need to establish a classroom community in which students and teacher feel safe discussing their beliefs and characters’ beliefs without instigating an argument.  Learning to identify beliefs and analyze them to determine common ground between differences is essential to creating this safe classroom community.

Faith serves a specific function in our lives, and religion is one manifestation of faith in our culture, one that has affected almost every author that students will discuss in their language arts and literature classes. The passage we will read from the Qur’an honors the fundamental beliefs of Christianity and Judaism, as well as Islam. Few citizens - of adolescents or adults - realize that all three religions share such commonality: our original motivations for belief are the same. The character Abraham's words articulate the need for reliability in belief. In other words, we believe in what we do because it can never fail us. Even "belief" in something like a football team is predicated by this idea. The Tennessee Titans might not win the Super Bowl, but they will be there to nurture our love of the sport. By coming to this realization about faith and belief through the Qur'an, we as a class confront and overcome one of the most prevalent prejudices in contemporary America, and prepare the classroom community for similar, necesary discussions of how religious beliefs operate in historical texts and contemporary texts addressing our increasingly globalized world.

Textual Support: from Teaching Literature:

"An important basis for creating understanding of a text involves a link to personal beliefs. Of necessity, interpretations must be rooted in a larger understanding of the world and its possibilities. One way to prepare students to interpret texts, then, is to ask them to identify their beliefs about the world in which they live" (121).

Instructional Context:

            “Peace is Possible” is the introductory lesson in a short series of lessons in which students will learn a framework for identifying beliefs of characters and persons, as well as learn how to discuss the sensitive issue of personal, religious, political, and other beliefs without offending their fellow classmates or the teacher. This lesson would be taught around September 11th, after some time has been spent building an emotionally and physically safe classroom, and would serve as preparation for discussing the complex characters found in the canon.

            The course of questioning students will learn in this lesson will be applied to multiple works of literature later in the year. The graphic organizer students will receive with this lesson will serve as a template for later, text-specific graphic organizers. Also, if any issues or difficulties arise during discussions of texts or current issues, this lesson will serve as a model for how students should act when dealing with sensitive topics.

Standards:

3003.8.15 – Analyze texts to identify the author’s attitudes, viewpoints, and beliefs and to critique how these relate to the larger historical, social, and cultural context of the text.

3003.8.13 – Identify, analyze, and explain the multiple levels of theme(s) within a complex literary text and of similar or contrasting themes across two or more texts.

3003.7.2 – Examine the agreements and conflicts between the visual (e.g. media image, painting, film, graphic arts) and the verbal.

Learning Objectives:

Students reflect on their own beliefs and create a physical representation of one belief.

Students collaborate with peers to construct a visual representation of their group’s belief.

Students analyze texts to identify a character’s belief and the motivation for that character’s belief.

Students learn to make inferences about characters’ beliefs and their own based on concrete observations and events.

Students distinguish between the academic terms “discussion” and “argument.”

Students articulate their own beliefs and a character’s belief within a cultural context.

Academic Language:

Discussion/Discuss

Argument/Argue

Belief

Analysis/Analyze

the Qur’an

Islam

Christianity

Judaism

9/11 (as terrifying a thought as it that in a few years we’re going to have to explain this)

Formative Assessment:

- Completion of an analytical graphic organizer comparing and contrasting students' personal beliefs with those of Helena and Abraham.

- One student-composed paragraph (7-10 sentences) in which students articulate one personal belief in relation to their culture - current events, everyday activities, or previous experience. The belief discussed does not have to be religious.

Summative Assessment:

- Completed "Combining Voices" activity.

- One student-composed paragraph (7-10 sentences) in which students articulate one personal belief in relation to their culture - current events, everyday activities, or previous experience. The belief discussed does not have to be religious.

Learning Activities:

1. Combining voices (2+5+5 = 12 min.)

2. "This I Believe: Peace is Possible" (2 min.)

3. "Peace is Possible" think-aloud with graphic organizer (5 min.)

4. Discussion of lesson epigraph, "In matters of faith, there are no arguments." - Anonymous

How does this quote apply to Helena's essay? Based on Helena's words, what do you think the difference is between an argument and a discussion? How does this apply to the "Combining Voices activity? (5 min.)

5. Reading and individual analysis of Qur'an with graphic organizer (6 min.)

We will finish this in class tomorrow

Total time: 30 min.

6. Homework assignment: Take the image you drew for the first part of combining voices, and, based on what you drew, fill in the column of the graphic organizer labeled "What I Believe." Tomorrow, along with finishing our discussion of the Qur'an, we will finish the graphic organizer by looking at our group drawings.

