Estee Fleischmann serves as the Dean of Students of the Stark High School of Fuchs Mizrachi School (Cleveland, OH). She is a faculty member of the Women’s Beit Midrash in Cleveland and spends summers working at Camp Stone. Estee received her MA in Bible from Revel Graduate School and participated in Yeshiva University’s Graduate Program for Women in Talmudic Studies.

Estee Fleischmann explores four pillars of 21st century learning and their application in day schools.

“I am telling you, the word in this gemara is not in the Frank Dictionary – it’s not!” The teacher, certain of the student’s ability to recognize the shoresh (root) of the word and find the answer, refuses to give it away. The student approaches the teacher’s desk yet again and says: “I know it’s not in here – see if you can find it!” The teacher, humoring the student, looks for the word. After finding the proper place, he indicates to the student that the word is, in fact, in the dictionary and then summarily closes the book. The student, frustrated by her beloved teachers’ insistence, manages a chuckle and then returns to her seat to continue her search.

This experience typified my time in the Akiva Hebrew Day School classroom of Rabbi Eliezer Cohen, z”l, and inspired my entry into the world of Jewish education. He bestowed upon me and hundreds of other students the greatest gift – the keys to unlock the world of Jewish text, the ability and motivation to dissect and conquer any and all knowledge in Judaism, and a deep appreciation of the complexity and richness of Torah scholarship.

My own teaching has been informed by these beginnings. I believe that we must give all students access to authentic Torah knowledge. In doing so, we build relationships between teachers and students, inspire a deep commitment to the system we wish to pass on, and enable our students to appreciate the layers of complexity which is the Torah. In doing so, we contribute to the creation of another literate generation of Am Yisrael.

The days of a gemara classroom where students are using dictionaries to access unknown words and maybe even stumble upon a famed “Jastrow bonus” are nearly outdated. The digital age has given us many other tools, far more familiar to our students. Students in need of translation assistance head first to a variety of websites: www.mechon-mamre.org, www.halakhah.com, or www.chabad.org. In fact, in the course of my own twelve years in the classroom, the way in which students relate to knowledge and to text has changed dramatically.

Moreover, the availability of rabbinic texts (www.hebrewbooks. org), medieval manuscripts (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk), even the entirety of the Dead Sea Scrolls (www.deadseascrolls.org.il) can be accessed by a quick web search. Copy and paste text into google translate and, voila, complete access to any and every text. In fact, argues Marc Prensky (2013),

Being perfect at language translation, spelling, and grammar is becoming less important for humans as machines begin to understand context … Those who laugh at the mistakes that machines make today will no longer be laughing in a few short years.

So what makes us literate Jews? And what kind of literacy are we teaching in our schools? Is literacy knowledge of basic tenets (yediot klaliliot), high-level critical analysis of texts that have been translated by a third party, or is literacy a working and active knowledge of biblical and rabbinic Hebrew textual skills combined with critical thinking skills to analyze and dissect the material? If not placed prominently on our list of 21st century objectives, I fear that widespread textual literacy in the yeshiva day school world will disappear without anyone realizing it. We need to make sure that our investment in the development of textual skills continues despite the changes, both positive and negative, of the digital age.

Judaic curriculum 21C

To reinvent our curricula for the 21st century, Jacobs (2010) suggests that, “…Fundamental questions need to be asked: What is essential and timeless? What is not essential and dated? What should be created that is evident and necessary?” The question of what information and what skills are “essential and timeless” must guide our conversation as we think about our Judaic curriculum choices.

The Partnership for 21C has created a visual aid that identifies the interplay between student outcomes and support systems in the 21st century classroom. Centrally placed are four Learning and Innovation skills: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication and Collaboration. Deeper analysis of the P21C Framework suggests that these skills are an inherent part of the argumentative dialogue of Talmud study and the ingenious creativity of the biblical commentaries that are included in an average yeshiva day school curriculum.

Creativity should be nurtured and developed in both individuals and groups of students using brainstorming and other idea creation techniques. Students should identify problems and their own unique solutions all the while conscious of real world limitations. We often do this in the study of Tanakh. For example, when studying parshanut (Biblical exegesis) we ask students to identify problems in the text and their own solutions, to further elucidate the approach of the particular parshanim (commentaries).

Teaching critical thinking and problem solving requires that we train students in high level reasoning skills and complex systems. We want them to be able to analyze, evaluate and solve different kinds of problems in conventional and innovative ways. A high-level shiur in gemara or a class in halakhah, particularly one that employs case studies to teach application to different scenarios, effectively nurtures these skills. In this way, 21st century skills are remarkably similar to the 1st century skills exercised by the Tannaim!

Teaching effective communication and collaboration skills asks our students to articulate thoughts and ideas using oral, written and nonverbal communication in a variety of contexts and settings. They must be able to work effectively and respectfully in hevrutot or other groupings. Often, the kinds of real-world application projects and activities that are created with these skills in mind, using Project Based Learning as an example, ask students to become the driver of the learning process. Student centered learning puts the student in the active role. The results look like engaged, excited and invested students prepared for the 21st century.

The problem

The 21st century “4 C”s have always been central to my teaching. I enjoy helping my students to construct their own knowledge and develop their own complex understanding of the material. A methodology like PBL can have amazing results, but still leaves our students primarily reliant on secondary source material. I maintain that textual skills are “essential and timeless” for educated access to Judaism. But as our world changes, how do we maintain a commitment to the teaching of text and textual skills ensuring that these skills are not left only to the elite?

