Research for the Students, by the Students: Our Journey in Youth Practitioner Research
Sheri Gross is the director of arts, culture, and creative programming at Gross Schechter Day School (Cleveland, OH). She also directs a Holocaust theater program and is the arts critic for the Cleveland Jewish News. Sheri holds a BA in English from Brandeis University, and a certification in Jewish Educational Leadership from HUC-JIR, where she is completing her EMA in Religious Education.
In a world where our focus is pulled in many different directions, and identity is constantly evolving, helping students tap into their Jewish sensibilities is more crucial than ever. And we are quickly discovering that traditional methods alone don’t always spark that deep, personal connection. Enter the duo of arts and culture on the one hand and Jewish text study on the other; a fusion where creativity meets tradition, and ancient wisdom finds a fresh voice. Through this integration, students don’t just learn; they experience, interpret, and make Jewish thought their own. And here’s the twist: this research isn’t just about students, it’s by students. They aren’t just the subjects of study; they are the scholars, the artists, the explorers of their own Jewish journeys.
At Gross Schechter Day School (Cleveland, OH), we dove headfirst into researching how blending artistic expression with sacred texts not only enriches learning but transforms students into active participants in shaping Jewish life one brushstroke, lyric, or dramatic scene at a time. We were fortunate enough to facilitate this research as part of a certification program under the auspices of a partnership between the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute and Hebrew Union College-JIR. The inquiry question explores how arts and culture can elevate Jewish text study, and how Jewish texts and themes can help elevate arts and culture programming.
The most rewarding part of the process was the privilege of working with a research team of highly creative, critical thinkers—nine of our 6th and 7th graders—who were personally invested in our research question and the resulting data. We believed that it was critical to include the student perspective in the process, both for the purposes of student buy-in and because we were convinced that the product would be better if it were informed by student input. The product of that research was not a paper, but a redesign of part of our Judaic studies curriculum. To cap it off, after spending a year and a half immersed in Youth Practitioner Research, we have adopted this form of practitioner inquiry as part of our ongoing school culture.
Can we pull this off…here?
Before jumping into a hefty initiative like this one, the team felt it was important that the environment meet certain criteria that would ensure the ability to see this project through to its completion. For our purposes that meant flexible teachers, a collaborative spirit, a commitment to studying a wide range of Judaic texts, an established robust arts and culture program, a heavy emphasis on creative programming which allows the community to think outside the box and work together in unique ways, and finally, a culture in which students are confident and comfortable to vocalize their thoughts so we can rely on their opinions as true and valid data. This demanded that we meet regularly in order to plot out our course of action as to how to investigate our topic, figure out the best methods for data collection and analysis, and see the project through to the end in order to analyze data and determine how that data can change the culture of learning across the arts and culture and Judaics departments.
Process
After receiving parental consent for us to collect data from students who would participate in specialized lessons utilizing curriculum created specifically for this research, we completed a literature review of our topic, exploring different articles that related either to the topic itself or methods of data collection that appealed to us. As we pored over articles for our literature review, we found a gap in the type of curriculum that spoke to our particular research, so we created our own. We created pilot lessons for first, second, third, fourth, and sixth graders. We were also able to draw on feedback from a lesson created for a new teacher training session in order to help inform some next steps after our data analysis.
An example of a 45-minute lesson for third and fourth grades includes:
- An examination of a text from Pirkei Avot about the good inclination versus the evil inclination (10 minutes)
- A comparison to the character of Harold Hill in the musical “The Music Man,” leading to a discussion about why good people make bad decisions (10 minutes)
- A brainstorming session about other figures in the Torah that have found themselves “in the same boat” (5 minutes)
- A small-group breakout session to listen to the Michael Jackson song “Man in the Mirror,” and discuss the lyrics in juxtaposition with a painting of the Golden Calf set in the center of a modern city (10 minutes)
- A full-group conclusion to share highlights from the small-group discussions and tie all of the themes and discoveries back to the original Pirkei Avot text (10 minutes)
The research team observed and documented each lesson by taking notes and taking photos using a method called “photovoice,” which teaches us to take specific photos in order to examine reactions and levels of engagement through expressions and body language. They also created surveys for each participant to fill out at the end of each lesson. Data was collected from the notes, photos, survey responses, and interviews that were conducted separately with some of the students.
