Lesson: Design a job advertisement for a monk at David’s monastery at Vallis Rosina

Learning Objectives:
To enable pupils to become aware that religion is concerned with peoples’ attempt to find meaning to life.
To find out about the habits and customs of monks and appreciate that some peoples’ actions and behaviour are influenced by their religious beliefs.

English: "Pupils should be given opportunities to write for varied purposes. They should be taught to use writing as a means of developing, organising and communicating ideas."

Resources:
Copies of job advertisements from a local newspaper, information and illustrations of monastic life, examples of pupils’ work in this project, paper / exercise books to record initial ideas, art materials for ‘best copy’ poster or produce a best copy using a computer.

Plan:
Look at job advertisements found in local paper (you could teach an English lesson on this beforehand so that the RE lesson focuses on the content rather than the skills needed to design an advertisement). Discuss what is common to all of the advertisements. What should be included in a job advertisement?

Discuss general requirements of a job advertisement for a monk at David’s monastery e.g.

Title of job: Monk
Place of work: Vallis Rosina
Type of person needed: Christian, hard-working, caring, ascetic, honest.
Type of work: helping, praying, working in fields, long hours of silence
Perks of the job: Learn to read and write, work alongside Dewi, possibility of travelling . . .

After brainstorming ideas, pupils can draw up their own advertisement. It may be beneficial for some pupils to work together. Encourage pupils to make their advertisements bold and eye-catching. (See examples of pupils' work for further ideas).

After the initial ideas have been worked on, the pupils could prepare a ‘best copy’ using art materials or a computer.

Plenary:
Choose some pupils to read out their advertisement.
The finished work could be placed in a class book or put on a displayboard. Encourage pupils to read each others work.

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