The Family Tree of Abraham and His Future Family

The 4th graders are off and running, actually walking, in their search for the familial relationships found in Bereshit, the Book of Genesis.  Students have been divided into teams of four or five members to work collaboratively.  Each team will design, develop and produce a Family Tree of Abraham and His Future Family including the generations of Abram and Sarai through Jacob and Esau.  Some teams are finding a good balance of individual contributions and shared responsibility.  Some teams are struggling to develop a strong collaborative work style, learning to support each other in their individual strengths and personal challenges.  It is hard to always be patient!

In the next implementation of this unit, I will devote more time up front walking the students through the development of the Glossary.  The class will be guided through the Introduction, the Task and the first few searches in the Process.  Once I am confident that they grasp the concept of academic teamwork and how to navigate the various components of the WebQuest, they will be better equipped to succeed in their teams. As I reflect on the progress of each team and individual over the entire project, I expect more tweaks or larger changes will become evident.

Feel free to check out this WebQuest at The Family Tree of Abraham and His Future Family.

Abraham's Family Tree Unit

4th Grade ~ Temple Isaiah

Over the year, 4th grade students will be exploring key texts of Bereshit from Abraham through Joseph. After the introduction and some scaffolding, students will be using a WebQuest to create Abraham’s Family Tree (from Terach through Jacob’s and Esau’s children). The Family Tree will require students to identify some middot/Jewish virtues from a partial list and explain how each middah connects to an individual and what source text student is using to support.

The whole exploration will be facilitated through a wiki (not yet created) and involve extensive use of project-based learning. The following is just the intro unit.

September 29 Genealogy – What is it?

Computer etiquette:
treating them with care; logging on; gmail a/c’s; saving & shutting down

Computer search and google doc definitions:
create your team definition of genealogy and begin building a Team Glossary – explore and add the following definitions:
ancestor, descendant, sibling, cousins, begot, family tree

Format and save file in the cloud:
identifying docs with file name & team member names

October 2 Finding Torah

How to navigate the Hebrew Bible:
3 sections: T, N, K: focus on T [Torah] ~ create list of a.k.a’s: chumash, 5 Books of Moses, 5 Books of Torah, Pentateuch, The Law,
List books in order in English: Gen, Ex, Lev, Num. Deut: English meanings (beginning; we’re out of here! laws; census, second law)
List books in order in Hebrew: Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, BeMidbar, D’varim ~ Hebrew meanings
Add all to their google doc Glossary


October 6 Invitation to Grade 4 Wiki

Review logging on, etc.
Explain the WebQuest idea: will complete project with team members – team to decide how to divide up work, discovering and using individual gifts, understand what project is, how project will be evaluated, resolving differences appropriately, collaboration, communication, where responsibility for learning lies; tools available for research, group work and presentations
Begin WebQuest!


October 9 Continue on WebQuest! The Family Tree of Abraham and His Future Family

October 13 - No School

October 16 Constructive criticism:
its purpose, how to offer it
Review other teams work
Class discussion on work

October 20 Consider classmates comments and decide whether or not to incorporate into project

Reminder that next Sunday will be a program with parents and students will share their family trees of Abraham and Future Family

October 23
Finish up loose ends
Last minute ideas on how to share work with all parents and rest of class

October 27 4th Gr. Family Program
Short story about where you come from; integrate Torah blessing into story (what kids have been doing in class)
Introducing the genealogy
Jewish Genealogy Expert & Clergy ~ brief introduction to what we can learn from genealogist and Clergy to specifically interact with students about what they learned from exploring Abraham’s Family Tree and how to take it further
Set up we are all responsible for one another and l’dor v’dor; bring cutting/peeling tools and veggie, cutting board and 1 recipe typed – collect and “publish” later
Stone Soup activity with soup being delivered to Bristol Lodge after program