1. What is a critical attributes strategy?
A strategy that focuses on teaching students how to identify the essential elements of a concept and in turn avoid getting distracted by less important aspects.
2. Develop a critical attributes list of the concepts in your current event topic. List content, definitions, examples.
What does separation of church and state mean?
The question over where and how much if any religion should be part of government.
How did the phrase come to be?
Taken from the phrase “wall of separation between church and state," as written in Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists Association in 1802.
What parts of the constitution refer to the issue?
Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
What did the writers/contributors/leaders of the time write about the issue of relationship between religion and government?
Review Jefferson, Madison, Henry, Locke, and Paine writings.
2B. What is the main religion in the US?
Who are the groups that agree and disagree about separation of church and state?
What are the different religions that believe in separation of church and state?
3. What is your level of passion and detached objectivity.
My passion is extremely high, I feel very strongly about the benefits of strict separation of church and state and detached objectivity will be a challenge for me.
4. Do you think a level of passion gets you more fired up to want to learn it? How can this be tempered and harnessed at the same time?
Yes I think passion does lead to wanting to learn more and this should be tempered and harnessed by the teacher through creating and maintaining an open, respectful, and open minded discussion environment. I think the teacher can also assign students to research opposing viewpoints and stress and model and open mindedness in class.
5. How can you avoid a discussion becoming a debate?
By thoughtful deliberate analysis of facts and concepts to present the multiple perspectives that should be considered.
6. Take the four challenges, and develop four questions you would ask to facilitate a discussion in our class on Tuesday on your topic.
1. Who can think of some reasons that someone would believe that the constitution and our forefathers would not want strict separation of church and state?
2. How did the creators of the constitution feel about this issue and how does this issue compare to today? (Do you feel that candidates today present their religious values during their run for election?)
3. What would the benefits of a church run government be? What would be the downfalls of a church run government?
4. What are the concerns about religious involvement in our government and how does this affect all the members of our society today?
