Lesson video

Hello, I'm miss Kendrick.

And welcome to this lesson in which we're going to be doing examination practise on the Christian practises unit.

We're going to start by looking at some low value questions.

We're going to do some quickfire questions to warm up our brains.

We're going to look at some other low mark value questions as well.

We're going to look at two types of explain questions.

We're going to look at German explaining and also explaining using some evidence.

And then we're going to be looking at evaluate questions as well.

In this lesson, we're going to try and be really broad and make sure that the advice I give fits with lots of different examples.

So, I will talk about examples a little bit as we go along, but you do need to talk to your teacher and make sure you know which Exam board you're on and how many marks each type of question is worth and what your teacher advises you to include.

I'm going to be focusing on how we explain the subject knowledge and things like that rather than how to make sure you can get exactly the right number of marks for a particular Exam board.

So before we get started, you need to make sure you have a pen or pencil, a different coloured pen or pencil and some paper because writing down our answers and making corrections to answers is going to be really, really important in this lesson.

I would always advise that you write down the question you're answering as well, so that when you look back at your work, you'll know exactly what you were aiming for, exactly what kind of question you are answering as well.

So, before we write anything down, we are going to start with some quick fire questions, So let's get going.

What is the Holy spirit traditionally represented as in Christian art? One, two, three.

A dove.

And it's also often represented as a fire as well from the story of Pentecost.

Which of the explanations below is the best description of God in traditional Christianity? So that there is one God in three persons, the father, the son, and the Holy spirit, all the other ones look quite similar, but they've all been sort of rejected over time in church history.

There are some Christian denominations that may prefer some of those definitions, but mainstream traditional Christianity will go with, there is one God in three persons, the father, the son, and the Holy spirit.

What was miraculous about Jesus' birth in the Gospel story? And you are looking for two answers here.

So we've got that Mary was a Virgin, and also that it was predicted by a prophet, prophet Isaiah.

There's lots of expectation.

Christians believe in the old Testament about the coming Messiah.

They believe lots of prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus' birth and life.

What is the name of the events in which the Angel Gabriel told Mary that she would become pregnant? It is The Annunciation.

Epiphany, remembers when the wise men came to visit Jesus.

We have single Christmas and Advent is the season leading up to Christmas.

Where was Jesus born According to the Gospels? He was born in Bethlehem.

Who did a host of angels announced the news to? To some Shepherds who are watching their flocks nearby.

which word means "to take on flesh" and shows the Christian belief that Jesus is God in human form? So the answer is Incarnation.

True or false: Christians traditionally believed that The Son came into existence in the nativity story.

That is false.

So traditionally Christians believe that Jesus is a full member of the Trinity, that means he's fully God and therefore he would have the quality of being eternal.

Christians believe that it was Jesus' birth as a human, that is the incarnation, but that Jesus, as the son as a person of the Holy spirit, pre-existed this story of Jesus's birth.

So we're now going to test ourselves on answering a couple of these questions without those options.

So we're going to start with.

Name two Christian festivals.

This question is really straightforward because you don't need to write a full sentences.

You can just write the names of the festivals.

So I did say, I advise you to write down the question, but it will only take you a very short amount of time to answer it.

So you can pause the video now and write down your answer.

Please make sure you've got another coloured pen ready for corrections.

The reason why we do this is so that when you look back at your work, when you were revising, you can see clearly what you already knew and what you need to add to your knowledge.

So then you can easily decide what you need to focus on when you revise.

It's not so that you just have lots of red pen or green pen on your work.

It's a process to help you know, what you need to commit to memory a little bit more.

So, two Christian festivals are Christmas and Easter.

These are the two that we focused on and our unit on Oak.

You could also have some other things like Epiphany or the Pentecost would also be festivals as well.

But Christmas and Easter are the main ones that we looked at.

Now that we've looked at short answer questions.

We are going to look at how we're going to explain and it's a bit more detail.

So here, we've got the question.

Explain two ways in which Christians practise Eucharist.

Please always read the question more than once, even if it's a straight forward one.

Now, this question doesn't ask for two contrasting ways or two similar ways, but that's what you want to be including here is different denominations.

Make sure you're not repeating yourself twice.

And so if there is a strong similarity and you're basically saying the same thing twice, try and bring in something that's a bit different.

Before we answer this question, I'm going to give you an opportunity to think about what you can remember from the lessons on Eucharist.

So can you remember what different denominations do? What happens in a Eucharist service.

So, here I've got my map with a few different ideas and I focused on three different denominations, because those are the ones that we looked at in this unit.

So we've got Baptists, Roman Catholics and Anglicans, and each of these different types of Christians believe something slightly different about the Eucharist and its meaning.

And this is going to affect how they practise the Eucharist, in terms of what's going to happen in the services.

So, Roman Catholics believe that Eucharist is a sacrament and they believe in Transubstantiation.

So, sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace.

