How and Why Do People Pray?

Transcription

1 How and Why Do People Pray? (8-12 years) People of Faith: insights from inside the religion and belief traditions Subject Knowledge and links to further information Prezi: The Muslim Prayer Words, Body and Spirit Questions for pupils and questions pupils ask Focus for Learning & Assessment: pedagogies and areas of enquiry Learning Activities: supporting pupils progress RE:ONLINE

2 RE:ONLINE Banquet How and Why Do People Pray? (8-12 years) Subject Knowledge Here is some key vocabulary to help you prepare for using this resource: communication: the exchange and sharing of information, ideas and feelings through different means such as speaking, writing and reading non-verbal communication: communicating without words body language: the deliberate, conscious or unconscious use of the body in conveying meaning to others through gestures, postures and actions interpretation: the act of understanding and explaining that understanding to others symbolic: a thing which represents something else orans: a latin word depicting a prayer position that involves standing and holding the arms aloft to the sky sin: an act which contravenes divine law or an act or disposition considered regretful or offensive Orthodox Church: An early established yet extant Christian church and community located mainly in Southeastern and Eastern Europe as well as Egypt and Syria Roman Catholic Church: Anglican: Protestant: Masjid: the Arabic word for Mosque Minaret: the tower attached to the Mosque used fr the purpose of calling people to the prayer : the adhan Adhan : the call to prayer salah: the name of the muslim prayer performed five times a day Wudhu: the ritual abulution before the prayer Rak ah: one cycle of movement within the prayer. Different prayer times have a different number of cycles Qiblah: the direction of Mecca to which a Muslim faces during the salah takbir: the formulaic saying of Allahu Akbar God is greater than all else and the positional movement of putting the hands up to the shoulders or ears whilst saying the words denoting entering into the prayer qiyyam: the first position - standing position Surah: one of the chapters of the Quran. The shorter surahs are usually used in the prayer though individual verses (Ayat) from the Quran from either the larger chapters or the shorter ones can be used. Ayat: a verse of the Quran RE:ONLINE

3 Surah al Fatihah: the opening chapter of the Qur an and the one that is the first to be recited in each cycle of the prayer (rakat) followed by Verses (Ayat) or Surahs (Chapters) that the individual chooses themselves rukhu: the position in salah (prayer) where the individual bows at the waist with the hands on the knees sujud or sajdah: prostration position in the salah (prayer) taslim: the final position of the salah, sitting position turning the head to the right and left in greeting. du a: a different type of prayer than the salah, a prayer of personal supplication where the hands are raised together to chest height with palms turned upwards whilst praying for oneself or others. Some of these terms are also key concepts. Here is some further background to some of these to help you prepare for the teaching and learning activities: body language (in prayer) the use of the body to communicate through symbolic physical movements or positions whilst in prayer; non verbal communication (in prayer) this refers to aspects of the prayer generally that focuses that involve the body to the exclusion of verbal aspects; salah (muslim prayer) consisting of takbir, qiyyam, rukhu, sajdah and taslim; which are the names of the different positions in the prayer, each having their own symbolism We think the following links related to this resource should prove useful if you would like to explore the subject further: Muslim Prayer Movements >> Muslim Prayers, Symbols and Praying Positions >> Symbolism of Muslim Prayer >> Articles and pictures on Islam and the Muslim Prayer: RE:ONLINE

4 RE:ONLINE Banquet How and Why Do People Pray? (8-12 years) Focus for Learning and Assessment Approaches to learning in the aims of the Learning Activities for this Resource 1. Elements of a Human Development approach, for example: including philosophy for Children discussions around verbal and non-verbal communication and its use in the acts of prayer; engaging in expression through non verbal communication and the use of body language; providing opportunities and encouraging pupils to create personal meanings and interpretations; encouraging pupils to develop their own patterns of belief and behaviour through exploring religious beliefs and practices and related human experiences; providing opportunities for pupils to develop spiritually, morally, socially and culturally. 2. Elements of the an Experiential approach, for example: providing a context for pupils to engage in and reflect upon non verbal communication and body language using reflection, stilling, guided fantasy and experiential work to open the creative imagination; as in providing pupils with opportunities for communicating non verbally; encouraging pupils to build conceptual bridges between their own experiences and religious expression by examining the physical aspects of ritual and prayer 3. Elements of a Phenomenological approach, for example: Learning classical body positions in prayer and their assigned meanings from across a variety of faith traditions; helping pupils know and understand some Muslim beliefs and practices, from the perspectives of adherents. Main Aims: The learning activities presented here provide opportunities for pupils to identify and distinguish non-verbal communication generally, eventually leading up to focus on the symbolical, physical features of prayer. The activities contain ideas for getting pupils to lead their own discussion and ask questions by being presented with and thinking through the deeper aspects and varied modes of prayer as a way of communing with the Divine. RE:ONLINE

