Relationships

I've been heavily involved in a number of "professional development" endeavors this fall. Many of them focus on topics such as "enduring understandings," or "student engagement," or "deep learning." We've talked about "backwards design," "strategies for diverse learners," "ongoing assessment" and "evidence of learning."

About midway through the fall, it occurred to me that there is/was a key element that wasn't being mentioned in these discussions. I'm still not sure whether in our search for something that will work, it was overlooked entirely or it was an unarticulated assumption. I'm hoping it was the latter; I'm suspecting it was the former.

What AM I talking about?

The keystone we need to remember in working with learners of all ages is the importance of the personal relationship the teacher/facilitator must establish with each learner in his/her group, as well as the relationships the individual group members must establish with each other.

We often get so focused on our content that we lose sight of the individuals in front of us and who they are as people - not just in their role as learners.

We try to cram so much in that we neglect to take the time to establish a relationship.

My experience indicates that by trying to "save" time by jumping into content without building the relationship, the content remains disconnected from the lives of our students.

I've done a number of training sessions in the last six months - some have been part of a series, some were single-session events. In both cases, when I have compared notes with other presenters (at single-session events, for example), one thing stands out. In the groups where the presenters have taken the time to establish a sense of community and relationships, the quality of interactions and the quantity of knowledge (measured in depth instead of breadth) are increased markedly. This shows up in exit sheets or session evaluations.

In situations where the relationship is on-going (e.g., a class or series of workshops), establishing a relationship is the first critical piece in making the environment a safe one in which people can ask questions, express their own opinions, and be open to looking at information in a new way.

I'm teaching a class of madrichim - a great group of young people. After a three-week hiatus for winter break, I wanted to provide an opportunity for us to re-connect with each other. I introduced an activity I've used with other classes, which we've typically called "Roses and Thorns." Each participant shares one positive thing that happened since we've seen each other last - and one challenge or difficulty they're dealing with. My hesitation was that sometimes this exercise can expand to fill the entire class time. And we did have so much we needed to cover that day!

I decided to use visuals as a means of helping keep us focused. However, in my stash of materials, I couldn't find a fake rose. So I used an "apple" and a "lemon" - fake food items used in decorating my succah in years past - and renamed the activity "Apples and Lemons." Students were given an option to share their thoughts or to pass. Most chose to share.

It was a wonderful experience. Holding the objects seemed to keep us all focused and our comments relatively brief. We all learned more about what's going on with each other in our "real lives." Our subsequent discussions and learning also seemed to be better focused and less "frantic." We've spent time on previous occasions sharing information with each other - but this opportunity exceeded my expectations. We'll definitely do it again.

I also taught a group of a adult learners, about half of whom are beginning their Jewish teaching experiences. The remainder of the class has significant years of experience. The challenge was to establish a sense of community so that our learning experience together is enhanced and personal. As I searched for a new "ice breaker," I settled on a think-pair-share activity in which partners described both their favorite teacher ever - AND their least favorite teacher, providing reasons for each selection. Each person shared their partner's responses with the group.

This experience, too, was a profound one for the group. Individuals connected with each other and talked one-on-one about successes and failures they'd experienced in a classroom. Partners shared abridged information with the whole group, uniformly treading gently and respectfully as they shared about their partner's difficulties with their least favorite teacher. The class as a whole learned that they share a value for certain characteristics in educational leaders - and grimmaced in empathy as people discussed the characteristics of their least favorite teacher. Subsequent discussions reached an honest depth that often doesn't occur with a group that's just beginning its work together.

Taken together - what do these experiences reinforce for me? That it's critical to spend the time developing relationships with the individuals I teach.

The old adage rings true: They [students] don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Only after they know how much we care, can we help them "engage" in "enduring understandings" and "deep learning."

Book Review: Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors

Earlier this summer, a colleague sent me a link to a new book that he thought might be of interest to me. I scanned the review, ordered it, and added it to my pile of "books I really should read sooner rather than later." It's a great stack of books and currently includes the following:

• Isa Aron's The Self-Renewing Congregation: Organizational Strategies for Revitalizing Congregational Life
• Olitzky & Sabath's Striving Toward Virtue: A Contemporary Guide for Jewish Ethical Behavior
• Rabbi Levi Meier's Seven Heavens: Inspirational Stories to Elevate Your Soul
• Sedlar & Miners' Don't Retire, REWIRE!
• Just ASK's Strategies in Action
• Paula Rutherford's The 21st Century Mentor's Handbook

Given the fact that much of my work so far this academic year has been focusing on working with madrichim and their supervising teachers, I bumped Richard and Elaine Solomon's Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors to the top of my list.

I'm glad I did!

It's a fairly easy read, since much of the "teaching" is done in the form of a dialogue between madrichah (about to become co-teacher on her way to being a novice teacher) and mentor. Educationalese is translated into English (I'm not as well versed in educationalese as I might be); pragmatic examples for a Jewish educational setting are provided (either day school or supplemental school); there are charts and forms to use in helping to categorize or plan out specific strategies.

As I was reading, and thinking.... and then reading and thinking some more.... the thought occured that this could well be a handbook or source text if we ever were able to get our Midrashah L'Morim program going again. There are also huge segments that we could use in our regional training programs for beginning/novice teachers. The only area I think gets a little short-shrift is the area of learning disabilities - although they do a good job of presenting learning differences and multiple intelligences.

The challenge for me, now, is to go back and engage in some of the exercises the Solomons suggest for their teachers-in-training in order to see if I can plug what I'm doing into the format they suggest. If I can do that, it will make it easier for me to teach others to do so.

