Unit 5 TEACHING A CIVIC OR MORAL RELATED LESSON
Key Unit competence: Prepare a civic or moral related
lesson respecting all steps andstructure of a lesson plan.
Introductory activity 5
1. Using both lower primary and upper primary syllabus of religious
studies, identify one topic which has civic or moral lessons and
explain why?
2. Do you think there are specific steps for teaching civic and morallessons? Why?
In the Religious Studies syllabus, there are Scripture related Units and
the civic or moral related topics both in Christian and Islamic Religious
Studies. Civic or moral related topics are those related to people’s everyday
life. For example: Ubutabera n’amahoro (P3, Unit 4/Christianity), kubana
mu mahoro (P2, Unit 4/Christianity), Conflict resolution (P5 Unit 5/Islam),
Relationships and friendship (P6 Unit 3/Christianity), Ubupfura n’imibanire
myiza n’abandi (P2 Unit 5/Islam), Kwiyubaha no kubanira abandi neza (P3
Unit 5/Islam), Relationship and friendship (P6, Unit 3).
These topics are intended to help learners to develop moral values and to
be good citizens and active members of the society. More concretely, a Civic/
moral related lesson is meant to develop competences by which the pupils
are enabled to make good decisions, sound moral judgements, to skilfully
solve problems and civically engage in the community life.
Though they are called Civic/moral related topics, they easily relate to
the Sacred Scriptures (Bible and Qur’an). The lessons derived from these
topics are taught in the light of the Sacred Scriptures. This is done through
the selection and use of appropriate verses and extracts from the Sacred
Scriptures.
The following are steps used in teaching civic/moral related lessons using
Sacred Scriptures. Many techniques are used to teach the civic/moral
related lessons. These techniques include role-play, drama, stimulation,
games, group discussion, projects, education visit, investigation, inquiry.
These techniques help teachers to engage students in the critical thinking
in the topics of Religious Studies and marrying them with the personal andsocietal life.
5.1 Human experience/Inquiry
Learning activity
Recall a personal experience or an event that taught you a moral lesson
and share it with the class. Which importance does your personal
experience have with regard to teaching and learning a moral or a civics
lesson?
When teaching a moral or civic lesson, the life approach seems to be
the most suitable because it focuses on ordinary experiences of learners
which are studied through inquiry processes. This means that pupils are
actively engaged in exploration, reflection and expression, making learning
personalised and effective. At the end of the day, they discover new ideas
and draw the civic or moral lesson from the teaching and learning activities.
At this the first step of the lesson, teachers and learners discuss an event
or experience in the life of the learners that has a moral or civic connection.
The choice of a human experience depends on the age of the learners
and their environmental background. It can be in form of a story, song,
picture,an explanation drama, questions and discussion especially for upper
primary. The choice of a human experience to ponder on needs to consider
learners’background. Thus, learners from the rural background should be
given examples drawn from their local situations while learners from the
urban areas should be given examples drawn from urban life.
Given a short duration of time, this frist step is prolonged by the reading of
a biblical extract appropriately and relevantly chosen.
Example of a human experience drawn from a story used to teach about
“Relationships and friendships” in Unit3 in P6:
Dative and Yves were pupils in class six at Shyanda primary school in
Gisagara district. They came from the same village near the school. They
always walked back home together after classes. One day Yves revealed to
Dative that he loved her so much and wish her to be his girlfriend. Dative
at first was shy to respond to the demands of Yves but later they started to
relate as girlfriend and boyfriend. They began to meet secretly in hidden
places. They eventually fell into temptation of having sexual relationship.After three months, Dative, was found pregnant and dropped out of schools.
Application activity 5.1
In your respective groups formed at the beginning of the lesson, discuss
and write down a human experience that you can use in connection with
your topic of choice in teaching a moral or civic lesson.
5.2 Scripture, experience and explanation
Activity 5.2
In pairs, discuss about God’s commandments and find out which one
forbids sexual relations between unmarried people.
The second step allows the teacher to introduce a relevant Holy scripture
readings. In upper primary school, the teacher should allow the pupils whocan read to do so in class.
Where fluent learners are few, the teacher should train the pupils how to
read in advance before the lesson. For lower primary, where pupils havegrasped simple reading skills should be allowed to read short and simple
Bible texts. Where the reading skill is not developed, the teacher should
read short passages because of their short level of concentration.
