Festivals |
Jerusalem Day
Teacher's Guide
Suggested Methods for Integrating "Sources of
Jerusalem"
into the Classroom in Preparation for the Jerusalem 3000 International
Quiz
List of Methods
January 1995
Dear Educator,
The source material for the Jerusalem 3000 International
Quiz, in the five accompanying booklets contains the history
of Jerusalem over 3000 years. A principal aim of the quiz
is to afford participants the opportunity to immerse themselves
in information pertaining to this history in an informal
environment.
We have therefore devised a few ideas to assist you in
integrating this material into the classroom or informal
education setting. We hope that the students will not
only come to familiarise themselves with the new information,
but will also enter the atmosphere of the International
Quiz whose finals will take place in Israel and will be
filmed live during Chanukah 1996.
Please keep in touch with the quiz center and if you devise
your own specific methods that you find work well, then
please tell us so that we can tell everyone else!!
Enjoy teaching Jerusalem in all her glory. She has an
incredible history that merits prioritising her as a subject
to teach this year (1996) as part of the Trimillenium
celebrations.
We look forward to hearing from you.
B'hatzlacha,
Heddy Swarttz,
Project Co-Ordinator
Method #1:
Title: The Jerusalem Trivial Pursuit Board Game
Style: Board Game
The first part of this project involves everyone building
the board together with the five colors (or as many as you
like) representing five subjects relating to Jerusalem.
For example:
* History: Landmarks in 3000 Years
* Geography: Famous Sites/Places
* Famous People: Heroes and Heroines
* Literature/Song/Poetry
* Biblical Sources
(the last two could be used for older age level)
Students build the board themselves and design the questions
- which necessitates their taking the material home in order
to study it first. Theactual questions can be prepared on
colored cards parallel to the colors on the board.
The board can be made out of paper cuttings in collage form
with a huge circumference circle superimposed onto it representing
the board. The pieces for each team must also be built and
a way of ascertaining how many pieces each team has collected.
While the competitive aspect of the game will keep the groups
enthused, the subject matter should both generate interest
and educate them in areas that they were not previously informed.
Furthermore, the game can be played with twelve year olds
or seventeen year olds. Quite simply, the level of questions
on any of the topics can vary dramatically.
Most importantly, the game is fun and thus the information
is conveyed in an informal manner.
Method #2
Title: Jerusalem 3000 Jewish Assembly
Style: Multi - Media
As part of morning assembly or a regular section of your weekly
meeting, ask individuals or groups to give a "spot" - a short
presentation - of some form on something they learned about
Jerusalem from the material of the quiz. Each morning another
aspect of Jerusalem will thus be addressed, by the students
themselves. As a further option, regular class or group time
could be set aside in class to discuss the issue that was
raised.
A simple idea to implement and one that young people could
do quite effectively in small groups of two or three in conjunction
with a teacher, counselor, or, for that matter, on their own.
Method #2(b)
Using the above idea it could be possible to allocate each
participant one passage quoted in the source material. All
of these passages are either biblical quotes; poems; songs;
literature or other references which the young people could
use as their trigger or full presentation.
Method #3
Title: Jerusalem 3000 Chugim
Style: Multi - Media
In this program, it is recommended that a one and a half hour
weekly slot be set aside. There are as many options as teachers
/ facilitators available for running the workshops and the
students are allowed free choice in joining the group that
most interests them.
For example:
A Radio
Program:
Can be recorded onto cassette mixed with music, poems, adverts
and jingles from Jerusalem interspersed with, of course, the
Jerusalem news.
A Newspaper:
Broadsheet or Tabloid :
as you like ; pictures; crosswords; editorials; exclusive features.....
A Folding
Exhibition:
Built on huge panels of card, the concertina-shaped exhibition
opens out to display various different aspects on the subject
matter. Built into the card are all sorts of compartments orwheels,
pull-tags [compiled and laminated as separate layers], which ,when
opened out or moved, elaborate on the subject. Each layer of the
exhibition should be laminated or at least covered in plastic
as it is being mounted.