My specific challenge? I get stuck on the words "enduring understanding" and "essential questions." I know why I think what I'm teaching is important, but have trouble articulating that importance in that specific terminology. HELP!

The book is excellent. I highly recommend it for schools looking to start a mentoring program for older madrichim; for those that have frequent staff turnover and want to provide novice teachers with a solid foundation; and for teachers who have agreed to mentor others. And it's available through Amazon.

Addendum: After writing this piece, I happened to mention to my daughter that I was struggling to articulate an enduring understanding for the madrichim course. She looked at me quizzically and said, "That's easy."

"Huh?" I responded.

She paused a moment and said, " 'All students learn differently.' That's your enduring understanding."

"Doesn't it have to include something about teaching or Jewish Ed?" I asked.

"No," she responded firmly. "All students learn differently. That's why you teach what you teach."

"Oh," I answered humbly. And then demanded: "How do you know thus stuff?"

"I took an ed course in college. Even though it was taught horrendously, I did learn stuff."

In the words of Yehuda haLevi: Much I have learned from my teachers, more from my colleagues, but most from my students. Substitute "daughter" from "students" and that describes it perfectly!

STW: Professional Implications

So, aside from the personal vindication I’ve felt since reading Supplementary Schools That Work, does this study have any relevance for us professionally?

I believe it does.

But not necessarily in the way that most of us seem to be connecting with initially.

It is absolutely a delight to see that A) there are schools that are successful; B) there are specific characteristics that can be attributed to successful schools; C) that those characteristics are not automatically outside our grasp; and D) that *all* schools, including successful ones, struggle to overcome the same barriers to success.

Those are important factors to consider as we look to objectively assess our programs, to build on the successes we’ve had, and to continually strive to improve.

But they’re not enough to ensure success…. Unless the foundational pieces are in place. Wertheimer calls these the “enabling factors.”

The report cites four conditions that need to exist if a school is to move into the “successful” category. In brief, they are as follows:

• Vision
• Collaborative Culture
• Communal support
• Lay involvement

As I’ve turned this report over and over during the past month, and examined it from multiple angles, it occurs to me that there are at least two levels on which these enabling factors can be examined: on the congregational level and on the school level. Ideally, the school is a subset of the congregation, so we visualize them as concentric circles, as below:

Let’s start with the outside circle and work our way to inner circle.

Congregational building pieces: Questions to answer
Does the congregation have a vision or mission statement? Does it include a description of the type of culture the organization hopes to create? What types of diversity are included in this description? What work will the community become involved with? Is the word “community” even used? How frequently are the vision statement and the goals of the congregation re-examined?

What evidence can one see to support the cultural goal of collaboration within the congregational community? [NOTE: to me, the word “collaboration” connotes a respectful exchange of ideas, mutual support for the tasks of individuals, and a willingness to establish a safe environment in which disagreement about ideas/practices/etc doesn’t become “disagreeable.”] Does that collaboration cross the lay-professional line? Does it occur within each constituency: lay leaders, professional staff, parents, etc? Is there evidence of reflective practice – individually and collectively – without blaming or finger pointing?

Is there a sense of being part of a “larger whole?” Does the congregation connect with others outside its walls? Is it affiliated with a movement? Does it engage in local and national Jewish communal work (ie, of the Federation, Jewish agencies, educational programs, youth groups)? How is it involved with Israel? Is it part of the local scene on both a Jewish and a secular level? Do the individual committees and affiliates act as if they understand how their involvement intermeshes with the goals and activities of the entire congregation? How are potential resources (internal and external) identified? Is this an ongoing endeavor process?

How are lay leaders groomed? Is there a “leadership track?” Is leadership training available? Are new members actively encouraged to become involve in leadership positions? Are their comments, observations, questions solicited and addressed respectfully? Do they understand the scope of the “job” they are being encouraged to undertake? Are they provided with the necessary supports as they begin to assume their responsibilities? Are lay leaders empowered to take ownership of the challenges involved in running a nonprofit organization? Are they empowered to actively search for solutions along with professional staff? Are there accountability measures in place?

School building pieces: Questions to answer

(many of the questions cited above also apply to schools within the congregational framework. Here are some additional ones to consider.)

Does the school have a vision or mission statement of its own? Does it refer back to the congregational statement? Are they aligned? Does it include desired outcomes? Methodology?

Is there a culture of collaboration among teaching staff? Professional staff and the education committee? Among professional staff and parents? Among classes? Among students within individual grades or rooms? Are individuals vested in the success of the entire school, and not just their particular students, grades, courses, etc? Is there opportunity for regular reflective practice by administrators, teachers, students, committee members, parents? Is the environment a “safe” one in which to ask questions or express a difference of opinion?

Is the school connected to congregational life? In ways that go beyond participation in services or consecration and b’nei mitzvah? Is there a congregational board liaison? Does that liaison have credibility with the larger board or is he/she seen primarily or exclusively as someone whose focus is limited to the school only, without being able to see the bigger, congregational, picture? Is the school connected to other religious schools – locally, nationally, within the movement or outside? Is it connected to other youth activity endeavors (youth group, etc)? Do teachers and administrators engage in regular professional development, both on-site and off? Are resources – specifically time and money – allocated to professional development?

Most lay leaders (although not all) initially get involved with the school because of a specific issue related to their child. However, are they eventually able to widen their focus on what’s beneficial for the entire community? Are they willing to offer specific talents and skills to support the educational program? Are they able to comment on the positives they/their children see or experience as well as address issues that need improvement? Are they in tune with the mission goals and objectives of the school? When a problem arises, are they willing to help search for solutions?

