Heroes/Heroines of American Jewish History

Are you a Jewish American or an American Jew?  You might take for granted the freedom to be both American and Jewish, without having to choose between the two.  Ever since Jews have lived in America, there have been people who have struggled to find their place as Jews and Americans.  Many of them have made contributions to American history in the military, science, politics, religion, the arts, social service, sports, and just about every field that exists.  How many famous Jewish Americans can you name?  What were their contributions?  What qualities did they possess that guided thier choices?  You, our panel of judges, will delve into the lives and legacies of a myriad famous American Jews and choose the heroes worthy of our American Jewish Hall of Fame.

This is the introduction to "Heroes and Heroines of American Jewish History," an eight-week class for eighth grade students.  Students will be introduced to the wiki site from which they can navigate to sources for finding the candidates for our Hall of Fame.

Each student will be assigned to a group and a time period and will need to choose a hero/heroine.  They will then organize each candidate in a poplet and post it to the wiki, including the following criteria: name, when the person lived, important life events, concurrent important events in America and the world, accomplishment(s) and its effects on the lives of Jews and people in general. 

The class will then give feedback on each entry according to the inclusion of all criteria.  When every entry has satisfied the requirements, the class will create a media presentation of the  "American Jewish Hall of Fame"  using voki that they create.  We will make it public through social media, such as the Temple Facebook group.

The technologies are: wikis, poplets, vokis, social media (i.e. Facebook).  The curriculum is modeled on project-based learning.

This class will be taught in the fall.