The Agreed Syllabus framework for consideration of the use of artefacts and pictures is: a.
Programme of Study: Key Element 5 Sources of Religious Knowledge and
Understanding; b.
Programme of Study: Key Element 7 Enquiry and Communication; c.
The Process of Religious Education Skills.
This section of the guidance material is intended to offer some suggestions about how these sources might be used in the classroom to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of religions, to provide opportunities for their spiritual development through reflection, and foster their skills in enquiry and communication.
There are essentially three kinds of pictures which may be used in RE lessons. These are:
● Photographs of people engaged in religious activities
● Photographs of religious artefacts, buildings and places
● Imaginative representations of aspects of religious experience and people important in the religious traditions
The last kind of picture will not be available for all religions. Islam prohibits the artistic representation of divine, human or animal forms and its figurative art is rather more difficult for children to understand and interpret. Sikh pictures will mainly be portraits of the Gurus and scenes from their lives. There are Jewish representations of figures from the Hebrew
Bible, but they are difficult to find. Hinduism and Christianity are the two faiths most wedded to the representational arts with Christian art being the easiest to obtain for use in schools.
There are stages in developing pupils’ skills in using pictures. They need to be taught to observe – to read the picture effectively and to describe what they see – to understand, interpret compare, analyse and explain. Broadly we are concerned with the questions:
● What can you see in the picture?
● What does the picture show? What is happening?

● Are there any symbols?
● Who produced the image?
● What is the artist/photographer trying to tell us?
● What was the purpose in producing the picture?
● What is/was the intended audience?
● Is the picture reliable?
● What does it make you feel?
The questions which we would ask are very similar to those which would be used in looking at art or photographs in history. The differences are in the content of the pictures and in the kinds of interpretation which the pupil should produce. A picture will seek to tell a religious story (even a photograph of, say, a Jewish family at a meal is telling a story) or convey a religious idea.
The basic activity for using pictures in the classroom does not break down the skills into separate tasks as do the suggestions which follow below. Usually pupils will be involved in
paired, group or class activities which draw upon a range of skills and develop knowledge, understanding and skills at the same time. Most characteristics of these tasks – and often the most suitable for using pictures – is the small group discussions of a picture aided by key questions, perhaps on cue cards. The pattern of such a lesson might be: a.
Give each group (5 pupils max) a large picture or several copies of a small one e.g. a postcard each. b.
One pupil acts as group leader to ask the questions (set up beforehand by the teacher on a single sheet or cue cards). The pupil is briefed to ask appropriately:
“what makes you think that?”. c.
Another pupil may act as recorder to note down any special words which are used in the discussion about the picture. d.
The questions direct the pupils to observe the picture in detail e.g. what do you
notice about this picture? Are there any details which you find interesting?

e.
Further questions then ask the pupils to make deductions and interpretations from the picture: e.g. what can we tell from the picture? (or, more specifically, what can
we tell about … from the picture?). Who do you think the people are? What story is the picture trying to tell? What do the people feel? What does the picture
make you feel? Do you like the picture? etc. f.
There are many possible endings to the activity: the pupils might write the story individually or as a group; the whole class might develop a story with teacher as recorder; the pupils might consider what might happen next; the picture might be put onto a wall display with a list of the words which the group used about it attached and these could be expanded by contributions from other pupils. The possibilities are numerous, but there should be some recording of what has been learned however brief.
This kind of lesson is likely to be the most often repeated – albeit in different forms with different ages of children. For instance, with infants the group leader might frequently be the teacher or a classroom helper, but the pattern of the lesson works equally well. However, teachers will also have to develop particular skills of using pictures. The activities below are ideas for doing this.
1.
Tell me as many things as you can about this picture. This may be followed up with questions about the detail of the picture – How many children can you see? What is the man with the beard doing? Are there any women in the picture?
2.
Take an artist’s representation (though the same would work with photographs) and tell the children to look at it very carefully for 2 minutes. Take the picture away.
Tell the children to divide a sheet of paper into4 quarters and ask them to mark details of the picture which you call out in the right quarter.
3.
Show a sequence of pictures (easiest with slides) and tell the children there is a secret element. All that you are going to tell them is whether the picture has this element or not. If it has you say YES, if not you say NO. Examples might be colour/black and white; symbol; scene from the Bible; Christian place of worship/place of worship of other religions; women in the picture/no women. The object is simply to help them to look closely.
4.
give the pupils copies of symbols of different religions. Ask them to identify the picture in which it appears. This is a very easy task, but again it is intended to make the pupils look closely at the pictures.
5.
Pupils in turn describe a picture to their class or group without using names and the rest have to guess what religion the picture relates to.