What happens if the congregation and school are not in harmony?

Then, I would suggest, there’s a mismatch.

Not every educator will work well in every congregational setting.

Not every congregation will remain consistent in its answers to these questions.

The guiding principle, I believe, must be a shared vision about what’s best for the kids: What kind of Jewish adults do we want them to grow into – and what do we believe is the best way to get there, given the constraints of time, energy, money, personnel?

Facilitating Group Dynamics

I did a couple of workshops for our local Education Day last month. Our individual workshop topics are often (intentionally) broad and designed to attract a wide number and variety of participants. It’s always a challenge to figure out how to convey the most amount of information in a very short period of time.

On the one hand, we’d like to be able to model good teaching strategies and involve our participants as much as possible. On the other, often the quickest way to present information is by using a frontal/lecture approach. And this year, we were given the added challenge: “Make your workshops work for both classroom teachers and youth group workers.” Both are teachers of Jewish kids – one in a formal educational setting; the other in an informal educational setting. My specific charge from the planning committee was – “Do something on classroom management.”

Several of us brainstormed ideas for workshop names (that’s not one of my strong points: naming things) and came up with one in time for the deadline: Facilitating Group Dynamics: Providing a Safe Structure for All Participants

In the past when I’ve taught mixed groups (classroom teachers and youth group workers), I’ve done my same-old-same-old, just periodically remembering to add, “Oh, this works in a youth group setting, too, by the way. All you have to do is….”

I decided this time, if I was going to model how to include both types of learners, I had to use language that 1) was intentionally exclusive; 2) flowed easily; and 3) really was applicable for both situations.

It was harder than I thought it would be.

I could easily identify which words I wanted to remove from my presentation: teacher, student, classroom, texts, principal/ed director, class. I wasn’t so sure what I would substitute – or how I could make the language flow easily instead of awkwardly. I played with a lot of phrases in my mind and was beginning to panic, when I reread the subtitle one more time: Providing a Safe Structure … The light bulb went on: STRUCTURE!

And so, I built an analogy between the structure necessary in order to allow for positive group dynamics in a safe, protected environment….and building a house! Here are some of the comparisons I made:

• Examine your site => find out about your setting
• Consult an architect => check in with your program director
• Subcontract, if necessary => know who your resource people are
• Build your foundation => identify the key values that will guide your work

In total, I outlined 13 steps, ending with “Give them the keys/Empower group members to be responsible for implementation.”

It ended up being great fun to prepare for the workshop – and the group that participated in the workshop really got into it. One of the best discussions ever! Here are links to .pdf files of both the PowerPoint and the Participant Workbook. Enjoy!

The 3 R's: Rigor, Relationships & Relevance

Last month, at CAJE, I had the opportunity to participate in two learning sessions with Marc Kay, an educator from the Detroit, Michigan area. Marc has taught in the following settings: day school, supplemental school, youth group, and is currently a secular high school English teacher. He brought a wealth of practical experience, as well as research-based findings, to his workshops.

The title of one of his workshops was “Jewish Education in the 21st Century: Relevancy and Rigor in the Classroom.”

Honesty compels me to admit that my initial reaction to the word “rigor” is to flinch: the connotation for me usually implies a lot of jargon that ends up meaning, “teaching to the test,” “college-credit for high school work,” and “how much can we cover in how short a period of time.” In fairness, my Merriam-Webster defines it as “a strict precision or exactness” – a values-neutral definition.

By adding “relationships” and “relevance” to “rigor”, Marc changed the equation.

“The primary aim of all education is not to enable students to do well in schools or colleges, but to help them do well in the lives they lead outside of the schools and colleges,” he explained. He went on to say, “This theory applies to our hope to how our students apply their Judaic education to becoming part of their greater Jewish community.” [emphasis added]

Marc debunked some of the false ideas of “learning” currently circulating:

• finishing a textbook means achievement
• listening to a lecture means understanding
• getting high test scores means proficiency

Instead, he identifies the roots of learning as containing the following:

• meaning, not just memory
• engagement, not just transmission
• inquiry, not just compliance
• exploration, not just acquisition
• personalization, not just uniformity
• collaboration, not just competition
• trust, not fear

Too many students see education as something that happens to them, he adds. Seeing real-life applications of what they are learning and understanding how they learn and developing the ability to monitor their own learning progress changes that passive state to an active one.

Relationships between students and teachers are a key factor. Learners flourish if they know that they matter to someone. From my own experience as a parent and teacher of students with learning difficulties, I know that students are more willing to exert themselves and plow through their challenges when they know that their teacher cares about them and believes in them.

Relevance comes into play when students are able to understand how the information or skill has some relevance to their lives; when they are encouraged to grapple with their own understanding of what they are learning; and when they learn how to learn as a result of the process.

In a meditation on the blessing that precedes Torah study, Rabbi Leila Gal Berner comments on the Hebrew phrase l'asok b'dvrei torah:

The Hebrew words here do not say "to study Torah," but rather to "be engaged" or "to be busy with" the study of Torah. We study Torah not an an intellectual exercise alone. Rather, we understand our "engagement" with Torah more holistically, as an evey day, every moment activity. We also understand that to be fully "engaged" with Torah is to wrestle with Torah - to challenge our tradition while loving it, to question while celebrating it. (Kol Haneshamah: Shabbat Vehagim, JRF)

Ultimately, Marc believes that we need to adapt our lessons (and our approach, I might add) so that the students we interact with can answer the question, “So what?”

