Scheme of Work
TP Placement Year: 2015
Dates: 5/1/15 – 6/2/15
Subject: Religious education,
Topic(s): The context of the life of Jesus, Evidence of Jesus Christ, Home life in
Palestine
Year/Class Group: 1
No. of Students: 30
No. of Weeks: 4
No. of Lessons: 12
Length of Lessons: 37 minutes
Students’ Prior knowledge and Ability:
Students will have gain the prior knowledge from either their own personal lives or their home
environment, for example
Students will have prior knowledge from previous chapters that they may have studied, for
example, students would have learned about the Bible in primary school. The students previously
studied section A (communities of faith), in this section they would have covered Judaism, as a
result of this they would already be familiar with some
In order to get the prior knowledge of the students I plan to use a number of strategies such as
brainstorming, mind mapping, group/pair discussion and questioning
Aims:

To explore the context into which Jesus was born

To identify the Gospels as the main source of knowledge about Jesus.

To examine the different names for Palestine and its location

To explore the country where Jesus was born
Objectives/Outcomes:

Describe the geography of Palestine, the country where Jesus lived

Demonstrate and understanding of the context into which Jesus of Nazerth was born.

List and describe the religious groups at the time of Jesus

Describe Jewish places of worship at the time of Jesus.

Explain and differentiate between documents of faith and documents of history.
Rationale for Selection and Structuring of Subject Matter
All these topics fall under section B of the Religious Education Syllabus, foundations of
Christianity. The rationale for picking these topics is that students will become familiar with the
religion of Christianity and its background and history.
Lesson 1: Jewish History
To begin the first lesson, I will have a quick fire round in order to prior knowledge of the
students on what they already know about Christianity. Distribute handouts to students outlining
the Jewish history asking each student to read out a separate heading. Students will have to draw
a timeline of the Jewish history. Students will have to have to imagine that they either had to
interview Abraham or Moses for their local newspaper and complete a newspaper report.
Lesson 2: The Holy Land
Recap on previous lesson. I will display a map of Europe on whiteboard so that students can
identify the location of Palestine/Israel in Europe. Each student will draw and label the map of
The Holy Land, whiles identifying the key events in the life of Jesus on the map. I will also
display two posters on the whiteboard, one poster will contain picture of Palestine at the time of
Jesus, whiles the other poster will display picture Palestine as it is today. I will pose questions to
students, whiles creating a whole class discussion. The students in pairs will design a pilgrim
guide to the Holy land and present their idea to class. The students will complete a work sheet
based on the holy land as a form of a learning assessment.
Lesson 3: The religious groups
Recap on previous lesson. I will begin the lesson by playing an audio which describes and
differentiates the different religious groups at the time of Jesus, during the audio each student
will be taking notes. In groups students will have to create a role play based on the different
religious groups.Each student will exchange their answers with their partners and presents their
findings to the class. The students will complete a work sheet based on the different religious
groups as a form of a learning assessment.
Lesson 4: Homelife in Palestine
Recap on previous lesson. The students will draw and label a village house I will ask students in
pairs to compare the home life of people in this country today with the home life of people in
Palestine at the time of Jesus. What are the similarities and differences? I will facilitate a whole
class discussion based on the home life in Palestine. I plan to teach this topic through PowerPoint
presentation.
Lesson 5: Jewish places of worship
Recap on previous lesson. I will facilitate brainstorm on the whiteboard (icebreaker) to get the
prior knowledge of students, then I will link the prior knowledge to the topic. I will bring in a
poster of both the Jewish temple and synagogue in the form of a collage. This will give the
students a picture of all the different elements and parts of the temple and synagogue and its
interior. The students must then in groups make their own collage. Pose questions to students. I
will distribute worksheet to students which they complete in pairs (peer teaching).
Lesson 6: The New Testament
Recap on previous lesson. I will give the students a brief introduction to the four evangelists as
we will be exploring them in more detail in the next class. I will facilitate a whole class
discussion on the meaning of the Gospel and also the role of the evangelists.
Lesson 7: The Evangelists
Recap on previous lesson. Each student will be given a sheet of poster paper where they will
have to design a poster which best represents the symbol of each of the four evangelists. Students
present posters to class.
Lesson 8: Three stages of Gospel Formation
Recap on previous lesson. Each student will have to complete the activity of storytelling. This
activity involves each student thinking about an event that happened in their own lives recently
(either something exciting, embarrassing, funny, nice or annoying). The second part of this
activity is that they now must tell their partner (they must say when it happened, where it
happened and what happened). The final stage of this activity is that the student’s partners must
write down their story. I will then ask for feedback. Distribute handout to students outlining the
three stages of Gospel formation. I will pose questions to the student and get them to fill out a
work sheet as part of a learning assessment.
Lesson 9 Synoptic Gospels
Recap on previous lesson. Students in pairs will compare the parable of the Mustard seed which
appear in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke. In doing this task, students will have to
underline all the words the stories have in common and also answer the following questions:
what do they notice about the three stories now? Why do they think the stories are so alike?
Lesson 10 : Kingdom Of God in Parable
Recap on previous lesson. Facilitate brainstorm, allow students to create own definition from
words on the board. Student will have to in pairs complete the activity of helping the minion
become a Good Samaritan. In groups (5-6), students will have to create and develop their own
role play/play script based on the story of the Good Samaritan and pick a few groups to present
their script to the class.
Lesson 11: Kingdom of God in Miracle
Recap on previous lesson. I will facilitate a brainstorm surrounding the word miracle, following
on from the brainstorm students in pairs will create their own definition for a miracle. I will give
provide a definition; the students will compare their own definition with the one that I present
them with. Class discussion on the miracles performed by Jesus Christ. Inform students that
there will be an in class test on everything we have covered to date in lesson 12.
Lesson 12
In class test, this will be used as a learning assessment.
Organisation of Learning Experiences:
Lesson 1