A Drama
Production:
Not a lot to say. The Director/Producer will lead the production
in the direction he/she feels necessary - while older students
can play a much greater initial role in compiling the play
and editing it for themselves.
A Jerusalem
Choir:
The amount of songs sung about Jerusalem would occupy a choir
for some time plus they should write their own Jerusalem 3000
celebration song
An Artists
Dream:
In a relaxed atmosphere, to suitable background music, students
let their imagination drift back to the time of David, Solomon
or a pilgrimage to the Temple. After the "trance", they should
make notes or start work immediately! Art can be produced
to accompany, for example, a historic timeline of events with
artists impressions of how it was at that period.
A Slide Show:
An amazing way of allowing younger children to build, write
and draw a story about Jerusalem onto slides which when projected
and complemented by a text either spoken aloud or recorded
onto tape - with the intermittent beeps - produces a great
show.
Buy empty slide cartridges that fit into a round carousel
and thin tracing paper. Measure out the size of the internal
ridges on the slide covers and cut the paper accordingly;
mark the actual size of the viewing frame within this. Then
with a fine tip pen start drawing in the inner frame as you
build your slide story and write the script on numbered sheets.
* Ad infinitum.....
Each teacher / counselor chooses their Chug and prepares a
timetable for, say, 6 sessions. In the first meeting, Jerusalem
is the general topic in order to familiarise everyone with
the basics. At the second session, begin your specific project,
be it slides, art, film or whatever - and for the next few
meetings, put together your product while constantly conveying
further information on the subject matter.
By the end of the sessions, each Chug should have a presentation
to make to the rest of the pupils such that others can learn
from what they learnt.
Method #4
Title: A Moving History of Jerusalem
Style: Waxworks Theatre
Props:
- A large Spotlight
- Dressing up Clothes
- A large room that can be converted into a circular theater
with the audience in the middle and actors around the
circumference
Given that the quiz is open to 13-18 year olds only, allocate
each of the six classes or groups a portion of the history
of Jerusalem. Alternatively, in any one class or group, create
as many groups as study sections chosen out of her 3000 year
history. The latter is probably more effective since there
will be no redundant people. In a class of say, twenty-five,
you can easily divide her history into five scenes corresponding
to the five books in the source material for the quiz, "Sources
of Jerusalem":
- Creating Sovereignty: The First Temple Period
- Rebuilding Independence: The Second Temple Period
- One City, Many Peoples
- Expanding Jerusalem
- Sovereignty Regained
Each scene has four actors and the five other people are responsible
for the backdrop, lighting,sound and props of that scene.
Each group plans, arranges and performs their part which,
when put together with the other scenes becomes one full story.
Example
This is best performed in a circular theater, where the audience
sits in the middle, the room is darkened and each unit has
a lead which signals both the shooting of a spotlight and
the beginning of their scene. At the beginning and end of
their scene, everyone on stage under the spotlight freezes
for ten seconds. This medium is recommended as a very effective
way of conveying information in a fun, yet dramatic, manner.
While each group only absorbs themselves in a part of the
story, when they view the whole they understand how critical
their part is to the whole story. Obviously, the scale of
production depends on the time allocated by the school / center
and the effort put in by those involved. This can range from
a performance in front of the class / group , to a performance
in front of the entire school / organization, to an evening
with teachers, parents, friends...
Method #5
Title: Key Characters/Heroes in Jerusalem 3000
Style: Multi-Media
(For participants up to 14/15 years old)
The leader gives out a famous character related to Jerusalem
to each participant. The assignment is to research, using
the source material, and understand the character and the
role they played in Jerusalem. Then they all become their
characters and receive an invitation from Ehud Olmert to a
vast banquet - dressed in appropriate garb, of course - You
will need elaborately inscribed invitations and time to dress
up for the festive evening. For the interval of the evening,
the characters intermingle playing their role within the time
that they existed.
