Exploring Modern Religion

Sample scope & sequence

"Nature of Belief" Social Studies Unit

This is an example of a full middle school curriculum shared by a Bank Street teacher. The course focuses on living world religions in today's world cultures. Students investigate places of worship, prayer and ritual, creation stories and views of the afterlife, rites of passage, sacred texts and morality. The unit includes focused studies of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

"Religions in My Neighborhood"

This resource has been purchased by the Stevens Cooperative School and is available to teachers. "Religions in My Neighborhood" helps teachers instruct students about the reality of different religions and religious beliefs, that religious differences are normal, and how to be respectfully curious.

elementary lessons: What are similarities and differences that students can explore in religious/cultural celebrations and traditions?

Tannenbaum.org hosts downloadable lesson plans, including a "Spring Colors" lesson about five holidays (Holi, Easter, Fassika, Sham El Nessim, and Earth Day) and "Rituals and Traditions About Light: Hopefulness and Waiting". The "Garden of Beliefs" lesson helps students recognize the wide range of beliefs that they may notice within their classroom and their communities.

Looking at Lights: Promoting Respect Among Young Children For Various Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions. Both family and school versions are provided. The lesson guides a young children in an exploration into the ways people use lights in the holidays of Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Santa Lucia Day, Diwali, Halloween and celebrations such as birthdays.

Sacred Feasts: Studying Lived Religion through Food provides structure for a conversation with students about traditional feasting holidays (Thanksgiving, Passover, and Eid al-Fitr) and is open to adapt to the students' experiences.

A World Holiday Traditions website shows how Christmas is celebrated in different cultures around the world with traditions, recipes, and some music.

Grade 4 and up: resources to teach about religion

• The Pluralism Project from Harvard University - Every religious tradition has grown through the ages in dialogue and historical interaction with others. Christians, Jews, and Muslims have been part of one another’s histories, have shared not only villages and cities, but ideas of God and divine revelation. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, and Sikhs have shared a common cultural milieu in India, while in East Asia the Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian traditions are not only part of common cultures, but are also part of the complex religious inheritance of families and individuals whose lives are shaped by all three religions.
• Resources for Teachers on the Religious Worlds Institute Web site
• Library of Congress: American Memory
• Introducing Religions Podcast & http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/introducing-religions
• MAVCOR: Center for the Study of Material & Visual Cultures of Religion: MAVCOR Journal is an open access born-digital, double blind peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting conversation about material and visual cultures of religion.
• Patheos: Find accurate, balanced information on the world's religions in our extensive library; view religious history and facts through unique interactive tools that allow visitors to compare, contrast, and explore religions and belief systems in new and innovative ways; read commentary on current events from a wide range of viewpoints; and get a glimpse into the beliefs and traditions of other faith groups in a safe and welcoming environment.
• The Religious Studies Project: The Religious Studies Project (RSP) is an international collaborative enterprise producing weekly podcasts with leading scholars on the social-scientific study of religion.
• Virtual Religion Index: This Virtual Religion Index is a tool for students with little time. It analyzes & highlights important content of religion-related websites to speed research.
• Wabash Center's Links on Religion & Theology: “Websites on Religion” is a selective, annotated collection of web resources for the study of religion. Websites, syllabi, texts, journals, bibliographies, liturgies, reference resources, and software.

Mapping America: Every City, Every Block

NYTime's interactive map allows you to browse local data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, based on samples from 2005 to 2009. Because these figures are based on samples, they are subject to a margin of error, particularly in places with a low population, and are best regarded as estimates.

resources about modern religion and current events

• Journey Through NYC Religions - street level reporting of religion in NYC life - http://www.nycreligion.info/videos/documentaries/
• On Being: On Being is a Peabody Award-winning public radio conversation and podcast, a Webby Award-winning website and online exploration, a publisher and public event convener. On Being opens up the animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live? We explore these questions in their richness and complexity in 21st-century lives and endeavors. We pursue wisdom and moral imagination as much as knowledge; we esteem nuance and poetry as much as fact.
• Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly: Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly delivers one-of-a-kind news coverage from around the nation and the world.Since its debut in 1997, Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly has set itself apart from the mainstream media by providing distinctive, cutting-edge news coverage and analysis of national and international events in the ever-changing religious world. Hosted by veteran journalist Bob Abernethy and produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, the acclaimed one-of-a-kind TV show examines religion’s role — and the ethical dimensions — behind top news headlines.
• Religion Dispatches: Religion Dispatches is your independent, non-profit, award-winning source for the best writing on critical and timely issues at the intersection of religion, politics, and culture.
• Religion News Service: Religion News Service (RNS) is an independent, nonprofit and award-winning source of global news on religion, spirituality, culture and ethics, reported by a staff of professional journalists.
• Religion Watch: Religion Watch looks beyond the walls of churches, synagogues and denominational officialdom to examine how religion really affects, and is affected by, the wider society. For this reason, this resource has been praised by professors, researchers, church leaders, journalists and interested lay people as a unique tool for keeping track of contemporary religion.