How many of my students this week can answer why the content we’re grappling with matters and what impact it will have on their lives?

Thanks, Marc!

Props

Okay, so where was I? (That’s the problem with “vacation” – it’s hard to regain your momentum!)

Improv. theatre…. setting …. the script…. oh, yeah – the props! Now I remember.

“Props” can be anything that help your script come alive: things that your students can experience – taste, touch, smell, hear.

If you’re teaching a lesson on what I used to call “the Jewish uniform” – bring it in! Bring in a tallit (or three). Let your students finger the fringes. Let them trace the Hebrew letters on the atarah/collar. Let them tent themselves in the tallit/prayer shawl as they repeat the blessing after you. Let the tallit settle on their shoulders – show them how to fold the edges up, so they are able to hold a siddur/prayer book at the same time. Let them experience laying on tefillin – examine different styles of kippot.

If you’re teaching about Passover – let them smell and taste the maror/horseradish; let them chop the apples and add a little grape juice – and have that as snack instead of challah; let them break the matzah to hide an afikoman.

If you’re teaching about the Dead Sea – fill a basin with super salty water. Place it next to a basin of clear water. Let them take turns dropping objects into the basins and watch how they float in the super-salty water.

If you’re trying to evoke the solemnity of Kol Nidre – or the joy of Simchat Torah – play instrumental music softly in the background while students are working.

When you learn about Chanukah together, have them bring in their Chanukiyah from home – and let them tell the stories associated with their personal Chanukiyah.

Let them hold the lulav and hear the branches whisper as they are shaken east, west, north, south, up and down. Let them gently scratch the surface of the etrog and smell its lemon-like odor.

When you study Torah with your students, use a Chumash that includes both Hebrew and English, if possible. If that’s not possible – photocopy the page you’ll be studying together. If that’s even beyond what you can provide – type your text as it’s found in a Chumash, including the verse numbers interspersed within the text.

Take them to see a Torah scroll up close. Let them help undress it and carefully roll it out. Let them use the yad/pointer to point to the Hebrew words – and let them tell you “there are no vowels!” Let them touch the wood of the etz hayim/rollers. Let them be responsible for dressing the Torah, hearing the clink as the breastplate is settled into place – and the jingle of the bells in the crowns. Let them feel the texture of the Torah cover – and open and close the ark carefully as it is replaced.

Then take a moment to catch your breath – and think about the experience.

Use lengths of material as costumes when studying biblical characters…. as tents when they’re Israelites wandering in the desert….or pioneers settling in the Land of Israel… or to block off a special area in the classroom in which they can repair to think calming thoughts.

The more we make the learning real, the easier it is to engage our students. The greater the level of engagement, the greater the likelihood of retention. Using all of our senses in teaching and learning helps make the learning come alive.

The Script

Even though I’ve likened teaching to improv. theater – you still need a script. Some days you’ll be able to follow it fairly closely. Some days, there’ll be a detour along the way. Other days, you may as well throw it out the window and go for the “teachable moment.”

I’ve known some teachers who rarely prepare a lesson, insisting that they know their content well enough that they can “wing it.” I’ve never yet met one who is as successful as s/he thinks at doing that. The kids get the short end of the stick when teachers don’t prepare. Somehow, that doesn’t seem fair to me.

So what should your lesson plan consist of? Let’s start with some general questions:

• What’s the “big idea” that you want to teach…. this year? … this unit? …this lesson? [Enduring understandings]
• What should the students be able to do at the end of the lesson? [Objectives]
• How will you know that can attain those objectives? [Assessment]
• What strategies will you employ to get there? [Remember that students learn best in a variety of ways (auditory, visual & kinesthetic)]
• What materials will you need to use? [texts, videos, web info, flashcards, journals, guest speakers/demos]
• How many of your strategies will allow students to interact directly with the materials? [The greater the interaction, the greater the engagement. Learning is not a spectator sport.]
• In what order will you present the information? [Look for flow and natural segue ways]
• How much time will you need for each component? [Remember to allow for set up, transition and clean up times]
• What will your madrich/madrichah (aide) be doing in order to help students reach your instructional objectives?
• Before students leave, what opportunities will you provide for them to reflect on their learning for the day?

And finally, you’ll need to provide for your own reflection time. Here we go back to my big three questions (with which I began this blog in June, 2008):

1. What worked – and why?
2. What didn’t work – and why not?
3. What will I do differently next time?

Setting the Stage - Act 2

Regardless of what kind of space you and your class occupy, there are certain portable accoutrements that shout “This is a Jewish educational environment!”

What are some of them?

• A tzedakah box
• Some indicator (flyer, brochure, poster with information) about the recipient of your students’ tzedakah funds for the year
• An aleph-bet chart
• A chart featuring the words to the blessing for studying Torah
• A daily agenda
• Kippot
• Classroom rules. I used to call mine “Mitzvot shel Kitah Gimmel” (the commandments of third grade)
• A Hebrew “Word of the Day”
• Song poster(s)
• Classroom job chart
• Sh’ma
• Jewish calendar
• A "Welcome" sign on the door
• An attendance chart
• If your students' parents pick them up at your classroom door, a "Notice for Parents" posted on the hallway outside the door involves them in what's going on in your classroom
  

A milk crate and a luggage carrier (with bungee cords) have made my life much easier over the years!

Along with these items, I also always carried a pencil box containing enough sharpened pencils, scissors, glue sticks, markers, tape (masking and clear), paper clips, a mini-stapler, and a hole punch for my class to use.

