Teaching and Learning Through Drama

Bringing

A Fresh Creative Lens To Our Class Celebrations

OUR STUDENTS’ PLAYS are a point of pride at Bialik and a meaningful way for them to learn about Jewish holidays, traditions and values. But behind the scenes, our teachers are tasked with preparing these plays, and incorporating learning that the students can share with their families at our Family Education Experiences.

Bialik recently teamed up with Habamah, an Israeli culture and theatre organization, to guide our faculty in using insight-inspiring teaching methods through drama. In summer and fall 2022, teachers received professional development through Habamah, aimed at further enriching the student and parent experience through plays.

Says Adi Barel, Associate Director of Jewish Studies: “Habamah offers hands-on experience with teaching methods from the field of theatre education. Class plays are just as much a learning process and opportunity as they are a performative task.”

Habamah is an organization that meaningfully engages educators with themes from the worlds of both theatre and education. It has vast experience working with Israeli and Diaspora schools in extracting meaning through learning Hebrew language and literature, and helps educators hone the skills involved in preparing a school play.

“As a school that takes immense pride in our student performances, it was important to provide our teachers with the space not only to learn about strategies from the theatre world but, through such strategies, to bring our class plays to an even higher, more meaningful next level,” says Adi.

Learning through experience connects study topics to the students’ world. Habamah programs are based on the curriculum of the Department for IsraeliJewish Culture Studies and are intended both for students and for the professional development of teachers.

With many years of experience in using drama in education, Habama’s aim is to touch people’s hearts and inspire them to think differently. Their programs enable a dynamic dialogue between different groups and people, encourage pluralism, remove obstructions, and bring people together.

Dana Amar, a Grade 4 Jewish Studies teacher, is enthusiastic about her recent Habamah training: “It allowed us to experience words and their meaning through activity and expression. We took a text that we are all familiar with and found so many options for how to express it and feel it.” She adds, “We had so much fun. Learning should be fun and memorable.”

Habamah encouraged Bialik teachers to relay the story “with activities such as role-playing to more deeply understand the characters’ points of view and thoughts,” says Dana. “After the PD days, we started to work on writing our Chanukah play and we used so many tools from the Habamah training. We are working with the students on the script so they will bring their own insight into the play.”

Dana is appreciative of the opportunity to learn new techniques for teaching through drama: “I am thankful to work in a place that seeks opportunities for teachers as well as students to learn and grow.”