Lesson video

Hello I'm Miss Kendrick and welcome to this examination practise lesson, on the matters of life and death unit.

This unit covers lots of topics that are covered by several different exam boards.

And so if you've gone through this unit with me online, then you have a good idea of what it involves.

In this lesson, we're going to focus on answering some low value questions.

We're going to look at some explain questions, and some evaluate and discuss questions as well.

And what will be really helpful, would be if you've revised before doing this lesson.

Because this is focused on how we answer the questions, and we can't answer the questions if we don't already have that knowledge in our heads.

So, I would advise spending some time practising your knowledge and as a revision lesson, just before this one for you to do, if you've not done that as well.

In this lesson, we're going to be recapping beliefs about death and the treatment of animals.

So like I said in this unit on matters life and death, we cover lots of different topics like stewardship of the environment, abortion, euthanasia, animal testing, use of animal foods and things like that.

So we cover lots of controversial topics, and lots of sensitive topics.

So if any of you find any of these topics particularly sensitive, then you might want to do the rest of this lesson with a trusted adult nearby who can support you.

For this lesson, you will need a pen or pencil, a different coloured pen or pencil and some paper.

And do make sure that you've got no distractions, and you need to be ready to do some writing as well.

In our read, we do need to write longer answers usually to these questions.

And so you're going to have to be willing to spend some time with it, but practising it is what makes all of the differences really worthwhile.

We're going to start by answering some quick fire questions, just to jog your memory on some key things from this unit.

So firstly, which understanding of Islam would say that animals evolved, but that humans were created whole? Compromise.

Why may some Muslims accept evolution? Both the Quran and evolution say life began in water.

Which understanding of Islam would say that all humans and animals were created whole as they are today? Traditional so that's a rejection of evolution.

Why may some Muslims reject evolution? Because the Quran suggests that Allah made animals whole.

Which understanding of Islam would say that both humans and animals evolved? That is the modern view, so some Muslims would be sort of in the middle, they'd say the animals evolved, but humans didn't.

How does the Quran say Eve was made? From the same soul as Adam.

What is the Arabic word meaning steward? Khalifah.

Which of the options below will a humanist not to do in response to climate change? Good they'll unlikely to pray because humanists are usually atheists.

Which Christians will interpret the Bible literally? Fundamentalists, so that means they're going to reject the Big Bang Theory, they're going to reject evolution.

All Christians accept the Big Bang Theory, true or false? That's false.

Muslims and Christians have exactly the same believes about the origins of the universe, true or false? That is false.

What is the name of the ethical theory, which states that we should do the action to bring about the most happiness for the most people? Utilitarianism, and that's a humanist theory that's non-religious.

Which theory says that human life is sacred and therefore should not be destroyed? That fits with the sanctity of life, which from both Muslims and Christians will agree with.

So we're going to pause a moment, and I've got short answer question for you.

Which says give two religious beliefs about the origins of humanity.

So I spend two minutes on this, you might even get to spend less time and you just want to write two very short sentences, but you must say which religions you're talking about, and it's asking specifically for religious beliefs so you're not going to want to be talking about humanism here.

So I'll give you a minute to do that task.

So this is why you need your different colour of pen 'cause it's really important that we're making additions and corrections to our work as we go along, because that's how we learn.

We learn by responding to feedback.

So two possible answers.

Fundamentalist Christians believe that Adam was made from dust, and liberal Christians will accept evolution.

So these are short sentences.

You could say that Muslims believe that Adam was made from clay, could say Muslims believe that Eve was made from the same soul as Adam as well.

You just needs to give two specific religious views and name your religion.

Next question, give two reasons a person might object to eating meat.

So this one has not asked you for specifically religious view, so you might be able to include a humanist's view here, and as long as you've just got two clear reasons, try not say the same thing twice.

So some people might reject to eating meat 'cause they might believe it's cruel to kill a sentient animal.

So an animal that can think and feel and things like that, maybe not in the same way as humans, but we can see that animals can feel pain, and be afraid and things like that.

Or it might also be to reduce the human impact on the environment.

So many campaigners say that research shows that would you say how much meat and dairy we eat could have a real positive impact on the environment.

So we're going to look at some longer answers questions now.

So we're going to have a look at some explain questions.

And explain questions are going to be slightly different for each example.

And you really need to speak to your teacher, to make sure that you know which exam board you're with, and what that exam board expects of you when it comes to this style of questions.

So this question above explain two religious beliefs about euthanasia, fits best with AQA and Edexcel.

For Edugas and WJEC, you might be expected to write a longer answers for explain questions.

And the style of the question might look different for OCR, and different examples are going to be worth different marks.

