The Sacred Journey:
Religions of the World

Core Discovery Course 166

Assignment 3: Class Discussion, Group Presentations, and Reflective Writes

 

In order to more fully explore and, in turn, understand the rich meaning and insight messages offered in the assigned readings, you will be expected to attend all class and evening sessions, and have the assigned readings (CORE 166) completed before class sessions.  Come to class prepared to discuss.  There will be two opportunities for you to share your interpretations and questions on the assigned readings and class sessions, one verbal and one written. 

Class Discussions and Presentations: Throughout the semester you are expected to contribute, voluntarily, to the on-going class discussions.  Add your voice to the class dialogue.  At various times throughout the semester you will be called upon to add your voice to the class discussion, responding to questions posed by the instructor or other students, as well as contributing your own questions to the class dialogue, all relating to the assigned readings and/or class presentations or evening sessions. 

In addition, you will be organized into presentation groups, and assigned specific readings from the textbooks and dates for presentations.  It will be your group's responsibility to first provide a brief summary of the assigned readings, and then provide "poignant and lively discussion" on the topics at hand.  If you group has been assigned a selection of "verses," "sayings," "poems," and/or "tales," you may select a series of these verses, sayings, poems or tales that you think are particularly insightful or representative, and focus your discussion on them.  After you have read, applied the "eye juggling" method of interpretation, and fully comprehended the significances and insights of the reading assigned to your group, formulate key questions that will bring those significances and insights to the entire class and engage your fellow students in some stimulating and engaging discussion.  Your group will generally have thirty-five (35) minutes to present your materials and lead discussion.   

Reflective Writes: In addition, you will be periodically asked  to respond in writing to a specific question posed by the instructor on a given assigned reading, evening session, or class presentation.  These responses will ask you to reflect on the significance and meaning of a specific passage or idea conveyed in the reading or presentation.  The reflective writes will be a timed exercise, lasting no more than ten minutes.

To reflect is not to summarize, but to seriously contemplate and consider the cultural meanings, assumptions and implications of a specific text, i.e., a textbook reading, a guest speaker, or a video.  Your goal is two-fold.  1. Seek to articulate your own cultural and religious perspective, as well as, 2. seek to understand what you consider to be the cultural and religious perspective of those represented in the encountered text, be they from the Christian Orthodox, Muslim, or Jewish tradition, for example.  A key question would thus be: what are the larger implications of a specific text, as they relate to a particular religious tradition and as they relate to your own spiritual orientation?

To help you articulate and reflect upon both your own cultural assumptions and those whom you are encountering, apply the "eye juggling method" as considered in class (HTML) or (PDF).  Ask yourself how your own religious and cultural meanings and assumptions similar and different from the religious and cultural meanings and assumptions of those whose lives you glimpsed in the encountered text?  By juxtaposing that which is distinct along side that which is at hand, though often veiled, the contours of one's own cultural territory are more clearly revealed.

    Grading criteria:

Return to Course Syllabus