1.
Set the pupils the task in pairs of asking as many questions as they can about a picture. when they have produced their lists of questions, let each pair ask you as teacher one of the questions. Record these questions and answer those which you can, note those which you cannot answer. Don’t hesitate to say that you do not know some answers.
Ask the pupils to identify the questions which can be answered from the picture itself and those which require other information.
Depending on the age and experience of the pupils, begin to teach them a strategy for asking questions of pictures – see list above.
2.
Pupils look at pictures impairs: one asks the questions, the other tries to answer them.
1.
Pupils discuss a picture in groups. One records the words used to describe the picture. In class discussions key words and phrases used by the pupils are picked out for consideration by all.
2.
Give pupils a set of words and ask them to decide which are relevant to the picture they are looking at and which are not.
1.
Ask the pupils to describe what they can see in the picture.
2.
When they have done that, ask them what is happening in the picture.
3.
Get them to write a narrative – a story, a conversation, etc., about what is happening in the picture. This may be a group, class, or individual story and, with children who have difficulty in writing, it could be written by the teacher from what the children say.
1.
Start with observation and description.
2.
What does the picture tell us? (This may be broken down into steps where necessary – what does the picture tell us about …. and about ….?)

3.
What can we learn from the picture about … (e.g. what the artist thought of angels or about the people who go to Hell (!), or about the Crucifixion).
4.
What is the artist/photographer trying to tell us? What makes you think that?
5.
How has the artist tried to represent the idea of … e.g. sanctity, humility, purity, charity, faith, truth, obedience?
6.
How have biblical statements and teachings been translated into artistic form and what interpretation is involved – e.g. “I am the light of the world”; “I am the Good
Shepherd”; …?
7.
How have events in the bible been interpreted? e.gs. different representations of the Crucifixion, of Christ (compare W. European representatives with Greek
Orthodox - ? use of the statue of Zeus as a model – and with non-European representations), episodes in the life of Christ ….
8.
Are there any symbols in the picture? What do they mean?
1.
Pictures from different faiths: classify them.
2.
How does a group of pictures help us to understand the beliefs/practices of a faith?
1.
Pictures (and three dimensional art) in places of worship. What purposes do they serve? e.g. aid to prayer, focus, memorial. Ikons in Greek and Russian Orthodox churches.
2.
Art as instruction: e.g. what does a stained glass window in a church try to teach people who are looking at it? What story does it tell? Where else could people encounter the story? How effective is the stained glass in conveying the message.
3.
Art representing moral behaviour and the consequences of good/bad behaviour e.g.
Bosch, the Garden of Delights (well, perhaps not for younger pupils!); tympanum of
Bamberg Cathedral.
4.
Art and religious symbolism e.g. Jan van Eyck, The Adoration of the Lamb.
5.
Art as an individual expression of religious experience, devotion, belief.

1.
Provide pupils with the opportunity to reflect upon, to consider the meaning and relevance of a picture to themselves or to people today.
2.
Consider the questions of meaning and purpose which are raised by a picture.
1.
What religion is this person associated with?
2.
Who is it? What is (s)he doing? Why is (s)he doing it?
3.
Why is (s)he represented by the artist?
4.
What can we tell about the person from the picture? What makes you say that?
5.
Would you like to know this person?
6.
Where might we find out more about the person?
1.
Straightforward strategy of using an artefact and putting it in its context with a picture.
2.
Pictures used to illustrate a story or to tell a story together – e.g. scenes from the life of the Buddha which the pupils have to sequence.
3.
Grouping pictures and artefacts to give a general understanding of a faith or an aspect of a faith.
4.
Using pictures with music and words to represent the nature of the religious experience.