Brainstorming

Activity – “Fill in the blanks”

Class discussion
Lesson 2

Brainstorming

Students present posters to class

Pair work

Class discussion
Lesson 3

Brainstorming

Pair work

Class discussion
Lesson 4

Brainstorm

Pair work

Class discussion

Poster
Lesson 5

Handout

Work sheet

Pair work

Questioning
Lesson 6

Handout

Work sheet ]

Pair work

Questioning
Lesson 7

Handout

Work sheet ]

Pair work

Questioning
Lesson 8

Handout

Work sheet

Pair work

Questioning
Lesson 9

Handout

Work sheet

Pair work

Questioning
Lesson 10

Handout

Work sheet

Pair work

Questioning
Lesson 11

Handout

Work sheet

Pair work

Questioning
Resources:

Worksheets

Handouts

Textbook – Religion for living by Connie Duffy

Textbook – Question of faith by Lori Whelan and Niamh McDermott

Poster Paper

Map of Europe

Speakers

Laptop

Youtube.ie

Scoilnet.ie

Skoool.ie

Whiteboard

Whiteboard Markers

USB stick

Posters
Design of Assessment Procedures:
In order to assess student understanding, I intend to administer two 20 minute classroom tests
during school placement. This will benefit both students and teacher as student understanding
and teacher ability will be assessed. By using methods such as group work, class discussion,
brainstorming and presentations, students are developing conversational and cognitive skills.
These methods also result in peer learning. Students will also grow in confidence by sharing their
opinions and thoughts with the class. I will also use methods such as teacher observation,
classroom scanning, questioning (both higher and lower order in order to cater for both learning
abilities).
Structure of Self-Appraisal:
After every lesson the student must fill in the Self-evaluation portion of the lesson plan. At the
end of every week the student must write a reflection consisting of 500-600 words. These
reflections will be based on the experience the student get from teaching practice, lesson
observations and any readings the student has done around the major teaching issues the student
recognizes during placement. At the end of placement the student is required to write one final
reflection, 700-800 words, referencing the learning the student has gained as a result of teaching
practice. Students must observe 12 classes on their first week and from these observations the
student writes 6 observations, 250-300 words in length. In weeks 2-5 students observe 6 classes
and write 6 observations. The student will discuss various topics in these observations. The
student must make all reflections and observations available in the teaching practice folder in
order for their supervisor to see them.