5 This culminates in learning about and learning from the Muslim prayer by providing opportunities for pupils to create personal meaning and interpretations of these as well as being presented with the Muslim interpretation of the salah (Muslim prayer). There are potential cross-curricular connections with the following: English, e.g: speaking with confidence in a range of contexts, adapting their speech for a range of purposes and audiences; listening, understanding and responding appropriately to others; talking effectively as members of a group. Drama, e.g., using character, action and narrative to convey story, themes, emotions, ideas. PE, e.g. performing actions and skills with more consistent control and quality; building awareness of the body and allowing pupils opportunities for creating sequences of physical expression and communication. PSHE, e.g., reflecting on spiritual, moral, social, and cultural issues, using imagination to understand other people's experiences. The lessons could be used in discrete RE time or as part of a creative curriculum approach where RE links with other curriculum subjects around a theme or key question, such as Mind, Body and Spirit or Taking Care of Our Bodies. RE:ONLINE

6 In terms of assessing pupils progress in RE, the focus for this example is on the following Areas of Enquiry: Area C (Forms of Expression) and Area E (Questions of meaning, purpose and truth). Pupils participating in the investigation of this resource might be expected to make progress within the following range of expectations: Expectations: C & E refer here to the focus areas of enquiry identified above. By the end of this sequence of learning: All pupils can: C3 use religious words to describe some of the positions of Muslim prayer. E3 ask relevant questions about why people pray and compare their ideas about these with others. Most pupils (majority class expectation) can: C4 express ideas and feelings about the physical aspects of prayer across the religious traditions with some words that believers use. E4 ask why many Muslims (and others) find prayer to be important and believe that it achieves something, give their view and compare with this with a particular religious view. Some pupils can: C5 use a wide religious vocabulary to discuss different positions used in prayer across different faith traditions. E5 ask questions about the meaning and purpose of Muslim prayer positions and discuss any personal significance this has for them and the significance it might have for others. RE:ONLINE

7 RE:ONLINE Banquet How and Why Do People Pray? (8-12 years) Questions As well as the key question, this example can be built around questions that pupils ask about the resource. How to develop pupils question-making powers, e.g., How to build pupils enquiries into the assessment scheme, e.g., Here are some examples of questions pupils might ask, based on this Resource: Are words better for communicating than body language? Why are there non-verbal forms of prayer? What happens when people pray? Do people get the things that they pray for? If people talk to God in prayer, do they get answers? What happens if you make a mistake? Is the Muslim prayer always the same? Can a Muslim make other movements in the prayer? What happens if you daydream about other things in the prayer? What happens if you forget something? Do you have to be Muslim to do the prayer? Do all Muslims pray? Can Muslims do the prayer whenever they like? Are there any other ways that Muslims can pray? Can you only pray in the Mosque? Here are some more questions to ask the pupils, some that may provoke learning about religion and belief, and some that may inspire learning from religion and belief: Does it seem easier to communicate with words than with body language? Can body language add more to what you say with words? Can you talk without using body language? What are the differences and similarities between the different types of prayer that you have seen? What do you think people may feel after they pray? When do you think people might want to pray? Do you think that you have to belong to a religion to be able to pray? Do you have to believe in God to pray? What is difficult about understanding the idea of prayer? RE:ONLINE

8 What does it mean when people say their prayer was answered? How does someone feel if their prayer is not answered? Do Muslims ask for things in the salah? Do people of all religions ask for the same things, in the same way in their prayers? Are the feelings the same event though the body language of the prayer may be different? RE:ONLINE

9 RE:ONLINE Banquet How and Why Do People Pray? (8-12 years) People of Faith Here are some links to what other religions and non believers may say about the prayer that may be relevant to this resource: Atheism: o Buddhism: o Christianity: o o o Judaism: o y/physical_movement.shtml o Or, you can search for Muslim answers to your questions at: or a Muslim or an RE Expert to find out an answer to your own question(s). RE:ONLINE

