1. The Values Game © Copyright RE Today Services 2015

2. This download resource, free to REtoday magazine subscribers and NATRE members, is copyright ©RE Today Services and may be used in your own school. Any other use is by written permission. © Copyright RE Today Services 2015

3. This download resource for Summer 2015 from REtoday supports the article “The Values Game” on pp.38–39 of the magazine. Introduce the ideas to your pupils, starting with the next slide. The strategy provides for highly structured speaking and listening, and uses the thinking skills of ranking, sorting and ordering to explore ethics and values. A simplified version could be made for younger pupils: a smaller pyramid, and a less complex set of values to classify works well with 7–11s. © Copyright RE Today Services 2015

4. What would you put at the top of the Values Pyramid? What would you put in the dustbin? © Copyright RE Today Services 2015

5. The Values Game: A classic RE learning idea This powerful learning tool for pupils in moral education and RE was first devised in the mid-1990s. This version enables any teacher to work on the values agenda today. What did Jesus value? What about the Buddha? Suggestions: Jesus’ values: God / Love / Forgiveness / Integrity / Friends Buddha’s values: Compassion / Awareness / Truth / Enlightenment / Detachment Your values? © Copyright RE Today Services 2015

6. Aims of the game: You will learn to: use the language of values, ethics and morality better, describing, explaining and analysing your views and the views of others speak and listen to examine views about values in depth think more deeply about what really matters in life develop critical and empathic skills with regard to examples from religion and belief. © Copyright RE Today Services 2015

7. How to play the Values Game (these rules are quite flexible) Blow up the gameboards to size A3 and make a set of cards for each group of four learners. Cut them up and put them in an envelope. Learners work in a team to discuss and rank each value. Each person takes five cards from a face-down pile of the cards. Play in turn: ask the person on your left: “Where would you put this card?” Discuss. [This rule is not flexible – it’s very important!] Place it where you think it belongs for you after hearing the discussion (it’s your card: it goes where you say!). When it’s your turn, you can move one and place one – always ask the person to your left what they would do. When you have used your first five cards, take one more in turn and carry on. The dustbin is for cards you think are worthless. When the grid is full, then play on round for four more turns each, just moving cards. Discuss as you go. © Copyright RE Today Services 2015

9. Following on... Ask pupils: which were your top five values? Why? How can you justify the choice? What would Bart Simpson, Taylor Swift, Wayne Rooney or Harry Potter choose? Study scriptures from different traditions that express the values of that religion. What would be the top values for Moses, Guru Nanak or the Buddha? Can you use texts to back that up? What would they put in the dustbin? And what five values does our society need for the next ten years? Why? Consider together: where do our values come from? Consider together: how can a society where people value different things be united? Set some extended writing: how can the values of two different religions be justified? How do you justify your own values? © Copyright RE Today Services 2015