Faith Journeys

By: Rachel Besser
from The Frisch School

Category:
Real-World Learning

Subject(s) of entry:
Philosophy/ Values/ Ethics/ Hashkafa, Social and Emotional Learning

Pedagogy:
Flipped Learning, IBL - inquiry based learning, Social and Emotional Learning, Soulful Education

Grade(s) to which this was taught:
12, High school

Grade(s) for which this will be useful:
9, 10, 11, 12, High school

Faith Journeys is a unit in my Jewish philosophy Senior elective that encouraged students to begin to form a spiritual identity through examination of philosophical texts, class round-table discussions, an interview and a thoughtful paper.

Entry Narrative

Faith Journeys

I have been teaching a class on Jewish philosophy at Frisch for a number of years, but while I addressed many interesting topics, I never felt comfortable teaching about faith, until one year I realized that that is actually what my students needed most to learn to prepare them for their lives as faithful Jews.

This submission narrates my own journey in preparing and delivering a unit on faith.

The submission includes:

  1. My own reflection on preparing and teaching the class, as well as the the class requirements and parameters
  2. Student reader response answers to text questions
  3. Student reflection on the unit as a whole
  4. Articles I used for the class which can be found at : https://drive.google.com/open?id=13lTIGw18O1seJJl6-Tg5vow1WKnvGmPb

Entrant Bio(s)

Rachel Besser teaches Tanach and Philosophy at The Frisch School where she also serves as the Nach Department Chair, and is a member of the Israel guidance team.