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Eastern Religions

Primary Source Texts
Group Discussion

What is a "Primary Source Text"?
A "primary source text" is authored by and/or used by people within the religion. As an example, the Bible is the primary source text for Christianity. Your textbook for this course is an example of a secondary text - it is not used by these religions but, rather, tells about them from an "outsider's" perspective. Primary source texts are (and inform) an "insider's" perspective.*

Throughout the semester you will read a series of four primary source texts and there will be a total of four in-class discussions (one on each text). Each student will lead discussion for one text while participating in discussion of the other three texts. You will work in a group to collaborate in developing questions, leading and summarizing discussion of one text, while participating in discussion of the other three texts led by students in other groups.

Four primary source texts:

• The Bhagavad Gita (Hinduism) (18 chapters)
• Dhammapada (Buddhism) (26 chapters)
• Tao Te Ching (Taoism) (81 chapters)
• The Analects (aka: Lun-Yu) (Confucianism) (20 chapters)

You can purchase your text in the campus bookstore, in any good bookstore in your community (e.g. Borders or Barnes&Noble), or online through Amazon (or other online book sellers). You may also be able to borrow these texts from a public or college library. These texts are also available in various locations on the Web. Just make sure that whatever text you use contains the "full-text" rather than select chapters (I have indicated, above, the number of chapters you should find in each text). If you are unsure of the version/edition you have selected, ask your mentor about it.

Preparation within your group:

After your individual reading of the text, share with each other your overall impressions of the text:

• Did you like it? Why or why not? 

• What most impressed you about this text? What most puzzled you?

• What universal and eternal truths could you see in the text? How could you see these truths applying to your own life and/or our own culture?

• Did you detect any similarities between the text and some other sacred text you may be more familiar with (such as one from your own religion)?

Each group member should prepare a paragraph in writing regarding the above questions and present it to the instructor at the start of their scheduled class discussion.

You may choose to meet one or more times in a “study group” to read and discuss parts of the text together and/or use the Group Space within the course site (Blackboard) where you may “meet” for this preparatory work.

Work with your group members and develop three thought-provoking questions that will help your classmates think critically about the text, how it relates to the religion in question and how the text might relate to them personally.  Please follow the guidelines below as you develop your questions:

•  Create open-ended questions that require a complex answer. If your fellow classmates can answer with a simple “yes” or “no,” please rewrite the question to make it more challenging. Create questions that can have more than one answer.
• At least one of the questions should connect the text to the teachings or practices of the religion it relates to (e.g., what the Gita teaches about the four yogas)
• One of the questions should invite students to analyze or interpret a specific passage you find intriguing or puzzling (each group member should select a different passage to focus on in their discussion group). (e.g. “how might you see this passage relating to your own life?” or “what do you think this might mean?”). Be prepared with several alternative translations (from online sources and/or different editions of the text) to help the discussion group analyze the passage in question.

Discuss your own answers to the questions with your group members prior to the day of class discussion.

You may use any additional resources to help you gain a deeper understanding of the text or even generate ideas for possible questions (bring these resources to the class discussion for ready reference if need be).

• Please share your discussion questions with the instructor at least three days prior to the scheduled date of the class discussion. This way the questions can be reviewed, suggestions made for revision and the questions can be posted to the class discussion board so that your classmates can have a “heads up” as they read and prepare to discuss the text.
• Also provide a bibliography and /or links to web resources and translations you are using to help you understand the text and prepare for discussion

Meanwhile, all students will be reading the text and be ready to discuss it on the specified date.

