Last month I wrote about how to create an intellectually-stimulating home to help our children, especially those who are superior students, grow in their curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. This month, I’d like to shift my focus to ask how we can enrich all our children’s learning experiences, no matter what their ability and level of knowledge. After all, no matter how much a class is tracked, there will always be those who are more advanced and those who need more support. I’d therefore like to explore how we can keep all children engaged and growing when we are actively teaching them.
In the typical classroom, children who understand the material the first time it is taught are often asked to sit quietly; do extra, monotonous, worksheets; or become a second teacher to other students. Is there anything we can do to help these students reach their potential? Even if only for the sake of self-preservation, it may be in our best interest to make sure the advanced students receive enrichment because kids who are bored can often become mischievous, defiant, apathetic, or resentful.
When I first started teaching, I was far less concerned about the advanced students and put most of my energy into reaching the struggling student. I believed that patience is a virtue, and students should learn to be patient, right? Chesed is one of the middos of klal Yisrael. What could be wrong with asking a stronger student to help a weaker student every day?
Then I moved to Rochester where that attitude just wasn’t an option. I taught Chumash in a high school that had fewer students in total than the number in one class in Baltimore. It was a one-room school house with ninth to twelfth graders. Some students’ parents had learned with them nightly since first grade; others had just joined from public school. I would be teaching these students for multiple years, and they needed to get into seminary. I had to find some go-to options that would allow me to help each student develop to be her best academically while ensuring that every student would develop patience and generosity, not just the few students I was ignoring.
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The first theory that helped me frame my lessons is called Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This theory was originally developed by Lev Vygotsky almost 100 years ago. He noticed that, while there are things children can learn by themselves (1+1=2) and things children will never be able to learn (calculus), there are some concepts that children can learn if they are helped by a more skilled teacher or peer (addition, multiplication, etc). If a teacher shows them how, they learn more, faster.
From ZPD comes the idea of scaffolding. When building a structure, we put up as much of a scaffold as we need to keep the building stable. As the building is reinforced, scaffolding is removed. Applying this to the classroom, teachers know which students need to be able to learn things just outside their grasp. They can provide as much scaffolding, or support, as necessary so students can learn. Teachers then remove the scaffolding when it is not needed. In the classroom, I aim high, and provide tailored scaffolding to all the students, so each one can reach her potential. For quicker students, I provide less support so they feel the stretch; for weaker students, I build in more supports so they can be successful.
I found that providing scaffolding to my weaker students allowed both my more advanced and my weaker students to thrive. The more advanced students ignored the scaffolding if it wasn’t needed, and my weaker students appreciated being able to act like their peers. When I was teaching any topic, I would ask myself: 1) What would an expert doing this activity look like?” and 2) What scaffolding can I give to my students so they can learn authentically without it being obvious that I am getting involved?
Rather than teaching the class and repeating myself a few times, I prepared separate preparation sheets and note-taking guides for the younger and weaker students. If we were learning a Ramban, for example, the more advanced students would be expected to look up words in a dictionary and outline the peirush, and the weaker students would have guided notes to complete. Everyone could feel successful and grow in knowledge and skills.
Sometimes it was hard to figure out what scaffolding I should provide in limudei kodesh as not much is written on this topic. However, there are a ton of books on “literacy interventions” for secular studies that were easily transferable to limudei kodesh teaching. I would try them out one out, one by one, and if the students liked one, it was a keeper. Having guided notes, vocabulary lists, and graphic organizers for advanced meforshim were simple scaffolds to use.
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Another educational theory that shaped my teaching was Bloom’s Taxonomy which outlines a hierarchy of “higher order thinking skills.” For any subject or topic, for all grades and levels, one can teach at one or multiple levels of the hierarchy. By including all levels of thinking skills in a lesson, all students will find areas of growth and interest.
Remembering is the lowest level and focuses on information, memorization, and rote learning. While important to solidify a foundation, if that is all we are doing, it gets boring quickly for our faster learners. Moreover, some of the brightest students may never master remembering due to learning disabilities. If we wait for them to remember before including other levels, we may lose those students altogether. Examples of remembering are:
- Who was the first president of the United States?
- What are the parshios in Sefer Shemos?
- What is the translation of the word …?
Understanding means comprehending the main idea and being able to summarize, explain, and infer from what is learned. While it does require some thinking, it is not truly enough to get the wheels turning. Weaker students may struggle here, so teachers often stop at this level, and advanced students get bored. Here are some examples:
- Who said this to whom?
- Who is this phrase talking about?
Applying means taking an abstract rule and applying it to a concrete situation. Applying lets students start to use what they are learning in a practical way. For instance:
- On the playground, when would we use this Chazal?
- Given this rule of borer (separating), what do you need to be careful about when cleaning your room?
Analyzing means breaking down an idea into parts and then comparing them:
- How is American democracy different than the British system of government?
- How were Achashverosh and Nevuchadnezer different? How were they the same?
- What word in this pasuk is strange? How do the meforshim resolve this difficulty?
Evaluating means judging the value of an idea based on a given framework:
- Sara asked her friend for help with her homework. Was this okay and why? Bring proofs from what we learned.
- Prioritize which of these poems should be taught next year based on the criteria for poetry. Be prepared to defend your answer.
Creating is the highest level. It is using everything learned to create something new, whether it is a new idea or a new product.
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How does understanding Bloom’s Taxonomy help the more advanced students? Very often, teachers stick to the lower level questions that they know are teachable and testable. Alternatively, they may focus on higher-level skills as they enjoy analyzing what they are learning, although, in that case, a good portion of the class may be lost. Instead, teachers can make sure to ask questions from all levels in every lesson. Before a lesson, a teacher can ask an analyzing or creating question that advanced students can work on throughout the lesson.
In a class, we should make sure that 100 percent of our students have mastered remembering and understanding. Then, rather than assigning coloring, or having the students read an unrelated book while their classmates finish their work, we can have a menu of interesting “extension activities” available for those students who finish. We can ask students to write a poem, create a crossword puzzle, draw a cartoon or a diagram, or compare and contrast two people based on our lesson. There are hundreds of ideas on Pinterest and Google by searching for “extension activities” if you need quick ideas for a lesson happening in five minutes. Students should know that when they finish their work, they will have fun, creative ways to use their time that doesn’t make them learn next year’s material and is not busy work.
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Even with ZPD and its scaffolding, and Bloom’s Taxonomy-inspired extension activities, students should still be asked to work with their peers to develop their middos and sense of responsibility to others. Hopefully, everyone in the class will find themselves giving help and needing help at some point. However, if we keep these two theories in mind when teaching, we are also sending a message that we care about each student and that there is a depth to what we are learning that goes beyond what can be taught in the classroom.
Parents can use these methodologies, too, as we learn with our children, whether it be reviewing parsha questions, learning for extra prizes, or studying for tests. At the Shabbos table, a parent can include a higher-level question to get a debate going with the older children while reviewing the parsha questions with the eight-year-old, who just needs to know the story for a test. Being a parent means being a teacher whether we like it or not.
Finally, when we teachers think about how to make the learning deeper for our students, it has the same impact on us. We begin to think about applying the lessons of the parsha to our lives. We start to analyze whether our behavior resembles that of the tzadikim we are learning about. We become more humble, whether we teach preschoolers or adults, as we realize that there is so much more to what we are teaching than we can ever understand. The Torah we are teaching becomes part of how we think, which, in turn, transforms the type of person we are.