Student Supports:

            Belief is an abstract concept. The purpose of using a graphic organizer is for students to see how concrete images and events - things that can be written about and observed - articulate and influence beliefs. When listening to “Peace is Possible,” I will provide students with a hard-copy of the text so that they might physically identify specific words, phrases, and sentences that stand out to them. I will ask them to identify items that they think are related to Helena’s belief while we listen, and then construct her belief from the bottom, up. The alternative would be to tell students what Helena believes, and then have them identify what items in the passage prove that, which would put extra pressure on students to identify the “correct” answer.

            Students might be uncomfortable sharing their beliefs or engaging with the idea on a deep and serious level. If a student is uncomfortable sharing their belief, they won’t have to , but they will need to draw it as part of Combining Voices so that they can make their thinking visible and tangible. My ultimate goal is to get students to engage collaboratively with each other, but that starts with the individual. I have no qualms with a student opting out of the collaboration for now, as long as he or she completes the individual work. With high school students, I may have to provide a more concrete definition of belief, or otherwise have students spend more time defining belief. If I felt it was necessary, I would have students do a brainstorming session on their definition of belief, or their thoughts and feelings on belief, perhaps doing a Taba lesson on categorizing different kinds and facets of belief.

            Combining Voices allows students to be as expressive as they can be or choose to be, theoretically making it accessible to all students. Including the work of special needs students would only contribute to the goal of creating a collaborative classroom environment. Individuals of unfamiliar or stigmatized religious, political, or sexual affiliation may need to be directly addressed. If I had such students, I would discuss this lesson with them ahead of time in order to determine what they are and are not comfortable discussing in class. Depending on the individual students, it might be beneficial to have them help me teach the lesson.

Materials:

Handouts of Qur’an reading (x20)

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/88540/

Handouts of This I Believe excerpt (x20)

Computer connected to speakers and projector

Standard printer/copier paper (x20)

Markers (x20)

Big paper (x5)

Graphic organizer (x20)

Digital copy of graphic organizer (for projection)

Student writing utensils, notebook, and other regular class materials

Timer

Detailed Learning Plan:

1. Intro/Combining Voices, pt. I - Throughout the year we are going to be reading and discussing many texts, and in that process we will encounter characters that hold many different beliefs. When you think of beliefs, what do you think of? Religious beliefs? Personal beliefs? Belief in an idea? These are all different types of beliefs. But before we go any further, we need to find out what you believe! Take a piece of blank paper and a marker from the center of your table, and draw something you believe. No words please, just images. Your drawing can be a static image, or a depiction of an event. Don’t think too hard, we’re only going to take a few minutes for this part. Start drawing the first thing that comes to mind.

2.  Combining Voices, pt. II - Now, while you were drawing, I handed each of your tables a sheet of big paper/Pick one person from your table to come up and get a sheet of big paper. Now, each table, each group, is going to take all the individual images you drew, and combine them into one image somehow. Pick one artists for your table, but work together to figure out how to combine all of your images into one, group belief. Again, artistic ability is not so important. Work quickly! Spend one minute per group unpacking each group’s image.

3. “This I Believe: Peace is Possible” - Great! Let’s hang those up on the wall. We’ll come back to them later, I promise. Take out your graphic organizer, this sheet of paper that looks like a grid of sorts, and the handout with the longer text on it. This one. We’re going to listen to an excerpt from an NPR program called “This I Believe.” This particular essay is one woman’s reflection on a vigil held for the victims of September 11th. She is a Bahai woman. Do we have any Bahai in here? We can talk about Bahai itself in more detail later. Right now, that’s not our biggest concern. When we listen and follow along with Helena’s essay, think about what she believes. Underline words, phrases, or sentences that you think are relevant to Helena’s belief. Listen and underline first, then we’ll fill out the graphic organizer later. Play 1.31 minute clip of Helena’s essay.

4. Peace is Possible think-aloud with graphic organizer. Now, let’s turn to our graphic organizer. You have the text in front of you for reference. We have our character, Helena. What are some of the images she shows us? Smoke. World Trade Center towers. Unity. Mosque. Great! What are the events she describes in this passage? The attacks. Praying together. The woman shouting “We have a Bahai here, too!” Good eyes and good thinking! Now, someone give me one sentence - either from the text or in your own words - of what Helena believes. “Peace is possible.” “It is up to the individual to start striving for a better world.” People of all different religious can pray together. These are all valid answers. Look at the last column of your graphic organizer, “Relation to Images and Events.” Ask yourself, “How did these images and events lead to Helena’s belief that she shows us here in her essay? How do they provide a backdrop? How does she make sense of those images based on her belief?” Just write one or two sentences. Pause for writing. Would anyone like to share what they wrote?