Is it a bother? Yes.

Why do it? It puts your stamp on the space you’ll be occupying for 2 or more hours a week. It says to your students, “Our time together is important enough for me to go to the effort to make the space ours.” It helps focus attention on our work at hand. These items serve as visual reminders for the rules we’ve agreed upon, our classroom priorities. They help join us as a community. The supply box sends a clear message that we don’t use the objects in our classroom that belong to others because we have our own things.

It takes an extra little bit of time to put it all up at the beginning of the class period, but it ensures that you'll be in the classroom to greet the students when they arrive. It takes a few minutes extra at the end of the day to pull everything down, but that provided some time to reflect on how things had gone that day.

A word to the wise: If you forget to remove any of these materials at the end of your class, be prepared that they will probably NOT be there next week.... and the person whose space you've occupied may be very irate that you left them behind. Check lists, my friend. Check lists help us remember!

Setting the Stage - Act 1

If we’d walk into your classroom, what would we see?

Is it welcoming? Bright, cheerful, organized?

Does it reflect your students’ involvement? How can you tell that your class occupies this space, for at least a small amount of time each week?

Is it a “Jewish space?” What makes a space Jewish?






Very few of us have the luxury of having our own space – most of us share with at least one other group: sometimes more. If we’re fortunate, our classroom is located in a larger Jewish space (synagogue building, JCC, Jewish camp). In that case, the “big picture” has already been established and there may well be symbols of Judaism visible/audible to our students: mezuzot, Hebrew letters, books with Jewish content, kippot, posters, signs, music, oral Hebrew ….

Some of us work in secular settings: for example, rented public school space or a community center.

Still others share places used for non-Jewish worship or study, such as a church or interfaith center.

Each setting provides its own challenges and opportunities for us to “set the stage” for our students.

When we’re using rented space, the biggest challenges are that 1) nothing can be posted permanently; 2) we can’t store things so that they are readily accessible; and 3) we have little control over the room setup.

Unfortunately, we often look at those challenges and decide that there is nothing that can be done.

Fortunately, that’s not true: there are some things we can do!

We can take chairs off the desks and turn them upright – we just need to remember to replace them at the end of class. In secular school settings, students often have to do this at the end of the day, so you’ll be scaffolding on top of a habit they already have.

We can re-arrange some of the furniture to make the space more conducive to our needs – we just need to remember to move things back at the end of the day. Digital pictures depicting the room as seen from different angles are immensely helpful.

We can laminate posters – and tape them up at strategic places (the door, over the chalk/whiteboard) – we just need to remember to remove them before we leave. A checklist helps with routine reminders.

We can bring displays in –using two tri-fold pieces of cardboard (aka “science fair boards”) clipped together with binder clips – for center work, displays, and sharing information with groups of people.

And that’s just a beginning…..

"A Letter to Teachers"

I almost never write in books. It’s an old habit, dating back to my college days when I realized I could sell my used texts for more money if I hadn’t written in them.

On Sunday, I picked up Vito Perrone’s A Letter to Teachers, another old favorite. When I first picked it up – over five years ago, now – I was so struck by what he was saying that I grabbed a red pen and began to underline, check, highlight, add exclamation points, and dog-ear the pages. It was fun to find myself as captivated by some of his ideas this past weekend as I was the first time I read them.

Here are a couple that jumped out at me:

It is also important when thinking about the content of our teaching, the questions we raise, the experiences we provide, the materials we select to read and reflect upon, that schools are not the only learning environments in children and young people’s lives. They are exposed to, even bombarded by, television, films, radio, newspapers, magazines, fast food restaurants, and billboards. And they hear conversations in the streets and in their homes.

In relation to many of these visual and auditory sources of information, teachers can help by providing their students with appropriate lenses and tools through which to understand their surroundings more fully, to assist them in separating the substances from the discordant noises and surface images. This means, of course, that they don’t close the curriculum to the world that their students listen to and look at every day outside school. It is helpful for teachers to know as much as they can about the neighborhoods their students come from, what the encounter in the streets, what the sounds and smells are, what is watched on television and what popular music is.

Question: How much of a correlation is there between the curricula of our religious schools – and the lives that our students and families lead? Do we talk about “real” situations – do we provide the opportunity to grapple with “real” issues? How much do we know about our students’ “other lives” – their homes, their secular schools, their sports activities, the books they read, the games they play, the music they listen to? Without a point of connection between our classes and what they’re living, what we teach becomes (in many ways) irrelevant.


As a principle, it is usually more productive within every area of learning to teach less more deeply than to teach more as a matter of coverage.

That comment actually earned a “YES” with 2 check marks in the margin.

“There’s never enough time,” we wail, “so I have to get in as much material as I can.” Our curricula are often too ambitious, filled with so much that there’s scarcely time to breath. Perhaps if we truly believed what we often espouse about life-long learning, we’d be able to stop and explore with our students. Deeper instead of wider.

Thanks, Vito.

Assessment

I used an unusual term for assessment in my last posting. Did you catch it?

"Evidence of learning" -- what does that mean?

Often, when we think of assessment, the first thing that comes to mind is..... a test (bingo!).

But, a test is only one measure that can be used ... and it may not always be the best measure.

Whether it's a good measure depends on some of the following factors: How well is it written? Are the questions clear? Are there a variety of answers possible and has the test-writer allowed for that? Is the test formatted clearly, with clear delineation between different parts of the test?