10 RE:ONLINE Banquet How and Why do People Pray? (8-12 years) Learning Activities A Resource tool is available for this in the form of a Prezi Presentation available at: Running the presentation is quite simple; just use the arrows at the bottom to go either backwards or forward. The following activities are structured in a manner which is heavily scaffolded for the teacher initially but later tapers off. In this way, while the first and second sessions are laid out in more detailed form, to be used, discarded or adapted as required; by the third session there is less session detail and more content. The activities have been presented here with this structure so that any prospective teacher thinking of taking this on, will have indicated to them the building up of the particular concepts on Muslim prayer from the implicit to the explicit, which is perhaps more essential to this work than anything else. In this manner, after the first and second sessions, the main resource is a Prezi presentation which the teacher can use solely for information purposes or if they are able, can be edited or even be used as is. Some methodology is indicated in this presentation but again, teachers can go on to implement this as they see fit. One integral aspect to all of these activities is the emphasis on getting the pupils to try and interpret. An essential aspect of RE is that it should help pupils in learning how to make meaning out of things and interpretation is an aspect to this. It must be stressed to them that it is not important whether there answers are the correct ones held by people of the given faith but that they have made meaning out of what is before them. The faith interpretation can be provided afterwards. Strangely, more often than not the pupils interpretations are connected to and sometimes enrich the faith interpretation. The following breakdown of activities is suggested: 1. Philosophy for Children discussion around verbal and non verbal communication and its relation to the act of prayer. 2. Activity based session on non verbal and body language. 3. Encompassed within the accompanying Prezi presentation Pictorial recap of body language and prayer with accompanying questions. 4. Encompassed within the accompanying Prezi presentation Classical body positions of prayer from across a variety of faith traditions and getting the pupils to interpret these. 5. Encompassed within the accompanying Prezi presentation the Muslim Prayer the call to prayer the ablutions. RE:ONLINE

11 6. Encompassed within the accompanying Prezi presentation the body language of the Muslim prayer interpretations. 7. Encompassed within the accompanying Prezi presentation some stories about the prayer from Muslim traditions. 8. Not in the Prezi presentation the more explicit aspects of the prayer the times of the prayer the words the use of the Quran - the Imam the Mosque, etc. All of which is fairly standard material and encompasses the usual approach to teaching this subject matter. The Activities Session 1 Aims (a) To bring pupils to have some understanding of communication as a means of expressing information, ideas, thoughts, signals, feelings and emotions to others. (b) To bring pupils to have some understanding that communication can be verbal or non verbal, (or a mixture of both). (c) To bring pupils to understand that non verbal communication can be as effective as verbal communication. (d) To bring pupils to understand that prayer is also a type of communication and can be both verbal and non verbal. In this initial session pupils are asked through the medium of philosophy for children to distinguish the act of communication. There are many things which people do, but they do so unconsciously and part of philosophy is to distinguish and highlight such things to build awareness, consciousness and depth to such human activities. Children are as capable of this as adults. In this first session the teacher should try to mediate and steer, (but most importantly not dominate) a conversation allowing the pupils understanding that communication is a process of exchanging information, ideas, thoughts, signals, feelings and emotions. In the process of communicating the sender uses a type of communication to a receiver. Explain that there are basically two types of communication verbal and non verbal and that praying is a form of communication that has verbal (sound, words, speaking and language) and non verbal forms (gestures, touch, body language, posture, eye contact and facial expression). Non verbal language can be extremely effective and in fact research shows that 80% of inter-personal communication is through body language. Activity 1: Have some Marcel Marceau and Jerome Murat clips set up for pupils to watch. See, e.g: Ask pupils to make up three implicit questions about what they have seen, stressing that implicit questions are different than explicit questions. Implicit questions arise from seeing the mime, (i.e. more universal questions; Can people communicate without words? ). Explicit questions are about the mime, (i.e. How does the mime artist make it seem as if there really is a wall? ) If the teacher considers it necessary provide a few examples? Try to steer the questions towards questions like the following : o How can people communicate? RE:ONLINE

12 o Why do people communicate? o Who do people communicate with? o What do people communicate with? o Is communication only through using words? o Can you communicate without words? o How could you communicate without words? Write the questions on the board and get the pupils to vote on two questions to discuss. Start the discussion by asking the pupils who posed these questions why they asked these questions. Then open the discussion to others, teacher may have to interject from time to time to steer the discussion towards the aims set out. After some time try to conclude the discussion by summing up the conversation and writing the summary of this on the board. Split the class into groups. Then show the pupils a picture of someone praying could be a Buddhist monk prostrating fully lying on the floor before the statue of the Buddha. Issue pupils with three of the following questions below per small group. Ensure a mix of questions, so that each group has questions about prayer as well as general communication questions. Ask them to agree a response to each question in their group and to say what they think a religious believer might answer, especially in terms of how they think a that person might benefit from certain forms of communication and certain forms of prayer: o Why do people pray? o Is praying communicating? o Who or what do people think they are communicating with when they pray? o Can you be not religious and pray? o Can you be an atheist and pray? o Is prayer a very serious matter? o Is praying just another way of asking? o Could someone pray without words? [Assessment Opportunity E3: ask relevant questions about why people pray and compare their ideas about these with others; and E4: ask why many religious believers (and others) find prayer to be important and believe that it achieves something, give their view and compare with this with a particular religious view] Session 2 This session is about getting pupils to be aware of how they can communicate without words by using their bodies. The class should be split into different groups of about 4 5 pupils each. A series of activities could be set up in the classroom and the different groups move around the room engaging in these for approx. 10 minutes each. Aims (a) To further develop the idea for pupils that body language and non-verbal communication can be as expressive, (if not more) than verbal communication. (b) To get the pupils to apply some of their gained experience of body language and non verbal aspects of idea of prayer. Activity 1: Pupils work together to list different ways of expressing feelings in nonverbal ways. Point out that at least some of these will be offensive but all can be very powerful, so need to be used with care! RE:ONLINE

