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I currently teach Rabbinics (not just Gemara) in eighth grade and I've
designed a curriculum for seventh grade which I taught for four years, so
my goals for teaching in high school are not based on experience, but
rather, they are an attempt to define where I hope ninth graders should be
starting.
Until this year, when I started a new program and had to revise my goals,
my goals included:
1) knowledge of and the ability to outline six-eight different sugyot of
gemara from various masechtot;
2) the ability to distinguish between midrashic arguments and logical
arguments and recall knowledge of several specific examples of each;
3) familiarity with several forms of sugyot with an eye to using those
forms to decode new texts;
4) a clear understanding of the difference between gemara and halakhah
which the student can illustrate with numerous examples;
5) a basic familiarity with the major works of Rabbinic literature and the
relationships between them (Mishna, Tosefta, Yerushalmi, Midreshei
Halakhah, Bavli, Mishneh Torah, Tur, and Shulhan Arukh); and
6) a deep understanding of the technical terminology of the Talmud.
This last one needs a little explanation. I want my students to know not
only what "M'nalan?" means but to think about why the Bavli is so
concerned about grounding Torah she'b'al Peh in Torah she'bi'khtav. Not
only to translate "Mai ika beynaihu?", but to recognize that this question
assumes that differences of "opinion" should be based on rational
differences of approach. Not only to see "La Kashya!" and use it to help
structure the argument, but to ask themselves why the Talmud prefers to
identify what our sages have in common with each other rather than what
separates one from the other.
All of these are goals, and different students have mastered them at
different levels, but the one goal which, if I fail to achieve with even a
single student, I consider the year a failure, is that...
Each student must recognize that Torah she'b'al Peh is a conversation
which must be engaged and not a script which is to be recited.
So, in addition to answering the questions which were posted earlier,
please try to assess what your incoming ninth graders know.
B'vrakhah,
Jeffrey A. Spitzer
Director of the Rabbinics Lab (http://www.uscj.org/ssds/boston/main.htm )
Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston
Jeffrey@Spitzer.net</HTML>