So they believe that something is changing in a person's soul when they take the bread and wine.

And transubstantiation is the belief that the bread and wine are transformed into Jesus's body and blood, the substance changes.

And therefore, they would have a very formal and a very Holy Eucharist service because they believe that Jesus is present in the bread and wine.

That's called the host.

So they're going to treat the bread and wine with a huge amount of respect once it's been blessed, consecrated, and they're going to be very careful about who takes the bread and wine, because it would be disrespectful for somebody who didn't understand the Eucharist or who didn't believe in the Eucharist to take the bread and wine.

And in Baptist services, it's more focused on being a remembrance meal.

So it's still a critically important Baptists, but they have different beliefs about it to the Roman Catholics.

So at the Baptist church, anyone can at lead communion any church member, and the bread and wine are usually distributed along rows.

And the wine is usually put in some really little individual cups so that everyone can take the bread and wine at once showing the unity in the church.

Whereas in a Roman Catholic or Anglican church, everyone goes up to the front to where the priest is to receive it from the priest.

So, I've told you some extra information.

Now you're going to have an opportunity to pause and write down anything that you're missing.

And then you're going see if you can write your answer, So here is my mode of answer for you, I focused on Roman Catholics and Baptists because I was able to say some very different things about their services.

And show what I know in terms of the variety in Christianity.

So Roman Catholics practise Eucharist by preparing the bread and wine on an alter.

This is because they believe in transubstantiation.

And the belief that the bread and wine really become Jesus' body and blood, so they can take parts in his sacrifice.

So the idea of sacrifice links to the bread and wine being prepared on an altar.

Baptists practise the Lord's supper by distributing the bread and wine along rows.

This is so that everyone could take the bread and wine at the same time, showing that the church members are all one body.

If your answer is slightly different, then that's fine.

You might have talked about Anglican Christians or you might focus on a slightly different practise from Roman Catholics or Baptists.

The things I want you to make sure you have included are, I want you to make sure you've mentioned a denomination specifically because this shows your knowledge and it's going to give real clarity to your answer rather than just saying some Christians.

Secondly, I want you to make sure you've got clear points.

So, I've got mark points in purple and that you have explained that point in more detail.

And details going to be really important here.

We want to avoid being vague.

We want to be really specific about what these different types of Christians believe about the Eucharist.

You can copy down my module answer if you find that helpful, or you can use it as a guide to add to your own, either way, you can pause video now and do that.

So next question, we're going to explain two reasons why Christians evangelise.

So, we're focusing on why here, that doesn't mean that you're not going to include how they evangelise, cause that's going to be useful for your explanation or an example.

But you need to make sure you're answering the question so that you are giving clear reasons why Christians evangelise.

And you should refer to scripture in your answer.

So, this is where you might need to think carefully about what scripture you know, that could support these reasons.

So I'm going to give you a little bit of time to pause and write down everything you can remember about evangelism, whether or not you think it's going to be relevant to this answer, It's always good to do that so it can jog your memory.

So, here's some information I've written down about evangelism and again, in the moment, you can pause the video and add to your own notes.

So we've got the definition of evangelism here, which is spreading the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness.

So personal witness is basically telling somebody what a person has experienced in their faith.

Just like you might have a witness to a marriage or a crime or something like that.

It's someone saying, oh, I've witnessed God work in my life, and therefore I'm Christian.

So that is what personal witness is.

There are different approaches to evangelism.

So there could be somebody just being open about their faith, or you could have someone who feels a calling on their life to go out into the world and spread the gospel as their job.

And that's who a missionary is.

Evangelism might include doing things like translating the Bible into different languages, so people can read the Bible in their own tongue.

We've got the Great Commission as evidence.

So this is where Jesus said before the Ascension go into all nations baptising in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy spirit preaching the gospel and baptising in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy spirit.

We've got the idea of sharing good news.

So the word Evangelism comes from the Greek sort of term for good news, and it's the idea of spreading the good news of Jesus' sacrifice.

And we've got links to judgement as well because some Christians believe that only Christians will go to heaven and therefore they will be really keen to make sure that their friends and their families know the gospel message so that they can go to heaven.

I've got two quotations for you, cause I'm incredibly nice and I'm going to help you out.

So firstly, we've got the great commission here and "Go, then to all peoples everywhere and make them "my disciples: baptise them in the name of the father, "the son and the Holy spirit." So, pause the video now and get this down so you can use it in your answer.

And the second quotation we've got, "For God loves the world "so much that he gave his only son, "so that everyone who believes in him may not die "but have eternal life." So, this links to the belief that the gospel message is good news.

The idea that God loves all people.

And we've also got the belief in here about judgement because it says, "Whoever believes in him may not die, "but have eternal life." So again, pause so you can get down your quotation.

And now it's time to give the task a go.

So see if you can write a nice full explanation of why Christians evangelise.

I have you gone okay with that question.

