Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this lesson on deliberate practise on the Christian practises unit.

I am Miss Kendrick, and the whole purpose of this lesson is that we take some key information that we need to know, like quotations, and we just practise it until we know it.

Because quotations and key definitions don't just go into our heads because we've heard them once or twice, they go into our heads by deliberately going over them and over and over them until we know them.

And the better we know them, the easier answering examination questions will be because instead of sitting there and thinking, "Oh, what was that quotation? I can't remember it." It should just be right there in your head straight away.

So that's why we're doing this lesson.

It is going to involve a lot of writing and a lot of thinking hard, so I hope you're ready to do that.

And at the end of the lesson, I hope you'll be really proud of yourself for everything that you have learnt.

We are going to start with some quick fire questions.

Then we're going to focus on learning some key quotations from this unit.

We're not going to cover all the quotations in this unit, 'cause that would be a little bit too much to do in one session, but you can cover them yourself using these techniques, if you would like to.

And then we're going to link those quotations to beliefs, 'cause there's no point knowing quotations if we do not know what they mean.

So that's what we're going to be doing.

You need a pen or pape- pen or pencil, a different coloured pen or pencil for making corrections and additions to your work and some paper and in this lesson, it doesn't matter if the paper you're using is a bit scrappy because we are going to be making lots of mistakes and corrections.

This is not going to be your best work that you're going to have framed or put on the fridge or anything like that.

And actually, the pen and paper here is more about going through the process than it being marked or anything like that.

So we'll start with some quick fire questions to jog our memories about some key ideas in Christianity.

If these are already familiar to you, then that is fantastic, but it's good to practise them regularly because even if we know it now, the more we go over it, the less likely it'll be to forget it in a month or even six months time.

So, "Which word means 'to take on flesh' and shows the Christian belief that Jesus is God in human form?" Incarnation.

"Which word means 'to be saved from sin and its consequences?'" It is salvation, so lots of Christians believe that you can receive salvation through certain practises.

"What day do the Gospel accounts say Jesus was crucified?" Good Friday.

Well done.

"What day do the Gospel accounts say Jesus washed his disciples feet?" Maundy Thursday.

Lots of things happened on Maundy Thursday in the story, such as the last supper, Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus being arrested as well.

Very busy day.

"Which of the following do Christians do to celebrate Christmas?" Sing carols.

"Which of the following do Christians do to celebrate Easter?" Paint eggs.

"Which of the following is NOT part of Holy Week?" So Easter Sunday.

So Easter Sunday is the day after Holy Week ends.

Holy week runs from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday.

"What event is NOT part of the Christmas story?" Father Christmas does not feature I am afraid.

"Which of the following is NOT something Christians do to celebrate Easter?" Tell the story of Jesus' birth.

"Where do Roman Catholics believe that Saint Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary?" In Lourdes in south of France.

"Where do many Christians believe the 'veil between heaven and earth' is thin?" In Iona.

So Iona is a island off the coast of Scotland, which many Christians go on pilgrimage and to take time away from the business of everyday life and to worship God.

"Which of the options below is NOT a reason why Christians go on pilgrimage?" So the Bible does not command pilgrimage, but there is a strong tradition of pilgrimage in Christianity.

"Where may Christians go on pilgrimage if they want to be healed?" At Lourdes, so there's a belief that the Holy water at Lourdes has healing properties, and there are miracle stories that come out of Lourdes as well.

So some Christians will hear those stories and they will want to be healed themselves, and therefore they may go to Lourdes.

So the next thing we're going to do is we're going to look at some key quotations and I've tried to choose quotations here that relate to lots of different topics, because then you can use them in lots of different ways in an examination.

I'm just going to talk through them now to give you a bit of a recap of where they come from and what they mean.

And then you're going to spend some time committing them to memory.

So firstly we've got, "This is my body, which is given for you.

Do this in memory of me." Now these words come from The Last Supper and many Christians will say these words when they practise Eucharist, so it's used as part of the Eucharist service.

It links to the belief in transubstantiation because of the words, "This is my body." And it also links to the belief that Eucharist is just a remembrance meal, because it says to, "Do this in memory of me." It looks to Jesus' sacrifice as well because of the belief that his body is given as a sacrifice on Good Friday, so it can also link to beliefs about salvation.

So lots we can say about that quotation.

Quotation number two, "Go then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." So this is called the Great Commission and it is the words of Jesus before he ascended into heaven where he tells Christians to evangelise.

So it links to evangelism, Christians showing their faith, but it also links to baptism because of the command to baptise people.

And so many Christians would say that baptism is something that's important to do at the start of a person's Christian journey, whether that be as an infant or an adult.

And it's also got the belief in the Trinity in it which, because it refers to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So again, a quotation with lots and lots of different topics in it.

Next one, "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die, but have eternal life." So this verse is traditionally seen to sum up the Gospel message.

This idea that it is good news, and that Christians believe that Jesus died to forgive all people from sin.

We have got the belief that God is all-loving in this quotation 'cause it says love, "God love the world so much." The idea that Jesus died for all humans, not just for Christians.

We've got the idea of sacrifice, so we can link to some practises that involve sacrifice like, wow sacrifice, that Christians don't actually sacrifice animals or anything.

What I mean is the Eucharist because that's done on an alter to symbolise the sacrifice of Jesus.

We've got the belief in judgement and the belief in heaven because we've got the belief that everyone who believes in him may not die, so that links to the belief that only Christians will go to heaven and belief in eternal life: the belief in heaven.

So again, a quotation with a huge amount of content.

And finally, "But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." So this one possibly doesn't relate to you as much as the others, although I might think later about all the different things that it does link to, which aren't in my head now.

