Learners

Standards

Process

Resources

Evaluation

Conclusion

Credits

Student Page

Option Introduction Activity
(Credit - RE Team Catholic Schools Office, Maitland-Newcastle)

To help students remember the names of the Prophets in the Bible, play 'People Scrabble' in groups of 4 - 5. Print names of 30 characters from the Bible (10 are to be prophets) on cards. Shuffle cards and place face down. Students take turns to draw the top card and write the name on a piece of grid paper, as in Scrabble.

If unable to place the name keep the card and try later.

I point for each name written on the grid, 2 points for names identified as prophets and written on the grid. - 1 point for each card still held as the end of the game.

Winner - the person with most points when one person has no cards left.

Process

This webquest consists of 5 activities. The first four activities are all team based (the team consists of four students) while the final activity - Activity 5, is an individual activity.

Each of the activities uses the Jigsaw method - getting the various groups to research and investigate various aspects of the overall task and report back to the class. There is a class activity at the end of each of the individual tasks so that students, as a class group, can come together to review and discuss/debate what they have learnt.

The five activities are:

1. Messages

2. What is a Prophet?

3. Know Your Prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures

4. Prophets in Australia - in our History and Today?

5. Culminating Activity

Overview

Teachers need to supervise the selection into student groups being mindful of the requirements of each group particularly in Activity 3 - Know the Prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Each student will have to carry out the tasks listed below. Therefore each student will have a chance of presenting, recording, designing and being the group leader. The group does not have to be cohesive as part of the pedagogy of webquests is for the students to learn to work together as a team.

Get students to form into groups (3 - 4 students/group). Note that there is provision for 32 students within the class. However, the more ideal number is 28 - four students in seven groups. The webquest provides for 7 groups so if the class group is lower than 28, teachers will have to take this into account when working out group sizes.

Student Roles: Each of the students will have certain roles to play within the group: Recorder, Presenter, Designer/Researcher and Group Leader and each will have the opportunity to perform each of these roles as they progress through the activities.

	Recorder/ Summariser	who writes down the group's decisions pulling together the essential elements of the        group's findings.
	Presenter	who speaks for the group, presenting their groups final product
	Designer/ Researcher	who gets material for the group and works on the final product
	Group Leader	who ensures that all members are contributing to the group's activities and acts as the           project manager.

Activities

1 Activity 1: Messages

Students have to investigate 4 - 8 different messages they hear each day and write them up to be discussed in class. They also have to discuss the messages they know about from the Bible.

Teachers will need to revisit the previous units of work and also elicit from the students their knowledge of messages from the Scriptures.

As a class, students are to share their messages, then discuss and list the 10 most common messages heard each day and 5 messages from the Bible. They have to reach a class consensus about which of these messages is the most popular and write them up on the class noticeboard.

Teachers will need to go through the process of how to reach class consensus. This link outlines the process of building consensus.

2 Activity 2: What is a Prophet?    

In this activity, students have to come up with a definition of the word "Prophet" and distinguish the difference between a Messenger and a Prophet. This is a crucial definition for Activity 4!

After each group has decided on their definition, as a class, students are to decide the meaning for "Prophet". Again, students will need to go through the consensus building process. Write this up on the class noticeboard. This definition will need to be referred to during Activity 4. (It might also need to be changed!).

3 Activity 3: Know Your Prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures

Students are given either 2 or 3 Hebrew Scripture Prophets to research in detail and then present their findings to the class in a creative way.

If there are only 7 groups, teachers might like to allocate the Group 8 Prophets and Lamentations to other groups. Some Prophets have more information than others.

The Prophets are those that are recorded in the Catholic Bible.

Students are to:

	Make a timeline of their prophet. State when the prophet existed and under which ruler.
	List their Prophet's characteristics - what was he like?
	List his important messages.
	Draw a cartoon of one of these messages.
	Be prepared to announce one of their Prophet's messages in a creative way: a rap song,poster, banner, radio announcement, Power Point presentation or "interview" (they will have to make up the interview questions and responses)
	Make up 5 questions about their Prophet.
	Make a presentation to the class on their Prophets which includes their cartoon, their Prophet's message and facts about him including his qualities.

Some starting information is given within each Prophet's Profile and a list of other resources to go to collect more information. Teachers might need to help students will some of the information given - some of the language/content might be difficult for some students. Images of the Prophets have also been given for the student's presentations.

Group 1: Isaiah (first), Malachi

Group 2: Isaiah (later), Zechariah

Group 3: Jeremiah, Haggai

Group 4: Ezekiel, Zephaniah

Group 5: Daniel, Habakkuk

Group 6: Hosea, Joel, Amos

Group 7: Obadiah, Jonah, Micah

Group 8: (optional) Lamentations, Nahum, Baruch

Class Activity A:
During the presentations, students are to listen and record what they think are the qualities of a Prophet on the sheet provided.

As a class, students are to come to a consensus about these qualities and write them up on the class noticeboard. 

Class Activity B:

After the presentations, have two or three groups join together to construct a board game using the questions each group has made up about their prophet.

Using Technology and Design elements, students are to design and construct a board game similar to Snakes and Ladders, Jeopardy, Trivial Pursuit or one that this larger group would wish to make.

Once this is completed, students are to swap games with another larger group and "Play the Game"! They might even evaluate the game and give it a rating based on creativity, fun, interest and content.

4 Activity 4 - Prophets in Australia - in our History and today?

Students are to investigate various Australians and place them into the categories of Prophets, heroes, good people or leaders. They have to be prepared to defend their categories.

If Group 8 is required, then teachers may decide to allocate a different repeat group to group 7.

Individually students are to hand in their answers the Focus questions for assessment. This is a critical part of the process.

As a class, students are to come to a consensus about which people are Prophets in Australia today and be prepared to give reasons for their choice. Has the definition of a Prophet changed?

5 Activity 5 - Culminating Activity

This activity is an individual activity that can be easily used as the main assessment for each student. There is only one activity that is a group activity and students are required to get permission to carry out this activity from the teacher.