Class Notes 9/27

vocabulary:
yawmuddin: (judgement day) what we are to hope for, how we have followed the Qu'ran, something to look forward to if we have been good
ihram- idea of being pure/ purification, changing mental state
umra- before Hajj, lesser pilgrimage, 7 times around Ka'ba, drink from well of Zam Zam

1. Prayer = Molly and Celine

2. Quiz  #2 on vocabulary: 3 words and then a connection between all  of them\
- Qu'ran
- tawhid
- shahada
- connection?

3.  Hajj Readings:
- theme today= Hajj
- handouts written by John L. Eposito on the hajj to read
- handouts of WS to fill in while following reading on 'mosque' and 'hajj', included in packet

4.  BBC in pictures --> hajj
- Mecca in Saudi Arabia

5.  Video from National Geografic "Inside Mecca"

Class Notes 9/23

1. Quiz on Vocabulary

• Allah
• Ka'ba
• Muhammad
• and connections

2. "My First Ramadan"

• Ramadan traditions

3. Opening Question:

• What is Ramadan?

4. Mrs. Erb

• Service Requirements

5. Powerpoint on 5 Pillars of Islam

• Shahada
• Salat
• Zakat
• Ramadan
• Hajj

6. Pictures

• ritual washing
• prayer movements

Class Notes 9/20

1.) Prayer
2.) Opening?
- Video: interview of muslim boy: his beliefs and what it means to him to be Muslim

Question- "What is a prophet?"
- class answers= a disciple of God who translates his Word and will, a messanger of God, mouthpiece, to help improve human behavior on earth

3.) Powerpoint of Prophet Muhammad
(from Islam: The Straight Path, A Brief History)
- historical background of Muhammad
-- Video on Muhammad

4.) 5 Pillars- Worksheet
- graph and questions on the five pillars of islam: shahada, salat, akat, sawm, hajj
- used laptops for research

HOMEWORK:
- circumlecctio check #2
- QUIZ #1 next class
 (quiz= any 3 vocabulary words out of the total 40)

Class Notes 9/16

1. Today we started the unit on Islam. We were to list as many things as we could that we knew about Islam as a religion.
2. YouTube video- A police officer informing his fellow police officers of the customs and sacred traditions of Islam and how they are to respect the religion.
3. We discussed the types of dress Muslims wear and the major points associated with Islam.
4. On the Powerpoint- As a class we discussed terms Allah, Qus'an, Hadith, Ka'bah, the Trip to Mecca and the Tawhid. (refer to vocab section)
5. We got our RAFTs back at the end of class.
6. We closed with a prayer keeping in mind the acceptance of other religions and beliefs beside our own.

For homework we were to read Ch. 1 and take brief notes answering the questions:

• Who is God/ Who am I?
• Where am I going?
• How do I get there?

Class notes 9/14

1. Opening Prayer-Prayer for all 9/11 victims
2. PowerPoint- approaching the worlds religions obstacles and challenge
These are the obstacles and challenges with examples from the PowerPoint

• Out of hand dismissal (mocking foreigness or complexity, refusal to learn, and Clinging to stereotypes)
• Museum shelf (Perspective: distant, ideal, no relevance to contemporary, daily life, and impersonal)
• Premature Assimilation(Too much of a good thing, immediate connection, appropriation and Glossing over complexities and distinctions)
• Idealization(Medical School analogy)

What we need to overcome these:

• Respect for differences and complexities
• Maturity not to make inappropriate comments
• Awareness that there's lots of different people in the world
• Intelligence to learn

3. PowerPoint work, we continued to do research on the Middle east geography, and modern and ancient religions. We are coming along with our research at a good rate and we almost have enough to start putting together our presentation.
4. Closing prayer- Silent group meditation for 2-3 minutes to reflect upon ourselves

Class Notes 9/10

We worked on our individual IIP's. Our region is the Middle East and we decided to focus on three major religions in that region: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We evenly distributed the religions so that each of us would research the background of each major religion and then the next class we would correspond them into one powerpoint.  we later found we did it all wrong.

Class Notes 9/8

Our class opener was "How family history has affected you religiously?" People had different answers that included their ancestral line and how that has affected their families current spirituality.

Prayer was done by Mia and it was a prayer for the victims and families affected by 9/11. We also watched a powerpoint by Dr. Wang about the purpose and how to study religion. It also explained the important themes of religion.

We also did a gallery walk where we answered the 5 major questions of Catholicism:

1. What's the human condition?
2. Who is God?
3. How did I get here?
4. Where are we going? (Positive and negative)
5. How do we get there & how should I live my life?
6. Whose considered spiritually perfect?

Some answers to these questions include:

1. Humans have free will, original sin, and are created in the likeness of God.
2. God is the creator, father, powerful, and loving
3. Mom & Dad, Adam & Eve, the stork, family experiences.
4. Positive: heaven, eternal life and happiness with God. Negative: Hell and eternal damnation, life without knowing God
5. The Golden Rule, living as Jesus' disciples, and following the 10 commandments.
6. Jesus, God, and Mary

Class Notes 9/2

We worked on our RAFT's today. We were meant to synthesize what we had learned up to that point, incorporating the introduction of our textbook, Dunne's article, and Eliade's article. After we were finished, if we had finished we could begin working on our IIP's. Our region is the middle east.

Class Notes 8/31

1. Prayer: Student Our Father in Spanish
2. Opening- Question? "Tourist vs. Pilgrim"
- individually brainstormed the differences between tourists and pilgrims
- collaborated our answers and drew pictures of how we each wanted to represent the definition
3. Groups- Drawings of Pilgrims and Tourists
4. Discussion on Dunne Article
- discussed main topics and worked over hard definitions

HW: Circumlectio #1
1. Set Up
2. Intro Vocab
3. 8/25
4. 8/27
5. 8/31
Bring in items for the food drive