These questions are going to be worth different amounts of marks for different exam boards.

So it's important for you to be aware of that as well.

But we're going to be focusing on what sort of subject knowledge you need to be including in this question and you need to talk to your teacher about structure and things like that for the different exam boards, that we are all on.

So when we're looking at explaining two religious beliefs about euthanasia, you do need to be writing in full sentences, so you should make a point and then explain it.

In this case we need to include religious beliefs only because it asks specifically for religious beliefs about euthanasia.

So that means you're going to be referring to Christianity and Islam, not to humanism.

So I want you to think back carefully to what you've learned about euthanasia.

If you've taken part in the lesson that I did on euthanasia, what did we look at in that lesson? So you're going to pause for a moment and bullet point our mind back as much as you can remember on this topic and the different views on it.

So this is my map showing lots of different views and issues when it comes to euthanasia.

So we've got our definition that it translates as is good death when someone requests to have their life ended by a doctor, always useful to include definitions in your answer to show that you know what you're talking about.

We've got the fact that it's illegal in the UK, we could talk about a situation ethics in Christianity, which might argue that it should be legal, or sensitive life which fits with both Christianity and Islam, arguing that it shouldn't be legal.

We've got the example of Tony Nicklinson who was paralysed and requested to have euthanasia and took his appeal to the high court, but he lost his appeal and ended up dying of pneumonia not long afterwards.

We've got in Islam belief and in predestination particularly from Shia Muslims, that Allah has already decided the day of someone's death.

The focus on ending suffering and from humanism, we've got utilitarianism.

The idea that reducing suffering by allowing people to end their lives when they wish, might be a way to increase overall happiness in society.

So now we've got lots of these different ideas.

You can pause your video and add anything that you don't already have.

So you can do that now.

And we're going to have a go at writing an answer to this question.

So here's my example answer.

And as you can see, I've got a couple of different points and I've explained them.

And I want you to focus on the subject in order to in each of these.

That I've not been vague or wishy washy, but I've given you specific examples.

So some Christians, we must make sure we're naming the religion we're talking about.

May say euthanasia is acceptable because of situation ethics.

For example in the case of Tony Nicklinson they may say that his suffering was so extensive, that it would have been most loving, to help him to die peacefully.

So we've got the application of situation ethics there.

Muslims are usually against euthanasia.

This is because of the belief that only Allah can take life and therefore taking innocent life in any circumstance, is considered haram.

And haram means forbidden.

So again, pause your video and see if you can add to your own answer from my model answer.

If you've taken a different approach, maybe talks about sanctity of life or Christians, then that's fine.

Just make sure that you've got some really specific teachings in your answer, and that it's looking about the right length.

So now we're going to look at another explain question, but this time you need to include a scripture in your answer and as evidence.

So again, these questions are going to look really different depending on the example.

So talk to your teacher to make sure you know which one you're on.

And this question again, fits best with AQA and Edexcel.

You might be expected to write longer answers for explain questions for Edugas and WJEC, and the question style might look different for OCR.

Not all examples will always ask for scripture in their questions, but it's always good to add in as well.

Don't think you only need to use it when it asks for it, because it's always going to be really really helpful to show your knowledge of that religion and why they have those particular beliefs.

So these questions looking at the origins of the universe.

So you're going to pause the video for a moment so you can write everything you can remember, about religious beliefs.

Again focus on religion, not on humanism here, about where the universe came from and notice it says origins of the universe, not at the origins of humanity or the origins of life.

So we're thinking about the Big Bang Theory and things like that.

Here I've got my main map for the origins of the universe we've got lots of different ideas in here.

The Genesis story, and six days of creation, the idea of creation from nothing which fits with both Islam and Christianity.

We've got liberal conservative and fundamentalist interpretations.

So make sure you know, which is which and sometimes you just need to do look over right check, repeat to make sure you remember which is which.

That fundamentalists will read the Bible literally, that conservatives will look at the historical context and liberals will look at it symbolically, and those all come from within Christianity.

We've got the Big Bang Theory is a scientific view that Muslims and Christians might differ in opinion on, in terms of some Christians and Muslims will accept it, and some will reject it.

The idea of the world being in smoke at one time, which comes from the Quran.

And so some Muslims would say that's a poetic way of describing the Big Bang.

And we've got the idea of God continuing to create as well.

So you can pause video now and add some of these ideas to your bullet points on my maps, to help you write your own answer in a minute.

So before we write our own answers, I'm going to be very nice and give you a couple of quotations that you could use in your answer.

So first we've got, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." So this comes from the Christian belief that God created out of nothing, and that the whole of the universe was made by him.