So we've got, "love your enemies." We've got the Christian belief that all people should be treated with love, even those people who treat you badly.

And praying for those who persecute you, so where Christians are persecuted, many of them would say that they should not fight back and they should not hate the people who are treating them badly, but they should always respond to love.

And this is a really useful quotation for some of the other themes units, such as human rights or crime and punishment because many Christians throughout history have chosen to forgive those people who have really done awful things to them or their families.

So again, a very powerful verse.

So what you're going to do is a process that is going to help you learn these quotations.

On the next slide, I've got these quotations with some gaps missing, and you need to write out the quotations in full and fill in the missing words using the word box.

After that, you will be able to check your answers so that you can make sure you've not made any mistakes.

And then you'll get another gap fill, but this time you will not have the key words box.

And what I would like you to do is to fold down your piece of paper or cover it so that you cannot see your first set of quotations that you've written out.

Because you should be working from your memory, not just copying them out.

If you just copy them out over and over every single time, you might not them a little bit better by the end, but nowhere near as well as you will know them if you're thinking really hard about what comes next.

Each time you get the set of quotations, more words will be missing until the last time where you'll just get the first couple of words and you'll need to write out the quotation in full.

As you go along, check your work and make corrections.

And this is why I was saying that it doesn't matter if you've got a bit of a scrappy piece of paper here, because by the end of this process, it will all be folded and it will all be covered in corrections and things like that.

When I set this for my students, if they give me or show me evidence of their work and it's just perfectly written out every single time, I would just say to them, "You've not done it properly." Because it's actually easier to just write it out over and over again, isn't it? But it's less valuable.

We want the thinking hard process, the bit that we like to avoid doing well, we have to make our brains really get in gear.

So by the end of this, you should have lots of mistakes and corrections.

And if you want to, the last time you do this, when you've got the first couple of words, you can do it again without anything at all and see how well you can remember it.

Repetition is going to be good for helping you just learn these quotations.

So let's go! I wonder how you got on with that process and whether at the end of it, you were able to write out all those quotations perfectly.

If you could, well done, pat on the back.

If you could get most of them, again, well done! Because at the beginning of this lesson, you probably weren't able to.

And if you're still struggling to commit them to memory, do not worry.

I've got so many students who don't necessarily get on with this well first time, but they persevere with it, and by the end of the process, once they keep having a go at it, they do know the quotations.

So if you haven't got it yet, seriously do not panic and do not think, "Oh I'm never going to learn this." You really, really can, alright? It's just about going through that process and revisiting them regularly, and then you'll be so proud of yourself once you've got them nailed.

So the last thing we're going to do to make sure we really understand these quotations is I'm just going to remind you of the meanings of them, and then you guys are going to answer some questions to say what you can talk about with these quotations.

This will just help you to apply them in the right way when you're answering examination questions.

And as I go through with my examples, I'm not necessarily covering every single way this quotation- these quotations can be used, okay? So just be aware of that as well.

So we've got, "This is my body, which is given for you.

Do this in memory of me.

This quotation links to the Eucharist.

It can be interpreted with a focus on remembering Jesus' sacrifice," 'cause it says, "in memory of me." But it can also be used to support the belief in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine turn into Jesus' body and blood because it says, "This is my body." Before I get you to pause the video and just answer questions on this, a quick reminder: when you write out a quotation, it doesn't necessarily have to be word for word as long as the meaning doesn't change.

The reason for this is because the Bible is translated from Hebrew and Greek.

And when we translate words from one language to another, there can be variation in how it is phrased.

And there are hundreds of different Bible translations.

And therefore, as long as the meaning doesn't change, the wording can change a little bit.

And you can always look up different Bible translations and see what the differences are.

So focus on the meaning when you write this out.

But for now, you're going to answer some questions on what this one means.

Okay next quotation, "Go then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." So we have got, "This quotation links to evangelism, baptism and the belief in the Trinity ." And, "It is quoted during baptism services by many denominations." So again, pause the video and answer the questions.

Next quotation, "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die, but have eternal life." So this quotation again, links to evangelism.

It links to working in the local community because of the belief that God loves all people and God died for all people.

Therefore, people are valuable and they should be helped.

And also responding to worldwide poverty.

Also links to God being all-loving, also links to the belief in sacrifice as well.

So again down here, "This is because Christians believe that all people are valuable because God loves them and Jesus died for them.

They will want to share this 'good news' with non-Christians." So again, pause the video and answer the questions.

Last one, we're almost done.

Well done for persevering in this lesson.

So, "But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." So this quotation links to Christian responses to persecution, and also its responses to suffering as well.

And, "Christians believe that when they are persecuted, they should respond with love rather than hatred." And it's an expectation in Christianity that people will be persecuted.

Christianity is currently the most persecuted religion in the world.

And, yeah, we've not so much here, but in lots of other countries.

And so we can see that this verse is incredibly relevant to a huge portion of the church.

So again, pause the video and answer your questions.

Well done for all of your hard work in this deliberate practise lesson.

I hope that you understand these quotations better and you feel more confident using them.

In a moment, you can do the exit quiz, but I would also say that a really useful thing to do is just to get a new piece of paper or go onto the back of the piece of paper you were using earlier.

And just see if you can write down those quotations again.

The more often we revisit it, the better we will remember them.

So I often say to my students, "Well learn them." And they would probably know them for the rest of the day.

And then in two days time, check them again, and you might've forgotten one or forgotten a little bit of some of them.

So again, practise them, correct yourself.

The next week, do it again.

And then you will know it.

It is all about regularly revisiting it.

So I'd really advise you to do that as well, but I can't come and enforce it, so it is up to you.

It's your responsibility.

Now you can go and do the exit quiz and thank you so much for all of your hard work.