Recently I wondered what it would be like for us and for our students if we reframed the Ten Commandments into ten essential questions (see blog post) as a way to get students thinking in more provocative ways. When we start a lesson plan by asking the essential questions out loud, it helps us open up our own minds, and invites students to do the same.
My friend Diane Zimmerman of Temple Sinai in Washington D.C. calls this teaching to the essential questions, and wrote to me suggesting we can take it a step further. We start with an essential question or two, and then ask students, “What question would you ask?” encouraging them to ask the questions they are interested in answering.
Sound nerve wracking? Only because many of us have been under the impression that we are supposed to come to class as experts, armed with answers. One of the key differences between learning in the 21st century and learning in all the centuries that came before is that knowledge is at our fingertips, and answers are easier to find.
Yet it may be challenging for us as teachers to ‘get’ that answers aren’t the key message of our lessons. And of course, how many times have you tried to Google for answers only to be frustrated by the results? What really makes the difference is the question you ask. And so what we actually need bring to our teaching are curiosity, a sense of adventure, and an appetite for the unknown—plus a few source materials that help learners grapple with their ideas. The actual answer isn’t the lesson – the lesson is the question, and the exploration it drives.
Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva debated the relative importance of study versus action. And just as Rabbi Akiva was certain study is more important because it leads to action, so perhaps questions are more important, because they lead learners to grapple with answers that make sense to them and stay with them. They lead to durable learning.
Ok, how do I actually do it?
One good way to begin teaching to the essential questions of a lesson, and to encourage questioning among students is to begin with examples. Behrman House Lesson Plan Manuals provide an array of questions that can serve as excellent examples of ways to encourage inquiry:
- What role does Torah play in happiness? How does it guide us in living a life of joy?
- What would it be like to live in a sukkah for a week? What can we learn from Sukkot about the value of humility?
- What is justice? How do the main characters in the Purim story serve as examples of justice?
- How can we strengthen our community while respecting each individual in it?
- How can I be a good friend? How can I give criticism that is helpful rather than harmful?
- What is necessary consumption? What’s good about consumption? What’s bad about it?
- How should we balance tradition and change in Judaism?
- What beliefs should not be ‘allowed’ in the Jewish community?
- As an American Jew, what is my relationship to Israel? What do I think unites the Jewish people?
These questions, along with scores more, are provided in the Lesson Plan Manuals for Jewish Holidays, Jewish Values; Living Jewish Values, Our Place in the Universe, and Judaism’s Great Debates. The student texts themselves provide a rich source of material for exploration, to help students wrestle with both the questions and the answers.
You can also find ideas in our curriculum guide Big Ideas for Jewish Learning, which contains age appropriate essential questions for developing deep connection to our sacred texts, belonging to a spiritual community of practice, and living our values.
