In-course Assignment/Projects

In 2500 words (5 projects at 500 words), please respond to any five of the first eight major sections of this course (“Introduction” – “Revelation”)—your choice. Submit this assignment as a Word document.

NB: Non-verbal responses (art, music, dance, &c.) require an “artist’s statement” of 150-200 words, rather than a 500-word response. Submit this assignment as a Word document.

Here are a few ideas for projects:

1. Respond to the idea that as teachers we should trust the text, our students, and the process. What will this look like in your classes? What will be your greatest personal challenge (i.e., apart from the students)? (NB: This could be addressed via essay, poem, letter, journal/diary entry, short story, &c.)
2. Write a one-page letter to your students and their parents explaining why you chose the biblical version for your class.
3. Discuss the validity of reading and studying the Bible as a ‘classic’ text, or jsutify this approach to the parents of your students.
4. Compose your own version of “On the Nature of This Course” for your students and their parents.
5. Choose a biblical story and identify the kinds of information in it, using the categories in Grimes.
6. Read a biblical story, close your Bible, and rewrite it in your own words, then compare your version to the original; how do they differ? Can you discern why?
7. Write a work of Bible “fan fiction” from the viewpoint of either a biblical character or an imaginary character. Compare your version to the original; can you justify your version as “imagination controlled by the text”? Briefly* describe how you will offer your students background information (culture, history, geo-politics, &c.) about biblical stories (in general) or one in particular without lecturing, and so that it will feel to them like part of the conversation, rather than information “from on high”.
8. Choreograph and video-record a dance or ballet, or write a song or skit based on a biblical story. Paint (draw, sketch, sculpt, &c.) a scene from a biblical story, and then explain how you decided which moment to portray, and why you painted (&c.) it as you did. How does your adapting the story change it?
9. Briefly describe how you will introduce students to biblical poetry, especially those who are jaded by their experience of, e.g., “poems as worksheets” (“Identify the metaphors”) or “poems as puzzles” (“Write this poem as a single sentence”).
10. Briefly describe how you will use poetry of your students’ native language—and which poems you might use—to help ease them into world of biblical poetry.
11. Briefly describe how you might introduce background materials in ways that will help your students read the prophets, gospels, epistles, or Revelation more astutely—without lecturing(!).