Now this is my sort of example answer, again if you write it in slightly different way that's fine.

But I want you to make sure you've got all three parts.

So this is one paragraph, you will need to cause it's asking for two reasons to be explained.

And in each paragraph you will need at point some evidence and an explanation of that.

So this is my example.

One reason Christians evangelise is because they believe it was commanded by Jesus.

For example, in the great commission, Jesus said, "Go then to all peoples everywhere and make them make disciples." Therefore many Christians believe is then duty to spread the gospel message.

So if you need to pause the video now and add to your answer, make sure you've got all those three parts in your first paragraph and then we'll look at my second paragraph.

Another reason why Christian evangelise is because they want to share the good news of the Gospel.

For example, in the Bible, it says , "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

." Many Christians will want to share this good news with their loved ones So they can also know the love of God.

Again you could use a different part of this quotation and focus on the belief in only Christians having eternal life through belief in Jesus and focus on judgement as well that some questions have.

So, next thing we're going to look at is Evaluate questions and these ones can be tricky in terms of interpreting them and making sure you're answering the specific question, but also they are longer.

They do require you to spend about 15 minutes or so writing.

And I tend to find that my students at the beginning will spend longer than 15 minutes on them because they're practising and learning how to answer them.

So this question we're looking at is, "There is no need for Christians to go to church if they can worship at home." So again, you need to have reasons for and against the statement.

So who's going to disagree and who's going to agree.

So you can say it's some Christians or if you think a specific denomination is going to have a particular point of view, then refer to them.

You need to use what you've learnt.

So again, focus on information that we've looked at in the practises units do not guess or make things up.

I often get up for this question actually, students will say, some Christians will not want to worship in church because they might be embarrassed.

And that's not a very good reason because the reality is, if all the Christians are there and they're all worshipping together, people aren't really going to be embarrassed because they're all doing the same thing.

So, if you're not used to going to church, if you don't go to church, if you're not religious, perhaps you might think it was embarrassing because it's something that you've not done before.

But a lot of Christians aren't really going to question it or aren't really going to be embarrassed by it.

Instead, we need to focus on religious teachings about worship and about whether they should be worshipping with one another in community or whether they should be worshipping by themselves.

And that's going to give a much stronger answer than saying someone might be embarrassed because what we want to know is Christian teaching.

What is the Christian expectation on worship? You need a conclusion and that's not just summing up what you've said that is giving a clear judgement.

And because this question is in the Christian practises units, you only need to talk about Christian beliefs and teachings.

You don't need to talk about any other religion because it's not going to be relevant to this question.

And what you're going to do now is you're going to pause and I want you to just really point down anything you can remember about worship and about public and private worship, different types of worship, like Eucharist or prayer or singing, things like that.

Get down as many ideas as you can and start thinking about what can be used to support the statement and what can be used against the statement.

So, here's my bullet points.

They might be similar to yours or slightly different.

On the agree side, we've got the idea that private worship is important for building a personal relationship with God.

And the fact that many acts of worship can be done privately like prayers on worship and meditation on the Bible.

And some Christians might say that they can focus more on listening to God when they're alone.

That there's less distractions.

However, lots of Christians are going to disagree with this statement.

For example, Roman Catholics are going to say that it's necessary to partake in sacraments such as Eucharist and baptism and confession.

And they might even say that those are more important than worshipping at home by yourself because these are the ones which make it possible for a person to receive forgiveness.

Aside from sacraments, many Christians would argue that church community is vital.

And again, there's an expectation in the Bible that people are part of the church community, that they're not Christians isolated, but they're Christians together.

So, pause the video and add some of these ideas to your list.

So just before we start writing your answer, just remember you need to add evidence.

So any quotations you can remember from this unit, jot them down quickly and do some in your answer.

Make sure you're evaluating and for this question, often the questions I would say that it doesn't really matter what side you agree with.

On this one, one side is stronger than the other in terms of what most Christians would believe based on Christian teachings.

So think carefully about which side is going to be stronger.

You could argue for the other side, if that's your opinion, but we want to try and be authentic to Christian belief and teaching.

And that means we want to reflect it.

So if it's going to be the case that most Christians are going to agree or disagree, then you need to be landing on that side, really because it's going to just be the stronger and the easiest side to support.

And finally, you need a clear judgement in your conclusion.

So pause the video and start writing your answer.

Well done for all of your hard work in this lesson.

I hope that those examination style questions are a little bit less intimidating there, and that you've got a good idea about how to approach them, practising them is one of the most important things you can do is how we learn how to apply our knowledge.

Obviously you do need to practise the knowledge first, which is why the lesson before this in the scheme of work is revision, but this is how you will be tested in an examination.

So the quicker you get down, how you answer these questions, then the easier your life is going to be when it comes to your examinations.

But well done for all of your hard work, I'm sure your hands ache from a whole of writing and that's the way it should be.

And now you can finish video and do your exit quiz.