Secondary: Current Assemblies

THAT’S AWESOME

By Helen Bryant

Suitable for Key Stage 3


Aim

To discover the real meaning of the word ‘awesome’.

Preparation and materials

• You could have three voices to speak the opening lines – which you can change according to the latest fashion. If the readers are placed around the space, they will be more effective.
• For the clip referred to in ‘Time for reflection’ go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q (check copyright for your school).

Assembly

1. Listen to the following three statements:
   
   Reader 1  That band was awesome!
   
   Reader 2  I love Taylor Lautner, he’s so awesome.
   
   Reader 3  Look at the way the universe is made, isn’t it awesome?
   
   The word ‘awesome’ appears in each of these three statements. In which one does ‘awesome’ have its correct meaning?
   
   Well, in a way, in all three. The Cambridge Dictionary gives us this definition: a feeling of great respect sometimes mixed with fear or surprise.
   
2. Awe can be quite a complicated concept to grasp, but you may come close to understanding it if you think how you feel when you look up at the stars, or see a beautiful sunset or stunning scenery. You know that there is something out there bigger than you, and you are amazed by it, and hold it in high esteem and respect.
   
   Or you can think of awe like this. Is there something that your parents own that you have never been allowed to touch? Or have you been given something special to hold or look after for someone? (You may like to take suggestions.)
   
   You may have a feeling of very great respect for that object, or a feeling of wonder.
   
3.  That feeling of respect and wonder is how you feel when you are in awe of something. (You may wish to replace the following illustration with an example taken from your own experience.)
   
    For instance, my mother has a large collection of Royal Doulton china ladies on her dressing-table. When I was small they were the things that I was not allowed to touch and I looked at them with wonder. Even now (at the age of 30) I still get a little nervous around them and have no idea what I will do with them when they get passed down to me!
   
   Or just imagine what it must be like to meet your favourite celebrity, or to meet someone who you respect greatly. I have no doubt that some of you might be more than a little tongue tied if a certain Taylor Lautner or Cheryl Cole walked though this door.
   
   Can you give any examples of when you have felt awe about someone, or something?
   
4. Next time we call something awesome, let’s think about the three letters at the beginning of the word. To be in awe of someone or something, be it real or imaginary, is to say that something really affects you as a person and makes you have respect that is mixed with amazement and wonder, and might perhaps be a little bit scary.
   
   Awe is a good feeling, though. So even though I am still a little frightened of the Royal Doulton ladies, I can’t help but think that they are beautiful and that I do enjoy looking at them. I will just have to be very careful when I come to dust them!

Time for reflection

(Optional) Watch this clip from YouTube and see if includes the kinds of feelings we have been talking about this morning (see ‘Preparation and materials’).

(Take responses from students about how the video made them feel.)

(Alternatively) In the silence, concentrate on a scene in the natural world that gives you a sense of awe.

Song and music

‘O Lord my God’ (‘How great thou art’) (Hymns Old and New (Kevin Mayhew), 499)

Or play one of the tracks from Holst’s The Planet Suite.