Teaching Re In High School

[Aragon]

I'd love to hear from fellow teachers but I'm really interested in hearing anyone's point of view (especially people who have been high school students recently).

I'm beginning a teaching job at a Catholic school where one of the three subjects I'll be teaching is RE. I really want to do a good job, but I'm also very conscious of the fact that in Catholic schools in my country 85-90% of the students do not come from practicing families and RE is often seen as a "bludge subject ". 

 

Any ideas or advice to help me out and how to engage the students?

 

Thanks! :D

Edited October 8, 2014 by Aragon

[Luigi]

To as great an extent as possible, keep it factual. Then you'll have material you can test them on:

- Name the twelve apostles.

- What are the first five books of the Bible called?

- How long was the pontificate of John Paul II?

- What is St. Paul's definition of love?

 

I know that RE should include personal reflection and that kind of thing, but if most of the students are pretty out of the religious loop, then veer more toward teaching it like an academic subject (while still including reflective assignments).

[beatitude]

How much scope do you have within the curriculum? I attended a school that was affiliated with the Church of England but where most students weren't from practising Christian families and I thought our RE classes were brilliant - the teacher made the subject popular even with teenagers who never went to church, by keeping it very interactive and participatory. In the early years of high school, we had classes on various saints and on Christian contributions to different social movements (Bl. Damien of Molokai, St Maximilian Kolbe, and William Wilberforce and the anti-slavery movement are a few that I remember). The interesting thing was that we did more than just learn about their lives - their stories were tied into an ethics course. We would have ethics classes that focused on contemporary moral issues, such as slavery (not just as a historic phenomenon, in its modern incarnations), abortion, euthanasia, just war theory, Christian pacifism, etc. There was a whole slew of topics. When we studied Damien of Molokai, the teacher told us about the Bible verse that is engraved on his tomb ("Greater love has no one than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends") and we talked about questions of self-sacrifice, what we might have done in that situation, how far we are morally obliged to go in the care of the sick, the stigmatising of certain illnesses, and so on. When we studied Nicky Cruz, the teacher tied it in with debates on punishment and penal reform. The good thing about this was that the questions allowed for some very deep discussions and lively debate, and the teacher didn't shy away from presenting all sides to an issue. I think this by far the best way to engage with high schoolers - don't just give them a list of facts to learn, really make them think. This way they're more likely to get interested and to remember what you teach them. For some things you could even organise formal class debates, with a moderator and different speakers. As you're in a Catholic school, presentations and displays linked to saints' days could be fun for some of the students - maybe have a notice board in the classroom that you use for display about this saint or that feast day and get students to volunteer to fill it. Some will not be interested in that, but others will, and it will keep your room looking bright and interesting (as well as giving kids who don't come from religious homes an insight into what the liturgical calendar looks like).

[blazeingstar]

I'm with Beaituted for once.  Poll what the students are interested in and find a saint that did it. 

 

Want to hear about Catholic scientists?  There's tons!  Catholic universities invented the scientific method

 

True Church reformation?  Life of St. Vincent!

 

Social justice????  SOOO many good ones to choose from.

 

I'd start by giving the kids history and context.  Actually, I'd start by having them write a 1 paragraph essay on a topic (excluding hot button issues) that they thought the church had wrong, then give them the ability to research and discuss why or why not.

[truthfinder]

I agree with keeping it factual, or at least slant in that direction.  I had RE and the best advice was from a non-RE teacher who said to us students that if we don't like religion, or aren't Catholic, to treat it like any other subject.  Study, memorize, etc.  Non-Catholic students often scored the best because they took this approach rather than non-practicing students who thought that it was a stupid subject.

Also, I'd second the idea of 'what the church got wrong' and try and confront what students see as the problems within the church.  (ie The church says i'm 'illegitimate' because my parents are divorced, or things like that).

[truthfinder]

A qualifying note, once I've looked up bludge: it was a Catholic school that had a policy that you had to pass the final exam in RE to pass RE, and you had to pass RE to pass the grade.  It definitely gave students incentive to do their work.  Gr. 8 final exam covered 10 commandments, plagues of Egypt, connection between Passover and Easter, Saul, King David, Solomon, cycle of prophets. And had us write out the Apostle's Creed.

[LaPetiteSoeur]

My subject is often seen as an elective (french :(( it makes me sad because it's totally NOT an elective) but I've found that if you mix the subject matter with current events students generally respond well. For RE, you could connect a teaching or a part of church history with something occurring today. Guest lecturers are always cool. Way back when I was in HS religion classes, we had practicing Jews come and talk to us about their traditions when we learned about the Hebrew Scriptures. It was a great way to connect past with present, etc.

 

Mostly, stress relevance. It's easy for kids to think religion class (or any "elective" class) is not relevant and they only have to take it to graduate, but once they have a personal connection it is infinitely easier to teach

[Gabriela]

I think a lot of good has been said, especially by Beatitude. I would just add that, if you want to increase students' identification with the Faith, the best way may be through narratives, i.e., biographies of inspiring Catholics and/or Catholic fiction. With either of those, you're likely to keep them interested, and you can start discussions about how the stories manifest Catholic values.

 

Humans are "story-telling animals," and people tend to be most inspired and influenced to make personal change by other people's examples rather than facts/doctrine, so gripping stories of Catholic lives are probably THE best way to help students understand and retain the real spirit and meaning of the Faith, and to nudge them toward holy living.

Edited October 11, 2014 by curiousing