Research Encounter: Inside the Jewish Studies Classroom - Teaching for Student Agency

Learn how middle school Tanakh teachers can help students develop not just their own interpretive skills but also their capacity to collaborate and generate fresh insights together. Educators reveal some of their pedagogical toolkit and discuss the challenges to cultivating literacy in the age of AI. The conversation is rooted in a chapter by Ziva Hassenfeld, "Intercomprehending in Action: Text-Based Discussion in a Seventh-Grade Bible Classroom," that appeared in Teaching & Learning in Jewish Day Schools.

Special Guests

Shifra Chelst is a Judaic studies teacher at Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, Maryland.

Melanie Eisen is the principal of teaching and learning at Gesher Jewish Day School in Fairfax, Virginia.

Ziva Hassenfeld, PhD, is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Assistant Professor of Jewish Education at Brandeis University.

Rabbi Jack Nahmod is the middle school Judaic studies head at the Heschel School in Manhattan.