The teacher may also tell the Bible story in an interesting way without
reading the Bible but he or she should indicate the references in the Bible.
Nevertheless, the teacher should bring the Bible to class to help the pupils
register that they are using the Word of God.
Example : Matthew 5:27-30 is a biblical experience (Jesus’ teaching about
adultery)that adequately enlights the human experience given in the first
step.
Explanation
It is the third step. The teacher may begin by asking the pupils few questions
to assess what they have understood from the Bible reading. Then the
teacher proceeds to explain the Bible text. In explanation, the teacher uses
a variety of learner centred methods, including asking questions and the
use of relevant teaching aids like a chart, poster, real objects and so forth.
In addition, the teacher should relate the Bible message to the human
experience used at the beginning of the lesson.
Example of explanation of Matthew 5:27-30 in connection with the human
experience:
First the teacher asks the learners what they have heard from the Bible
text read. Next the teacher explains about the biblical text as follows:
▪ Jesus warns against all forms of sexual immoralities. It is against the
sixth commandment of God. It is not only committed through deeds
but through words and thought. God is not happy with us when we
break this commandment. We make impure the temple of the Holy
Spirit our bodies and He cannot dwell in us unless we repent and ask
for forgiveness.
▪ The story given about Dative and Yves in the human experience, clearly
shows that they had a bad relationship that resulted to breaking God’s
sixth commandment and negative consequences in their lives specially
to Dative, who became pregnant at her tender age, thus affecting her
life and studies. It is important to practice values like respect for one
another, care, geniune love, self-control, assertiveness and strive torelate well with one another as young people.
Application activity 5.3
Identify a Biblical text that connects with the human experience and the
topic you have chosen, then write down an explanation.
5.3 Application and Response
Activity 5.3
Recall some learner centred methods that can be used to assess learners
in the teaching and learning process.
This step has two elements:
a. Application
Here the teacher helps the learners to relate the moral lessons learnt from
the topic. The teacher may help pupils to identify and emulate examples
of characters taught under the biblical experience. It can be done using
learner centred methods like asking oral questions in lower primary and
in upper primary group discussions and presentations,debates, think pair
and share, etc.
b. Response
This means allowing the pupils to respond to the message learnt. This is
a way of evaluating whether the lesson objectives were achieved or not.
The teacher is able to evaluate pupils’ responses by using learner centred
methods for example oral questions and discussions. The learners are also
helped to reflect, analyse and synthesise information as to apply it in their
lives. It should make them better people in their personal relationship with
God and others.
Example:
In this step the teacher may ask what the learners have learnt from the
human and biblical experiences. Some possible answers of learners would
be : to respect their bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit, to respect
others, to choose good friends, to be patient until they are married, to
avoid meeting friends in hidden corners, to obey the sixth commandment
of God etc. Then the taecher should challenge them more to internalize and
cultivate values that will enable them to grow morally like self control,true love for others, respect for themselves and others, patient and so forth.
5.4 Final activity and conclusion
This is the final step of the lesson. The teacher gives learning activities
to learners so as to assist them to express their responses practically. In
lower primary, pupils, can do activities such as filling in blank spaces,
memorising a verse, singing a relevant song, drawing pictures, modelling
and dramatising. In upper primary, some activities can be performed
in addition to group discussions, guided note taking, debates, copying,
illustrations or key points from posters,and carrying out service in the
classroom such as, cleaning the class or supporting a needy child. When
pupils do an activity and marks are awarded, the teacher should record
them in pupils` progress record book.
In our topic of discussion, the teacher can assign an activity to the learners in
groups, to design posters identifying the moral values in good relationships
and friendships. Then select the best to put at the religion corner.
Conclusion
This is the final stage of the moral lesson. The teacher summarizes the
main points of the lesson. The lesson summary should address itself to the
objectives of the lesson. The main points of the lesson should be emphasized.
Application Activity 5.3
In your respective groups, discuss the possible application and response
of your learners and the activity you would give them then write down
the main points of your lesson as a conclusion, in connection with thetopic you had chosen.
5.5 Example of moral/ civic lesson plan
End of unit assessment 5
Prepare a lesson plan which is civic/moral related using the syllabus
referring to the example of the lesson plan provided and the steps of thecivic and moral based lesson.
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