Assessment (Fall 2011)

For more than a decade, the Pardes Educators Program has prepared teachers to teach in day schools in North America. The alumni are teaching in the full gamut of day schools – Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Non/cross-denominational Community – and often bring a unique creativity to their classrooms. We present here a limited selection of assessments they have developed for their classes with the hope that they can spark additional creativity.

Etan Weiss (Community school, Grade 7)

Writing Assignment –42 pts.

Choose one of the following two writing assignments:

A. Answer the following questions in an essay:

1. When is משה forced to choose between his Israelite and his Egyptian background?

2. What does he ultimately choose?

To do this you will need to find evidence that משה had both an Israelite upbringing and an Egyptian upbringing. Explain this evidence (1 paragraph each) and prove which culture he ultimately chooses.

You must use three (3) proof texts as evidence, properly cited (don’t waste your time quoting)

Grading:

A strong thesis statement at the beginning of the essay that states what you intend to prove: 5 points.
3 proofs from the text that are properly cited and explained: 10 points each – total of 30 points.
A good summary of your opinion and how you proved it at the end of your essay: 2 points.
Style – does it flow nicely, etc.: 5 points.

B. You are משה writing four (4) diary entries

The first three entries are about your feelings concerning your conflicting educations (Israelite and Egyptian) in each of the following פסוקים :

1. שמות ב:י – Where משה is named

2. שמות ב:יא – Where משה sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite

3. שמות ב:יב – Where משה strikes the Egyptian

In the 4th diary entry you will

a. Argue with yourself about which culture to choose (giving the pros
and cons of choosing each side) and

b. Decide which culture you will ultimately be a part of and explain your decision.

Grading:

2 points per פסוק for accuracy to the text and the story (6 points total)
5 points per פסוק for a clear explanation of your feelings about the conflicting educations (15 points total)
A balanced argument presenting the pros and cons of each side (5 points for the pros and 5 points for the cons – total of 10 points)
A conclusion which emerges logically from your argument (6 points)
Style – does it flow nicely etc. (5 points)

Eliana Seltzer (Community school, Grade 4)

Make Your Own Illustrated Book!!

Now that we have finished learning פרק כא, let’s do some choosing and some drawing!

Steps:

Choose what YOU think are the 3 most important פסוקים in this chapter

Write each פסוק neatly on a piece of paper

Draw what is happening in that פסוק

Write two sentences about why you chose each פסוק

DUE: [date]

	4	3	2	1
Choice of פסוקים	You chose 3 פסוקים that were central to the story	You chose 2 פסוקים that were central to the story	You chose 1 פסוק that was central to the story	You chose פסוקים that were not central to the story
Creativity of drawing	Your drawings were creative and clearly illustrated the פסוקים	Your drawings were plain and clearly illustrated the פסוקים	Your drawings were plain and did not illustrate the פסוקים	Your drawings showed no effort and did not illustrate the פסוקים
Clarity of explanation	Your explanations clearly explained why you chose all 3 פסוקים	Your explanations clearly explained why you chose 2 פסוקים	Your explanations clearly explained why you chose 1 פסוק	Your explanations did not explain why you chose any פסוקים
Following instructions	You followed all directions	You followed most of the directions	You followed some of the directions	You did not follow directions
Neatness	Your work was very neat and presentable	Your work was mostly neat and presentable	Some of your work was neat and presentable	Your work was sloppy and not presentable

Total = 20 points

Tamar Rabinowitz (Grade 9, community school)

Trial of Avraham

After אברהם became God's main representative, after all the promises were made, God tested אברהם in order to determine whether he trusted God and if he was in fact worthy of being chosen.

But recently the police have received an anonymous tip that אברהם does not believe in God and the promises! The person who tipped the police off claims that charges should be brought against אברהם for a lack of faith in God and in His promises – which is a claim that is not to be taken lightly. This is indeed a serious claim against someone who is supposed to make God’s שם great in the world and with whom God establishes a lasting ברית.

We do not have evidence to support this claim and to bring charges, which is why for the next 4 periods you, the students, will act as detectives, either working for the prosecution or defense.

I, the judge, am giving you a search warrant so you may collect evidence on behalf of your team.

You should find the information you need in the following locations in בראשית: יב, יג, יד, טו, טז, יז, יח, כא:א-כא, כב כג, כד:א-ט, כה:א-יא .

Make sure to keep track of your sources (record locations - the chapter and verses and your comments).

This will be handed to me prior to the trial for my own notes.

Steps to collect evidence and work in a group:

1) Once you have been divided into the two teams, you will divide yourselves up into pairs and allocate chapters to the pairs. Each pair is responsible for drafting up their evidence as either (depending on which team you are on):

Evidence to bring against אברהם
Evidence to defend of אברהם
You must do this quietly as you do not want the opposing team to listen in to your evidence and claims.
You must read your chapters very carefully and try and make the text work for your claims.

2) Once you have found your evidence, you will meet again as a group and start to allocate parts for the trial (see next page). Every person must have a role and must prepare carefully, and in written form, what they will say. After all the preparation is done, we will be having the trial itself. Feel free to dress up.

