As you plan your curriculum, we have created a Big Ideas Guide that identifies three areas that encompass the key values and purpose of part-time Jewish education programs. The Big Ideas in this small downloadable guide help you think through the enduring understandings you want your learners to grapple with as they form connections with Judaism, as well as point to specific Behrman House texts and materials that support the learning and help you guide students.
This third in a series highlights a sample from Big Idea #3 - Living Our Values. The values of our tradition provide guidance as we move through our lives seeking meaning and purpose and help us to experience deep connection to one another, to the world, and to God.
Essential questions for each age group help you consider the inquiry you want students to undertake, while examples of learning evidence help you craft meaningful experiences and projects that speak directly to that inquiry and help you assess understanding.
Young Learners:
Essential Question
Why does my behavior make a difference in the world?
Evidence of Learning
Learners articulate the concept of mitzvah as commandment - things God and the Torah ask us to do.
Supporting Materials
Let's Discover Mitzvot (gr K-2): Eight 4-page folders introduce young children to mitzvot, such as visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, and welcoming guests. Each folder opens with a kid-friendly poem, ideal for beginning readers. Developmentally appropriate illustrations hold the interest of nonreaders too.
Elementary Learners:
Essential Question
How can mitzvot and Jewish values help me to help others and be my best self?
Evidence of Learning
Learners identify three Jewish values or mitzvot and explain how following these values or mitzvot can help them to be their best.
Supporting Materials
Jewish Holidays, Jewish Values (gr. 4-6): Explores how Jewish values are rooted in our holiday traditions and stories. Helps learner connect Jewish tradition with their lives.
Living Jewish Values: Series (gr 4-6): This 4-volume series introduces learners to 16 of the most important - and sustaining - values of our tradition using a workbook/journal format that invites student reflection. Each 48-page book is devoted to a different topic: Be Your Best Self, Family Connections, Be a Good Friend, and Our Shared World.
Middle School Learners:
Essential Question
How can I make a difference for other people in my world?
Evidence of Learning
Learners reflect on an experience they had enacting Jewish values/mitzvot, articulating how they think others were affected by what they did and how there were affected.
Supporting Materials
Min Ha'aretz: Making Meaning from Our Food (gr 5-7): Our relationship to food has been a concern of Judaism from its earliest writings. Min Ha'aretz fosters discussion of the ways both contemporary and Jewish values help inform our choices about our food.
Our Place in the Universe Journal: Judaism and the Environment (gr 6-8): Through original biblical and rabbinic sources combined with a reflective journal format, learners explore connections between what they believe about their relationship with the natural world and how they live in it.
Count Me In: Jewish Wisdom in Action (gr 5-7): Through stories from our tradition, learners explore Jewish values by focusing on their everyday relationships and decision-making. How can the precepts of Judaism help them decide, for example, when to help a friend and when to care for themsevles, and what to do if they feel jealous of a sibling or classmate, and how to make sound judgments in difficult situations?
Download the Big Ideas for Jewish Learning guide here.
