2005 - 2006 Fontbonne Hall Academy

Junior Religion Trimester 1

Mrs. Jennifer Izzo Study Guide #1

Course Objectives:

As followers of Jesus, we must live justice and peace. The mandate to put Catholic social teaching into practice is rooted in Jesus’ call to build the Kingdom of God, a vision introduced in the Book of Genesis and described by the prophets. To live justice is to build a life of justice rather than to simply learn about justice. During Trimester One we will begin to examine the necessity of justice and peace within our world.

There aren’t two categories of people.

There aren’t some that were born

to have everything,

leaving the rest with nothing,

and a majority that has nothing

and cannot taste the happiness

that God has created for all.

The Christian society that God want

is one in which we share

the goodness

that God has given for everyone.

Archbishop Oscar Romero

With each new unit students will be assigned activities and well as classwork every day. Please follow the guidelines listed below for all future units.

Learning Activities & Assignments: Students will be assigned handouts and will be expected to take daily notes.

Classwork: Each class will be given a daily question pertaining to the unit and topic. The student will reflect on the topic and question and write the answers in a section of her notebook.

Introduction Class:

We will go over course study guides, review class expectations and spend time reviewing grading policies.

Cycle One

Unit 1 – Scriptures & Justice

Learning Objectives: What is justice? Why is there Suffering in the World? What is human dignity? Define: original sin, grace, What is the consequence of original sin? Jesus & compassion, the scriptures and the concern for justice, scriptures and ethics.

Homework: Read textbook Chapter 1

Suggested Web Links: www.smp.org

Under high school highlight links, these are websites for the entire course.

Cycle Two

Unit 2 – Catholic Social Teaching

Learning Objectives: This unit will addresse the issue of hope within the world. As we begin to discover the meaning of hope within the world we will start to analyze the role of the Church. Most importantly we will learn about the development and major themes of Catholic Social Teachings.

Homework: Read textbook Chapter 2

Suggested Web Links: www.osjspm.org/cst/

Highlight social teaching document a list of Catholic social teaching documents will appear.

Quiz

Cycle Three

Unit 3 – Choosing Life

Learning Objectives: Life is the most basic human right. The Catholic Church is a firm believer in this statement, but why? We will examine the importance of life as it relates to the Catholic Church as well as the entire world. We will discuss issues such as abortion as well as capital punishment.

Homework: Read textbook Chapter 4

Suggested Web Links: www.americancatholic.org/messenger/Apr1996/feature1.asp

Cycle Four

Unit 4 – Working with Dignity

Learning Objectives: We will establish and discuss a Christian worldview of work. Work essentially enables a person to support their family, realize their dignity, promote the common good, and share in God’s creative work. All people have a responsibility and right to work.

Homework: Read textbook Chapter 6

Quiz

Cycle Five

Unit 5 – Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Learning Objectives: What is the “good life”? Why does poverty exist in our world? Why does poverty exist in one of the world’s wealthiest countries? We will examine and discuss these thought provoking questions as we try to understand the existence of poverty in the world.

Homework: Read textbook Chapter 7

Suggested Web Links: www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html

Cycle Six

Unit 6 – Sharing God’s Goodness

Learning Objectives: What does it mean to be wealthy? When is something too much? We will begin to understand the nature of the economy as it relates to the United States as well as a global level. In contrast we will see the model that we live in and compare it to Jesus’ teachings of true happiness.

Homework: Read textbook Chapter 8

Quiz

Cycle Seven

Unit 7 – Respect for the Earth

Learning Objectives: Think about the following questions: How much respect do you have for the earth? How much respect do you have for yourself? In this unit we will begin to examine why there are times when we respect and why there are times we do not.

Homework: Read textbook Chapter 9

Suggested Web Links: www.earthday.org

Cycle Eight

Unit 8 – The Christian Response to Violence

Learning Objectives: Violence is determined as any human action that causes harm to the dignity of another person. It is important to understand why there is violence within our society and if we foster it within our lives.

Homework: Read textbook Chapter 10

Suggested Web Links: www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyreader$36069

www.cathnews.com/news/111/119.php

Test

End of Trimester One!

We need . . . to ensure that every Catholic understands how the Gospel

and Church teaching call us to choose life, to serve the least among us, to

hunger and thirst for justice, and to be peacemakers. The sharing of our

social tradition is a defining measure of Catholic education and formation.

U.S. Catholic bishops, Sharing Catholic Social Teaching

Grading Policy:

Everything counts equally towards your trimester grade. At the end of the year all three trimesters will be averaged to a final year grade.

You will be tested and graded on the following areas:

Tests, Papers and Quizzes

There will be 1 test for Trimester One. There will be three quizzes. All are listed on your study guide. There will be proper review and time to prepare.

There will be one paper for Trimester One. Topics will be discussed and reviewed well before their due date. All papers are required to have a cover page. On the cover page you should type the heading and title of your paper. Do not include the cover page when counting the required number of pages for your paper. Even though this is a religion course I expect all papers to be well written and researched when needed.

Plagiarism & Copying – As is stated in the students handbook. “Copying from authors, websites, encyclopedias, Cliff Notes, etc. without giving credit is considered plagiarism. If evidence of plagiarism exists in the student’s work, the student will be suspended and receiving a failing grade (59) for that trimester.”

If I suspect, work is copied from another student the final grade will be split by both suspected parties.

Participation & Attendance

Each student will be asked to give themselves an evaluation on their participation. When evaluating your participation in my classroom please keep the following criteria in mind: Lateness, attendance, talking without raising your hand, disrupting class. The following are positive ways to achieve the best possible participation grade: come to class first then go to bathroom, raise hand, come to class prepared, show up for school, have assignments completed and be ready and able to discuss them in class. Before progress reports and report card I will ask each student to evaluate their grade out of 100. If I believe the grade should be higher or lower I will make adjustments and inform all students.

For Trimester One there will be 2 participation grades, one which will be assigned near Progress Reports, the other will be assigned closer to Report Cards.

Homework & Classwork

There will be at least one if not more assignment(s) for each unit. Homework also includes having the materials read and being prepared to discuss them in class. In addition there will be work assigned during class time - which must be completed during class time. Any other assignments must be completed at home and turned in on the due date I assign to each section. Please understand that I will not accept any assignments that are not typed. All papers that are handed in must be typed and have the proper heading. When you are absent, please make sure to ask a student for the assignments you missed from your section. Different sections meet on different days and therefore due dates will be slightly different. If you are absent on the day an assignment is due you have one grace day after you return to hand in the assignment. If you do not hand in the assignment I will start to deduct points.

Please note that is you are absent on the day of a test or when an assignment is due. It is your responsibility to see me on the day you return. If you are only absent one day, please have the assignment ready to hand in to me on the day you return. If you are absent for an extended period of time please see me when you return and we will set up a schedule of due dates. Remember if you are absent on the due date you have only one grace day. I will keep track of the dates.

Late Homework, classworks, & assignments

Please note late assignments will be penalized 5 points per day and 15 points for the weekend. Also if we are on holiday or an extended weekend each day is also 5 points. I encourage all students to hand work in a timely fashion. I will not deduct any points for any days where the school closes or the teacher is absent. If this should happen assignments are due at the next class meeting.