1.
There are many approaches to using this picture in the classroom and methodology will clearly vary according to the age, abilities and experience of the children.
Whatever the age, the picture ought to be mounted so that the pupils cannot simply read the information on the back of the postcard. The standard lesson above will work as well with this picture as with any other. The key is to identify the most useful questions for the groups of pupils to consider (the word question is used loosely here as some of the ideas for cue cards are not strictly questions).
These might include:

Each give one word to describe what you see. [or List as many things as you can see in the picture].
Who is the person in the picture? What makes you think that?
What is he doing?
You will notice that the eyes look at you wherever you move your head.
Why do you think the artist painted it like that?
What do you think will happen next?
2.
Another lesson might concentrate on the symbolism in the picture. This will clearly demand that pupils have learned something beforehand about symbolism in general and symbolism in art in particular. Holman Hunt’s Light of the World is not an easy starter for symbolism, but it might well follow on from work on light as a symbol in religion (eg Diwali; Hannukah; candles in Christian churches; the Easter service of light; Creation – Genesis 1).
How many symbols can you find in the picture?
Can you suggest what these symbols mean?
[NB some of the symbols should be straightforward – the crown of thorns, the halo, marks of nails in the palms]
Jesus is knocking on a door. What do you think this might mean?
What do you notice about the door on which Jesus is knocking? What might this mean?
[If you haven’t spotted it – the door has no handle]
Why is Jesus carrying a lantern?
[“Because it is dark!” Yes, but what do light and dark symbolise?]
3.
Can you think of a title/caption for the picture?
Another approach with older pupils might be to ask them to identify what they consider to be the most important things in the picture to be. Answers are likely to include: Jesus, light or lantern, knocking on the door. There will be other selections which should be accepted and considered. If a Bible Concordance is available pupils might then look up passages which relate to the picture. If not the following might be suggested for them to read:
Luke 12:35-40 (Being ready for the master’s return: this links with the idea of living a good life and being prepared for death) cf. Matthew 25:1-
13.

Matthew 7:7-11; Luke 11:9-13 (links the picture with the idea of Christ giving an example to people – prayer, confidence, etc).
Revelation 3:20 (Response to the call of Christ, to his knocking on the door).
John 8:12 (“I am the light of the world…” Idea of salvation) cf. John
12;36.
There are numerous other references to light which could be used but the fourth in this group is the one most directly relevant to the picture. Pupils could then be asked to: select the passage which they think is most useful in explaining the meaning of the picture; read all and then write a review of the picture for an art gallery catalogue to help casual visitors to understand it; write an imaginative account of the reactions of a person living behind the door when the knocking is hear.
There is a book in Religious Artefacts in the Classroom, Paul Gateshill and Jan Thompson
(pub. Hodder and Stoughton) with a variety of ideas for using artefacts in RE lessons. It is not the purpose here to reproduce all of the ideas and information in that book, but rather to identify some of the possible approaches. As with pictures, many of the techniques for using artefacts will be familiar to primary teachers through their work in history.
Teachers should always remember that religious artefacts have a special significance for believers and should always be treated with appropriate respect with the children. Some, such as copies of the Qur’an, should not be used in the activities described below.
There are also particular ideas and vocabulary which need exploration with some artefacts – concepts of veneration, reverence, devotion, aids to worship not objects of worship, icon and iconography, idol and idolatry, memorial, image.
Beyond this there is the technical language of the faiths from which the artefacts emanate: cross and crucifix, pyx, mezuzah, subha, chauri, etc.

The basic questions about artefacts are:
● What is it?
● What is it for? How is it used?
● Who would use it?
● When is it used?
● What does it mean to believers?
In the classroom these questions have to be approached in a variety of ways. Identification of an artefact can simply derive from knowledge and experience or from finding a picture of the artefact with a caption and description of its use. However, this limits the value ofusing artefacts in the classroom. The pupil should be encouraged to observe, describe, deduce, interpret, compare, explain and contextulise.

