“Images of the Possible” in a
Jewish Supplementary School,
A Mandel Center Lunch
Seminar
By Orit Kent and Allison Cook
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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,
observations, interviews
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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• 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
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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?
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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Our Hypothesis
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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Frameworks
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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Examples
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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Components of Intervention,
Part II
• Targeted work with two teachers in their
classrooms: meetings to plan lessons,
observing lessons, meetings to reflect on
lessons
• Shared classroom documentation from
two classes with entire staff for further
learning
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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 outloud 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
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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.
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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.
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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Example #2:
Dania’s 6th Grade
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Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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
of the different qualities in each character in a
deeper, less black and white way than was
initially perceived.
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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?
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Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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In Dania’s own words (see
handout)
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Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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?
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Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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?
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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.”
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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.
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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“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
Orit Kent & Allison Cook
Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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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
on 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
our uniqueness to this constellation, but
we’re part of something larger than our
own, and that’s exactly the point.”
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Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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THE END
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Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
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