Exploring Codes for Living

Edited by Joyce Mackley

Rating:

This booklet explains how most mainstream religions have a code for living which acts as a guide for the choices and actions of individual followers and helps teachers to guide their pupils towards thinking, exploring, reflecting, applying and evaluating “codes for good”.

For five to seven year olds there are nine pages which deal with Making and Keeping Promises and Exploring Big Promises. There are three activities: Spot the Promise – a visual activity; A Faith Story Activity and Activities using artefacts to help reflect on promises. Packed into the pages are Information Files, Starting Points, Suggested Activities, Glossary of Key Words as well as a few photocopiable pictures and worksheets.

For seven to eleven year olds there are 21 pages dealing with Exploring Commitment; Making Hard Decisions; Exploring Religious Codes for Living; Exploring the “Golden Rule” and What Are Your Commitments?

Again, there are plenty of helps for the teacher, suggestions for activities and cards to photocopy, cut out and use, for example - Judaism has ten commandments; Islam teaches that it is good to...; Jesus taught His followers to be happy by... Each unit then gives the level of expectation that can be assessed.

At first, looking at this slim book, I felt there were so many snippets of instruction and information that it would be difficult to fit it into a syllabus.  The more I studied it, the more I realised the wealth of information there was in every page and how it would fit in well as a half term course on living either in RE or PSHE.

Reviewer: Yvonne Werrett, Supply Teacher (former RE Co-ordinator), Shoeburyness, Essex

Review posted on: 14 April 2008

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