Tanakh Pedagogy Course

Brandeis M.A.T. Program

Aviva Scheur

(617) 823-4787

Overview:

This course is designed to provide you with opportunities to develop the intellectual and practical skills and tools crucial for teaching Tanakh. We will engage in several kinds of professional activities including reading scholarly articles, investigating teachers’ practice and designing units. In our work together will focus on questions including:

How do you need to know the subject in order to teach the student?

How do you need to know the student in order to teach the subject?

Teaching is difficult intellectual work and to be an effective teacher takes long-term professional work. To teach well, you will need both ways of thinking and ways of acting. You will need ways to study texts and to examine practice, and to develop criteria for choosing among alternatives. Learning these habits of mind and behavior will enable you to begin being a Tanakh teacher, and also to continue learning from practice.

Required Readings: (specifics listed at the end of each session)

Ball, Deborah. “Bridging Practices: Intertwining Content and Pedagogy in Teaching and

Learning to Teach.” JTE 51 (2000): 241-47.

Ben Peretz, Teaching-Curriculum Encounter, Albany:State University Press, 1990, Chapter 4.

Dorph, Gail. “What Do Teachers Need to Know to Teach Torah?” Pages 97-113 in Essays in Education and Judaism in Honor of Joseph Lukinsky. Edited by Burton Cohen. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 2002.

Greenberg, Moshe. “On Teaching the Bible in Religious Schools.” JE 29 (1959): 45-53.

—–. “We Were As Those Who Dream.” Pages 122-32 in Visions of Jewish Education. Edited by Seymour Fox, Israel Scheffler, and Daniel Marom. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Grossman, Pamela. The Making of a Teacher: Teacher Knowledge and Teacher Education. New York: Teachers College Press, 1990. (Chapter 1 “Tale of Two Hamlets”)

Grossman, Pamela, Suzanne Wilson, and Lee Shulman. “Teachers of Substance: Subject-

Matter Knowledge for Teaching.” Pages 23-36 in Knowledge Base for the Beginning Teacher. Edited by M. Reynolds. New York: Pergamon, 1989.

Holtz, Barry. Textual Knowledge: Teaching the Bible in Theory and in Practice. New

York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2003.

JTS Melton Research Center for Jewish Education, Jewish Day School Standards and Benchmarks Project

Lampert, Magdalene. “How Do Teachers Manage To Teach? Perspectives on Problems in Practice.” HER 55 (1985): 221-37.

Tanchel, Susan. “A Judaism That Does Not Hide,” JJE 74 (2008): 29-52.

Wilson, Suzanne and Samuel Wineburg. “Peering at History through Different Lenses:

The Role of Disciplinary Perspectives in Teaching History.” TCR 89 (1988): 525-39.

Wineburg, Samuel. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts. Philadelphia:

Temple University Press, 2001. (Chapter 1)

Recommended Readings:

Dewey, John. The Child and the Curriculum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1915.

Lampert, Magdalene. Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

Scheffler, Israel. “The Concept of the Educated Person: With Some Application to

Jewish Education.” Pages 219-49 in Visions of Jewish Education. Edited by S. Fox, I. Scheffler, and D. Marom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Assessments:

I. You will have four projects for the course (68%).

Project 1: Orientations to Bible

Project 2: Two Classroom Observations with interview of teachers

Project 3: Lesson Plans (2 full length) (include delivering mini lessons if possible)

Project 4: Designing A Unit

I will give you more information on each during the course of the semester.

II. Three Short Responses to Readings (18%): You will be reading a variety of articles and other materials for this class. You must hand-in three 1-2 page responses to individual readings. These responses should contain analysis of the reading in question in order to demonstrate comprehension of it, together with original, creative, critical response to it, in order to relate it to your own life and work. You should hand in these responses during the semester, as you write them. This is a central part of the course as it offers you a place to track and record your own thinking about issues and ideas.

III. Class participation (14%): This course will in part be a function of what you contribute to it. Make use of the rare opportunity for learning through personal tutoring by attending and actively shaping the course through questioning and problematizing.

Sessions:

Session 1: Tuesday Sept. 1, 4-6 pm

Introduction

- Introductions

- Why become a Tanakh teacher?

- Course overview

- Explanation of required readings and assignments

- Subject matter fundamentals

Session 2: Tuesday September 8, 4-6 pm

Knowing Yourself, Your Learners and Your Context

- Instructional triangle – complexity of practice

- Beliefs examined

- What does it mean to teach sacred texts? Why are we teaching it? (rabbinic texts vs academic bible)

- Journal writing

Required Reading:

Greenberg, Moshe. “On Teaching the Bible in Religious Schools.” JE 29 (1959): 45-53.

—–. “We Were As Those Who Dream.” Pages 122-32 in Visions of Jewish Education. Edited by Seymour Fox, Israel Scheffler, and Daniel Marom. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Session 3: Thursday Sept. 17, 5:30-7:30 pm

The Place of Subject Matter Knowledge

- Learning a text together

- Analyzing our learning

- Different genres

Session 4: Thursday October 1 5:30-7:30 pm

Introduction to Orientations

Required Reading:

Grossman, Pamela. The Making of a Teacher: Teacher Knowledge and Teacher Education. New York: Teachers College Press, 1990. (Chapter 1 “Tale of Two Hamlets”)

Holtz, Barry. Textual Knowledge: Teaching the Bible in Theory and in Practice. New

York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2003. Chapters 3 and 4.

Session 5: Tuesday October 13, 4-6 pm

Orientations Applied

Required Readings:

Session 6: Tuesday October 20, 4-6pm Orientations project due

Conducting an Observation

- Introduction to doing observations

- Practicing observation

Session 7: Tuesday October 27, 4-6 pm Observation 1 Due

Unpacking Practice in Theory

Session 8: Tuesday November 3, 4-6 pm Observation 2 Due

Preparing to Teach – a model

- What questions to ask?

- What choices to make?

- How will you know what students have learned?

Session 9: Tuesday November 10, 4-6 pm

Designing a Lesson

- Commentaries

- Resources

- Questions to Ask (e.g. language)

- What will you/students be doing?

- How will you know what the students have learned?

Required Reading:

Lampert, Magdalene. “How Do Teachers Manage To Teach? Perspectives on Problems in Practice.” HER 55 (1985): 221-37.

Session 10: Tuesday November 17, 4-6 pm Lesson Plan 1 Due

Teaching Problematic Texts

Required Reading:

Holtz, Barry. Textual Knowledge: Teaching the Bible in Theory and in Practice. New

York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2003. Chapter 5.

Wineburg, Samuel. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts. Philadelphia:

Temple University Press, 2001. (Chapter 1)

Tanchel, Susan. “A Judaism That Does Not Hide,” JJE 74 (2008): 29-52.

Session 11: Tuesday December 1, 4-6 pm Lesson Plan 2 Due

Looking at Student Work

Parashat Hashavua

- Why teach Parshat hashavua?

- How is it different from text study?

Curriculum Investigation

Ben Peretz, Teaching-Curriculum Encounter, Albany:State University Press, 1990, Chapter 4.

Session 12: Tuesday December 8, 4-6 pm

Standards for the Teaching of Bible

JTS Melton Research Center for Jewish Education, Jewish Day School Standards and Benchmarks Project http://www.jtsa.edu/The_Davidson_School/In_the_Field_Professional_Development_and_Curriculum/Jewish_Day_Schools_Standards_and_Benchmarks_Project/Standards_and_Benchmarks_Overview.xml

Session 13: Tues Dec 15, 4-6 pm Unit Plan Due

Conclusions and Reflections

- Units presentation

- Parking Lot Questions

- Next Steps