texts in the classroom

The format for this workshop was planned after the enthusiastic comments on the curriculum session at our 2003 summer seminar on Islam and the Qur'an, and the first full version of it took place in the summer of 2004, when the focus was Attar's Conference of the Birds, and the Buddhist Jataka Tales.. The experience of secondary school teachers across the country is that students engage deeply in "real texts" from the cultures they are studying This hands-on workshop will introduce teachers of literature, world history, and religion to ways to use primary texts in the classroom. Texts used as examples for this workshop will come from the Qur'an and from the Bhagavad Gita; but the methods apply to any tradition.

Teachers attending this workshop will learn and practice how to work with primary texts in the classroom, and will receive a list of texts from a variety of cultural and religious traditions that lend themselves to study with secondary school students. Text work will be interspersed with pedagogical discussions. These discussions are consistently highly ranked by our workshop participants.

Agenda
July 1, 2, 3 (till noon)
Bhagavad Gita

July 3 (afternoon), 4, 5 morning: The Qur'an

About the Presenters
Tom Collins is perhaps the best known secondary school teacher of religion in the United States, and has developed first class world history programs with teachers at a number of schools. He is currently chair of the religion department at Palmer Trinity School in Miami, Florida, and has taught at the secondary school level in Hawaii, Oregon, and Kentucky. He is a past member of the secondary school task force for the American Academy of Religion, a former curriculum specialist for the Council on Spiritual and Ethical Education, the current director of the secondary school project for the Forum on Religion and Ecology, and co-director and founder of Religious Studies in Secondary Schools. Collins has been organizing and leading seminars and curriculum workshops for secondary school teachers since the 1980s, and has been influential on the way numbers of high school teachers present materials in their classrooms. He taught both sections of last summer's Primary Texts workshop.

DJim Ehrenhaft is a teacher of religion at St. Alban's School in Washington, where he deals in depth with both Islam and Hinduism. Jim has been a participant in a number of our workshops in the past, and has long supported RSiSS efforts with reviews of works on Islam.

Registration
Cost : $725 (includes lodging, meals, workshop materials)
For D.C. area residents or others who wish to arrange their own lodging: $395 (includes workshop materials, and noon meals). For registration form (PDF format) click here, or email RSiSS.

Location
College of Preachers, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.