Jewish Wedding Guide

A WebQuest for Y9 Tahalich Hachayim

Designed by Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky

Pittinsky@msn.com

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Teacher Page


Introduction

Mabrukh! Mazal Tov! Your cousin Margaret is finally getting married to her long time boyfriend Marvin. Since she knows that you have learned so much about marriage in Hillel (in Rabbi Pittinsky's class of course) she has asked you to design her wedding guide. This will be given out to all of the honored guests at the wedding and it will make Margaret so happy! Get to work! 


Task

To design a wedding brochure that explains all of the Halachot (Jewish Laws) and Hashkafot (Jewish philosophies) of the wedding service.

Some points to ponder.

  • There will be a wide range of guests at the affair, some Rabbis and Talmidot Chachamot and others who never spent a day in a Yeshiva. Your brochure must be easy enough for the layperson to understand while at the same time it must be thorough enough to keep the interest of the Torah Scholar.
  • This will be given out at a wedding not your nephew's Chumash play. It can be made by hand or on a computer using a program like MS Publisher or Word but it must be befitting a high school student. Make sure it looks great!
  • Only you know what traditions Margaret and Marvin come from. So the brochure can follow the Sephardic service, the Ashkenazic service or both.

Process

Here are the steps that you should go through in creating this brochure.

  1. Choose a friend to work with and assign roles for each of you in the research process. For example, one of you could research the primary sources while the other looks at the secondary sources.
  2. Look for sources.
    • You can use as many sources as you like to create your brochure but as a minimum it should contain the following sources.
      1. 2 different verses from Tanach
      2. 2 different Gemara texts
      3. 2 Rishonim
      4. 2 Acharonim
      5. 2 secondary sources
  3.  In addition to books in the classroom and the library here is a list of websites to help you in the research process.
  4. After you have collected your information share your research with your partner.
  5. Work together on creating a beautiful and informative wedding brochure.

Evaluation

You will be graded based on the following rubric:  
CATEGORY
4
3
2
1
Content - Number and  Accuracy
All required facts are included in the brochure and are accurate.
99-90% of the required facts are included in the brochure and/or are accurate.
89-80% of the required facts are included in the brochure  and/or are accurate.
Fewer than 80% of the required facts are included in the brochure and/or are accurate.
Sources
Careful and accurate records are kept to document the source of 95-100% of the facts and graphics in the brochure.
Careful and accurate records are kept to document the source of 94-85% of the facts and graphics in the brochure.
Careful and accurate records are kept to document the source of 84-75% of the facts and graphics in the brochure.
Sources are not documented accurately or are not kept on many facts and graphics.
Knowledge Gained
All students in the group can accurately answer all questions related to facts in the brochure and to technical processes used to create the brochure.
All students in the group can accurately answer most questions related to facts in the brochure and to technical processes used to create the brochure.
Most students in the group can accurately answer most questions related to facts in the brochure and to technical processes used to create the brochure.
Several students in the group appear to have little knowledge about the facts or technical processes used in the brochure.
Attractiveness, Organization, & Graphics 
The brochure has exceptionally attractive formatting, well-organized information, and graphics that go well with the text.
The brochure has attractive formatting, well-organized information,
and graphics go well with the text, but there are so many that they distract from the text.
The brochure has well-organized information,
and graphics go well with the text, but there are too few and the brochure seems "text-heavy".
.
The brochure's formatting and organization of material are confusing to the reader. Graphics do not go with the accompanying text or appear to be randomly chosen 


Conclusion

Through this webquest you have created a marriage brochure that will make Margaret and Marvin proud. Now go buy yourself a beautiful gown and enjoy the wedding!
Do not hand in your wedding guide until you fill out this document by getting 3 people to look over your wedding guide!


Credits & References

Special thanks to The WebQuest Page and the Design Patterns page for help in creating this WebQuest.

You might want to include the following statement:

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.


Hillel Yeshiva High School
1027 Deal Road
Ocean, NJ 07712
(732) 493-0420
Pittinsky@msn.com

Copyright © 2006, Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky
Revised--March 16, 2006
URL: www.oocities.org/tzvipittinsky/marriagewebquest.htm