The whole course, used at once. One town, one decision: should the school board offer a world-religions elective? Frame the question, weigh a parent’s letter, a lawyer’s memo and a student survey, state the other side fairly, and make a recommendation you could defend in front of people who disagree. Study cards, hints, a practice quiz at three levels, and four workshop activities.
Path one starts at a CONCLUSION and goes looking for support. Every source is judged by whether it helps.
Start from a QUESTION, not from your conclusion. Inquiry can change your mind; advocacy cannot. Write so that a pastor, an imam’s daughter and an atheist engineer could each finish your report and say: my view was stated fairly, and I learned something.
What people get wrong
⚠️People often think…
Deciding your conclusion first makes the research more focused.
It makes it advocacy. Once the ending is fixed, every source gets sorted into useful or not, and nothing you find can move you. Focus comes from a sharp QUESTION, which does the same work without closing the door.
A sharp question focuses. A fixed answer closes.
⚠️People often think…
When two sources conflict, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Sometimes one is simply right. Splitting the difference is not analysis — it is avoiding the work. Ask what each source is evidence OF: who wrote it, what they could know, and what they had at stake.
Ask what each is evidence of.
⚠️People often think…
Only hostile words count as loaded language.
Flattering ones load a sentence just as hard. “Peaceful”, “ancient”, “mystical” and “simple” all deliver a verdict before any evidence arrives. Read your own draft hunting adjectives that argue on your behalf.
Flattering words are loaded too.
⚠️People often think…
If a classmate belongs to a tradition, you can ask them to explain it for the class.
Nobody is “the” Muslim, Jew or Sikh in a room. Being asked to speak for a whole tradition is a burden, and one person’s practice is not the tradition. Volunteers only — and their account is one account, cited as such.
Volunteers only, and one voice is one voice.
Worth knowing cold
Four moves that carry the inquiry
These are what separate a report someone can trust from one they can only agree with.
Start from a questionWrite the question down before you gather anything. If you already know the ending, you are writing advocacy, which is a different assignment.
Ask what each source is evidence OFConflicting sources are not solved by splitting the difference. A hostile pamphlet is real evidence — of what its writers believed, which may be exactly what you need.
Answer a fear with designA fear is neither a fact nor nonsense. Ask what would have to be true for it to be founded, then find out. That is what turns a worry into a research question.
Hunt your own loaded wordsIncluding the flattering ones. “Peaceful” and “ancient” smuggle in a verdict just as “extreme” does. Read your draft looking for adjectives that do your arguing for you.
Ask, gather, weigh, argue, answer
1Watch one
Someone raises a fear about a religious practice in your town. What do you do with it?
Do not treat it as a fact, and do not dismiss it as nonsense. It is neither yet.
Ask what would have to be TRUE for the fear to be founded. Write that down as a testable statement.
Now go find out — records, interviews, the actual practice, people who do it.
You answered a fear with design instead of with an argument. That is the whole method. ✓
2Do one with me
Fill in the method.
Inquiry starts from a
When sources conflict, ask what each is evidence
Asking a classmate to speak for a whole tradition should be
💬One sentence, then you move on
Why can inquiry change your mind when advocacy cannot?
3Try one
Name one flattering word that still counts as loaded.
I want a hint first
They are in the reference box — the ones that sound like praise but settle the question early.
💬Last one — then you're done here
Why is splitting the difference between sources not analysis?
Where this goes
Where this lives
Any argument about a mosque, a school calendar, a holiday display or a zoning hearing — and any moment you are asked to explain a community you are not part of.
What this feeds
That closes the world religions wing. Every unit before this one was practice for writing an account that its own subjects would recognize.
Name one question you would want answered before writing about a community.
One card at a time — tap “Show me” to check yourself, then Next. Start at Foundation; when those feel easy, climb.
Helpful Hints
🧭 The arc in one line
A compelling question → supporting questions → four kinds of source → sourcing each one → fact, standard or opinion? → claim, evidence, reasoning → the counterclaim, stated fairly → a recommendation with costs, safeguards and limits → action.
Ask, gather, weigh, argue, answer, act.
🤝 The one idea
Write so that a pastor, an imam’s daughter and an atheist engineer could each finish your report and say: ‘My view was stated fairly, and I learned something.’
⚠️ Traps to avoid
Starting from your conclusion. Inquiry can change your mind; advocacy cannot.
Treating a fear as a fact — or as nonsense. It is neither. Answer it with design.
Splitting the difference between conflicting sources. Ask what each is evidence OF.
Loaded words in your own draft — including flattering ones.
Calling on a classmate as ‘the’ Muslim, Jew or Sikh. Volunteers only.
Overclaiming. Name the limits of your evidence.
📐 Three voices — the chart
Voice
Sounds like
Good evidence of
Use it in your own report?
Devotional
‘God revealed to the Prophet…’
what believers believe, in their own words
quote it; do not write in it
Hostile
‘They foolishly imagine…’
the author’s stance; how a group is attacked
quote it as evidence of hostility; never write in it
Descriptive
‘Muslims believe that God revealed…’
what a tradition teaches and does
yes — this is your voice
🎯 How you will be asked
“Write a compelling question and three supporting questions.”
A document — “who wrote it, why, and what is it evidence of?”
A sentence — “fact, standard or opinion?”
“State the other side’s best argument fairly, then answer it.”
“Write a recommendation with evidence, a safeguard and a stated limit.”
✅ Before you present, can you…
State your compelling question in one sentence?
Show at least one source of each of the four kinds?
Say who made each source, and why?
State the strongest objection so an objector would nod?
Name one cost and one limit of your own proposal?
Find and remove every loaded word?
📚 Go to the sources
The guidance teachers and school boards actually use — these open another website and need the internet.
Look back at anything you missed — the hint that appeared is exactly what to reread tonight.
How sure did you feel?
Workshop
Run a whole inquiry on one case: the Riverton school board must decide whether to offer a world-religions elective. Put the inquiry in order, read three documents for what each is evidence of, graph the student survey, then write your recommendation. Riverton and its documents are invented for practice.
Your practice never leaves this device. There is no account and no sign-in. Your work is saved in this browser only, and you can erase it whenever you want.
Your practice record — saved on this device
This is your record of the module on screen — it stays here and goes nowhere. Independent means you got it right on the first tap; supported means you got it after the explain-and-retry, or marked ‘I had it’ on a revealed answer. Both count, and neither is a grade. If your teacher asks, copy the row or show them this screen.
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Independent
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Supported
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Hints used
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Cards studied
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Lab
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Traps met
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Explained in own words
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The answer key is for a teacher: it prints only from here, for the unit on screen. Print the study packet prints the study pages and a blank quiz — never the answers.