Objective: To have the students find out about the Shaker religion, it's origin, founder, and where it began in order to become familiar with the religion in the novel.
When we started the novel A Day No Pigs Would Die, I had the students brainstorm as to what a shaker would be. The answers ranged from a stripper to an instrument. Then we read the back of the book to get a better idea of what the term meant. I then broke the class into small groups and sent them to the computers to find out what a Shaker. I had written on the board questions as to what I wanted answered. After about 3o minutes we came back together as a group to share what we found. The Shaker religion is very interesting and strange. We compared and contrasted it with some of the religions of today as well as some in other stories we had read or heard about. This lead to the discussion as to where and when the religion came to the United States and where our story takes place.
I feel this was a good lead into our story. It gave the students a feel for the beliefs of the characters in our story as well as giving a feeling or reality of the story. The students really did a great job finding out about Shakers and pulling in other information about other religions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I don't know anything about the Shakers, but it must say something about our society that one of your responses involved strippers. :-) I like the way the students come together to share what they've found in order to create a collective understanding of the book's background. More of them should be able to connect with the plot and have a deeper understanding of the importance of certain events. Good work!
I don't know anything about he Shaker religion but it reminds me of a church project we did in jr high. We had to visit all the other churches in our town, we had many, and come back and compare what we learned on what the pastors wore, the pictures on the walls, what songs were song, actions in church(genuflect.sp). This is a project I have never forgotten, it gave me a whole other side of other religions.
I think this approach, with the question prompt and brainstorming activity, should be very effective in drawing students together to focus on the novel. It also gives opportunity for some cross-curriculum activity (researching a religious sect, sharing comments about the sect), which in turn makes the novel larger than itself. That's a great way to create that synergy of reading a novel while exploring what students bring to it, in my opinion. Finally, what I like about this approach is that it's simple; just dealing with the obvious, really.
Post a Comment