9–11 Why is the Ummah important to Muslims? Background knowledge for teachers Assessment for learning Ummah means community or the worldwide This section shows some of the outcomes achievable by community of Muslims. There is no living leader pupils of different abilities in the 9–11 age range. of the Ummah. Allah is the only one who Muslims follow. The Ummah aims to promote the welfare Description of achievement: of everyone in the Muslim community. The Ummah Expectations I can ... benefits from a shared language – most Muslims learn Arabic so they can read the Qur’an. The Almost all pupils • describe what the Ummah means Ummah supports the worldwide community of in this age group to Muslims Muslims by: Expected for • give some examples of what • supporting one another financially, for instance 9-year-olds difference religious commitments through the giving of Zakah make to some people’s lives • encouraging the members of the community to • describe three different ways in which take care of one another 3 the Ummah supports Muslim people • encouraging people to live the best life they can all over the world and not engage in wrong doing This unit uses interviews with young people to help pupils understand the significance of the Ummah in Many pupils in • make connections between belief the lives of Muslims and how the Five Pillars support this age group in the Ummah and teachings and the Ummah. Expected for sources of wisdom in Islam Through exploring identity and belonging using a 11-year-olds • describe some of the impacts of film clip, engaging in active reading and applying religious commitments on life their learning in thinking and writing tasks, pupils 4 • outline the challenges and benefits will be able to answer the unit question: Why is the of being part of the Ummah in Ummah important to Muslims? Britain today The most able • explain the significance of the pupils in this Ummah to Muslims and express ideas Web support age group about this concept of community W My Life, My Religion has a series of clips that • make connections between aspects of are suitable to use when teaching about Islam 5 the Ummah and similar ideas in other and the Ummah. communities See: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05pc1c9/clips NATRE members and RE Today subscribers can also This unit could help pupils in Scotland to achieve RME download the following from the RE Today website: 2–04b and 2–05a. • a copy of the magazine article on pp.30–31 • a copy of the active reading grid on p.28 • a PowerPoint presentation to support the teaching Links across the curriculum of this unit The activities in this unit support pupils to: • use simple organisational devices in non- narrative material Essential knowledge for pupils • ask questions to improve their understanding of the text Pupils should know: • identify the main ideas drawn from more than • the meaning of the Ummah one paragraph and summarise these • the significance of the Ummah in the lives of Muslims For those using RE Today units of work, this supports 2.8 What difference does it make to • examples of the Ummah in action (e.g. in the believe in Ahimsa, grace, and/or the Ummah? Five Pillars) 26 vity vity ti ti c c A 1 Expressing identity A 2 Active reading Bring in a series of items that express some of the For these activities you will need each pair of pupils multiple identities that you, as a teacher have, to have a copy of the ‘Understanding Ummah’ activity for example: on pp.30–31. Explain to the pupils that you are going • a pile of books to show you are a teacher to find out about the importance of the Ummah to the Muslim community. Ask the pupils to work in pairs. • a photo to show your place as a partner, parent, sibling or child in your family Summarising • something to show your allegiance to a sporting team or musician or other hobby Read the text on p.30 to pupils and ask them to sum up what they have heard in one or two sentences. • something to show a group you belong to such as a book group, running club or choir Next give the text of p.30 to each pair. • a map or similar to express the significance of Ask them to: a particular location to you • underline any words that they think someone would Describe who you are to the pupils and how need to find out more about your identity is made up of many things including • write no more than five sentences that summarise membership of several communities. Explain that what they have read in this unit, we are going to learn about Muslim people and the importance of community to them. Digging deeper Show the opening clip from My Life, My Religion where Give each pair a copy of the two interviews on p.31. Sara has made a short clip expressing something of Ask each pupil to read one interview and summarise who she is. what they have found out using the active reading grid See: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02mwkl7 on p.28. After filling in the thinking frame, pupils explain Ask pupils to work in pairs to write about or draw four to their partner what they found out from their interview objects that show who Sara is, what is important to her and identify and describe similarities and differences. and what communities she belongs to. Ask them to meet Share their understanding of the significance of the up with another pair to present and justify their choices. Ummah for Muslims. How would the pupils express their own identity in 90 seconds? Which communities do they belong to and Defining how does that affect what they do? Ask pupils to work Go back to the words they underlined on p.30. individually to create a 90 second film or script Underline any words that require defining on p.31. of their identity. Using information gained, any books or additional resources, create a glossary of terms that could be added to the magazine article. vity ti c A 3 Your community As a class, identify between three and five features of the Ummah. Discuss what the purpose of each of these features is. Record their ideas in a table; Column 1 titled ‘Feature of the Ummah’ and Column 2 titled ‘Purpose of this feature’. Explain to your pupils that they, like Sara and Bilal and Fizzah, belong to one or more than one community. For some of them this might be a religious community but all of them belong to the school community. Ask the pupils to think about the features the class recorded about the Ummah. Can these features be found in your school? If this feature is found in school, how does it help the school community? If the feature is not found, how could it improve your school’s sense of community? Ask pupils to record their ideas around a picture representing your school. 27 vity vity ti ti c c A Five Pillars of Islam A Writing to improve 4 and the Ummah 5 understanding Before embarking on this activity, pupils will Below are two suggested writing activities. You can either choose need to have learnt about the Five Pillars the writing style that links with the learning you are doing in of Islam. If this is not something you have English or choose a writing activity suitable for individual pupils. taught about before, the pupils will need to Alternatively, you could create a different activity linked to the be introduced to them first. You might look at writing style you are studying in English. Both of these tasks allow Opening Up Islam pp.25–29 for this. Remind pupils to apply what they have learnt about the Ummah and the pupils of the Five Pillars of Islam: apply their learning to the different writing tasks. The second task • Shahahdah, declaration of faith may be suitable for less able or younger pupils. • Salah, prayer Newspaper article • Zakah, giving of money Ask pupils to write an article about the Ummah to be placed in a local newspaper or magazine. In the article they must include: • Sawm, fasting • an explanation of what the Ummah is and what it means • Hajj, pilgrimage to Makkah to Muslims Arrange pupils to work in pairs. Give each • two or three examples of the Ummah in action in the local area pair a copy of p.29 either as a whole or cut up into separate cards. Each card describes • technical language with definitions, referring to their glossary something about how following that pillar • key features of a newspaper article reflects being part of the Ummah. A postcard describing the Ummah Firstly, ask pupils to identify which of the Ask pupils to write a postcard to Sara, Fizzah or Bilal thanking descriptions relates to which of the Five Pillars them for helping them to understand the Ummah through their film of Islam, either by sorting the cards or writing or article. In the postcard they must include: the names of the pillars on the sheet. There are • a description of what the Ummah is two cards per pillar. • examples they have seen or learnt about that show the Ummah Next, ask pupils to choose which three of all in action the quotes relate most to the Ummah and write a paragraph to explain their ideas. • technical language with definitions, referring to their glossary Activity 2: Active reading The three most important things about the Ummah: Why was the Ummah important to Bilal/Fizzah? Name of interviewee: Three important words and their meanings: Three questions you would like to ask: 28 Photocopiable by purchasing institutions Activity 4: The Ummah in the Five Pillar cards W One way I feel part of the Ummah is Jummah prayers on Friday bring the by sharing one belief that ‘There is no whole community together.