13 Activity 2: Teach pupils how to play Charades (e.g., Charades). After the rules and format of the game are quickly explained ask pupils to choose one of the following quotations from the Qur an, (paraphrased for easier comprehension) and start acting them out:...surely by remembering God the hearts are made peaceful (Quran 18: 28) be patient with what people say against you, and pray constantly to God... so that you may have joy (Quran 20:130) And be regular in prayer at the two ends of the day and at the approaches of the night: because good things takes away bad things (Qur an 11:114)..there are those who think about God standing, and sitting, and lying on their sides (Quran 3:191) give to the poor and bow down your heads with others who bow down in prayer (Quran 2 : 110) Activity 3: Have 8 different tableau scenarios written down. Examples : (a) People showing a variety of reactions when suddenly coming upon someone praying by a busy roadside. (b) A group of people who are looking for something lost with one of them very happy and thankful at suddenly finding it. (c) A football player falling to the ground on his knees after scoring a crucial goal. (d) A mother and father with their reluctant children, telling them to pray. (e) A group of people begging someone in authority on some urgent matter but who is rather haughtily ignoring them. (f) A group of people who have just received something special with only one very thankful person amongst them. (g) A playground scene where a fight is just about to break out with someone begging his friend not to get involved while others are egging him on. (h) A car scene with onlookers where one driver is very angry and the other is admitting having committed an error and is saying sorry. (i) A person asking forgiveness from someone whose feelings they have hurt with a crowd of people around them RE:ONLINE

14 Each group must pick one of these and make the scenario, freezing in their position. Use a digital camera to make a photo of each tableau. After this get the whole class together, show the tableau photographs and get them describe their reactions, demonstrate some of the charades sequences, etc. Remind them of the discussion concerning the type of communication in prayer. Ask them in their groups to think of some of the things they have seen which shows a prayerful attitude through the body positions. Ask the children to think up words that believers might use to describe these positions and expressions and what types of prayers the positions might resemble? [Assessment Opportunity C4: express ideas and feelings about the physical aspects of prayer across the religious traditions with some words that believers use.] Sessions thereafter: The Prezi presentation allows for freer scope in the use and delivery of the material. If needed, the breakdown of sessions given above can be helpful. As mentioned above the work following on from the first two sessions can involve the more explicit aspects of the prayer such as the times of the prayer, the verbal aspects as in the use of the Quran, the role of the Imam, the Mosque, etc. All of which is fairly standard material and encompasses the usual approach to teaching this subject matter. What has been presented here focuses mainly on the physical acts of the prayer, so remember that there is so much more to learning Why and How people pray. Sample activities to go with the Prezi: The Prezi has many built in questions and opportunities for follow on activities or suggestions for activities. For example: Stop the Presentation after about a minute of the Jewish man praying: encourage pupils to ask their own questions about this clip. Do they wonder, for example, how they might distinguish this man s way of praying from people of other religions, including Islam? Do they recognise that the man is praying in Hebrew? Ask pupils in small groups to take photos of one of their group going through a series of movements of prayer. Then, using Comic book software (see, e.g., ask them to make a comic book page using the photographs. They can then write in the narrative box and the speech and thought bubbles the things that the person praying might be saying and thinking at the same time. The words for positions or words that believers might use can be utilized in the accompanying text. Encourage pupils to make some concluding comments, on such questions as: o Do you think the person praying would have thoughts that are different from the actual spoken words? Why might that be? Does this make their prayer worthless? o What sort of things might take their mind off the prayer? Some possible concluding questions: o What are your thoughts about the importance of body language? o What are your thoughts about the importance of bodily positions in prayer, both for yourself and for others? o What are your thoughts about body language in prayer? What are your thoughts about body language in the Muslim prayer? RE:ONLINE

15 o If you do any type of prayer, do you use body positions in that prayer? What do you think they mean or what do they mean to you? Is there any difference between what you think they mean and what they mean to you? [Assessment Opportunities: C5: use a wide religious vocabulary to discuss different positions used in prayer across different faith traditions; and E5: ask questions about the meaning and purpose of Muslim prayer positions and discuss any personal significance this has for them and the significance it might have for others.] RE:ONLINE