Teaching Midrash Meaningfully in Elementary School

1. Teaching Midrash Meaningfully in Elementary School Deena Sigel

2. In This Discussion • My Research (briefly) • The need for pedagogy in midrash • Underpinnings of my model of midrash pedagogy • Overview of Data: midrash understandings • Illustrations from one student, Lucy

3. The Need for Midrash Pedagogyfor meaningful understandings of midrash “Doesn’t everything we teach have a pedagogy?” In the case of midrash: answer is negative • Result: confusion, some questionnaire responses • American Students: “Don’t take it literally.” “What does that mean?” • British Students: Midrash is complex or deep. (agree) • Midrash is not very deep. (agree) • Some erroneous views: • Pious view: midrash is ‘too holy to understand’ • Cynical view: it’s only midrash • Worst case: midrash is ridiculous Torah is ridiculous

4. Theory to Practice: A Model for Midrash Pedagogy: Basic Theoretical Underpinnings • Children’s Religious Understandings • a. Piaget: stages of development; concrete thinking only • b. Ashton et al: imagination leads to abstract thinking and toward spirituality • Children’s ‘sense-making’ • Dewey: Inquiry & Reflection on experience; engaging - problems • Bruner: Storying (Egan: Romantic Understanding) Construction of Meaning :Bruner’s co-operative model • Children’s intuitive thinking: complex and analytical • Learning spirals midrash on its own terms • Hermeneutic of affirmation and exploration (A. Wright)

5. Testing the Model: Quantitative Data from the international study

6. Lucy at Pre-Test • What she knew • Midrash contains stories • Midrash is, “to interpret the Torah, to make it clear” • What she didn’t know • That Rashi quotes midrash • That midrash contains values or ethics • That midrash is serious • That midrash is complex

7. Midrashic Narrative (handout) • Teaching Aims • Exegetical nature • Exegetical opportunity (filling in gaps) • Religious underpinnings • Complexity and seriousness

8. Lucy’s Journey (a) Learning & Questioning • Q: What is the midrash trying to explain by creating a conversation between Satan and God? • A: To explain why God asked Avraham to sacrifice Yitshak. • “[But] they could make up anything..So, whatever they make up? .. But different rabbis could see the Torah in different perspectives?”

9. Lucy’s Journey (b) Was this unclear? • Q: What is the purpose of midrash? • A: So, um, to give - Let's say we don't know, why, um, something happened, • to give a reason why something happened which is not unclear, but to show something that's not completely clear. To give reasons for things that seem unclear.

10. Lucy’s Journey (c) Midrashic Process: complexity & exegesis Teacher: Can you think of a midrash that explains things on different levels? Lucy: The akeidah, that it explains what these things were, and why the akeidah happened. Teacher: How does the midrash connect itself to the part of the Torah that it speaks about? Lucy: Let's say with the akeidah. No-one actually knows why it happened, so it explained why it happened and said the things had [been] said before, and so they use it, that hint, to make something. They made like an idea or a story .. what could have happened or might have happened…. .. Not for little children, [because] you have to think deeper than the outer reason.

11. Post-Test Reflections • Lucy: I liked how they took the hints from what the Torah was saying, and kind of introduced it in, like a, maybe, a jealousy kind-of-way or a 'showing-offy' kind-of-way or in an encouraging kind-of way. • Teacher: Does midrash change the way we think of the story in the Torah? • Lucy: It makes you think, ‘yeah, how did that happen?’ [Midrash] makes you think [about the story in the Torah] from a different perspective.

12. Conclusion: Kids and Midrash • Children are abstract thinkers • Children are capable of religious understanding • Children need to question in order to reflect • Children need to engage with the midrash text in order to achieve meaningful understandings of midrash • See step-by-step model on the handout sheet