Enter the millenium banquet of the Mayor of Jerusalem dressed
as your character.....
Some staged interactions between characters [hand them out
on cards] could also be a source of interest (and amusement)
- pitching King David in an interesting debate with Golda
Meir over the importance of allowing women to serve a year
less than men in the armed forces, as an example. To King
David, women and war, of course, were an absurd combination.
Towards the end of the evening, all the characters are asked
to place themselves, in silence (i.e. through mime), in chronological
order. One by one, they go up to the podium and - in two or
three sentences - fill in their part of the story. Together,
they all make up Jerusalem 3000.
Example
Method #5 (b)
(For ages up to 17/18)
All sorts of variations can be adopted once every pupil has
a character to research. For older participants, one idea
is to have them submit or present a paper on their character
or a specific issue - or present their case at a mock trial.
Method #6
Title: Who Am I ?
Style: Guessing Game
The teacher / facilitator elects a student who chooses a character
and researches it. The rest of the group have to ask questions
which allow for yes/no answers only. They will need access
to the source material in order to ask difficult questions
(and inadvertantly learn something). The elected student is
allowed twenty questions with which to work out who their
character is. Once he/she has ascertained the real identity
of the character, the student marks him/herself on the timeline
that already exists on the classroom wall.
Simple, sweet and a great way of conveying information. Ten
minutes every day as part of the class or meeting.
Method #6 (b)
Variation of the same game in that it is the group who ask
yes/no questions after receiving the first letter of the character's
last name and on that basis start asking questing to the effect
of....."are you a famous, for example, politician (knowing
that the surname ends in "M" and thinking of Golda Meir)....?",
to which the person replies "No, I'm not Golda Meir" . If
they do not have a reply, then the group have a free question
whereby they can ask a straight yes/no question direct.
Otherwise known as "Botticelli", this game is simply a harder
version of the above with a little added spice.
Method #7
Title: Famous sites and Personalities in Jerusalem
Style: Index Cards
Suitable as a trigger only:
As the participants or students enter the room, pin an index
card onto their back. On each card is written the name of
a famous site in Jerusalem and a short description. (Alternatively
a picture of the place can be drawn).
For up to five minutes, participants mill about, asking each
other yes/no questions until they are able to work out what
or who they are. Once someone guesses correctly, they pin
the card to their chest and continue with other people. [Allow
more time if you wish to continue.]
Following this short trigger, they can pin the index cards
onto a map of Jerusalem.
Following is a list of sites and brief descriptions:
- Kotel - last remaining remnant of the external Temple
walls
- Yad Vashem - memorial to the victims of the Shoa
- David's Tower - Museum near Jaffa gate
- Dome of the Rock - currently situated on the Temple Mount
- Hebrew University - located on Mount Scopus
- Mea Shearim - Ultra Orthodox neighbourhood
- Old City - Ancient Walled City
- David Ben-Gurion - First Prime-Minister of the State of
Israel
- King Solomon - Builder of the Holy Temple
- King David - originator of the City of Jerusalem - 3000
years ago
- Yemin Moshe - first modern neighborhood outside the Old
City Walls
- Knesset - Israeli Parliament
- and the list goes on......
Method # 7(b)
Variation of the same game is to half the names on the index
cards and instead of asking yes / no questions to each other
they have to search for their other half. For example:
Yad / Vashem
David / Ben Gurion
This is also only suitable as a trigger and as a good way
to split participants up into pairs for a further activity.
Conclusion
These are only a sample of ideas you can utilize in teaching
Jerusalem. We hope that they turn the 3000 years of the city's
history into a multi-dimensional experience in your class
or group, both entertaining and informative. They are designed
principally to enhance the preparation for the Jerusalem 3000
Quiz, but we hope they will appeal to a wider audience than
the contestants.
Be'hatzlacha!