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Resources for Alternate Assignments for Jehovah's Witnesses

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Resources for Alternate Assignments for Jehovah's Witnesses

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Meeting the needs of students who don't celebrate holidays may seem challenging, at first. With a simple plan , it's easy to respect the family's beliefs and avoid making the student feel singled out.

Each year, children enter our classrooms with learning disabilities or cognitive delays. Other students deal with challenges that are less obvious. Some are socially awkward, have food allergies, or are dealing with the recent loss of a loved one.

As teachers, we've learned to accommodate a variety of students' needs in our classrooms. We model inclusion which in turn helps our students be more accepting and compassionate.
But, what about the child who is not allowed to be participate in activities that most children take for granted?

A few years ago a new student enrolled in our school. She was a petite, long-haired girl who worked diligently on all her assignments. It was soon apparent that although a bit shy, she was respectful, smart, and friendly- a teacher's dream. These same qualities quickly won her many new friends. I was thrilled how smoothly this new student made the transition into our building.

Within a few days of the start of school, the student's mother called to make an appointment. During that meeting, the mother told me that she and her family were Jehovah's Witnesses. The mother politely explained their beliefs and her concerns about holiday celebrations in the classroom. She said her daughter was quite good at knowing what she could and could not do, but that it might create some uncomfortable moments unless I was also aware of these limitations.

Working with several Jehovah's Witnesses families over the years, I've learned to check in with the parents early on and keep communication open.

I learned that those who practice this religion must refrain from many common activities. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses may not say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing patriotic songs. They are not permitted to join the Girl or Boy Scouts. And, they can't celebrate birthdays or holidays.

Out of respect for the family's beliefs, I wanted to work out guidelines for managing these situations. Planning ahead also helped avoid any awkwardness for the student.
Below are some strategies upon which the student's parent and I agreed.
1. The student stood for the Pledge of Allegiance, but she did not place her hand over her heart or recite the pledge. This showed respect, but did not contradict her religious beliefs.

2. I made sure that the specials' teachers also knew about my student's religious beliefs. All of us either avoided holiday and patriotic activities, or the student was given an alternative activity. For example, while the group made ghost pictures, my student made a fall leaf design. And, any holiday-themed packets were given a generic cover. That way, the pages inside could be switched out as necessary.

3. During birthday celebrations, the student would refrain from singing Happy Birthday. While the treat was being passed out, I would quietly provide an alternate treat from the cabinet. Her mother provided snacks for these situations.

4. Classroom parties celebrating holiday themes were a bit challenging. Before each one I made contact with the parent and we problem-solved. Most often it was agreed that the parent would pick up the student right before the party start time. Whenever my student left early, I collected non-perishable goodies from the party and sent them home the next school day. This gave the student's parents an opportunity to decide whether or not the contents were appropriate for their child.

5. Finally, I established a secret signal with the student. Any time the child thought an activity might conflict with her religious beliefs, she could either come up and let me know, or just silently alert me with the secret signal. By empowering the student, we were able to quickly resolve unexpected situations.

Whenever there wasn't time to check with the parent, I erred on the side of caution. For example, when handing out seasonal pencil-and-paper activities, I used a cover page on top of the worksheets. This allowed me to swap out any 'questionable' content for a similar activity with no holiday reference. Of course, this approach also made it possible to differentiate any of the content to better meet the needs of my students' ability levels.

Working with several Jehovah's Witnesses families over the years, I've learned to check in with the parents early on and keep communication open. Every situation is different. What's acceptable in one family, might not work for another.
In the end, it's about making sure that all students have a safe and nurturing learning environment.
Other ideas? I'd love to hear about your experiences!

LOOKING FOR HOLIDAY-NEUTRAL ACTIVITIES?

Click the links below. These packets use familiar seasonal graphics and words, yet have no direct references to specific holidays on the student pages. These kid-friendly printables contain fun and educational activities that can be enjoyed by the entire class!

Snow Much Fun! Winter Activity Packet
Your students will have "Snow Much Fun" doing these activities, they won't realize how much they're learning! All activities include a full-page answer key.
This packet includes six pages of ELA activities all based on a nonfiction selection about precipitation and the water cycle. Students will use context clues to complete a fill-in-the-blank cloze activity with a scientific vocabulary word bank.

Once students understand how snowflakes are formed, they will sequence the steps by numbering kid-friendly graphics filled with specific details. Finally, students will cut and paste the steps onto a Snowflake Timeline.

Students who finish early may enjoy the snowflake coloring page activity.

All activities have clear, easy-to-follow directions. The winter theme is festive, yet neutral enough to include children of every faith.
Scrambled Paragraph +Plus: How Snowflakes FormThis NO PREP activity packet contains an 8-sentence scrambled paragraph that can be put together only one way. Students use transitions and inferential clues to assemble this organized, logical paragraph.
The easy-to-use paragraph structure includes:
- a title,
- a topic sentence,
- three details with support- six (6) sentences, and
- a closing sentence or clincher.

What is a Scrambled Paragraph + Plus?

Scrambled Paragraphs + Plus contain one additional sentence on the student's worksheet. Eight (8) of the sentences respond to the prompt, but one (1) does NOT belong in the paragraph.
Your students will love this print-and-go Spring-Tastic Easter Activity Packet, and you'll love knowing that they are getting practice with figurative language, short nonfiction reading selections, multi-step math calculations, and more.
SPRING-TASTIC Easter Activity Pack

Activity pages look great in color or black/white, and they can be used individually or in any combination.
Do you have any holiday-neutral lessons or activities you like to use? I'd love to hear from you!
This packet includes:
- matching familiar idioms containing the words "egg" and "bunny" to their meanings,
- using a word bank to fill-in-the-blanks of short nonfiction selections about spring,
- calculate multi-step math equations to match flower pictures to their names,
- unscramble picture puzzles with a holiday theme,
- solve a riddle by guessing answers to interesting questions about spring,
- color eggs labeled with synonyms for word "spring,"
- solve a logic puzzle to figure out how many jelly beans were eaten by each child, and
- full-page answer keys.