Schedule:

January 25th –Announce groups and start prep

January 26thth – Trial prep

January 28th – Trial prep.

February 1st – Trial prep

February 2nd – Individual assessment

February 4th – Trial begins

February 8th – Trial extra day if needed.

This is a group effort – your team will be given the same grade.

Note that I might share a specific comment with an individual who did not fulfill his/her personal requirements of the trial according to the expectations.

Work hard – a man’s fate rests in your hands!

There will be an individual assessment component prior to the trial, where each student will earn his/her own grade according to their own understanding of the material.

Expectations:

All aspects of the trial’s requirements are completed
All information is accurate
Evidence from the chapters given
Every person in your group demonstrates their work (this will be via their names on the evidence they collect from the chapters assigned to them)
Involvement of each member of the group
Evidence of strong work ethic
Every member of the group plays a role and submits their notes and statements to me. Keep track of your notes.

An excellent argument would also involve the following:

Logical flow of sequence of ideas
Ideas supported by fully analyzed textual evidence
Argument reflects thoughtful choice of textual support (quality over quantity) I want to see that you have thoughtfully considered what good evidence for your argument is.

Norms for Group Behavior: The most important norm is the norm of equal participation. As such, it is important that you:

Say your own ideas
Listen to others; give everyone a chance to talk
Ask others for their ideas
Give reasons for your ideas and discuss different ideas

Preparing for trial:

You must split up the roles so everyone in the group has a part to play.
Make sure you take notes during the trial, as you will be using them during your cross-examination and for your closing arguments.
There will be no objections – anything you want to add in response to what you hear will occur during the closing statement.
Each group will have to prepare the following:

Opening statement – a few sentences which summarizes the main claim/s you are making. (must be written down)

Main Arguments – This is the “meat” of your case. Here you must bring all your evidence. Make sure you have the פרקים and פסוקים that you used, as the Judge (i.e., me) might ask questions of clarification. There will be no objections allowed from the other side. You may split this part up if you so wish. Make sure your evidence meets your argument. Don’t bring in random evidence

Witness – you will need to choose an appropriate witness to support your claim. One of you will be the lawyer and you must prepare questions and answers together to prove this claim.

The witness may not be God or Avraham. The witness must know there text very well as they will not have a תנ"ך in front of them and must be able to respond taking into account the text and context. Once you know who your witness is – let me know, so I can let the other side know.

You should, together with your lawyer, write down your questions and answers.

5 minute break to prepare for cross-examination.

Cross examination – you will have the chance to cross examine the other sides witness.

5 minute break to change closing statement incorporating the other side’s claims.

Closing statement with rebuttals

Matthew Lipman (Community school)

The Race is On!!!

Whose throne is it anyway?

Following from our discussions last time, the assessment for our unit will be to design campaign ads for the race to the throne.

The ads should be in the following format:

Each ad should be between I minute and three minutes in length
The ad should be produced in a format that is viewable either on my laptop or on the DVD player

Attack ad

The attack ad should contain three kushiot that challenge the credentials of the other team’s claims to the throne

Campaign ad

The campaign ad should contain terutzim to the opposition’s kushiot that enhance your own side’s claims to the throne (You can use mefarshim to help you)
One further proof of why your candidate should be chosen to be king

The due date for the showing of the first ads will be Monday 20th October. This gives you 2 class periods to prepare, write, and film your first ads.

We will discuss the due date for the second ad following the screening of the first ads.

By the end of the 1st period, each student should be clear about their role in the team and will need to show me evidence of such.

Your grade will be based on the following criteria:

Have you included all of the requisite parts of the ad?	10 points
Have you shown awareness of the issues involved	10 points
Have you constructed and presented well thought-out and text-based kushiot	10 points
Have you constructed and presented well thought-out terutzim that are consistent with the text?	10 points
Creativity – does your ad look good, does it get the message across clearly? Is it convincing?	10 points

Bonus points will be awarded for strong teamwork

Good luck and have fun!!

Hayley DeLugach (Community School, Grade 10)

Develop the connection between עקדת יצחק and the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

This can be in the form of a(n):

Five paragraph essay
Artistic rendering with attached outline
Other form with Teacher approval

You must include:

A thesis statement explaining the connection between the עקדה and Rosh Hashanah
3 supporting examples for your idea
Textual support for your examples (verses from the story or lines from the סידור)
Essays need to have introduction/conclusion and developed examples
Artistic rendering needs to be accompanied by an outline/explanation of your art and supporting texts

Topic	Description of Full credit for element	Points
Thesis	Thesis is a clear, relevant, and sophisticated idea of how the story relates to Rosh Hashanah	10
Supporting examples	Each example is explained clearly and completely, and adds weight to your thesis	15
Textual support	The textual supports fit the arguments in the supporting examples and are cited correctly	15
Presentation	The project is creative, well-written, and polished. Essays have a clear beginning, middle and end. Art is attractive and easy to follow with supporting materials.	5
Mechanics	All written work has a complete heading, is spelled correctly, and free of mechanical/grammatical errors.	5
Total		50