5. Lesson epigraph. We’ve done a lot of great thinking. Now let’s have a brief discussion. We have this quote on the board, “In matters of faith there are no arguments” by Anonymous. How might this quote apply to Helena’s essay? Field answers. How does this apply to our combining voices activity? Field answers. How could this apply to our classroom community? Field answers.

6. Reading and individual analysis of Qur’an excerpt. Let’s look back at our graphic organizers . You should have another sheet of paper with a shorter excerpt from the Qur’an. As many of you know, the Qur’an is the holy book of Islam, but this passage speaks of Abraham, a man whom Christians, Muslims, and Jews see as an important figure of their faith. This passage is a little more tricky than Helena’s essay, but we’re going to apply the same kind of questioning. Individually, read silently over the passage, and fill out the row on your graphic organizer entitled “Abraham.”

What are you wondering about this section of the assignment, or about what we’ve done in class so far?

7. Homework: If you haven’t finished analyzing the Qur’an passage, we will take a few more minutes to finish tomorrow in class. Your homework assignment is to take your individual drawing, the first one you did today, and use it to fill in the graphic organizer row label “You.” Fill in your name, look at your image, and follow the same line of questioning that we did in class, from left to right, working toward the final questions, “What does this image say about what I believe? Why do I believe in what this image represents?” Tomorrow, in class, we will complete the graphic organizer by looking at your group’s drawing, and then we’ll move on to some composing!

What are you wondering about your homework assignment?

Reflection:

            The class seemed to take readily to drawing. What I could have been more explicit and transparent about was the move to combining images into one group image. Artistically, students got it, which is all they need to do - produce the image for us to talk about later in the class. But I wonder how I could guide their combining, structure it more, to make it more purposeful from the beginning. I don’t have an answer to this question now, but I know I could do some sharpening there, giving students more purpose early on in the lesson.

            I did nothing to draw out quiet students, and while I might be able to rationalize that fact by saying I was already treading on eggshells of belief, I won’t. I did not engage Yumeng at all during the lesson. In fact, I even saw in the video (and cringed as I saw it coming) that I ended an activity saying “It looks like everyone is just about done” when Yumeng was clearly still writing. I don’t know if Yumeng and others’ reticence was based on communication skill of on differences in belief, but as far as I’m concerned, if I don’t do even more careful planning on how to bring those voices into the lesson, than I am a failure. I thought that by carefully constructing classroom activities I could scaffold into such openness. I need to do more of what I discuss in my lesson analysis, and that is engage students more directly when unpacking Combining Voices and thinking aloud with “Peace is Possible.” I could do more direct instructing to draw students voices into the air.

Texts:

“This I Believe: Peace is Possible” (excerpt) - Helena Marie Carnes-Jeffries

"On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I turned on the television to check the weather. I had just woken up. On every station I saw smoke billowing up from the World Trade Center towers. I reached for the phone to call my mother but could not get through. So I sat and watched the horror unfold on my TV screen, like something out of a freakish nightmare.

A few days later, my brother invited me to a small peace vigil at a mosque on the northwest side of Chicago. Muslims were suffering a great deal of backlash after 9/11. There we were, standing outside the mosque, praying together. I whipped out my Bahai prayer book and was about to say a prayer for unity when the main speaker announced, “Here with us today we have Christians, Jews and Muslims.”

A Muslim woman standing next to me noticed the Bahai Greatest Name on my prayer book and called out, “She’s a Bahai! We have a Bahai here, too!” And so there we stood in unity, people from different major religions praying together.

I believe that peace is possible – between individuals as well as nations. Although the world seems like it’s falling apart around us, my faith tells me that this is just the beginning, that the human race is in its adolescence and coming of age. It is up to the individual to start striving for a better world today."

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/88540/

Excerpt from the Qur’an:

“When the night grew dark over [Abraham] he saw a star and said, ‘This is my Lord,’ but when it set, he said ‘I do not like things that set.’ And when he saw the moon rising he said, ‘This  is my Lord,’ but when it too set, he said, ‘If my Lord does not guide me, I shall be one of those who go astray.’ Then he saw the sun rising and cried, ‘This is my Lord! This is greater.’ But when the sun set, he said, ‘My people, I disown all that you worship beside God. I have turned my face as a true believer toward Him who created the heavens and the earth’” (Haleem, p. 85).