Why do I need the Teacher's Guide for Islamic Studies?

In short, we would really recommend that you have a copy of the Teacher's Guide to use with the Safar Learn about Islam Series. The article below will not only explain why but also give you tips on how to use the Teacher's Guides.

The Safar Teacher's Guides (Schemes of Work)

A scheme of work (SoW) is a plan of what you will teach during all Islamic Studies lesson throughout the academic year. It is designed to accompany the textbooks/workbooks and help teachers deliver lessons effectively. We have tried our best to make the SoWs not only essential for lesson planning but also included relevant advice, tips and ideas on making the learning interesting, meaningful and linked to prior learning. This makes our Schemes of Work an ideal teacher's companion.

There is a detailed Introduction in each Scheme of Work, giving you information and tips on how to use this publication effectively alongside the textbooks and workbooks.

How do I use the Schemes of Work (Teacher's Guides)?

The SoWs are a vital tool for you to use when thinking about what to teach and why, as well as an inspiration when putting together a lesson plan for a textbook chapter. When using the Schemes of Work:

Start by reading the lesson synopsis and learning objectives. Then read the learning outcomes and use this to ensure you are aware of what results you will look for in your students to ensure they have met the teaching objectives. You can adjust these as you need to, depending on your students and the length of time you have.
Pick a starter activity to use in the classroom to warm up your students
The pick some main activities to meet your learning objectives. Where you need to use resources, we have added details about this in the "additional notes" section.
Use a summary activity to end your lesson.

Adjusting activities and timings: We have the activity types and timings as a guide. You can adjust each activity and the length of time you run the activity for, as per your classroom needs. All that we have provided in the Schemes of Works are ideas to inspire and help you with your teaching. You will know your students best and therefore, are best placed to decide which activities you want to use and for how long. When coming up with your ideas, do try your best to make the activities engaging, purposeful and fun. Please share your ideas so we can include them in our Schemes of Work. You can also submit your ideas here for them to be added to the Teacher's resources page on our website.

Along side our Teachers Guides, try out online resources website, the Safar Teacher's Toolbox

Wondering why you should get a copy of the SoW?

Here's a reminder of the key features:

Clear learning objectives and outcomes for each lesson. These aims are also differentiated, meaning that we have given you objectives to use for teaching that all students must meet, objectives that you can encourage most students to meet and objectives you can encourage some students, particularly the more able students, to meet. Here is an example:

Engaging activity ideas. The Schemes of Work contain multiple activity ideas for teaching each lesson in the classroom. The activities vary in length (for which we have given time guidelines) as well as format, that is whether it is a starter, main or summary (plenary) activity to be used at the end of a lesson. The activities also vary in their style and type of learning involved, meaning some are active and practical activities, some might involve group or individual work and others may be more reflective or visual/auditory activity. All of this is noted for you in the notes under each activity. We have listed some examples below:

Links to previous learning. The SoW will also contain, where relevant, links to previously taught materials so you can link a student's learning in an interesting and thoughtful way. This also helps refresh the students' memory on what they have previously learnt.

Purposeful teaching advice and notes. The SoW also provides, where needed, additional notes and advice on creating resources to use in the classroom. Think of these as little reminders and helpful tips, for example:

Ideas for making lessons meaningful To inspire you even further, we also have ideas for making learning relevant to contemporary issues, as well as using other tools such as experiential learning:

Extended project and homework. We have also provided ideas for extending the learning into projects and other homework.

Assessments and testing. Our Schemes of Work also contain advice on testing and assessment as well as where you can use features and elements in the workbooks:

Want more ideas and resources?

Check out our online resources page, The Safar Teacher's Toolbox where users of our curriculum upload ideas, tips and resources for you to download and use with our curriculum. They are all organised and tagged according to age, publication, types of resources etc., so there is something for everyone!