Written tests can work for some students.... but what about the students who have difficulty with small motor (think "bubble tests") or difficulty with visual tracking or difficulty with letter reversals or difficulty with word retrieval (can explain the concept, but can't recall the word) or...

"Evidence of learning" expands the notion of assessment to include a variety of ways in which students can indicate they've mastered the material. It could include some of the following:

• a newspaper article
• a three-panel cartoon
• a diorama
• a Venn diagram
• a rap song or poem
• a panel discussion or debate
• a sketch, diagram or floor plan
• an audio recording or video recording
• a collage
• a journal entry
• a skit
• ______________________________
  

One of the strategies I used when I was teaching was to schedule a “Bible Review Day” on a regular basis. Students chose a chapter to explore in greater detail by using strategies similar to those listed above. In addition, I asked each to fill out an index card with 1) their name; 2) the name of the chapter; 3) the main characters; 4) the lesson the chapter taught us.

During Bible Review sessions, they took turns presenting their project and explaining it to the class. I asked follow up questions about their project, as did their classmates. The project was a fun piece – the kids (for the most part) enjoyed it and the break in routine was welcome. The index card was actually a key component – it told me what they had learned.


How can you expand your assessment strategies to include “evidences of learning?”

Teaching's "Big Questions"

One of the most difficult tasks in figuring out a curriculum is trying to articulate specifically what it is we want students to know at the end of their time with us.

Having a well-written Mission Statement can help begin to define our goals. Developing a Scope and Sequence – listing what material will be covered in which order at what grade – can help. Does it go without saying there should be a match between the Scope and Sequence and the Mission Statement? Probably nothing should “go without saying….”

The next big step is to define at each level, exactly what we want students to learn from the vast pool of knowledge available to them.

As a teacher I learned early on to review my students’ progress on a monthly basis, first listing what my instructional objectives had been and then ascertaining what my students could actually accomplish at the end of the month. I learned about Bloom’s taxonomy and the hierarchy in asking different types of questions. And I learned to use definitive verbs (identify, describe, differentiate) instead of the amorphous “understand” or “know” when writing both objectives and outcomes.

But specifically what to teach – what to choose to emphasize – was hard for me.

If I was told to “teach about Chanukah,” for example – I wasn’t quite sure what to teach: historical context, rituals and customs, music, food, Hebrew, values, when it occurs on the calendar; about assimilation (and if so, how); or about “miracles” or symbolism? Too many questions – and I was never quite sure what my students already would know before they came in to my (third grade) class.

As a director, I spent a great deal of time previewing text books, teacher guides and resource materials. I wanted to ensure that the approach the authors used was one that would mesh with the congregation's ideological perspective.

But I never really focused on providing teachers with the specifics of what I expected them to emphasize in their classwork.

It wasn’t until last year, when I began teaching in our Midrashah L’Morim program (for 11th and 12th graders who think they want to become religious school teachers) that I really faced that deficit for the first time. As I passed out a list of materials for students to use in plotting an annual calendar for their mythical classes, one of the students looked at me and said, point-blank, “You’ve given us text books, not a specific curriculum. What do you want us to teach about from these books?” (Nothing like getting nailed by your students, especially when they’re right).

In order to provide an authentic an experience as possible for my Midrashah students this year, after I finished my “Scope and Sequence” for the lab segment of our program, I began to work on “what should students know at the end of the unit” for the grades we’ll be focusing on.

It was harder than I anticipated. The process of identifying these specifics was complicated by the wealth of information, the developmental levels of the students, AND the LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME AVAILABLE TO US.

But here’s what I ended up with for my hypothetical Kindergarten/First Grade class:

Materials selected: Let’s Discover the Bible; Let’s Discover God; Oral Hebrew Language – Family, School, Body words; an Introduction to Israel

At the end of the unit, the student will be able to:

Text study:
1. summarize the story in 3-5 sentences
2. identify what s/he sees as the main lesson of the story
3. give examples from his/her daily life which support/refute the main lesson
4. find the main characters on a “biblical family tree” (where applicable)

Holidays:
1. identify the season of the year in which the holiday occurs (here in US)
2. identify and describe 2-3 ritual objects associated with the holiday
3. provide a 3-5 sentence description of the holiday
4. match the Hebrew name of the holiday with an English description of it

Spirituality:
1. identify which creations remind us of God’s presence
2. recite the Sh’ma and discuss its meaning for them.
3. identify individual behaviors which indicate we are made in God’s image
4. list the things in his/her life for which s/he is thankful for and write a personal blessing for them.
5. provide examples of ways in which symbols are used as reminders of covenantal behavior.
6. describe ways in which Shabbat can be celebrated as a “separate time” from everyday life.
7. identify different purposes for prayer and different ways in which individuals and communities pray.
8. demonstrate patterns of orderliness in their lives.

Hebrew:
1. translate from English to Hebrew, and Hebrew to English, and use correctly in context
* 10 words relating to body parts
* 7 words relating to family
* 5 words relating to school
2. identify holidays by their Hebrew names.
3. count to ten in Hebrew.

Israel:
1. locate the cities/regions studied on a map of Israel.
2. identify one key fact about each of the areas studied.

Evidences of learning – photographs, charts with student lists on, family trees, anecdotal reports, samples of student work


I would give this to my teacher at the beginning of the year. At the end of the year, we would jointly review and assess these expectations and, if necessary, revise them for the following year.

[Note: Understanding by Design (Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe) has been helpful for many professionals who wish to engage in this process. It doesn’t work for me, but it might for you. ]

Putting It All Together....

