The topic chosen here is "Making Difficult Decisions".  The plan is for two lessons.

In using the recalled experience of the student as the primary subject matter, we are starting with events or ideas that are relevant and upon which they have reflected or can now reflect. So the objective chosen here is as follows;

Objective: To explore "stories" the students generate based on their own experience of right and wrong, against the background of some knowledge of the teachings of ‘Abdu'1-Bahá.

Ask the class to tell each other accounts of an incident that they know of involving some kind of difficult decision or moral predicament or wrong behaviour by someone "like them".

EXAMPLE:    "I have a friend who always thinks she is not good enough. Sometimes she thinks that God doesn't love her and she gets fed up and won't come out and do things."

EXAMPLE:   "My brother came home and told me that his best mate was stealing from coats and bags in the cloakroom. The school Head had asked for people who know anything to go and tell her but my brother won't split on his mate. My dinner money got nicked last week. I want to talk to my parents. What should I do?"

EXAMPLE :     "I get so angry because my kid sister always interferes with what I'm doing and creates an argument. I always get the blame because I'm older. My parents don't see what she does half the time. I get so angry I could thump her - quite often it happens. I get mad with myself because I get so angry. It's not fair. I bet ‘Abdu'1-Bahá didn't have a sister like her!"

Discuss some of the incidents - Much work can be done starting with a general discussion on "Making difficult decisions and working out what's the right thing to do." and then going on to ask for examples. Always ask the students for the questions they think should be asked, to develop their questioning abilities. Would it matter if the wrongdoer was much older or much younger? How do we know it is wrong? Why was it wrong? etc.

       Collect the accounts/stories. In pairs, groups or as a whole class, the students can discuss the different stories, if the writer is happy with this, and say how as Bahá'ís they would now deal with the situation. How? Why? How would ‘Abdu'1-Bahá have dealt with the situation? Can we find examples of His dealing with such a situation? Collect some stories about ‘Abdu'1-Bahá that shine some light on issues brought up by the incidents.

Week 2 etc From your knowledge of the stories you can create a whole range of activities from the activities list. Used appropriately - e.g. as an ongoing project for half of the time each Sunday - this will create work for a lengthy period.

      The worksheet could contain some "stories" - fictionalise them if that seems a good idea - and show the students that for creative work they also could turn the incident into a longer piece of fiction.

With many of the activities, the students would do well to work on their own and then in groups of two/four so that they can come to personal and group decisions. If some prefer to work on their own sometimes, e.g. in the creative expression work, then let them. This means, of course, that they need copies of any "stories/worksheets" they are going to examine.

Matching - Decide which items or "stories" were most similar and why?

Contrasting - Which were most different and in what ways?

Ranking - which were the most serious, etc. Ranking different stories bring out issues of right and wrong and students’ different views

Sequencing - which sequence of episodes would make the best film, etc.

For young children, pictures are often used to tell a story; they can be given the separate pictures and asked to sequence them to show a clear consequence of some action.

Exchange - make a Moral Decision Monopoly or some other such game- - I'll exchange you two stolen biscuits for one failed homework!

Labelling - what names would the students give to each category of wrongdoing. What is punishment? Is it necessary? What punishment would they give for a number of "crimes? What is being fair or just?

Role-playing - they could pretend to be a parent much stricter than their own and then one that was much more lenient than their own, etc.

Play-making - create a play for younger students (or adults) to explain a moral predicament and how the hero/heroine comes to a right course of action, etc.

Game-Creating - create a fun game about rights and wrongs to amuse members of the family when on a long car drive, etc. Tell a story about an imaginary country in which most laws were the same except you had to try to steal as much as possible and those who stole very little were punished! Invent 20 ways to stop being angry when you are upset, etc.

Give a talk/presentation  Ask students to prepare a talk on such moral issues.

Interviewing/Consulting/Counselling Work in threes, taking turns to be interviewer, interviewee and observer, and conduct an interview about a topic of "moral' interest. The observer should provide constructive feedback on how well each person did.

Video-making or photo-plays. Make a short video of one of the incidents. Creative use of slides and music can also be used.

Make Music. Any songs on tapes about moral issues?

Make Art Draw &/or paint representations of incidents.

Make Dance or Mime Many potential elements - equilibrium, temptation, being pulled two ways, resolution, etc.