Jewish Values and Havruta: A Webcase for Educators

Jewish Values are displayed on a wall in a schoolTeachers use havruta (pairs of students studying texts together) for a variety of reasons. In the classroom represented in this case, the teacher is interested in fostering a classroom community that reflects particular Jewish values. The teacher believes that both the practice of studying with peers, as well as studying texts that reflect Jewish values are valuable to helping her students gain insight into what it means to function as a classroom community and create space for everyone's ideas. Whatever your reasons for using (or considering) havruta, there is much to be learned from examining this case.

Infusion: Integrating Jewish Values in a General Studies Classroom is a webcase that grew out of a long term collaboration between Orit Kent, a researcher and teacher-educator at the Mandel Center, and Jocelyn Segal, an elementary school general studies teacher. The webcase is not meant to provide a detailed curriculum: it presents a window onto the teaching and learning that occurred in this classroom for teachers and teacher educators to examine and discuss.