So, we've got 1) looking for the positive in each kid and 2) owning responsibility for the classroom climate and weather. Doesn't that cover it all?

It's a good beginning....

One of the things I wished I'd given more thought to in my early days of teaching is my philosophy about kids. I spent a lot of time on lesson plans, classroom activities, newsletters home to parents (pre-email days!), record-keeping and collecting tzedakah.

I spent almost no time thinking about kids: how I felt about them, what I expected from them, how to build relationships with them, what kind of a community I wanted my classroom to be. In those days, I thought that all I was responsible for teaching was content.

Boy, was I wrong!

Content is an important part of Judaic education, to be sure. But it's not the be-all and the end-all. To quote Abraham Joshua Heschel: “We have to have more than textbooks, we need text-people.”

What I do now, when I begin a class, is deliberately remind myself how I think about kids. Here's what I've finally come up with, after all these years:

• I like kids
• I expect kids will be kids, not little grown ups
• I don't think kids get up in the morning and think, "Oh, boy, I get to see Morah Mary today. I wonder how many ways I can push her buttons?"
• I think kids learn different ways.
• I think kids show you what they've learned in different ways.
• I think kids want the grownups in their lives to like them.
• I think kids want, need and deserve respect.
• I think kids want to be heard.
• I think (often) that kids have as much to teach me as I have to teach them...and sometimes more!

What other core beliefs do I have regarding kids?

• To quote Rick Lavoie, "A kid would rather look bad than dumb."
• There's no wrong answer when I ask, "What do you think?"
• Sometimes the answer I get that I'm not expecting is much more insightful than the answer I thought I should get.
• A kid might not remember what I taught, but s/he will remember how they felt in my class.
• I need to remember at all times that I'm the grownup in the room -- and need to model "grownup behavior."

And, ultimately: a classroom needs to be a safe place for everyone - students, madrichim /aides, and teachers.

I've decided I want to be one of Heschel's text people.

Classroom Weather

About five or six years after I began teaching, someone shared the following quote from Haim Ginott with me:

“I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in my classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.”

By that time I already understood that my students were apt to be more cooperative if I identified something I liked about them and focused on trait instead of on the behaviors that made me nuts.

But Ginott upped the ante – and laid the responsibility for classroom dynamics squarely on my shoulders.

At about the same time, my mother-in-law gave me a T-shirt that we both found hilarious. It read simply: “When Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

My kids gleefully affirmed it: “Yeah, when she’s in a bad mood, we suffer.”

Ginott puts the same theory into educationalese and provides graphic examples of the “ain’t happy” part.

The T-shirt is long gone, but the quote has remained above my desk ever since. As teachers, the responsibility for the classroom weather is ours.

Scope and Sequence

Here's the Scope and Sequence I designed for our hypothetical school, based on the Mission Statement in my preceding post.

Grade - K/1 (Yr A) [Note: Since this is a combined class, there needs to be a Year A and a Year B, so that students don't repeat exactly the same information each year]

• Text - Creation to Joseph (Let's Discover the Bible, Set 1)
• Holidays & Values - Let's Discover the Holidays
• Spirituality - Let's Discover God
• Hebrew - Oral Hebrew Language, focus on Family, School, & Body words
• Israel - Places in Israel

Grade - K/1 (Yr B)

• Text - Moses through Writings (Let's Discover the Bible, Set 2)
• Holidays & Values - Let's Discover Shabbat; Whole School materials: Symbols
• Hebrew - Oral Hebrew Language, focus on Colors, Numbers, Holiday words
• Israel - Our Jerusalem
• Jewish Experiences - Let's Discover the Synagogue

Grade - 2

• Text - Creation, Noah
• Holidays & Values - Let's Celebrate the Holidays; BJL Values
• Spirituality - BJL God
• Hebrew - Oral Hebrew Language, focus on Holdays, animals, home, weather; incorporate easy sentences
• Jewish Experiences - Let's Explore Being Jewish

Grade - 3

• Text - Lech Lecha, Joseph
• Holidays & Values - Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur
• Spirituality - I Have Some Questions About God
• Hebrew - Z'man Likro
• Israel - The Great Israel Scavenger Hunt

Grade - 4

• Text - Being Torah
• Holidays & Values - Chanukah & Purim
• Spirituality - Partners with God
• Hebrew - Hineini 1
• Jewish Experiences - The Life Cycle Journey

Grade - 5

• Text - Exodus
• Holidays & Values - Sukkot, Pesach, Yom Ha'Atzmaut
• Hebrew - Hineini 2
• Israel - Artzeinu
• Jewish Experiences - Out of Spain: Celebrating Sephardic Culture

Grade - 6

• Text - A Topical Bible
• Holidays & Values - Simchat Torah
• Hebrew - Hineini 3
• Jewish Experiences - Challenge & Change, Vol 3

Grade - 7

• Text - Think Prophets
• Holidays & Values - Rediscovering the Jewish Holidays
• Israel - History of Israel; Matsav
• Jewish Experiences - Klal Yisrael

Grade 8 - Judaism & Human History

Grade 9 - Why Be Different?

Grade 10 - Apples and Oranges

Grades 11/12 - Hot Topics

Initially, one of the parameters for this hypothetical school was that it would meet two hours a week. After looking at the Mission Statement, the materials available, etc., I arbitrarily decided to have K-7 meet 2.5 hours a week. That decision would never be made so quickly or easily in real life ::grin:: but, hey -- this is a "hypothetical school" and it made things much easier for the purposes of this training exercise.

