I can’t seem to get this one just the way I want it.

I find that the life of Jacob is probably the most confusing of all the stories of the Patriarchs, for my students. Because he’s the scheming brother, and then he’s the guy who got married to the wrong sister, and then he’s really old and has 12 sons. Wait – those are the same person? Why is he called Israel in some places and Jacob in others? Rachel – that’s his wife, right? Or his mom? Hey, look, time’s up. Next week: JosephMosesJoshua!

That kind of thing.

So, I had originally hoped for this series to be “90-Second Scripture Shorts,” but I just can’t get this to be 90 seconds. I’d be interested in your feedback.

Boilerplate:
This is the third in a series of short “trailers” for Biblical figures I’ll be producing – Blessed Are They: 90-Second Scripture Shorts. You are free to use this however you’d like; please attribute it to me.

I’m planning to show this to my students as a preview before we talk about Jacob/Israel, to give them an idea of the overall story arc and the important themes associated with his life. I find that I can all too easily get into the juicy details of a story and leave my students overwhelmed with way too much information in a short period of time. This video series is designed to sharpen my focus in the classroom.

I created this using a Pro version of Animoto. There is an educational version of Animoto , and the regular free version allows you to create 30-second video clips for personal use. If you have access to a computer lab with your students, I think this would be a terrific project for them instead of PowerPoint. Since I teach CCD, my time is very limited, so that’s why I am producing a whole series that I can share in my classroom.

Please suscribe to my feed to follow along as I share more of the Blessed Are They: 90-Second Scripture Shorts series. You may also enjoy the Catechist Chat series of discussion posts about religious education, which you can follow on Facebook.

Sign up for my email list, and I’ll send you resources, including non-PDF versions of the activities I post (which means you can edit them in Microsoft Word to customize them for your own students).

Fine art images are from Wikimedia Commons. Image Credits:

• Master of Jean de Mandeville, The Birth of Esau and Jacob [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
• Hendrick ter Brugghen, Esau selling his birthright [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
• José de Ribera, Der blinde Isaak segnet Jacob [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
• José de Ribera, Jakobs_Traum,_Detail_Gesicht, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
• William Blake, Jacob’s Ladder [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
• William Dyce, Rachel [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
• Alexander Louis Leloir, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
• Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari, Joseph’s Coat Brought to Jacob (El Paso Museum of Art) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
• Rembrandt, Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (Jacob blessing the sons of Joseph)

Music: “Solemn,” by His Boy Elroy