Lesson 3. Add the People

Step A. Prepare the Space

Consider allowing 40-minutes for this session.
Post the 3Rs Oath. Reconstruct the grid. Set aside the dry erase markers. Set aside the 3Rs fill-in-the-blank Oath

Step B. Recite the Oath

Motivate: Gather students and remind them that today is the third of the five lessons to earn the 3Rs Ambassadors Patch.
Remind: Briefly explain why it is so urgent for them to become 3Rs Ambassadors to help prevent religious-based bullying.
Unite: Invite the students to recite aloud and at once the 3Rs Oath.

Step C. Follow-Up

Check-In: Briefly follow-up with the students. Check-in with them about anything that arose from the last session. Share anything you learned in response to the questions they previously asked.

Step D. Play the Visible & Invisible Game

Enact: Form a circle. Invite students to step into the center circle if they are wearing a long-sleeved shirt; wearing earrings; has brown eyes; born outside the U.S.; loves Brussels sprouts; plays an instrument; has a sibling; speaks more than one language; as been on an airplane. Briefly discuss how many of our identities––the things that make us who we are or what we like––are both visible and invisible. Ask students to give examples of how someone’s religious identity may be visible. Ask students to give examples of how someone’s religious identity may be invisible.

Step E. Review the Grid

Review: Summarize what students learned when constructing the grid from the last lesson. Refresh their memory of the names of the religions and the symbols.

Step F. Add the People

The purposes of this next exercise are two-fold: first, to identify the internal diversity within religions––not everyone is the same; and second, people’s identities are expressed in both visible and invisible ways.

Explore: Break the class into small groups. Divide the six people-cards among the groups (e.g., three groups with two cards each). Then ask them the following questions:

Who is religious? Use the dry erase marker to indicate whether you think they are religious.
What religion do you think they identify with?
What do you notice about the people?
What makes you say that?
What else do you want to know?

Reveal. Share the point of this lesson: every person on a single card identifies with the same religion. Whether the person is wearing a cross or not, all the people on that card identify as Christians. Whether the person is wearing a hijab or not, all the people on that card identify as Muslim.

Organize: Invite the students to organize the photos on the third row of the grid, as follows.

Compare: Ask students about the similarities and differences of the visible ways people express their identities. Give special attention to the head-coverings across traditions.

Step G. Recite the Oath

Reflect: End the lesson by explaining that people are bullied for many reasons. People are bullied because of their clothing, or how they wear their hair, or whether they wear a religious symbol. People are also bullied because of their invisible religious identities.
Motivate: Congratulate the students for completing the third of the five lessons toward earning their 3Rs Ambassador Patch.
Recite: Close the lesson by taking down the 3Rs Oath and holding up the fill-in-the-blank Oath. Invite the students to read it aloud and together.