The student team decided to divide our research question into two parts:
- How can arts and culture elevate Jewish text study?
- How can Jewish texts and themes support and elevate arts and culture programming?
In coding the data, they categorized it into four common themes across both parts of the question. Here are the themes with just a few highlights from the team’s analysis of each one with regards to both parts of the research question:
- Enjoyment/Elevation: Students raised their hands more frequently when discussing song lyrics related to a text. Photos showed students working together, focused and smiling. Students said, “I hope we do this again next week.” Middle school students were nervous that adding texts to arts programs would make electives seem like work, but loved bringing arts into text study.
- Gaining New Perspectives: Students said that the addition of the arts helped make texts easier to understand. A student said, “I would have never thought of it that way before.” Some students felt a Torah text might help them understand their character in a play in a different way.
- Connectivity: Many lower school students feel connected to both arts and texts, and “combining them both would make the connections even stronger.”
- Challenges with the Learning or with the Data Itself: Middle school students were distracted by the research team taking notes and photos. They felt awkward with their peers in the room, and could not be completely authentic. Some lower school students had a hard time understanding survey questions, which affected some of the data.
After examining all of the pieces of data, the research team came to the conclusion that students in both lower school and middle school feel that the integration of arts and culture and Jewish text study leads to an elevated learning experience.
Thoughts from the student research team
The team shared some of their thoughts about the process in a presentation for the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland. They expressed how excited they were that their own work had an impact on the other students at school; they remarked how refreshing it was that this project was so student-driven and student-centered; they noticed the many different ways children approach learning; they also were surprised at how their presence in the sixth grade classroom while documenting the lesson seemed to intimidate their peers; they felt the project could have benefited from offering a couple more lessons in order to collect more data; and finally, they all agreed that adding elements of creativity to peak students’ interest makes learning more effective.
Next steps
The feedback we received from students about the learning encouraged us to launch an initiative that will help integrate arts and culture and Jewish text study in a more intentional way, in order to take the experience of learning to a whole new level. We are experimenting with our own innovative curriculum to help our students gain new perspectives in the world of arts and culture, and to form deeper connections to the texts that are part of the fabric of our Judaic studies. And, we have taken this a step further by forming a new professional development cohort of thirteen learners utilizing havruta text study, with the support of arts and culture, to illuminate relevant issues and topics that are common in and out of the classroom.
Some members of the initial research team have already graduated from the school, but they have chosen to remain part of the team. As we dig deeper into our question by focusing on curriculum, we are creating different lesson templates to present to different age groups in order to examine which types of arts integration have the most impact on teaching and learning. We are eager to learn what this round of research adds to our understanding.
This entire experience was more fulfilling than we could have ever imagined, not just because it has already led to an exciting shift in learning, but because of the chance to work with the student research team. They leaned into this research with a critical eye, maturity, a keen sense of judgment, and infectious enthusiasm, proving that this is an initiative that can be implemented at any school with motivated learners, and it can be a tool for building important bridges within the school’s learning community. We hope that this research will continue to benefit teachers and learners in a transformative way, leading to stronger Jewish connections, ultimately building stronger Jewish leaders at a time when we need them the most.
Special thanks to Lauren Henkin for her contributions to this article and to the student research team including Micah Chupnick, Mira Chupnick, Dalia Epstein, Tory Friedman, Sofia Lazzaro, Cooper Lefko, Lyla Levin, Avery Milota, and Miriam Shapiro.
Sheri Gross is the director of arts, culture, and creative programming at Gross Schechter Day School (Cleveland, OH). She also directs a Holocaust theater program and is the arts critic for the Cleveland Jewish News. Sheri holds a BA in English from Brandeis University, and a certification in Jewish Educational Leadership from HUC-JIR, where she is completing her EMA in Religious Education.
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