In class discussion: Each group member will lead a different small group of classmates in discussing the text and responding to the questions the leadership group has developed:

1.  Begin by sharing your overall thoughts on the text and invite the others to respond to your impressions and/or share their own. Take note of their responses and also note any in your group who do not respond or, in their response, seem to not be familiar with the actual content of the text.
2. One by one, pose each of the three questions developed in your leadership group and your own question about a specific passage. Go around the circle and take each person’s answer in turn. Take note of who contributes an answer and how satisfied or impressed you are with the answer each person gives.
3.  After everyone has answered the question, you may share your own answer and/or respond to what someone has said and also invite others in the group to respond to what you or others have said. You may also choose to share the responses from other members of the leadership group (as discussed during the preparation stage).
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each question. Each student should answer at least two questions (out of three) for each text discussion to receive full credit for this assignment.
5. Conclude the discussion with any final thoughts you may have, summarizing what you have heard from the group and inviting any final thoughts from anyone.

Debrief:

Following the small group discussions, the discussion leaders will gather up front to share with each other and then the entire class their summary/synopsis of the group discussions. Note any highlights or insightful comments made in the group discussion. (It should be especially interesting to see how different people in different groups responded similarly or differently to the same questions.)

Peer Evaluation:

• Members of the discussion group will evaluate the effectiveness of the discussion leader:

  •  To what degree was your discussion leader prepared and familiar with the text you are discussing?

  • To what degree did your discussion leader encourage full participation from all members of your group (did s/he specifically invite quiet ones to contribute? Did s/he successfully control more outspoken group members to give others a chance to speak?

  • How thought provoking did you think the questions were?

  • Who, in your group discussion offered some of the more insightful comments (what were these comments)?

• Discussion leaders will have tracked the level of contribution to discussion from those in their discussion group (a tracking sheet will be provided for leaders to use): 

  • Who was most outspoken/excited about the reading (most animated and involved in the discussion)?

  • Who was most quiet?

  • Who had the most insightful comments? 

  • Who asked the most challenging questions? (if anyone did ask questions of the discussion leader or of anyone else in the discussion group)

• Leadership group will also evaluate the level of participation from their group members in preparing for the class discussions:

  • Did each group member share their overall impressions on the text with the group prior to the day of the class discussion?

  • Did each group member help to formulate questions to bring to the class discussion and provide their own responses to those questions?

After the last text has been read and discussed: Each student will write a paragraph discussing:

1. which of the four texts you liked most and why, as well as
2. which you liked least and why.

(this paragraph will be written in class on the day of the last discussion. If you are absent for this discussion, you may e-mail your paragraph)

Grading based on:

• Instructor observation (in person and/or online) of preparation work as well as liveliness of the in-class discussions
• written paragraph of overall impressions of the text you were discussion leader for (demonstrating clear familiarity with the text as well as some depth of thought about it)
• notes taken in discussion and submitted by each leader
• list of resources used by discussion leader (including alternative translation of passages)
• peer evaluations on leadership ability from fellow group members (preparation) as well as discussion group members (discussion leader)
• peer evaluations on discussion participation from discussion leaders for texts you merely discuss but are not the leader for
• Concluding reflective paragraph showing clear familiarity with the texts and some depth of thought on why you liked or disliked each
• Point deduction for:
  • Each text you do not discuss (each student should discuss each of the four texts, one as discussion leader) (-1 grade level for each text not discussed)
  •  Failure to submit concluding reflective paragraph (-1 grade level for missing paragraph)
  • What if you are sick and absent when your group leader role is due? You can still get credit for helping to prepare the discussion (developing questions, discussing the text with your group mates, submitting your reflective paragraph. But you won’t have any evaluations from the classmates you would have led in discussion so you won’t be able to get an A for this project (you won’t have discussed all four texts in the classroom).
  • If you miss a class discussion as participant, you may respond to the questions on the class discussion board for partial credit for that discussion (-half a grade level instead of a full grade level)

*An "outsider" is someone who is not a follower of the religion they discuss; an "insider" is someone who is a follower of the religion they discuss. In other words, we can be informed by someone outside or inside of a given religion. Either may be more or less knowledgeable, more or less biased or objective, and have any number of "agendas" for discussing what they do, that will inform the way they present the material.