Suggested Methods for Integrating "Sources of Jerusalem"
into the Classroom in Preparation for the Jerusalem 3000 International Quiz

List of Methods

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.

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 :

A Folding Exhibition:

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.

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

Be'hatzlacha!

Dear Educator,

The source material for the Jerusalem 3000 International Quiz, in the five "sources of Jerusalem" 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 Jerusalem 3000
January 1995