Achan takes the spoils of Jericho, Part 1

Students are introduced to Sefer Yehoshua, Chapter 7 by reading the text and dividing it into sections.

Introduction

This unit includes a suggested outline for five lessons with some pedagogic and methodological ideas, and a detailed lesson plan for lesson four which is central to the chapter as well as a summary worksheet for lesson five. Lessons one and five concentrate on independent or group learning. Lessons two, three and four are mostly frontal in nature while interspersing written work and discussion. The unit is therefore built with a variety of teaching activities and strategies.

Lesson objectives

The students will:
1. Summarize the events of the chapter

Skills

Students should be able to:
1. Read the chapter with understanding (including words in the word list)
2. Divide the chapter into its various components
3. Give titles to the various components of the chapter

Terms

Committed a trespass              מעל, וימעלו

Devoted thing                            חרם

Spy, they spied                          רגל, רגלו

Hit/smote, they smote            הכה, ויכו

If only we had been content   לו הואלנו

Take, they will take                  לכד, ילכדנו, וילכוד

spoils                                           שלל

hidden                                        טמן, טמונים

mantle                                        אדרת

Trouble, troubled us               עכור, עכורתנו

 

Resources & Equipment needed

Tanakh for each student, writing utensil, workbook.

Procedure

1. Have the students read the chapter to themselves or in pairs. If the students read the text in the original Hebrew, the teacher should write the difficult words in the chapter on the board. There are a few central words in the chapter that should be known by all the students. See vocabulary list.

2. Once the chapter has been read the students should be asked to rewrite the story in their own words in no more than ten lines. This will help the students focus their thoughts on the text so that the story is fully understood. The teacher should tell the students about this assignment in advance so that the independent study will be serious. A more creative assignment would be to ask the students to write a short article for “The Jericho Times” summarizing the events of the chapter in a journalistic style.

3. Students should then be asked to divide the chapter into various sections, giving a title for each section. Most likely, the teacher will need to guide the pupils in this difficult task. The division should look something like this: 1. The battle against Ai (7:1-7:5) 2. Yehoshua’s reaction to the defeat against Ai (7:6-7:10) 3. God’s response to Yehoshua (7:10-7:15)

4. Yehoshua finds the culprit responsible for the defeat-Achan (7:16-7:21)

5. How Achan is punished (7:22-7:26) This assignment introduces the next lessons.