Some Christians would say this fits with Big Bang Theory, that the creation story is not supposed to be a scientific textbook about how the universe came into existence.

Whereas other Christians might read the Genesis story, literally like fundamentalists and say, whatever happens on each day of creation is exactly how it did happen in real life literally.

So pause the video and get down this quotation.

And here, we've got a second quotation.

This one's from Islam and it's quite similar in terms of its meaning.

Both of these quotations are talking about God creating the universe, but you do need to make sure you draw out some differences here.

So this one says, "Indeed, your Lord is Allah who created the heavens and the earth.

And he created the sun, the moon and stars, subjective by his command." So Christians and Muslims are both going to agree, on these beliefs.

So what you want to do is just pull out some slightly different aspects of this belief.

So for Christianity, you could talk about the fundamentalist interpretation, or the liberal interpretation of the Islam.

You could talk about the modern interpretation, the idea that Allah created with the Big Bang, and it fits with science.

Okay so we'll have a look at a couple of example answers.

And like I always say, if you don't have exactly what I've written, that does not mean you're wrong because there are a variety of responses that would get full marks here.

But we just want to focus on the subject knowledge and make sure we've used those quotations effectively.

So fundamentalist Christians believe the universe was created by God in six days as described in Genesis.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth." Therefore they will reject scientific views such as the Big Bang theory as they believe the Biblical account has more authority.

So I want you to pause the video, and I want you to check, that you have sort of three clear parts to your first paragraph.

That you've made a point, that you've used the quotation, and that you've explained it.

And the second part of our answer you'll see here that I've got slightly different views coming from Islam.

Many Muslims believe that Allah created the universe, but the verses that creation in the Quran are compatible with the Big Bang Theory.

So from the Christian view we've focused on the literal interpretation.

For Islam here we're focusing on a view that's compatible with science.

"Indeed your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth." They believe it can fit with the Big Bang, as the word day, could also translate his period of time.

So here we've got a nice extra piece of knowledge, haven't we? We're not just focusing on the quotation, we're bringing in other things we know as well.

So again, pause the video and add to your own answer.

Finally, we're going to look at discuss or evaluate questions.

Now again, these types of questions do fit with lots of different exam boards.

And you need to make sure you're talking to your teacher to make sure you know which exam board you're with, how many marks these are worth, and what you're expected to do.

Generally you will need to give reasons for, and against the statement.

You will need to use what you've learned, so do talk about religious beliefs and views here make sure you're applying them to the question.

You will need a clear conclusion with a judgement showing which side of the argument is more convincing and why.

So often you'll be told that you can put your opinion in here.

Anything I'd say about that is it's your opinion on the discussion that's taken place.

So your opinion about which side is stronger.

So for example, sometimes I get students write in their conclusion, "In conclusion I'm not religious, so I don't believe in either answer." Now that might be true in that that might be that student's opinion, but that student, regardless of whether or not they believe in the religion, is a scholar of religion because they're learning about it.

And therefore, they can have an opinion.

That opinion doesn't have to express their personal belief, but it can just reflect that this view might be stronger than that view, if you're taking those religious views into account.

So you do need to make sure you sort of choose a side and decide which one is maybe more authentic to religion, or religious beliefs or whichever side you just think has the strongest argument.

And in these evaluated questions, you can refer to teachings from Christianity, Islam, and humanism.

So just a reminder in terms of what different exam boards might look like.

The longer questions which are usually worth 12 or 15 marks, will either have the command word evaluate or discuss.

Ask your teacher, which exam board you're sitting I know I say that over and over again, but I definitely have some students the day before the exam, sometimes being clueless about what exam board we're on, even though I've been going on about it so it's worth knowing.

This one fits best with AQA and Edexcel.

And you will see the command words discuss, particularly for Edugas, WJEC and OCR.

So for AQA for example it will normally say evaluate this statement.

So you've got an opportunity now to pause, and I want you to bullet point as many ideas as you can think of about quality of life.

So what is quality of life? And why it might be more important than sanctity of life and who might believe that.

So just a reminder as you are about to write an example paragraph or two for your answer, you need to make sure you're including evidence.

So this could be quotations, or it could be take case studies like Tony Nicklinson.

So even though that question, didn't specifically refer to euthanasia, euthanasia and abortion, they're both going to be relevant to this question.

You need to include evaluations.

So explain why you think a point is weak or strong and why, and you need a clear judgement in your conclusion.

Well done for all of your hard work in this lesson, like I say it's always worth spending some time writing these practise answers and taking onboard that feedback, because that is how we improve.

I hope the advice in this lesson has been helpful, and now you can practise a little bit of what you've learnt in the exit quiz.