1.
Feely bags. May be used in different ways, but they are consistent in creating a sense of mystery and a puzzle to be solved. This encourages what is described in
The Gift to the Child teacher’s resource as engagement – the arousing of the child’s interest and curiosity – and involves controlled disclosure. But it teaches effective observation of characteristics of an object which might be missed when sight is the dominant sense. a.
Put single object into the bag and children explore the artefact by touch and describe it. b.
Put a variety of small artefacts into a bag. Each child in a group selects one object to feel and describe to the others who have either to guess what it is or to draw it. When the description is completed, the object is removed from the bag and the bag is passed onto the next pupil.
These activities encourage consideration of the physical features and qualities of the object, such as the texture, weight, materials, shape, function, condition.
2.
Pupils have an artefact in a group. Cue cards are used with key questions to encourage their observation and investigation of the object. One acts as recorder while another reads the questions and prompts further comment (e.g. by using the question as appropriate “what makes you say that?”.
Here other qualities may be added such as colour, smell, appearance will be added to those above the pupils will be able to examine and comment on ornamentation, pattern, brightness, transparency etc. They will also be able to identify particular
clues such as words or pictures on the object.
3.
Pupils sit back to back. One has an artefact which has to be described to the other who draws it from the description. Names of the artefact should not be used.
4.
The teacher or one pupil has a hidden artefact and the rest of the class or group have to identify what it is by asking questions which may only be answered with Yes or No. The purpose of this activity is to encourage the pupils to learn to classify and make use of that skill to organise their thinking about religion. Questioning at first is likely to be random – is it a chalice? is it a prayer mat? The objective is to get the pupils to ask questions such as: is it a Christian artefact? is it used in church? do we find these objects in the home as well as church? is it made of metal/wood/wax? Etc.
In these activities close attention should be paid to the range of language used to describe the objects.

1.
a. What questions would you like to ask about this object? b. What can we tell from the object? What can we guess? c. What does the object tell us about the people who use it? d. What would you like to k now about it?
2.
Check on deductions made about the object: find evidence – descriptions, pictures, information from pupils who belong to the faith tradition, etc.
1.
A development from the previous activity will add question cards on the function of the artefact:
What is it used for?
Who uses it?
When is it used?
2.
A collection of artefacts from different faiths: pupils classify the artefacts by faith. Some artefacts of a similar kind e.g. rosary beads, subha (Muslim prayer beads) and Mala (Sikh prayer beads). Explanation of use.
3.
Contextualisation – link with photographs/pictures, but best of all the objects could be seen in the place of worship or in the home. Videos of the artefacts in use will also help.
4.
Exchange – groups of pupils have three artefacts each. They discuss them and identify the religion to which they belong. Each group passes one artefact on to another group – further discussion until one group has a group belonging wholly to one religion. If there are insufficient artefacts, pictures of artefacts may be added.
5.
Matching exercise: these are straightforward activities which are intended to help with developing pupils’ ability to locate aspects of a faith correctly together.
Pupils can be given the task of linking an artefact with, say, one of 5 pictures of places of worship or with the name of a particular faith e.g.

Match the artefacts which you have been given with the faith to which it belongs. Write your results in the table below:
Artefacts (Pupil write name of artefact into the box)
Religions
There are many variations on this activity. For example artefacts may be linked with pictures of other features of a faith or with each other where they both are linked within a service (such as chalice and patten) or with specific prayers. Some of the possibilities are as follows:
e.g. artefact matched with place of worship artefact with a prayer artefact with sound (hymn, call to prayer, etc) artefact with a sacred text or extract artefact with a symbol
or a combination of these.
6.
Hindu artefacts demand that they be set in context with a story as they frequently make specific reference to a story. For example a statuette of Ganesh could be used with the story of how Ganesh came to have the head of an elephant.
In all cases, artefacts should be employed as a way into the beliefs and practices of the religions to which they are related and pupils should be encouraged to understand the special meanings which they have for believers.
It is difficult to illustrate this as the questioning and activities have to be related specifically to the artefact. They might include questions for group discussion and investigation e.gs. when is the chauri used? why do Sikhs use it? what does this tell us of the respect in which they hold the Guru Granth Sahib? how else do they show this respect for their scriptures? what is this (Pyx)? what would it contain? what do Roman Catholics believe about this? why do they not use wine as well? why would a sick person wish a priest or minister to visit with this? what might it make them feel?
Opportunities should also be sought to encourage reflection on the artefact, its meaning and its use. Does it raise questions about the search for meaning and purpose?