Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism. This is what Google tells me are the top 8. We are going to put the religions lessons in with Threshold 7, Agriculture. Unfortunately, we only have a trimester to teach ALL of Big History. I hate cramming everything into 12 weeks, but that's our lot in life. What do you do? Any creative lessons? Hands on?
I'm in the same boat. Our curriculum doesn’t specifically cover all these religions in depth, but it references them throughout the year, so we need a strong foundation. I have one day! I start with the basics: the time periods, key leaders, and major ideas. In the past, I’ve done this through lectures, but recently, I’ve shifted to a more interactive approach using World History Project readings.
I divide the students into groups and assign each group a different religion to research. The students then teach the class using Google Draw (we're a Google School) to create a poster summarizing their findings. This method makes the lesson more engaging and encourages collaboration and deeper understanding among students.
Based on what other teachers have shared, this seems to be a common practice to tackle this vast topic. While we can’t go deep into each religion within the limited timeframe I would like, we can establish a solid context and highlight future causation. This approach helps students grasp the basics and see the connections between these belief systems and broader historical themes, which is crucial given our condensed schedule. Good luck!
Oh! I just had a thought when I saw your poster idea, Drew Fortune . To change things up, you could also use mini books. Erin Cunningham is the master with these. Here's a thread with some examples she shared. Bryan Dibble is that a thought for a strategy you could use?
I do teach kids how to use the basics with Draw in Docs, I sure like the idea of moving the religions lessons up in the course. Once we get to civilizations in Threshold 7, good idea to lay it all out early.
I do teach kids how to use the basics with Draw in Docs, I sure like the idea of moving the religions lessons up in the course. Once we get to civilizations in Threshold 7, good idea to lay it all out early.
Bryan Dibble
Is "Draw in Docs" a specific feature of Google Docs? I'm really trying to go paperless or "paper, less" this year and while my LMS has an annotation feature, it's not exactly what I'm looking for.
I should have been more precise. Google has a program called Google Drawing on Drive. It's similar to Canva but works well for us when we use Google Drive for everything else. Students can make a digital poster using Google Drawing and place it into a Google Slide or Google Doc.
The drawing feature in Doc is pretty useful for sure. Under the "insert" tab, then "drawing". I have found that most of my students have never used it with a doc. I teach them how to make captions for pictures they put in a doc, and it can work well for annotations too. For most simply annotation assignments, where I want kids to comment on what they are reading, I just have them use the "add comment" button when they highlight a passage or a line of the text. I've had a whole class do that on a shared doc. Takes some training and trust, because kids and cut other's comments out, or just copy what someone else thinks, but if you are not using it for a formal assessment it works pretty well and gets all of the students involved. Plus teaches a tech skill they can use later. Will Nash
Woah! I am so glad I am learning about this feature before the school year begins. I had no clue google docs had this feature. Do you find that it is easy to use for students that are using laptops- or does it seem to be more user friendly with iPads/ chrome books with touch screen capabilities?
