Visual Voyages: Visual Comparison
Objective:
The purpose of this assignment is to look at one aspect of religion, in several religious, indigenous and/or spiritual traditions. Students will synthesize information from many sources into a cohesive presentation.
Materials:
You will need a variety of images for this assignment. The Internet is an important resource, as are books.
The Lesson:
Using primarily the visual mode, supported by effective use of text, students will highlight similarities and/or differences or simply celebrate the wonderful diversity of that aspect of religion in the way they display it. The overall purpose of the assignment is in the sharing; helping classmates appreciate what students are portraying to help them develop a broader exposure to religion, indigenous and spiritual traditions. Since everyone won't be choosing the same aspect, the presentations combined should achieve this.
Here are some ideas to focus on. They should choose one or suggest an alternative.
- Sacred places (geographic places of particular spiritual significance)
- Sacred spaces (churches, temples, etc.- places of worship)
- Sacred symbols
- Sacred holidays
- Sacred texts or holy books
- Guides or codes of behavior
- Sacred passages on the same topic
- Specific Religious or spiritual leaders
- Types of religious holy men or women
- Rites of passage
- Religious sayings
How to have students do this:
Choose a topic above. Find at least five examples from at least five religious, indigenous and/or spiritual traditions. Take brief notes on each example and find a visual representation of it (or create one). Arrange the visual representations and appropriate text on the kind of poster board that folds in three so it can stand up on its own. If they can't get this kind of poster board, they could use a box in a creative fashion.
Text can be written on the computer, but must be in a size that can be seen reasonably well in the display. Students do not need to be too wordy but should choose an interesting font and perhaps use color. They can print out the text and cut it carefully for their display. Alternatively, they could write text by hand very neatly knowing it is for display purposes.
Follow-Up/Assessment:
Students should share their displays with one another. They could pass them around for others to look at, or you could have a "show" of the displays in a main room and invite parents and other school community members.