What Have I Received From

Status: Moderated

Grade Level:  5, 6, 7 (Middle School; may be modified for younger grades)

Objective:

The students will learn about how what they have received is much more than what they think at the beginning.

Materials:

• Hat for selecting options from

• Paper with Options written. 

• Art materials (markers, paper, crayons, etc.)

Preparation:

• Prepare the Hat Options and place in a hat. (It is possible to create a spreadsheet to do this). The options are: "teacher", "friend", "coach", "pet". Other possible ones are "parent", "police", "fire department", "farmer".

• Prepare art materials for the visuals

Procedure:

1. Opening Gassho

2. Introduction

   1. If desired, introduce Naikan Questions: 1) "What have I received from...?" 2) "What have I given to....?" 3) "What difficulties have I caused to....?"

   2. Have a student choose an Option from a hat (Option is one of: "teacher", "friend", "coach", "pet")

   3. Conduct a group discussion about the answer to the question that is made by adding the Option chosen from the hat to the phrase "What have I received from...".

      1. Record all ideas. You might need a scribe.

   4. Conduct a group discussion about how to visually represent their ideas.

      1. Some ideas include: class mural, collage, etc.

   5. Create visual representation of "What I have received rom"

   6. Introduce "What I have given to..."  and draw an Option from the hat. 

   7. Create another visual representation of this topic.

   8. Conclusion

      1. Compare the two visuals

      2. Talk about what they can conclude

      3. Talk about Gratitude in Jodo Shinshu

Notes:

To simplify for younger grades, teachers can have a selection of magazines where the students can cut out photos to make a collage. Probably not possible to have a discussion about the type of visualization for younger grades.

This is a link to the Random selector (to replace the Hat): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15AIpsrUDUUuxMryU-IDY08nDc-EktrFftQlTB3XXa_I/edit?usp=sharing

Author:

• • By: David Chi (chindavids.at.gmail.com)