Lesson 4. Add the Places

Step A. Prepare the Space

Post the 3Rs Oath. Reconstruct the grid and set aside the dry erase markers. Set aside the 3Rs fill-in-the-blank Oath

Step B. Recite the Oath

Motivate: Gather students. Remind them that today is the fourth 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: Ask 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. 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, the symbols, and the people.
Reinforce: Refresh their memory about the purposes of the last exercise. First, identify the internal diversity within religions––not everyone is the same. Second, people’s identities are expressed in both visible and invisible ways.

Step E. Add the Places

The purposes of this next exercise are two-fold. First, build students’ vocabulary about the diverse places where religious people gather. Second, reveal that every place presented is in the United States, teaching students that America is religiously diverse.

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

Which religion do all of these places share?
What are the names of these kinds of places?
Which of these places are in the United States? Invite students to use the dry erase markers to draw a dot on the image to indicate which of these places are in the United States?
What do you notice about the images?
What makes you say that?
What else do you want to know?

Share: Ask each group to share with the whole class the answers to the first three questions. Reveal the point of this lesson. All of the images are of places in the United States. America is religiously diverse in both the population and the religious places where people gather.

Build: Invite students to organize the places on the fourth row of the grid, as follows:

Step F. Recite the Oath

Reflect: End the lesson by explaining that currently and throughout history, houses of worship have been targets of hate crimes and vandalizations. These are criminal acts. Stress the importance that everyone has the right to practice their religion alone or in groups. Every person has the right to organize houses of worship.
Recite: Congratulate the students for completing the third of the five lessons toward earning their patch. 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.