Creative Approaches to Teaching Primary Education


By Maggie Webster
April 2010
Pearson Education
Distrubuted by Trans-Atlantic Publications Inc.
ISBN: 9781408204405
161 pages, Illustrated
$49.95 Paper Original

As an increasingly significant  aspect of primary teaching, Creative Approaches to Teaching Primary RE is the essential companion to help bring creativity to life in the classroom.

The text begins with a discussion of creative education and the value of Religious Education, moving on to reflect on the cross-curricular nature of the subject, exploring ways of introducing creativity to the classroom, through the medium of Religious Education.

Each chapter provides ideas and activities demonstrating how pedagogy and theory can be applied in practice within a school setting. The inclusion of case studies will help you consider how to develop creative approaches in all curriculum areas.

This book invites you to ask questions such as:

·  What is Creative Education?

·  Why should RE be included in the ever-changing curriculum?

·  How can I use Religious Education to generate a more creative environment in the classroom?

Contents

DedicationPreface

Chapter 1: What is Creative Education?

What is Creativity?

Learning Creatively

Being Creative

Measuring Creativity

What is Creative Religious Education?

Chapter 2: The Purpose of Religious Education

Brief History of the changing role of Religious Education in schools

Chapter 3: The Value of Religious Education

What is the Value of RE in Primary Schools?

The Value of Skills- based approach to RE Chapter 4: Creatively Connecting RE

An overview of the benefits of making cross-curricular and thematic links with Creative and Expressive Arts and Religious Education

Chapter 5: What are the Connections with Art and RE?*

RE and Visual Art

Connecting with the Art Curriculum

Exploring RE and Art*

·  Architechture

·  Advertising

·  NC links

Interpretation of religion through Visual Art

·  Cartoons*

·  Windows*

·  NC links

Expression of religion through Visual Art

·  Celebrations

·  Personal expressions of faith

·  Calligraphy

·  Allegory

·  NC links

Chapter 6: What are the Connections with Dance and RE?*

RE and Dance

Connecting with the PE Curriculum

A Themed Dance

·  an activity idea – a taste of India

·  NC links

Dancing in Groups

·  Creating a Class dance*

·  NC links

Movement with Meaning

·  Interpreting people’s faith through movement

·  Interpreting a hymn through movement

·  Words in Hymns

·  A class dance with words and hymns

·  NC Links

Sacred Dance

Chapter 7: What are the Connections with Drama and RE?*

RE and Drama

Conecting with the English Curriculum

·  Dramatic Conventions

·  Persona dolls

·  The godly play

·  Hot seating*

o  Exploring dilemmas

o  Conscious alley

o  Corner running

o  Expert groups and snowballing

·  NC links

Group Drama

·  Freeze Frame

·  Powered Body Sculpture

·  Role Play and Shadow puppets

·  TV shows

·  NC links

Class Drama

·  Choral Reading

·  Court room drama

·  Class Improvisation*

·  NC links

Chapter 8: What are the Connections with Music and RE?*

RE and Music

Connecting with the Music Curriculum

Creating and Performing Music

·  Simple to manage – body sounds

·  Not so difficult to manage – make your own song*

·  Farily Tricky to manage – composing music

·  NC links

Interpreting and Appraising Music

·  Desert Island Disks

·  Interpretation of Music*

·  Listening to Music

·  NC links

Spiritual Music

·  Choral Reading/Singing

·  Chanting – the Sacred sound of Aum

·  NC links

The Internet and Music

·  Secondlife

·  Apple itunes

·  Hymns

·  Radio

Chapter 9: Using Creative Resources in Religious Education Creative Use of Electronic Resources*

Creative Use of People*

Creative Use of Artefacts*

Creative use of Paper Resources

Where can I get Resources?

10 Top Resource Tips…

Personal Training Plan

Chapter 10: Planning for Creative Religious Education

Creative Planning

Types of Planning

Creating Medium Term Plans in RE

How to write a Medium Term Plan for RE*

How to write a Short Term Plan for RE*

Thematic and Cross Curricular Medium Term Planning

Differentiation

Examples of Planning

·  Figure 1 – Thematic plan for Year 1

·  Figure 2 – Thematic plan based on TASC for Year 2*

·  Figure 3 – Medium Term Plan based on TASC for Year 2*

·  Figure 4 – Cross curricular Medium Term Plan for Year 5/6

·  Figure 5 – Cross curricular Short Term Plan for Year 3/4*

Chapter 11: Creatively Assessing Religious Education

The Planning Cycle

What is Assessment?

How do I Assess?

What Evidence Shows Learning?*

How do I collect Evidence?

Levelling a child in RE*

Chapter 12: What do I need to Know?

I don’t know about religion, so I don’t teach it

How can I develop my confidence with subject knowledge?

Where can I find further Information?

Chapter 13: “Of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12)

Features

Key features of the text:

·  Chapters arranged by subject (e.g. Re and Music, RE and Drama, RE and English, RE and ICT, RE and Dance, etc)

·  A section on planning, with templates, to aid both trainees and established teachers, helping to cover many areas of the curriculum in a single lesson

·  Links to useful resources and websites

·  Interactive ideas to help children engage with RE

·  Balance of theory and subject knowledge with practical ideas to use in the classroom

·  Explicit links to standards for QTS

·  Case studies with examples of children’s work


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