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ISSUES: Title
Assignments
Assignments
Brainstorming
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In small groups, discuss what you know about marriage in
the UK.
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What is the difference between marriage and civil
partnership?
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What is a humanist ceremony?
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What are the options for same-sex couples who want
to get married?
Research
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Choose a religion and research its marriage traditions.
Create a presentation that explains and demonstrates your
chosen religion’s marriage customs. Try using pictures,
music or video to make your presentation exciting and
engaging.
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Research the British Humanist Association and create a
presentation explaining their core principles and beliefs.
Include information about Humanist wedding ceremonies.
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Research marriage traditions in a country other than your
own. Create a PowerPoint presentation to explore these
traditions and share with your class.
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Create a map of the world and colour code each country
according to their laws surrounding same-sex marriage.
Design
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Choose one of the articles from this book and create an
illustration that highlights the key themes of the piece.
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Design a leaflet that explains the legal rights of cohabiting
couples.
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Design a poster that illustrates five of the most popular
wedding traditions in the UK.
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Design a website containing advice and information for
parents who are struggling to talk to their children about
the issue of divorce. You could use the articles on pages
36, 37 and 38 for inspiration about the kinds of things that
might be useful.
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Create a campaign that will raise awareness of the issue
of child marriage. Your campaign could take the form
of television ads, banners that would appear on social
networking sites such as Facebook, or even posters on the
London Underground network. Produce a campaign plan
and samples.
Oral
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“Pre-nuptual agreements are only necessary for rich
people.” Debate this statement as a class, with half of
you arguing in agreement and half arguing against.
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In small groups, discuss whether you think couples
should be allowed to have a church wedding if they
do not have any religious beliefs. Why do you think
people who aren’t religious want to be married in
church? Make notes on your discussion and share with
the rest of your class.
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In small groups, discuss the difference between forced
marriage and arranged marriage.
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Divide into small groups and script a radio show in
which the host is asking listeners ‘What is the point of
getting married? Why not just live together instead?’
One member of your group should play the part of the
radio host and the others should call-in to voice their
opinions.
Reading/writing
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Write a one-paragraph definition of theword ‘marriage’
and then compare it with a classmate’s.
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Read the article
Europe’s marriage gap between rich and
poor
on page two and write a summary for your local
paper.
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Read the article
“Some people don’t like the phrase man
and wife”…
on page eight and write a bullet point
summary of the author’s key points.
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Write a blog post exploring whether you believe
humanist weddings should be legally binding in
England, as they are in Scotland.
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In pairs, imagine you are in a long-term relationship
and draft a Living Together Agreement. Think carefully
about the kinds of things you would include and how
best to approach them without hurting your partner’s
feelings.
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Write a blog post explaining the difference between
civil partnership and same-sex marriage. In your post,
you should also consider whether civil partnership
should be offered to heterosexual couples as well as
homosexual couples.
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Write a blog post arguing in favour of ‘no-fault divorce’.