If you'll compare the curricular materials to the Mission Statement, you'll see that it's a pretty good match. The one topic area covered (actually quite extensively, given the amount of time available for study) not mentioned specifically in that document is the area of Israel. Nominally, at the very least, it could be encompassed in the "social studies" aspect of the curriculum. I've chosen to separate it out because I think an understanding and awareness of Israel is a key component in helping our young men and women understand World Jewry of today.

In our lab session of our Teaching Teachers class, we'll work with the materials from grades K/1 (Yr A), grade 4 and grade 7. That will provide the developmental span I'd like the participants to experience. This Scope and Sequence will enable participants to see how the materials they'll be working with fit into the "big picture."

[NOTE: In "real life," depending on your minhag hamakom / the custom of the place, the educational leader might pass a new curriculum by the lay board charged with oversight for the religious school. I always did: I found it gave me practice explaining why I had made the choices I made, and it enabled the board to speak more knowledgeably about our program.]

Mission Statement

A Mission Statement ideally sets forth the vision that a school has for itself. Generally, it’s written by lay leaders of a school/congregation (often with professional input). It should be reviewed periodically to determine that the vision, as expressed, is still accurate.

Here’s one that I particularly like – from a community I used to work with:

The mission of the Religious School is to teach and promote living Judaism – from a perspective of Reconstructionist thought and practice – as the way to create personal, communal and ecological tikkun. All Religious School programs are designed to accomplish two goals:

• To foster Jewish literacy, including the following components –
  *Values & concepts
  *Texts – Tanach
  *History – Experience of the Jewish People
  *Hebrew (i.e., language)
  
• To engender an appreciation for Jewish living, including the following aspects:
  *Spirituality
  *Rituals & their meaning
  *Ethics (Tikkun)

Note that we are not claiming to foster a commitment to Jewish living, though this is indeed our hope. Though we feel our program will make this more likely, it is the actions of home, synagogue, and community interacting with school that will be the ultimate determinant of commitment.

This Mission Statement was written for a school that met the following hours: 2 hrs per week for K-2; 4 hours per week for grades 3-6; 3.45 hours per week for grade 7; and 1.45 hours per week for grades 8-12. They also had a HomeSchool component for families who were unable to participate in the midweek program for whatever reason.

It articulates several points very clearly – life skills are important; so is the identification with a particular Jewish movement. It’s reasonable to assume that the components of Jewish literacy that this community wishes to focus on are listed in order of importance. The aspects of Jewish life to focus on are spirituality, rituals AND meaning, and ethics. Tikkun /Repair is mentioned twice in the statement, so one can assume that social action could be a key component as well.

The final statement is perhaps the most interesting. The Statement acknowledges that the ultimate determining factor of commitment to a Jewish life style depends on “home, synagogue, and community interacting with the school.” The school doesn’t carry the burden alone. It may well be that this value helped determine the success of the HomeSchool program – parents teaching children within the parameters of the school-designed program worked remarkably well for about 25% of the student body.

With this Mission Statement in place, I would design a curriculum that has a heavy emphasis on values and text, followed by a “social studies” component which includes Jewish history and experiences as part of klal Israel / the Jewish people. Less emphasis would be placed on Hebrew language.

As it happened, this particular school ended up with two discrete segments: the Sunday program, which encompassed more traditional topics taught in a more traditional way; and the Midweek Program, which focused on Hebrew review and a Chuggim/ Clubs Program. The Chuggim program taught values through art, music and movement, drama, creative writing, and cooking.

The Mission Statement is the starting point for serious work with curriculum. All other decisions – content, emphasis within content area, methodology – are shaped by what the school articulates as its vision.

This will be the Mission Statement for the hypothetical school I’ll have my Teacher Training participants “work with” in the lab section of our classes.

Religious School Math - Let's Do the Numbers!

One of the biggest challenges facing supplemental school teachers is TIME.

We talk about “a year” of religious school. How much time do we REALLY have? For a six-hour per week program, we can use the following figures (formulae are provided below):

180 hours per year - 6 hours per week x 30 weeks
-15 hours per year - Gathering time (attendance, collect tzedakah, etc.)
-15 hours per year - Wrap-up time (assign h/w answer questions, distribute papers)
-15 hours per year - Break time (bathroom, stretch time)
135 hours per year- SUBTOTAL: Time in class

135 hours per year x 7 years that we hope students will attend= 945 hours in total.

This assumes that a student has perfect attendance and is present for the entire class each time the class meets.

NOTES:

• Any cancelled sessions (“snow days”) should be subtracted from the total.
• Other factors that may affect the total number of in-class teaching/learning hours include music classes, tefillot sessions, family education programs and/or special programming. While these types of programming can add significantly to a students’ overall experience, they decrease the amount of in-class time available to cover designated material.
• Also included in that total is the time spent on community-building within your classroom, on discipline issues, and issues “du jour” which need to be dealt with before the lesson can proceed.
  

And if your program meets less than six hours a week.... your total number of hours for learning is decreased significantly.

And what do we expect our supplemental teachers to be able to teach? And our students be able to learn?

More on that later.....

Formulae used to calculate the data above

Hours per year: 6 hours per year x 30 weeks in the religious school year (some years, it's less)

Gathering time: 10 min/class x 3 classes/week x 30 wks/year divided by 60 min/hour

Wrap up time: 10 min/class x 3 classes/week x 30 wks/year divided by 60 min/hour

Break time: 10 min/class x 3 classes/week x 30 wks/year divided by 60 min/hour [NOTE: this total will increase significantly if food is involved or students go outside for a break]