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Students Who Don't Celebrate Holidays - Lessons4Now

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Meeting the needs of students who don't celebrate holidays may seem challenging, at first. With a simple plan , it's easy to respect the family's beliefs and avoid making the student feel singled out. Each year, children enter our classrooms with learning disabilities or cognitive delays.

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2016. What do Jehovah's Witnesses believe? Retrieved from https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jehovah-witness-beliefs/

Lipka, M. (2016). A closer look at Jehovah's Witnesses living in the U.S. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/26/a-closer-look-at-jehovahs-witnesses-living-in-the-u-s/

Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.(1983). School and Jehovah's Witnesses. Brooklyn, N.Y.

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I wish I knew all of this information before I ever had a Jehovah's Witness in my class.

I also wish that I was up-front with the parent from the beginning and created a working relationship.

I wish I would have planned more engaging alternate assignments for this child to ease some of the behavior concerns.

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Personal Experience with a Witness Student

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Personal Experience with a Witness Student

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I had a student that was a Jehovah's Witness last year. I knew of the religion and some of their beliefs, but I did not take it upon myself to learn more or to accommodate the student.

I had the child help scoop the seeds out of pumpkin to do a counting activity and I received a letter from the distraught mom. This was the first I had heard from her let alone, that they were Jehovah's Witnesses.

After that incident, no matter how hard I tried, there was always an issue with the activities in the class.
He was a constant behavior problem because he felt left out and isolated. He would scream and throw things. He would say we were all bad because we believed in evil things.

When I would accommodate his needs, the mom had a problem with it as well. On mother's day, I had the students make a mother's day card for their moms. I had this particular student do another activity. The mom shunned me for not letting him make a mother's day card.

It got to the point where I would send her weekly emails asking for her permission in certain activities, books, videos, etc. It was very time-consuming.

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Pitfalls for Jehovah's Witnesses in Schools

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Pitfalls for Jehovah's Witnesses in Schools

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Sadly, their religion is only a small portion of the population, so their beliefs are over-looked a lot of times.

Some of the students experience isolation, confusion, and anti-social behaviors. They may see the other students or teacher as a threat to their religion which may cause them to lash out or behave badly.

They may have a hard time making friends because they are seen as outcasts in the classroom.

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Jehovah's Witnesses believe a good education is essential to the future of their youth. They support teachers ambitions and try hard to form a working relationship (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

They are not likely to go to college because it would be seen as obtaining "prestige or prominence". They acquire enough skills to become ministers of their faiths. They might choose vocational electives in schools in order to work for God (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

The believe that parents have a God-given right to educate their children and choose what their children will learn about. Teachers just give their service, but they are not the most important teachers- the parents are (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

Parents also want to know if their children are behaving in a Christian manner at school (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

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They do not believe in pre-marital sex, dating, home-coming queens, cheerleading,  school clubs, blood transfusions, donations, and school plays because it does not align to the Bible (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).
Jehovah's Witnesses also are wary of art, music, combat, and science lessons in schools because they are commonly aligned to non-religious practices that are not seen in the Bible. They have strong opinions against evolution and the do not want their youth exposed to it. They are against sports that train their youth to fight others such as: Karate, Wrestling, and the like (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

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How Can Teachers Accommodate the Needs of jehovah's Witnesses

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How Can Teachers Accommodate the Needs of jehovah's Witnesses

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Teachers should show an open-door communication with Witness parents. Showing them respect to their beliefs and accommodating their child's needs will create a partnership between the teacher and the parents (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

Asking questions at the start of the school year will distinguish any fires that might happen if you offend their beliefs unknowingly. It will also prevent you from doing extra work by having to create alternate assignments at the last minute.

The students are to stand and be respectful during the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem, but are not expected to actively participate (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

When the class is participating in Holiday activities, the student should be given an alternate assignment separate from the Holiday assignment (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

Birthday songs and treats should not be enjoyed by the Witness youth in your class as it goes against their religion (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

Do not involve the students in elections or voting for political office at school as it goes against their beliefs (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

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Witnesses teach that Jesus is the son of God but is not part of a Trinity.

Daily religious services, prayers, reading and literal following of the Bible, and sharing of their religion(Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

The denomination teaches that its members should remain politically neutral and abstain from voting or participating in “any action to change governments” (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

They do not participate in holidays, birthdays, celebrations, patriotic songs, pledges, because it is seen as worship of other Gods or it is believed it takes the focus off of Jehovah (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

They have sound moral principles such as they are against abuse of alcohol, pre-marital sex, over-socialization with people outside of the Jehovah religion, obscene language, Sex-Education at school, drugs, and sports that encourage winning as the only option (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).

They believe the world as we know it is ending soon and one must prepare for the new Earth and Kingdom of God .

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Coming from various ethnic and linguistic differences, they have a common goal: to honor Jehovah. Jehovah, they believe, is the "God of the Bible and the Creator of all things" (What do Jehovah's Witnesses believe?, 2016).

They spend the majority of their time imitating Christ and showing people the "good news" (What do Jehovah's Witnesses believe?, 2016).

They make up .8% of the population, and around 65% of them are women (Lipka, 2016).

They value family time and time with their religious organization to become closer to Jehovah (What do Jehovah's Witnesses believe?, 2016).

They do not participate in sports or clubs that are organized by the school because many times the skills being taught do not align with the Bible (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1983).