CU+Upper

= Curriculum Upper Grades (Template) =

Curriculum Objectives of The Jewish Children’s Folkshul of Philadelphia

=Upper Grades Curriculum= = =  Throughout the primary and intermediate grade curricula, secular and humanistic Jewish values have been identified, largely through the media of culture and history. In the upper level curriculum, these values are examined directly and in depth with the goals of enabling students to enrich their understanding of the values; to explore how those values both distinguish secular, humanistic Jews from and connect them to other types of Jewish and non-Jewish communities; and to begin the process of determining whether and how these teachings are personally relevant. **__Seventh Grade Titles and Goals__** Seventh grade focuses on what it means to be Jewish and where secular, humanistic Jews fit within the larger Jewish community. Hence, one major component of the curriculum for this year is a summing up of the beliefs and principles of secular, humanistic Jews identified during the historical and cultural studies of the preceding grades. A second major component consists of comparing these beliefs and principles to those of other Jewish groups: religious (e.g., Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Hasidic, Reconstructionist, Lubavich); secular (e.g., Sholem Aleichem, B’nai B’rith); political (e.g., Zionist, socialist, labor unions); and youth groups (e.g., Hillel). The framework for the year will be students as sociologists studying how culture and philosophy impacts the behavior and practices of various Jewish groups. The students will create a living museum, by first studying Folkshul and then applying their skills to other Jewish groups. An outside expert will help show how a sociologist studies groups. A part of this study will include a Jewish family tree (history) of the various groups and field trips to the meetings and celebrations of some of them.

Eighth Grade, 2nd Half: Oppression, Resistance, and the Power to Effect Change
Eighth grade studies intolerance and prejudice and the actions that individuals and groups can take to counteract these forces. Students will examine historical and contemporary examples of the indignities and inhumanity that flow from intolerance and prejudice with an emphasis on the Holocaust. Students will seek to understand from a secular, humanistic perspective just why intolerance and prejudice are wrong; to gain insight into the kinds of cultural, political, and economic circumstances that foster these wrongs; and to develop strategies for changing those circumstances. Students will explore examples of resistance such as the Warsaw Ghetto, Bielski Partisans and American Jewry during 1930’s; examples of righteous Gentiles such as Raoul Wallenberg and the Dutch; and examples of compliance such as that of many shtetl rabbis.


 * __Grade 8 __**

As a means to their study of the evolution of the survival of Jews of Eastern Europe students in grade eight will begin to plan their own course of study by exploring how Jews are depicted in both fictional and non-fictional texts written at their grade level. During their literature exploration, students, working in groups of four to five, will select one text to read together over a four-week period. Students may opt to read the book only during class time or a combination of class and home reading. Students will read through the text using the jigsaw method. Before attempting to jigsaw independently, the students will jigsaw one book together. Jig sawing will provide the students with information from several different texts in a short period of time. At the end of Seventh grade, students will pick the topics for the ninth grade

As students continue to mature as secular Jews and learners, they will also decide what they choose to study within the topic for the year. During this year students will explore their roles as secularist humanists in compared to other Jewish philosophies. After studying the development and evolution of secular Jewry over the years, students will create a living museum of Jewish history. Students will discuss with sociologists the field techniques they can use to learn about a specific culture by observation and discussion. After planning how to use these techniques, students will disperses into the field to observe Jews where they get together with other Jews to act as Jews. From the information they discover, students will prepare a museum like exhibit to share with their fellow students.

Seventh Grade: Oppression, Resistance, and the Power to Effect Change
Seventh grade studies intolerance and prejudice and the actions that individuals and groups can take to counteract these forces. Students will examine historical and contemporary examples of the indignities and inhumanity that flow from intolerance and prejudice with an emphasis on the Holocaust. Students will seek to understand from a secular, humanistic perspective just why intolerance and prejudice are wrong; to gain insight into the kinds of cultural, political, and economic circumstances that foster these wrongs; and to develop strategies for changing those circumstances. Students will explore examples of resistance such as the Warsaw Ghetto, Bielski Partisans and American Jewry during 1930’s; examples of righteous Gentiles such as Raoul Wallenberg and the Dutch; and examples of compliance such as that of many shtetl rabbis.

Eighth Grade: What is a Jew? What is a Secular, Humanistic Jew?
Eighth grade focuses on what it means to be Jewish and where secular, humanistic Jews fit within the larger Jewish community. Hence, one major component of the curriculum for this year is a summing up of the beliefs and principles of secular, humanistic Jews identified during the historical and cultural studies of the preceding grades. A second major component consists of comparing these beliefs and principles to those of other Jewish groups: religious (e.g., Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Hasidic, Reconstructionist, Lubavich); secular (e.g., Sholem Aleichem, B’nai B’rith); political (e.g., Zionist, socialist, labor unions); and youth groups (e.g., Hillel). A part of this study will include a family tree (history) of the various groups and field trips to the meetings and celebrations of some of them. At the end of Eighth grade, students will pick the topics for the ninth grade

Ninth Grade: Personal Relevance
Ninth grade will critically explore one or more topics selected at the end of eighth grade and reviewed at the beginning of ninth grade that is of particular interest and relevance to the students. Possible topics might be Jewish ethics such as those relating to sex, abortion, environmentalism, civil and political rights; Israel; Jewish identity through film, literature, and other forms of media and art. Students can be expected to engage in both individual and group research and presentations to the full class for discussion and debate, examining traditional and contemporary Jewish treatments.

**The Sociology Method**
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/formatsheet.html
 * Part I--What I Already Know About My Topic** - write one or two paragraphs, discussing what knowledge, experience, or background you already have about your topic, BEFORE having done any research on it. KWL
 * Part II--What I Want to Find Out** Record one or two paragraphs' worth of questions about your topic, questions you want answered. Meet with sociologist to learn techiques and then revise questions for this part.
 * Part III--The Search:** A journal each of session describing what they found or didn’t, how they found it or didn’t and how they felt during the process (successes, frustrations). The journal should be in the form of a chronological story and include information about their interviews. Students will email the daily journal entries to the teacher at least once a week.The teacher will use the journals to monitor the students’ progress and help guide future work.
 * Part IV--What I Learned** A formal presentation of the search including the conclusions that are drawn from it.
 * Part V -- Works Cited**: List people, internet sources, and any other materials you used during the search.

As a class, students will study the Secular Humanistic Jews using the I search technique. At the end of each session teams will share their findings. The teacher will model working out the exploration method each week.

Who is a secular humanistic Jew Who are we (1 – 4) What do we stand for (5-9) How do we know what we know (8,10,11) Studying the group as a sociologist studying culture as an organizations culture and its impacts on its behavior and practices Creating a framework for study God – when, why, how – secular response Bible – when, why, how Jewish branch tree – time and impetus for origins Modern versions of being Jewish Secular Religious