Leaving Certificate students look at Jesus in Contemporary Culture. However, I think this is a section that we could utilize with younger students. I think looking at Jesus in art, music and other things they can relate to will really help the students to engage with Jesus, especially for students who have trouble talking about and understanding Jesus. Below is a presentation that I used with 5th year students to discuss Jesus in contemporary culture.
I split the students into groups and gave them the words of the songs, the audio of the songs and images of Jesus in art. I then gave them a class to discuss the images and music in their groups. I listened to what they thought the images and words said about Jesus first, before I told them anything about them. They then researched the images and words of the songs and presented them to the class as minor projects. The students learned more by researching because they had to find out the information for themselves. Then after they had their own information about each song and image, I discuss them further and ensured that they had the vital proponents of information about each one. They then had to research Jesus in another contemporary song and present them to the class. This helped the class to develop a collection of songs that incorporated Jesus and his message in some way.
The students engaged with this on a deeper level with the topic by doing it themselves, rather than me just telling them what they need to know. It was a powerful way to help them understand Jesus in contemporary culture.
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