Final Integration Project

At the end of the program, students propose and create a project (e.g., a lesson plan, unit plan, curriculum, presentation for parents, book proposal, film, etc.) that integrates the intellectual content from a number of the courses they took during the degree program. The project gives evidence of the student’s identity and integrity as a religious educator. Students may integrate the project with a course during the final semester, or they may build it as a stand-alone enterprise during the final semester.A project’s format is open to the creative impulses of the student (in dialogue with the Program Director). However, any project should contain at least three major elements:

(a) Document or documentation: Documentation of the educational “event” they are creating (e.g., a lesson plan and handouts for a class) or the “event” itself (e.g., a book chapter or film);

(b) Application: The theoretical groundwork for the educational event (theology and religious education);

(c) Reflection: A personal reflection on how the event relates to one’s identity/integrity as a religious educator.

A project executed in a more traditional academic paper format would yield a document approximately 30 pages long.