Images of the Possible in a Jewish Supplementary School, A Mandel - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

▶
images of the possible in a jewish supplementary school a
SMART_READER_LITE
LIVE PREVIEW

Images of the Possible in a Jewish Supplementary School, A Mandel - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Sep 23, 2022 386 likes •642 views

Images of the Possible in a Jewish Supplementary School, A Mandel Center Lunch Seminar By Orit Kent and Allison Cook Orit Kent & Allison Cook 1 Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education Background School based design

slide-1
SLIDE 1

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

1

“Images of the Possible” in a Jewish Supplementary School, A Mandel Center Lunch Seminar

By Orit Kent and Allison Cook

slide-2
SLIDE 2

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

2

Background

  • School based design research
  • Context: Jewish supplementary school, K-8, 9

teachers + principal

  • Intervention: Professional development

course + one-on-one work with select teachers

  • Data: Videotapes, teacher and student work,
  • bservations, interviews
slide-3
SLIDE 3

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

3

  • Design Research:

“Design experiments are extended (iterative), interventionist (innovative and design-based), and theory-oriented enterprises whose theories do real work in practical educational contexts.”

  • Cobb, et al
  • Reggio Emilia and Making Learning

Visible

slide-4
SLIDE 4

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

4

Research Questions

  • How can we help teachers in a Jewish

supplementary school translate frameworks about havruta learning into their classrooms?

  • A. How can the havruta learning frameworks

be adapted to help meet teachers’ learning and teaching needs in this particular context?

  • B. How do teachers draw on these

frameworks in their planning and teaching?

slide-5
SLIDE 5

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

5

Assumptions

  • Good theory is practical and can be taught
  • Importance of providing a language and

creating a common language

  • “Making Learning Whole” (David Perkins)-

importance of learners seeing all components in action, experiencing them and practicing them in their classrooms

slide-6
SLIDE 6

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

6

Our Hypothesis

slide-7
SLIDE 7

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

7

Components of Intervention, Part I

  • Created professional learning

community to explore collaborative learning, havruta and text study

  • Spent staff meeting time studying texts

in havruta and debriefing experience

  • Mini lessons, in-class exercises, video

investigations and homework

slide-8
SLIDE 8

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

8

Frameworks

slide-9
SLIDE 9

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

9

Examples

slide-10
SLIDE 10

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

10

Components of Intervention, Part II

  • Targeted work with two teachers in their

classrooms: meetings to plan lessons,

  • bserving lessons, meetings to reflect on

lessons

  • Shared classroom documentation from

two classes with entire staff for further learning

slide-11
SLIDE 11

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

11

General impact among teachers: What did teachers do in their classrooms?

  • Made direct engagement with text a central part of

classroom work

  • Spent more time listening to their students think out-

loud and noticing them as individual and group learners

  • Introduced students to well-designed havruta study in

4 out of 5 classrooms

  • Drew on havruta practices in designing lessons,

responding to student comments and general classroom facilitation

  • Did not explicitly teach students havruta practices
slide-12
SLIDE 12

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

12

Example #1: Making Text More Central in Kindergarten

  • At Kesher we place a lot of value on text-study, but this lesson

was the first time that I tried reading to the Shorashim from the Torah directly, with no adaptation. I opened the book after just a short introduction, apprehensive that this was going to fall flat, maybe they are too young for this, and the language of the Torah is too difficult for them, too terse. I read the passage from Exodus telling how the Jews cried out after many years of suffering under the Egyptian yoke, and how after they cried out, God responded. I had to repeat the few lines again to the kids, but I was amazed by how they responded! These young, young children went directly to the most important questions, and directly echoed the questions that are asked in the pages of our great scholars.

slide-13
SLIDE 13

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

13

Making Text More Central in Kindergarten (cont.)

  • Why havenʼt they cried out before? why did they wait so long?
  • Why did God wait until the people cried out to respond?
  • Why did they have to cry out loud to God?
  • Sometimes you cry out loud and no body helps you, did they know

theyʼre going to get help? We have many childrenʼs books about the Exodus at Kesher, but their amplified storytelling sometimes tries to answer important questions before the kids have a chance to ask them. The Shorashim responded magnificently to the openness of the original Torah text.

slide-14
SLIDE 14

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

14

Example #2: Dania’s 6th Grade

slide-15
SLIDE 15

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

15

Goals for 6th Grade Lesson Sequence

  • 1. become familiar with the Story of Yaakov and

Esav on a factual level

  • 2. be able to enter a playful interpretive zone

rather than look for the right answers.

  • 3. be able to gain insight or some understanding
  • f the different qualities in each character in a

deeper, less black and white way than was initially perceived.

slide-16
SLIDE 16

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

16

Flow of Lesson Activities

  • Arrange storyboards to review text
  • Frame lesson and havruta time
  • Havruta time
  • Class discussion #1: Character

representations

  • Class discussion #2: How has your

understanding of the characters changed?

slide-17
SLIDE 17

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

17

In Dania’s own words (see handout)

slide-18
SLIDE 18

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

18

Dania’s Havruta Guidelines

  • When helping your partner in thinking about their

character:

  • 1. Listen closely to what your havruta is saying
  • 2. Help him/her think through her ideas by asking

questions such as:

  • What do you think that part of the text mean? Or
  • Why do you think that?
slide-19
SLIDE 19

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

19

Dania’s Havruta Text Questions

  • What part did you play in the story?
  • What did you want?

What were you feeling? Tell the story of your experience?

  • What were you thinking? Tell the story of your

experience? What do you feel about the outcome?

  • If you were to choose a word or phrase from the

text to explain who you are, what would it be?

slide-20
SLIDE 20

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

20

Student understanding of text

Josh, who played Esav, speaks: "I realized two things about Esav. He's kind of more --his word was hunt--he's really sad and disappointed. I didn’t realize how sad and disappointed he

  • was. Not just angry. I also realized

how loyal and loving he is to his father.”

slide-21
SLIDE 21

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

21

Student reflections on havruta

  • Bob: You learn more about yourself when you do

things like this…You learn about the way you think of things and this sort of helps you think about yourself and what you do in situations and helps you learn what you do.

  • David: You learn more about your partner…How

they think about things and how they interpret the story compared to how you do, so you get to learn something about your partner and not just read a story.

slide-22
SLIDE 22

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

22

“I’ve used … a lot of the content that you’ve been introducing, I’ve used, knowingly and unknowingly…” -Dania

  • Havruta (and my role as teacher as one who tries to enable) as

a space which provides both support and also offers a more challenging way of looking at things in order to stretch one's thinking.

  • I constantly used the triangle metaphor: trying to create a space

between learners and text where the encounter allows for creative exploration.

  • Enabling a safe space for exploratory talk, and encouraging and

trying to model active listening, asking questions, trying to understand, helping learners explain what they mean until it becomes clearer to them, and then to others. Using different kinds of questions.

  • -February reflections
slide-23
SLIDE 23

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

23

Using Havruta in the Classroom…in Dania’s Words

“Because also you were speaking before, asking me about the … the role of havruta … The amazing part was that

  • n one hand you want to encourage

students to find their own minds, but on the other hand we don’t live in, we are part of a bigger context. And we bring

  • ur uniqueness to this constellation, but

we’re part of something larger than our

  • wn, and that’s exactly the point.”
slide-24
SLIDE 24

Orit Kent & Allison Cook Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

24

THE END