Name: ______Period:______

Comparative Religions Project:

Exploring Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Independent Assignment for the Spread of Islam Unit

Due: December 8, 2006 by 1:30 P.M.

In this project you will research and report on a little bit about each of the three monotheistic religions that we have learned about: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This assignment is not intended to promote or discourage any particular religion. Religion and history are connected, so we are studying religions to understand history and how the world is organized. Your assignment should be a respectful and neutral representation of different traditions.

Countless books have been written on each of these traditions, so you are not expected to provide a complete picture of the religion. That would be an impossible task. You are expected to give some information about the following topics. You should gather and present enough information to be able to synthesize the most important concepts and significant similarities and differences.

Sections: Your project should include the following sections:

·  Origins of each of the religions.

·  How the religions spread and the experience of early believers.

·  Some of the most important (fundamental) beliefs of each religion.

·  Some significant practices/traditions/customs for each religion.

·  A synthesis (evaluation) of the similarities and differences you see among the religions.

Format: You may choose to present your information in a traditional paper form, or you may find it easier and more visually interesting to organize it in a chart. For example, you could turn your chart into a poster. (Do NOT create a huge poster board because construction paper should work.) Either way, it needs to include visuals/decorations representing each of the three religions. Keep in mind the specific styles and rules of art that some of the traditions have.

Length: People write whole books on any of these topics for each of these religions individually, so there is a lot that you could write about. However, this is NOT expected to be a college length project. After all, you only have about three weeks to do it. So, pick and choose a few of the things you have learned to share for each section. Indeed, you could accomplish this assignment with a paragraph for each section about each religion. You can certainly go into greater detail and you will earn more points.

Resources: Your first step for resources should be your notes from class. We learned a little bit about Judaism in the Ancient Civilizations unit and a little bit about Christianity in the Rise and Fall of Rome unit. Now we’re learning about Islam. Start with your previous class work as a resource. You will need other resources too. You may use books from the classroom, check books out from our library, or look on the Internet. This is an independent project, so you will need to do most of your research outside of class time. You may also consult an expert. If you know someone who represents one of these religions, you may talk to him or her about fundamental beliefs or customs.

There are links from both Ms. Loo’s website and our Library’s Class Support. Here are a few of websites to get you started if you want to do Internet research:

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/religion/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/world_religions/index.shtml

http://www.al-islam.org/

http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/explore/religion.html

http://www.uri.org/kids/world.htm

http://www.jewfaq.org/

http://www.mrdowling.com/605westr.html

References: Your project MUST include a bibliography showing all the resources you used. You are not required to use a certain format of bibliography, but you should include all of the following information:

·  For books (author, title, publication year, pages you got information from)

·  For internet (website address, website title, author (often not a person, but an institution))

·  For person-to-person conversations (“conversation with”, name of person, and date)

·  For other (do the best you can to identify with relevant information)

Grading: There are 30 points possible. Points will be earned for the following:

8 pts / for turning in a relevant assignment
9 pts / for having each section properly answered for each religion
4 pts / for depth of examples and support
3 pts / for attractive and appropriate visuals/decorations
3 pts / for proper mechanics (grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.)
3 pt / for bibliography
30 pts / TOTAL POSSIBLE points