A few suggestions

T = I

Reading a text in translation is not the same as reading the original version. Primary source material gives us first hand access, while secondary source material (text or alternative media) already engages someone else’s lens. If we are not explicit about addressing these questions with our students on a regular basis, our students will never know or appreciate the degree to which they handicap themselves by working in and relying on translation. We must make sure our students understand that all translation involves an element of interpretation and includes the opinion of the author. Surely translations are a wonderful tool, but our students should be educated toward their pitfalls as they utilize them. Utilizing specific examples to do this can be very effective. By the way, this question is not limited to Judaic class. Foreign language instruction deals with the same concerns. A literature class studying Shakespeare may need to address this in a similar vein as No Fear Shakespeare “translations” are readily available internet resources which aidstudents. Translations are useful, but we must educate our students about how to use them.

Grit

The process of developing and obtaining textual literacy skills is not an easy one; it requires years of commitment and hard work. The traditional yeshiva world has its own language to describe what it takes: ameilut batorah (diligence in Torah study), hatmadah (persistence), zitsfleisch (patience). What our students need to understand is that those qualities have actually been highlighted by current research in psychology and education as being the greatest indicators of success in the 21st century. If our students appreciate the great personal benefit that is derived from this sometimes arduous and difficult process, they will be as invested in the process as they are in the outcomes and will not look for shortcuts. It becomes the responsibility of the teacher to lead our students to think this way.

Nurturing our students to develop a “Growth Mindset” (Dweck, 2006) should be explicitly communicated. One simple example of this can be done by engaging in a goal setting activity at four points throughout the year. I have often asked my students to develop personal Talmud goals for themselves and write them on note cards. After some short collaborative discussion and feedback about them, the notecards are placed in envelopes and put away in my desk for the semester. At the end of the semester they are returned. The process is repeated in the second semester. The process of reflection and the student’s feelings of pride in their personal hard work and perseverance are invaluable.

When my second grade son came home talking about “grit” after watching a short TED talk by Angela Duckworth with his class in school, I was thrilled. At this young age, he has already been introduced to qualities that will make him successful in school and in life. In the cutting-edge research that the Duckworth lab is conducting at the University of Pennsylvania, they have found that the two greatest contributors to future success are grit and self control, both skills that can be taught. As Duckworth (2013) writes,

For instance, individuals who believe that frustration and confusion are signs that they should quit what they are doing may be taught that these emotions are common during the learning process. Likewise, individuals who believe that mistakes are to be avoided at all costs may be taught that the most effective form of practice … entails tackling challenges beyond one’s current skill level.

For most HS students frustration and confusion are intolerable in the learning process even though they are key components to wrestling firsthand with knowledge to achieve a deep and meaningful understanding. If we teach them that the learning process is incomplete without mistakes, we have set them on a path to be far more successful in life. The heavy focus on achieving high grades and college acceptance in most of our high schools makes the process I am describing difficult to achieve.

Accepting this mantle of responsibility can require developing a new skill set for most teachers. Becoming facilitators of learning places a demand on all of us for increased patience, and a higher tolerance toward our students’ frustration. Rabbi Cohen used to say that it may be frustrating to watch the student struggle, but it would be far more frustrating to hand them the answer. The most effective and exciting moment in a classroom is when a teacher patiently waits and guides the student, without giving in, and the student ultimately discovers the correct answer herself. The student starts to develop the confidence that she can do this without the help of the teacher!

Classroom Tools

So how do we do this in our classrooms? With consistency, commitment, creativity and collaboration! I would suggest that the teaching of textual skills must be fully integrated into our curriculum so that they are appreciated as a necessary part of the learning process, rather than visiting textual skills once a month in a “skill day.” Further, we need to make the creation of technological tools and the sharing of ideas part of our ongoing dialogue. As a part of contributing to that discussion, here are a few examples of things I have done in my own classroom.

Annotating text is far easier electronically than by hand. Whether using an iPad App like Skitch to do so, or collaborative google docs, the possibilities are endless when it comes to the process of textual analysis.

Word clouds are fun, but the best educational use of them that I have found is as a tool to help discover and, literally, highlight a milah manhah (guiding word), in a section of biblical text. The wordle will pick up on the repetition and beautifully represent the message that is being taught. Isaiah 2, for example, deals with a generation that has raised acquisition of wealth as a lofty goal above the worship of God. The guiding word of the story is demonstrated clear from the graphic, as are many of the other frequently repeated words. The sheet became the binder cover for our class.

In a low-tech setting, I developed a workstation model as part of our 8th grade Talmud curriculum. Using a variety of activities, it challenged the students to practice and review the gemara terms that we had previously only reviewed through weekly quizzes. Each station had a different task or game that asked the students to practice reviewing the key words, general vocabulary, and library skills. These workstations became part of our classroom routine one day each week and were also offered as an option if a student had finished all the regular work on any other day.

Conclusion

Too much is at stake in the world of Jewish education as we embrace technological and educational advancements. If we don’t keep up, remain relevant and integrate best practices into our classrooms, teaching and learning of Torah and mitzvot will become archaic and neglected. On the other hand, if we aren’t precise and careful in curricular choices and pedagogic strategy, we run the risk of leaving future generations without the keys to the palace of Torah literacy. Would you want to be locked out?

This article is dedicated in memory of my father, Mordechai Eisenberg z”l. I thank current and former teachers at Fuchs Mizrachi School who have created our uniquely collaborative community from which I learned many of the ideas expressed here.

References

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House. Framework for 21st Century Learning. P21_Framework_Definitions. Retreived February 9, 2014, from www.p21.org

Jacobs, Heidi Hayes (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World. Virginia; ASCD.

Prensky, M. (2013). Our Brains Extended. Educational Leadership, 70(6), 22-27.

Research Statement for Angela L. Duckworth. (2013, August 1). The Duckworth Lab. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from https://sites.sas.upenn.edu/duckworth/pages/research-statement www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_Framework_Definitions.pdf